Comparing viewpoints flashcards
10 cards on Comparing viewpoints: the key points, worked examples and the slips to watch. Swipe through them, or print them.
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Comparing viewpoints
What the comparison question asks
What does the question on comparing two writers’ viewpoints ask you to do?
Answer it in your head, then turn the card over.
What the comparison question asks
Key points
- Compare how two writers convey their different perspectives on a shared subject.
- It wants both what they think and feel, and how their methods get it across.
- Use the whole of both texts, unless the question names particular lines.
- On AQA it is worth 16 marks, the most in the reading section, so give it the most time.
Watch out
Comparing what the texts are about, instead of how each writer feels about it, misses the question.
Comparing viewpoints
Viewpoint and perspective
What is a writer’s viewpoint, and what else does their perspective include?
Answer it in your head, then turn the card over.
Viewpoint and perspective
Key points
- Viewpoint: the writer’s opinion or attitude towards the subject.
- Perspective also covers where they stand: an insider or an outsider, writing at the time or looking back.
- Before comparing, sum up each writer’s attitude in one sentence: it frames your whole answer.
Two stance statements
Writer A finds the seaside town lively and full of hope.
Writer B, who grew up there, sees only what it has lost.
Watch out
Two vague stances, such as ‘both like the town’, give the comparison nothing to test.
Comparing viewpoints
When and why they wrote
How does a writer’s time and situation shape their perspective?
Answer it in your head, then turn the card over.
When and why they wrote
Key points
- When and why someone wrote shapes what they notice and what they value.
- An outsider notices what is new or strange; an insider sees the place from long experience.
- Mention the writer’s time or situation in a sentence, tied to the view you are comparing.
Example
The Victorian visitor’s faith in hard work explains why he praises the factory children’s long days.
Watch out
Calling the older writer’s view ‘old-fashioned’ explains nothing: ask why they saw it that way.
Comparing viewpoints
Comparing attitudes, not topics
Why is ‘both texts are about zoos’ a weak comparison, and what makes a strong one?
Answer it in your head, then turn the card over.
Comparing attitudes, not topics
Key points
- The topic is shared by design: the marks come from what each writer thinks and feels about it.
- Sum up each attitude in a word or two, such as admiring or resentful, and compare those.
- Attitude verbs keep a comparison sharp: admires, resents, mocks, fears, pities.
Example
Weak: Both writers describe a long train journey.
Strong: The first writer delights in the journey, while the second resents every mile of it.
Watch out
A comparison of what happens in each text is a summary, not a comparison of viewpoints.
Comparing viewpoints
Naming each writer’s tone
How do you name and compare the tone of two writers?
Answer it in your head, then turn the card over.
Naming each writer’s tone
Key points
- Tone is the attitude a writer’s voice conveys, such as bitter or playful.
- Name each tone with a precise adjective: nostalgic, scathing, wry, admiring, weary.
- Notice where a tone changes inside a text: that shift is worth comparing too.
Example
The first writer’s nostalgic tone looks back on the market fondly, whereas the second is scathing about its dirt.
Watch out
‘Positive’ and ‘negative’ are too vague to compare: find the exact word for each tone.
Comparing viewpoints
Linking attitude to method
How do you show the methods each writer uses to convey their perspective?
Answer it in your head, then turn the card over.
Linking attitude to method
Key points
- For each attitude, show how it is delivered: tone, word choice, sentence forms or structure.
- Perspective, method and evidence together are what lift an answer into the top levels.
- Explain how the method creates the attitude, not just that it is there.
Example
Her weariness shows in flat, short sentences: ‘We waited. We waited more.’
His wonder, in contrast, tumbles out in breathless lists and exclamations.
Watch out
Comparing the views without the methods that convey them caps the mark.
Comparing viewpoints
Methods that reveal attitude
Which methods often reveal a writer’s attitude, and what can each one suggest?
Answer it in your head, then turn the card over.
Methods that reveal attitude
Key points
- Understatement: making something big sound small, which can suggest dry humour or stoicism.
- Juxtaposition: two contrasting things side by side, so the gap speaks for itself.
- Breathless lists and exclamations: excitement or wonder.
- Flat, short sentences: boredom, weariness or numbness.
Example
Understatement: with the kitchen under a metre of water, ‘the evening was a little damp’.
Juxtaposition: ‘the banquet hall glittered; outside, the beggars shivered’.
Watch out
A method only counts when you say which attitude it reveals in this writer.
Comparing viewpoints
Structuring a comparison
How should you organise an answer comparing two writers’ viewpoints?
Answer it in your head, then turn the card over.
Structuring a comparison
Key points
- Organise by point of comparison, not by text.
- Move between both texts inside every paragraph.
- Give each paragraph one focus: their view of the people, their tone, how each ends.
- Two separate summaries, however good, hold the mark down.
A plan by point of comparison
1 Overall stances: hopeful against regretful.
2 How each sees the people who live there.
3 Tone, and the methods behind it.
4 How each text ends, and what that shows.
Watch out
Writing all about Source A, then all about Source B, leaves the comparing until it is too late.
Comparing viewpoints
Comparative connectives
Which connectives keep both writers in view, and which mark a difference rather than a likeness?
Answer it in your head, then turn the card over.
Comparative connectives
Key points
- Difference: ‘whereas’, ‘in contrast’, ‘on the other hand’, ‘however’.
- Likeness: ‘similarly’, ‘likewise’, ‘both’, ‘in the same way’.
- Stitch every paragraph with them, so the comparison runs right through.
Example
The first writer loves the city’s noise, whereas the second finds it lonely and harsh.
Watch out
‘Similarly’ before two opposite views confuses the point: check the connective matches the link.
Comparing viewpoints
Paired evidence
Why should you set a quotation from each writer side by side?
Answer it in your head, then turn the card over.
Paired evidence
Key points
- Paired quotations make the difference in perspective visible on the page.
- Keep each one short, then explain the difference in attitude they reveal.
- A comparison makes a claim about two writers, so each half needs its own evidence.
Example
One writer calls the mountain ‘a cathedral of rock’; the other calls it ‘a grey wall blocking the light’.
Watch out
A quotation from only one text proves only half the point.
Print these cards
Four cards to an A4 sheet, each the size of a standard A6 revision card.
One-sided
Each card prints on one face: the question at the top, the notes under it.
Two-sided
Questions on the front, notes on the back. Print double-sided and flip on the long edge, then cut along the lines.