Specimen question commentary

An explanation of how a question taken from the specimen assessment material addresses the assessment objectives, with suggestions of how the task might be approached.

This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of every point that could be made, but the explanation will provide a workable way into the question and the intention is to offer some support for teachers preparing students for the examination.

This type of question from Section A of Paper 2 Elements of crime writing invites students to respond to an unseen text which contains elements of the crime writing genre.  Students need to apply their knowledge of the genre to the given text. One hour is recommended for this question and students should read the passage carefully, at least twice, before they start writing. They need to be taught how to annotate the passage in a way that will be helpful to them.

Sample question

Explore the significance of the crime elements in this extract. Remember to include in your answer relevant detailed analysis of the ways that Hill has shaped meanings.

This extract is taken from the early part of Susan Hill's novel, A Question of Identity (published in 2012). The witnesses have just given their evidence in a murder trial. The accused, Alan Keyes, has pleaded not guilty. Two crime reporters, Charlie Vogt and Rod Hawkins, are awaiting the verdict with every expectation of a conviction.

How the question meets the Assessment Objectives

In this question, as throughout the paper, all the assessment objectives are assessed. It needs to be noted how the question targets the assessment objectives so that if teachers are designing their own questions, they can follow the pattern established here.  All AOs are targeted through the words 'significance of the crime elements' though there is an additional reminder to students to focus on AO2: 'Remember to include in your answer relevant detailed analysis of the ways that Hill has shaped meanings.' Note the expectation for students to 'analyse'. This is because they have the passage in front of them and can extract relevant details for comment. As the extract comes from a novel, students will be expected to focus on narrative methods. AO1 will be tested through the way the students organise their writing and express their ideas as they are analysing and exploring significance. In addressing 'significance', students will be thinking about contextual factors that arise in the passage (AO3) and engaging in debate about possible meanings (AO5).  AO3 will be addressed through the students showing their understanding of both the crime writing and modern contexts of A Question of Identity; and in the way they will elicit from the extract contextual ideas about when the text was written and how it might be received. AO5 will be addressed when students grapple with meanings that arise about crime writing in the extract. Finally, in writing about and engaging with elements of crime writing, AO4 will be hit as students will be connecting with concepts of the crime writing genre (and other crime texts) through the 'elements' which they are exploring.

Possible content

The possible content of the mark scheme provides some ideas that students might write about. However, there are clearly many others and if students have a good understanding of the crime writing genre they will be able to identify a number of different elements in the passage.

Central to the genre is the setting of the scene in a courtroom and the characters (and readers) are awaiting a judgement on a murder trial. The use of court reporters helps to establish the modern context of the novel. The reporters are used in a narrative sense to commentate on proceedings. There is also focalisation through Charlie which offers an interesting narrative perspective. By focusing on those awaiting the verdict, Hill is able to build up suspense, a key crime writing element. It could also be relevant for students to note how Hill uses Charlie, to speculate on the accused murderer. Charlie describes Keyes' hands and draws the readers' attention to the crime for which he is being tried: the strangulation of elderly women. Juries are crucial to court room dramas and Hill describes the jury returning to announce their verdict. Hill re-creates, through Charlie, the imagined fear of one of the jury women, fear again being a key crime element. In this modern crime text, Hill focuses on the impact crime has on the relatives of victims, perhaps showing how crimes have a wide and lasting impact on families and communities. Trials in crime writing texts are often theatrical events and Hill dramatises the happenings here in a way that is much like a courtroom drama, a kind of spectacle. The climactic moment of the extract is when the jury returns its not guilty verdict which is clearly a shock for the observers.

Significance

In writing about any of the above points students will need to explore how the elements work in Hill's narrative, how meanings and ideas arise from them. For example, there is a sense that because the verdict of not guilty appears at the start of the novel, this is not the end of the matter and there will be consequences. There is also a sense that the crime reporters' expectations and shock will lead to further investigations and that perhaps the later narrative will go in this direction. Students might choose to develop ideas about Hill's focus on the jury, and perhaps write about the unpredictability of juries. In writing about the crime element of victims, discussion might focus on sympathy for the relatives who will have to ensure further trials. Students might develop ideas about the verdict and the apparent killer, Alan Keyes, who is found not guilty of the crimes and yet no sympathy is created for him in this passage. Students of course might voice different views on the judgements here and on those who are making judgements. The crimes themselves might also be discussed and students could argue that murder is always horrible and its impact goes on beyond the point of murder. The preamble to the passage gives the context of Hill's novel and students might include comments about modern crime writing texts and how in a trial in 2002 men and women have equal status: there is almost an equal share of women to men on the jury and there is a junior female barrister. Even though Hill makes her judge a male, students might say that it would be perfectly feasible to have a female judge in the 21st century. Comment might be made about how such a trial would have been represented differently by crime writers in earlier times or in different historical periods (Charlie, himself, recalls the jury his father had served on being largely middle-aged and largely male).

Narrative method

Comments on method need to be embedded into the argument about the significance of crime elements. Writing about AO2 should not be an exercise in feature spotting. Perhaps one of the most telling methods here is the way tension and suspense are created through the structure of the passage and through the focalisation of Charlie. It might also be relevant to incorporate comments on Hill's direct uncluttered style and on her use of imagery: 'like greyhounds in the slips' suggests the eagerness with which the reporters await the verdict. In writing about the modern context of the novel, students might focus on Hill's method of using Charlie's address to himself about the excitement of the trial to foreground the postmodern nature of the text which draws attention to its own artifice and the creation of fiction (Charlie ironically thinks the scene is 'better than any film, better than any book').  If students choose to write about the theatricality of the court room scene, they could sensibly comment on Hill's  use of voices, her use of minor sentences to reflect speech, her use of legalistic language and phrasing – 'innocent until proven guilty', the  staccato sentences, her use of questions and answers and the shock perhaps of the not guilty verdict.  If students choose to write about the modern context of the novel in relation to crime writing they might comment on Hill's reference to real criminals - Hindley and Brady - and the impact such references might have on readers, perhaps shaping judgements here.

This resource is part of the Elements of crime writing resource package.