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Glossary

336 terms for GCSE English Literature and Language, from the exam papers to the set texts. Search, or choose a group.

A

B

  • Ballad

    Poetry

    A poem that tells a story in short stanzas, often of four lines with a regular rhythm and rhyme. Ballads were first made to be sung.

    See also: Narrative poem, Quatrain

  • Best fit

    Exams and assessment

    How an examiner places an answer that matches parts of different levels. They work up the levels like a ladder, choose the level that fits best, then use the answer’s strengths and gaps to decide the mark within it.

    See also: Level, Mark scheme

    Read more: The six levels in AQA’s Literature mark scheme

    Source: AQA, GCSE English Literature Paper 1 mark scheme, June 2023

  • Beveridge Report

    Context for the set texts

    A report by William Beveridge, published in November 1942, that set out to fight five giants: idleness, ignorance, disease, squalor and want. It called for a free national health service and shaped the welfare state.

    Two of the giants, ignorance and want, share their names with the two children in Stave 3 of A Christmas Carol.

    See also: Welfare state, National Health Service

    Source: 1942 Beveridge Report, UK Parliament

  • Blank verse

    Poetry

    Unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter. Most of Macbeth is written in it, and it can sound close to natural speech.

    The extract from ‘The Prelude’ and ‘Storm on the Island’ are both written in blank verse.

    See also: Iambic pentameter, Free verse, Verse

C

  • Caesura

    Poetry

    A pause in the middle of a line of poetry, usually marked by punctuation such as a full stop or comma.

    ‘Adlestrop’ stops after its very first word: “Yes. I remember Adlestrop”.

    See also: Enjambment

  • Capitalism

    Context for the set texts

    An economic system in which businesses and industry are owned and run for profit by private owners, not by the government.

    Birling’s business aim is “lower costs and higher prices” (An Inspector Calls, Act 1).

    See also: Socialism, Social class

    Source: Capitalism, Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries

  • Caricature

    Literature and drama

    A character drawn with a few exaggerated traits, often to mock them or to make a point quickly.

    Dickens piles up harsh words for Scrooge: “a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner!” (Stave 1).

    See also: Characterisation, Satire

  • Catharsis

    Literature and drama

    The release of strong feelings, especially pity and fear, that an audience feels at the end of a tragedy.

    See also: Tragedy, Pathos

  • Characterisation

    Literature and drama

    How a writer creates and shows a character: through what the character says and does, and how they are described.

    Dickens sums up Mrs Fezziwig in four words: “one vast substantial smile” (Stave 2).

    See also: Caricature, Foil

  • Chiasmus

    Literature and drama

    A pattern in which words or ideas are repeated in reverse order, so a phrase runs A B and then B A.

    The witches chant “Fair is foul, and foul is fair” (Macbeth, Act 1 Scene 1).

    See also: Antithesis, Paradox

  • Child labour

    Context for the set texts

    Children doing paid work, often for long hours in dangerous places. Before the Mines Act of 1842, it was common for children of eight, or younger, to work in coal mines; the Act banned underground work for women, girls and boys under ten.

    See also: Climbing boys, Ragged school

    Source: Coal mines, UK Parliament

  • Clause

    Language and grammar

    A group of words built round a verb, usually with a subject. A main clause can stand alone as a sentence; a subordinate clause cannot.

    See also: Main clause, Subordinate clause

  • Clerical re-check

    Exams and assessment

    A post-results check that every page was marked, the marks were added up correctly and the result matches the marks. It does not judge the marking itself, and the grade can go down as well as up.

    See also: Review of marking

    Read more: Results day, and asking for a review of marking

    Source: AQA, Clerical re-check

  • Cliffhanger

    Literature and drama

    An ending to a chapter, act or episode that stops at a tense moment, so the audience wants to know what happens next.

    Act 2 of An Inspector Calls ends as Eric walks back in, just when the family have realised he is the father of Eva’s child.

    See also: Tension, Act

  • Climax

    Literature and drama

    The point of highest tension in a story or play, usually near the end, where the main conflict comes to a head.

    In Act 5 Scene 8 of Macbeth, Macduff tells Macbeth he was “from his mother’s womb / Untimely ripp’d”, and the prophecy’s trick is revealed.

    See also: Exposition, Resolution, Tension

  • Climbing boys

    Context for the set texts

    Young children sent up inside chimneys to clean them for master sweeps. Laws to limit the practice were passed from 1788, but it only stopped once the Chimney Sweepers’ Act of 1875 made the police enforce the rules.

    Blake’s speaker hears “the Chimney-sweeper’s cry” in ‘London’.

    See also: Child labour

    Source: Children and chimneys, UK Parliament

  • Closed book

    Exams and assessment

    An exam you sit without a copy of the text. All of AQA’s English Literature exams are closed book: any extract you need is printed on the paper, so every other quotation has to come from memory.

    See also: Extract question, Textual reference

    Read more: How to learn quotations so they stay learned

    Source: AQA, GCSE English Literature 8702: specification at a glance

  • Cluster

    Exams and assessment

    A themed group of 15 poems in AQA’s anthology: Love and Relationships, Power and Conflict, or Worlds and Lives. In the exam one poem from the cluster is printed, and you compare it with another from memory.

    See also: Anthology, Closed book

    Read more: How to compare two poems

    Source: AQA, GCSE English Literature 8702: modern texts and poetry

  • Cognitive load

    Teaching and learning

    The demand a task puts on working memory. When a task asks students to hold too much in mind at once, learning suffers, so teachers break tasks into steps and use worked examples and scaffolding.

    See also: Working memory, Worked example, Scaffolding

    Source: Education Endowment Foundation, Cognitive science approaches in the classroom

  • Cold calling

    Teaching and learning

    Choosing who answers a question without waiting for hands up, so that every student expects to be asked and thinks of an answer.

    See also: Mini whiteboards, Formative assessment

  • Colloquial language

    Language and grammar

    Informal, everyday language of the kind used in conversation, including slang. It can make a voice sound friendly and real; in a formal piece it sounds out of place.

    For example, kids, loads of and a bit of a mess are colloquial; children, many and disorganised are formal.

    See also: Register, Standard English

  • Colon

    Language and grammar

    A punctuation mark (:) that introduces what follows, such as an explanation, an example, a list or a quotation. The words before a colon should make a complete sentence.

    In Typhoon (1902), Joseph Conrad uses a colon to explain: “This is the disintegrating power of a great wind: it isolates one from one’s kind.”

    See also: Semicolon

  • Comic relief

    Literature and drama

    A funny scene or character placed in a serious work to ease the tension for a moment.

    Straight after Duncan’s murder, the drunken Porter jokes about hell’s gate: “Knock, knock, knock. Who’s there, i’ th’ name of Belzebub?” (Act 2 Scene 3).

    See also: Tension

  • Comma splice

    Language and grammar

    The mistake of joining two complete sentences with only a comma. Fix it with a full stop, a semicolon or a conjunction such as and or because.

    For example, The door creaked, I froze is a comma splice; The door creaked and I froze is correct.

    See also: Sentence demarcation, Semicolon

  • Complex sentence

    Language and grammar

    A sentence with a main clause and at least one subordinate clause. It can add a reason, a condition or a time, and moving the subordinate clause to the front changes the emphasis.

    For example, Although the storm had passed, the sea was still rough.

    See also: Subordinate clause, Simple sentence, Compound sentence

  • Compound sentence

    Language and grammar

    A sentence of two or more main clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction such as and, but or so, or by a semicolon.

    In Stave 1 of A Christmas Carol: “Darkness is cheap, and Scrooge liked it.”

    See also: Simple sentence, Complex sentence, Conjunction

  • Condition of funding

    Exams and assessment

    The Department for Education rule that students aged 16 to 18 without a grade 4 in GCSE English Language or Literature keep studying English. Full-time students with a 3 must take the GCSE; with a 2 or below, Functional Skills level 2 also counts.

    See also: Resit, Functional Skills, Standard pass

    Read more: If your child does not get a grade 4 in English

    Source: Department for Education, 16 to 19 funding: maths and English condition of funding, 2026 to 2027

  • Conjunction

    Language and grammar

    A word that joins words or clauses. Coordinating conjunctions (and, but, so) join parts of equal weight; subordinating conjunctions such as because, although and when start a subordinate clause.

    See also: Compound sentence, Subordinate clause

  • Connotation

    Language and grammar

    An idea or feeling a word suggests beyond its dictionary meaning, or denotation. Writers choose words for their connotations as much as for what they literally mean.

    Fitzgerald calls a stretch of wasteland in The Great Gatsby a “valley of ashes”: ashes suggest burning, death and waste.

    See also: Denotation, Semantic field

  • Consonance

    Poetry

    Repeated consonant sounds, especially in the middle or at the end of words close together.

    “in the boom of the tingling strings” repeats the ng sound (‘Piano’).

    See also: Assonance, Alliteration

  • Contemporary audience

    Literature and drama

    The audience of the writer’s own time: for Macbeth, a Jacobean audience in the early 1600s. Contemporary can also mean modern, so say which audience you mean.

    See also: Context, Jacobean

    Read more: Using context in your answers

  • Context

    Context for the set texts

    The time, place, beliefs and events surrounding a text, both when it was written and when it is set. In AQA’s GCSE English Literature, showing how a text relates to the context it was written in is AO3.

    See also: Contemporary audience

    Read more: Using context in your answers

    Source: AQA GCSE English Literature 8702 specification

  • Contingency day

    Exams and assessment

    A spare exam day at the end of the summer timetable, used only if national or significant local disruption stops exams going ahead. For 2027 it is Wednesday 23 June, and JCQ tells students to be available that day.

    See also: Results day

    Read more: GCSE English exam dates for 2027

    Source: JCQ, Preparing to sit your exams 2026 to 2027

  • Counter-argument

    Language and grammar

    An opposing view that you raise in your own argument so that you can answer it. Dealing with the other side makes your case more convincing.

    For example, Some people say a phone keeps a child safe on the way home.

    See also: Rebuttal, Viewpoint

  • Crimean War

    Context for the set texts

    The war of 1854 to 1856 in which Britain, France, Turkey and Sardinia fought Russia. At the Battle of Balaclava on 25 October 1854, a confused order sent the Light Brigade to charge the wrong Russian guns.

    Tennyson wrote ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ a few weeks later: “Someone had blundered”.

    Read more: Power and Conflict: the fifteen poems in brief

    Source: Battle of Balaklava, National Army Museum

  • Cyclical structure

    Literature and drama

    When a text ends by returning to where it began, so the reader compares the two and sees what has, or has not, changed.

    An Inspector Calls ends with a phone call: another girl has died and an inspector is on his way, so the evening could start again.

    See also: Structure

D

  • Dactyl

    Poetry

    A unit of metre made of one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed ones, as in the word galloping: GAL-lo-ping.

    Tennyson’s dactyls gallop like the horses: “Half a league onward” (‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’).

    See also: Metre, Rhythm

  • Daemonologie

    Context for the set texts

    A book about witches and magic by James VI of Scotland, later James I of England, published in 1597. He wrote it in reply to writers who doubted that witchcraft existed, after his part in the North Berwick witch trials.

    See also: Witchcraft, James I

    Source: Daemonologie by King James I, Project Gutenberg

  • Denotation

    Language and grammar

    The literal, dictionary meaning of a word, without the ideas and feelings it suggests. Ashes denotes the powder left after something burns.

    See also: Connotation

  • Descriptive writing

    Exams and assessment

    Writing that builds a picture of a place, person or moment through detail, with little or no plot. It is one option in AQA Language Paper 1 Question 5, where a picture may be given for ideas; you need not describe it exactly.

    See also: Narrative writing, Language Paper 1

    Read more: Planning your writing for Section B

    Source: AQA, GCSE English Language: small changes, meaningful difference (from summer 2026)

  • Dialogue

    Literature and drama

    Words spoken between two or more characters. In a play, almost everything the audience learns comes through dialogue and action.

    Straight after the murder in Act 2 Scene 2 of Macbeth, the Macbeths speak in short, broken lines.

    See also: Monologue

  • Didactic

    Literature and drama

    Written to teach the reader a lesson, usually a moral one. A Christmas Carol and An Inspector Calls are both didactic: each wants its audience to treat the poor differently.

    In his Preface, Dickens hopes his “Ghostly little book” will “raise the Ghost of an Idea”.

    See also: Allegory, Morality play, Mouthpiece

  • Direct address

    Language and grammar

    Speaking straight to the reader or listener as you. It makes a text feel personal and can make the reader feel responsible for acting.

    In Notes on Nursing (1859), Florence Nightingale speaks to the nurse reading: without fresh air, “all the rest you can do for him is as nothing”.

    See also: Pronoun, Inclusive pronoun

  • Disciplinary literacy

    Teaching and learning

    Teaching students to read, write and talk in the way a subject does; in English, for example, writing analytically about a writer’s choices. The EEF’s guidance on literacy in secondary schools puts it first of its seven recommendations.

    See also: Tiers of vocabulary, Oracy

    Read more: Teaching vocabulary in secondary English

    Source: Education Endowment Foundation, Improving literacy in secondary schools

  • Discourse marker

    Language and grammar

    A word or phrase that links ideas and shows where an argument is going, such as however, therefore, on the other hand or as a result. Discourse markers help a reader follow your writing.

    See also: Topic sentence, Counter-argument

  • Divine right of kings

    Context for the set texts

    The belief that kings rule by God’s will and answer to God alone, almost as gods on earth. Under this belief, killing a king is an offence against God as well as a crime.

    Macbeth fears “The deep damnation of his taking-off” (Act 1 Scene 7).

    See also: Regicide, Great Chain of Being

    Source: The Rubens ceiling, Historic Royal Palaces

  • Do Now

    Teaching and learning

    A short task students start as soon as they arrive. In our lessons it is five quick retrieval questions on earlier lessons, each answerable in under a minute, with the answers shown so students can mark their own.

    See also: Know, Retrieval practice

    Read more: Writing a Do Now that does its job

  • Dramatic irony

    Literature and drama

    When the audience knows something that a character on stage does not, so the character’s words carry a meaning they cannot see.

    Duncan arrives at the castle where he will be murdered and says, “This castle hath a pleasant seat.” (Macbeth, Act 1 Scene 6).

    See also: Irony, Foreshadowing

  • Dramatic monologue

    Poetry

    A poem in which one imagined speaker talks to a silent listener, and gives away more about themselves than they mean to.

    The Duke shows an envoy a painting of his dead wife: “There she stands / As if alive” (‘My Last Duchess’).

    See also: Speaker, Persona, Monologue

    Read more: Power and Conflict: the fifteen poems in brief

    Source: Dramatic monologue, Poetry Foundation glossary

E

F

G

  • GCSE

    Exams and assessment

    General Certificate of Secondary Education: the main qualification students in England take at 16, usually at the end of Year 11. GCSE grades 9 to 4 are level 2 qualifications; grades 3 to 1 are level 1.

    See also: Grades 9 to 1, Key Stage 4

    Read more: GCSE English explained for parents and carers

    Source: GOV.UK, What qualification levels mean

  • General election of 1945

    Context for the set texts

    The election in which the Labour Party, led by Clement Attlee, won its first ever majority in Parliament, in a landslide. Its government went on to create the welfare state.

    An Inspector Calls was first performed in 1945, the year of this election.

    See also: Welfare state, Socialism

    Source: Attlee’s Britain 1945 to 1951, The National Archives

  • Genre

    Literature and drama

    A type of writing with its own familiar patterns, such as tragedy or the ghost story.

    Dickens gave A Christmas Carol the subtitle “A Ghost Story of Christmas”.

    See also: Gothic, Tragedy, Novella

  • Gothic

    Literature and drama

    A style of writing built on the supernatural, darkness, decay and fear. Dickens uses Gothic moments in A Christmas Carol, often with a joke inside the horror.

    Marley’s face on the knocker has “a dismal light about it, like a bad lobster in a dark cellar” (Stave 1).

    See also: Supernatural, Genre

  • Grade boundaries

    Exams and assessment

    The lowest marks needed for each grade, which AQA publishes on results day. Senior examiners set them after marking, every exam series, so that work of the same standard gets the same grade whichever year it was sat.

    See also: Grades 9 to 1, Results day

    Read more: What GCSE grades 4, 5 and 7 mean

    Source: AQA, Grade boundaries

  • Grades 9 to 1

    Exams and assessment

    The GCSE grading scale in England, from 9 (highest) to 1, with U (ungraded) below. The bottom of grade 7 lines up with the bottom of the old grade A, grade 4 with the old C and grade 1 with the old G.

    See also: Standard pass, Strong pass, Grade boundaries

    Read more: What GCSE grades 4, 5 and 7 mean

    Source: Ofqual, GCSE 9 to 1 grade scale explained

  • Great Chain of Being

    Context for the set texts

    An old idea, still influential in the 17th century, that everything has its fixed place in one long order, running from God at the top down to the simplest things.

    After Duncan’s murder, nature turns upside down: his horses are said to “eat each other” (Macbeth, Act 2 Scene 4).

    See also: Divine right of kings

    Source: Great chain of being, Encyclopaedia Britannica

  • Gunpowder Plot

    Context for the set texts

    A plan by Catholic plotters to blow up King James I and Parliament on 5 November 1605. Guy Fawkes was caught with 36 barrels of gunpowder, and the eight plotters put on trial were executed by the end of January 1606.

    See also: Equivocation, James I, Regicide

    Source: Gunpowder Plot, The National Archives

H

  • Half-rhyme

    Poetry

    Words whose sounds nearly rhyme, because only the vowels or only the final consonants match.

    Owen’s ‘Futility’ pairs once with France: “Gently its touch awoke him once” and “Always it woke him, even in France”.

    See also: Pararhyme, Rhyme

  • Hamartia

    Literature and drama

    The flaw or error of judgement that brings about a tragic hero’s downfall.

    Macbeth names his own flaw: “Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself” (Act 1 Scene 7).

    See also: Tragic hero, Hubris

  • Hinge question

    Teaching and learning

    A quick multiple-choice question at the point where a lesson turns: every student answers at once, often on mini whiteboards, and each wrong option shows a particular misunderstanding. In our lessons it comes in Apply, before anyone writes.

    See also: Mini whiteboards, Formative assessment, Apply

    Read more: Writing a hinge question, and reading the answers

    Source: Department for Education, Initial teacher training and early career framework

  • Holinshed’s Chronicles

    Context for the set texts

    A history of England, Scotland and Ireland by Raphael Holinshed (1587), which Shakespeare borrowed from for Macbeth. In it Banquo helps Macbeth against Duncan; Shakespeare made him innocent, pleasing James I, who traced his family back to Banquo.

    See also: James I

    Source: Macbeth: dates and sources, Royal Shakespeare Company

  • Homophone

    Language and grammar

    Words that sound the same but have different spellings and meanings, such as their, there and they’re, or to, too and two. Checking for homophone slips is part of proofreading.

    See also: AO6

  • Hubris

    Literature and drama

    Extreme pride or overconfidence, such as the belief that you cannot be beaten. In tragedy, hubris comes before a fall.

    Macbeth tells Macduff, “I bear a charmed life”, moments before he learns the prophecy has tricked him (Act 5 Scene 8).

    See also: Hamartia, Tragic hero

  • Hyperbole

    Language and grammar

    Deliberate exaggeration, not meant to be taken literally, used for emphasis or humour. It can show strength of feeling or make a speaker sound ridiculous.

    In Stave 1 of A Christmas Carol, Scrooge says every idiot who goes about wishing people Merry Christmas “should be boiled with his own pudding”.

    See also: Emotive language

I

  • Iamb

    Poetry

    A unit of metre made of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one, as in the word alone: a-LONE.

    See also: Iambic pentameter, Trochee

  • Iambic pentameter

    Poetry

    A line of five iambs: ten syllables that go da-DUM five times. It is close to the natural rhythm of English speech.

    Macbeth’s first line in the play: “So foul and fair a day I have not seen.” (Act 1 Scene 3).

    See also: Iamb, Blank verse, Metre

  • Imagery

    Literature and drama

    Language that creates a picture in the reader’s mind, or appeals to another sense: sound, smell, taste or touch. Writers often build a pattern of images, such as cold or blood.

    Dickens’s cold imagery in Stave 1: “The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek”.

    See also: Metaphor, Simile, Motif

  • Imperative

    Language and grammar

    The form of a verb that gives a command or instruction, usually at the start of a sentence, such as Look, Stop or Imagine. Persuasive writing uses imperatives to tell the reader what to do.

    Lady Macbeth instructs her husband in Act 1 Scene 5: “look like the innocent flower, / But be the serpent under’t”. Look and be are imperatives.

    See also: Verb, Sentence functions

  • Implicit information

    Language and grammar

    Information that is suggested and left unstated, which you work out from clues. AO1 in English Language covers both explicit and implicit information.

    For example, if a character keeps her coat on indoors and rubs her hands, the cold is implicit.

    See also: Explicit information, Inference

    Source: AQA, GCSE English Language 8700: scheme of assessment

  • In medias res

    Literature and drama

    Latin for into the middle of things: opening a story or poem in the middle of the action, with no introduction.

    ‘Bayonet Charge’ begins with the soldier already running: “Suddenly he awoke and was running”.

    See also: Exposition

  • Inclusive pronoun

    Language and grammar

    We, us or our, used to put the writer and the reader on the same side. It suggests a shared problem and a shared duty to act.

    For example, We all know our town deserves better.

    See also: Pronoun, Direct address

  • Indicative content

    Exams and assessment

    The points a mark scheme suggests answers to a question might make. It is a guide for examiners: they must credit other valid points, and an answer can reach the top level without covering them all.

    See also: Mark scheme, Level

    Source: AQA, GCSE English Literature Paper 1 mark scheme, June 2023

  • Inference

    Language and grammar

    A conclusion you work out from clues in a text. A good inference goes beyond what the words say to what they suggest, and is backed by evidence.

    Jack London writes in ‘To Build a Fire’ (1908) that “The trouble with him was that he was without imagination”, so readers infer the man will underestimate the cold.

    See also: Implicit information

  • Interleaving

    Teaching and learning

    Mixing related but different material in one session, such as questions on two set texts, in place of practising one thing at a time. The EEF’s 2021 review found 12 studies, 11 in maths, and no evidence yet for other subjects.

    See also: Spaced practice, Retrieval practice

    Read more: What the evidence says about retrieval practice and the Do Now

    Source: Education Endowment Foundation, Cognitive science approaches in the classroom

  • Internal rhyme

    Poetry

    A rhyme inside a single line of poetry, or between a word in the middle of a line and the word at its end.

    The witches’ spell rhymes inside the line: “Double, double, toil and trouble” (Macbeth, Act 4 Scene 1).

    See also: Rhyme

  • Interpretation

    Literature and drama

    A reading of what a text, character or line means, backed by evidence from the text. Many lines support more than one interpretation.

    Malcolm calls Lady Macbeth a “fiend-like queen”, yet her sleepwalking in Act 5 Scene 1 can make an audience pity her.

  • Intrusive narrator

    Literature and drama

    A narrator who steps into the story to comment, joke or speak to the reader directly.

    “I don’t mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail.” (A Christmas Carol, Stave 1).

    See also: Narrator, Omniscient narrator

  • Invigilator

    Exams and assessment

    A member of staff who supervises an exam: they give the instructions, keep the papers secure and watch for anything that breaks the rules. If you need something, raise your hand and wait for them to come.

    See also: Malpractice

    Read more: The day of an English exam

    Source: JCQ, Instructions for conducting examinations 2026

  • Irony

    Literature and drama

    A gap between what is said and what is meant, or between what is expected and what happens. There are three main kinds: verbal, situational and dramatic irony.

    A dead king’s claim, “Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!”, now stands in an empty desert (‘Ozymandias’).

    See also: Dramatic irony, Situational irony, Verbal irony

J

K

L

M

  • Main clause

    Language and grammar

    A clause that makes sense on its own as a sentence, with a subject and a verb. Every sentence except a minor sentence has at least one.

    In The Great Gatsby (1925): “The lights grow brighter as the earth lurches away from the sun.” The main clause is The lights grow brighter.

    See also: Clause, Subordinate clause, Simple sentence

  • Malpractice

    Exams and assessment

    Breaking the exam rules, for example having a phone in the exam room, copying, or handing in someone else’s work or AI’s work as your own. Penalties range from a warning to losing marks or being disqualified.

    See also: Invigilator, JCQ

    Read more: The day of an English exam

    Source: JCQ, Suspected malpractice: policies and procedures (September 2026)

  • Mark scheme

    Exams and assessment

    The exam board’s instructions for marking each question: the marks available, a description of each level and the indicative content. AQA’s mark schemes for longer English answers are levels-based.

    See also: Level, Indicative content, Best fit

    Read more: The six levels in AQA’s Literature mark scheme

    Source: AQA, GCSE English Literature Paper 1 mark scheme, June 2023

  • Master

    Teaching and learning

    The third phase of each of our lessons: one shared writing task, usually a What–How–Why paragraph, at three levels of support, then a model paragraph and an exit ticket.

    See also: Know, Apply, What–How–Why paragraph, Three levels of support

    Read more: What–How–Why paragraphs, and when to take the frame away

  • Metacognition

    Teaching and learning

    Thinking about your own learning: planning how to tackle a task, checking how it is going and judging how well it went. The EEF recommends teaching these strategies explicitly.

    See also: Modelling, Success criteria

    Read more: Exploding a quotation by thinking aloud

    Source: Education Endowment Foundation, Metacognition and self-regulated learning

  • Metaphor

    Literature and drama

    Describing something as if it were something else, without using like or as. A metaphor makes the reader see one thing through the qualities of another.

    Macbeth’s guilt and fear sting him: “O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!” (Act 3 Scene 2).

    See also: Simile, Extended metaphor, Imagery

    Read more: Which subject terms to use, and how to use them

  • Metonymy

    Literature and drama

    Using something closely linked to a thing to stand for the thing itself, as the crown can stand for the king.

    In ‘London’, “Runs in blood down Palace walls” uses the palace to stand for the monarchy.

    See also: Symbolism

  • Metre

    Poetry

    The regular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry, counted in units called feet, such as the iamb or the trochee.

    In Macbeth, the witches’ short trochaic lines sound different from the iambic pentameter of the human characters.

    See also: Rhythm, Iamb, Trochee, Dactyl

  • Mini whiteboards

    Teaching and learning

    Small wipe-clean boards that every student writes an answer on and holds up at the same moment, so the teacher sees the whole class’s answers at a glance.

    See also: Hinge question, Cold calling

    Read more: Writing a hinge question, and reading the answers

  • Minor sentence

    Language and grammar

    A sentence that is grammatically incomplete, usually because it has no main verb, used on purpose. Minor sentences can set a scene quickly or show a sudden reaction.

    Katherine Mansfield sets the scene in ‘The Garden Party’ (1922): “Windless, warm, the sky without a cloud.”

    See also: Simple sentence, Sentence forms

  • Mock exam

    Exams and assessment

    A practice exam set by the school, usually in Year 10 or 11, in exam conditions; mock grades are the school’s estimates, not official results. JCQ expects any access arrangements a student has to be used in mocks too.

    See also: Normal way of working, Standardisation

    Read more: What mock exam results tell you

    Source: JCQ, Adjustments for candidates with disabilities and learning difficulties

  • Modal verb

    Language and grammar

    A verb used before another verb to show how likely, possible or necessary something is: can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will and would.

    Macbeth, hearing of his wife’s death in Act 5 Scene 5: “She should have died hereafter.”

    See also: Verb

  • Modelling

    Teaching and learning

    Showing students how to do a task by doing it in front of them, often saying your thinking aloud, before they try it. In English this might mean writing a paragraph live and explaining each choice.

    See also: Worked example, Exploding a quotation, Metacognition

    Read more: Exploding a quotation by thinking aloud

    Source: Department for Education, Initial teacher training and early career framework

  • Monologue

    Literature and drama

    A long speech by one character to the other characters on stage.

    The Inspector’s last speech before he leaves An Inspector Calls is a monologue to the whole family.

    See also: Soliloquy, Dramatic monologue

  • Mood

    Literature and drama

    The feeling a text creates in the reader, such as calm or dread.

    In ‘The Prelude’, “There hung a darkness” keeps the boy’s fear alive after the night on the lake.

    See also: Tone, Atmosphere

  • Morality play

    Literature and drama

    A kind of play popular in Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries, in which characters stand for qualities such as charity or vice and the audience is taught a moral lesson.

    The Inspector in An Inspector Calls can be read as a morality-play figure who judges each character in turn.

    See also: Allegory, Didactic

    Source: Morality play, Encyclopaedia Britannica

  • Motif

    Literature and drama

    An image, object or idea that comes back again and again in a text, gathering meaning each time it returns.

    Blood runs through Macbeth, from “What bloody man is that?” (Act 1 Scene 2) to “Out, damned spot!” (Act 5 Scene 1).

    See also: Symbolism, Theme, Imagery

  • Mouthpiece

    Literature and drama

    A character who speaks for the writer, voicing the writer’s own views.

    In An Inspector Calls, the Inspector speaks for Priestley: “We are responsible for each other.” (Act 3).

    See also: Didactic

N

O

  • Octave

    Poetry

    The first eight lines of a Petrarchan sonnet, which usually set out a problem or a wish.

    In Rossetti’s ‘Remember’, the octave asks again and again to be remembered.

    See also: Sestet, Petrarchan sonnet

  • Ofqual

    Exams and assessment

    The Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation: the government body that regulates qualifications, exams and assessments in England, including GCSEs and the exam boards that run them.

    See also: Exam board, JCQ

    Source: Ofqual on GOV.UK

  • Ofsted

    Teaching and learning

    The Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills: it inspects schools and colleges in England and publishes reports on them.

    See also: National curriculum, Ofqual

    Source: Ofsted on GOV.UK

  • Omniscient narrator

    Literature and drama

    A narrator who knows everything, including what every character thinks and feels, and who can move freely between times and places.

    Dickens’s narrator knows Scrooge’s private thoughts and follows him into his past and his future.

    See also: Narrator, Intrusive narrator

  • Onomatopoeia

    Poetry

    A word that sounds like the noise it describes, such as hiss or bang.

    “The steam hissed.” (‘Adlestrop’).

  • Oracy

    Teaching and learning

    Skill in speaking and listening, and the teaching of it. The DfE’s framework for new teachers calls high quality oral language oracy and notes that spoken language underpins reading and writing.

    See also: Spoken language endorsement

    Read more: Running the spoken language endorsement

    Source: Department for Education, Initial teacher training and early career framework

  • Oxymoron

    Literature and drama

    Two words with opposite meanings placed side by side, such as a deafening silence.

    Wordsworth’s boy feels “troubled pleasure” as he takes the boat in ‘The Prelude’.

    See also: Paradox, Juxtaposition

P

  • Pace

    Language and grammar

    How fast a text feels to read. Short sentences, quick action and dialogue speed it up; long sentences and detailed description slow it down.

    In Typhoon (1902), a short sentence after a long one jolts the reader as the storm strikes: “In an instant the men lost touch of each other.”

    See also: Simple sentence, Sentence forms

  • Paradox

    Literature and drama

    A statement that seems to contradict itself, yet can still be true when you think about it.

    The First Witch tells Banquo he is “Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.” (Act 1 Scene 3).

    See also: Oxymoron, Antithesis

  • Pararhyme

    Poetry

    A kind of half-rhyme in which the consonants match but the vowel sound changes, as in star and stir. Wilfred Owen used it often.

    ‘Futility’ pairs “Woke, once, the clays of a cold star” with “too hard to stir?”

    See also: Half-rhyme

  • Passive voice

    Language and grammar

    A sentence in which the subject has the action done to it, as in the fire was buried by the snow. Writers use it to put the focus on what is affected, or to leave out who did something.

    Jack London ends the disaster in ‘To Build a Fire’ (1908) with a passive verb: “and the fire was blotted out!”

    See also: Active voice

  • Pastoral

    Poetry

    Writing about the countryside as a calm, simple place, often set against the noise and hurry of the city.

    Edward Thomas’s ‘Adlestrop’ lists “willows, willow-herb, and grass”.

    See also: Romanticism

  • Pathetic fallacy

    Literature and drama

    Weather or a setting that matches a character’s feelings or the mood of a scene.

    In Macbeth, Lennox describes the night of Duncan’s murder: “The night has been unruly” (Act 2 Scene 3).

    See also: Personification, Atmosphere, Mood

  • Pathos

    Literature and drama

    The quality in a piece of writing that makes the reader feel pity or sadness.

    After Tiny Tim’s death in Stave 4, Bob Cratchit cries, “My little, little child!”

    See also: Catharsis

  • Patriarchy

    Context for the set texts

    A society or system controlled by men. Both Macbeth and An Inspector Calls show one: Lady Macbeth links cruelty with manhood, and Eva Smith has no protection from the men who use her.

    Lady Macbeth asks the spirits to “unsex me here” (Act 1 Scene 5).

    See also: Suffragettes

    Source: Patriarchy, Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries

  • PEE paragraph

    Teaching and learning

    A paragraph frame many schools teach: Point, Evidence, Explain, with versions such as PEEL. Ofsted’s 2024 English report warned that heavy use of PEE paragraphs can hide weaknesses in students’ writing.

    See also: What–How–Why paragraph, Scaffolding

    Read more: What–How–Why paragraphs, and when to take the frame away

    Source: Ofsted, Telling the story: the English education subject report

  • Persona

    Poetry

    A character or mask a poet speaks through, usually someone clearly different from the poet.

    Browning speaks as an Italian duke of the 1500s in ‘My Last Duchess’: “I gave commands; / Then all smiles stopped together”.

    See also: Speaker, Dramatic monologue

  • Personification

    Literature and drama

    Giving human qualities or actions to something that is not human, such as the weather or an idea.

    Owen’s soldiers are attacked by the weather itself: “merciless iced east winds that knive us” (‘Exposure’).

    See also: Pathetic fallacy, Imagery

  • Perspective

    Language and grammar

    Where a writer’s view comes from: their time, place, experience and values. AQA Language Paper 2 Question 4 (16 marks) asks you to compare the writers’ perspectives and how they convey them.

    In Domestic Manners of the Americans (1832), Frances Trollope writes as an English visitor, and that perspective shapes her disgust at “the loathsome spitting”.

    See also: Viewpoint, AO3 in English Language

    Read more: Language Paper 2, question by question

    Source: AQA, GCSE English Language Paper 2 mark scheme: sample assessment materials, first exam June 2026

  • Petrarchan sonnet

    Poetry

    A sonnet in the form used by the Italian poet Petrarch: an octave rhyming ABBAABBA, then a sestet with a different pattern. The volta usually comes at line 9.

    Christina Rossetti’s ‘Remember’ is a Petrarchan sonnet.

    See also: Octave, Sestet, Volta

    Source: Sonnet, Poetry Foundation glossary

  • Playwright

    Literature and drama

    A person who writes plays. It is spelt with wright, an old word for a maker, as in shipwright.

    See also: Stagecraft

  • Plosive

    Poetry

    A hard consonant sound made by a small burst of air: p, b, t, d, k and a hard g.

    “Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh.” hits the reader with b and p sounds (‘War Photographer’).

    See also: Alliteration

  • Plot

    Literature and drama

    The events of a story and the order in which the writer tells them.

    See also: Structure, Exposition, Climax, Resolution

  • Poet Laureate

    Context for the set texts

    A poet officially chosen to write poems for the country’s important occasions. Five poets in the Power and Conflict cluster have held the post in Britain: Wordsworth, Tennyson, Ted Hughes, Carol Ann Duffy and, since 2019, Simon Armitage.

    Source: Simon Armitage, Encyclopaedia Britannica

  • Polysyndeton

    Language and grammar

    Using a conjunction, usually and, between every item in a list. It slows the list down and makes it feel piled up or overwhelming.

    At Gatsby’s party in The Great Gatsby (1925), the orchestra has “oboes and trombones and saxophones and viols and cornets and piccolos”.

    See also: Asyndetic list, Repetition

  • Poor Law Amendment Act

    Context for the set texts

    The law Parliament passed in 1834 to reform help for the poor. People able to work could no longer get money at home: in many areas help came only inside a workhouse, where life was harsh on purpose.

    Scrooge approves: “The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?” (Stave 1).

    See also: Workhouse, Thomas Malthus

    Source: Poor Law reform, UK Parliament

  • Progress 8

    Exams and assessment

    A school performance measure comparing students’ Attainment 8 results with those of students nationally with similar results at the end of primary school; 0 is average. There are no scores for 2025 or 2026, as primary tests were cancelled in 2020 and 2021.

    See also: Attainment 8, EBacc

    Source: Department for Education, Secondary accountability measures: 2025 guidance

  • Pronoun

    Language and grammar

    A word that stands in for a noun, such as I, you, she, it, we or they. First-person pronouns (I, we) speak as the narrator or writer; second-person pronouns (you) speak to the reader.

    See also: Direct address, Inclusive pronoun

  • Prop

    Literature and drama

    Short for property: an object used on stage by the actors.

    Sheila’s engagement ring in An Inspector Calls is a prop: Gerald gives it to her in Act 1, and she hands it back in Act 2.

    See also: Stagecraft, Symbolism

  • Prophecy

    Literature and drama

    A prediction of the future, often from a supernatural source. In tragedy, a prophecy can push a character towards the very fate it describes.

    The Third Witch greets Macbeth: “All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king hereafter!” (Act 1 Scene 3).

    See also: Supernatural, Situational irony

  • Prose

    Literature and drama

    Ordinary writing in sentences and paragraphs, without the line breaks or regular rhythm of verse.

    Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking scene is in prose, which suits her broken mind: “Out, damned spot! out, I say!” (Act 5 Scene 1).

    See also: Verse, Blank verse, Novella

  • Protagonist

    Literature and drama

    The main character, whose story the text follows. Scrooge is the protagonist of A Christmas Carol.

    See also: Antagonist, Tragic hero

  • PTSD

    Context for the set texts

    Post-traumatic stress disorder: a mental health condition caused by very stressful, frightening or distressing events. People with it may relive the event through flashbacks and nightmares.

    The soldier in ‘Remains’ cannot escape the man he shot: “his bloody life in my bloody hands”.

    Source: Post-traumatic stress disorder, NHS

  • Pun

    Literature and drama

    A play on a word with two meanings, or on two words that sound alike. Puns are often comic, though Shakespeare also uses them at dark moments.

    Lady Macbeth plays on gild and guilt: “I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal, / For it must seem their guilt.” (Act 2 Scene 2).

    See also: Equivocation

  • Pupil premium

    Teaching and learning

    Extra government funding for state schools in England to help disadvantaged students, including those eligible for free school meals in the last six years and children who have left local authority care. Free meals newly gained through the 2026 Universal Credit expansion do not count.

    See also: SEND

    Source: Department for Education, Pupil premium: overview

  • Purpose

    Language and grammar

    What a text is for, such as to argue, persuade, advise, explain, inform, describe or entertain. Many texts have more than one purpose.

    See also: Audience, Form

Q

  • Quatrain

    Poetry

    A stanza of four lines. Regular quatrains with a steady rhyme can make a poem sound controlled, or make what it describes feel fixed.

    Blake’s ‘London’ is four quatrains, each rhyming ABAB.

    See also: Stanza, Rhyme scheme

R

  • Ragged school

    Context for the set texts

    A school that taught children from the poorest streets of Victorian cities. Field Lane Ragged School in London was started in 1841 by a London City Missioner, and Dickens first visited it in 1843.

    In Stave 3 the Spirit warns, “most of all beware this boy”: the boy is Ignorance.

    See also: Child labour, Victorian

    Source: Roots and heritage, Field Lane Foundation

  • Reading age

    Teaching and learning

    A reading test score given as the age of a typical reader who would get that score. A Year 9 student with a reading age of 11 read like a typical 11-year-old on that test.

    See also: Reading fluency

    Read more: Do students need to read the whole text?

  • Reading fluency

    Teaching and learning

    Reading accurately, at a steady pace and with expression, so attention can go on meaning. The EEF’s fluency resource for secondary schools includes repeated reading and teachers modelling fluent reading aloud.

    See also: Reading age, Disciplinary literacy

    Read more: Do students need to read the whole text?

    Source: Education Endowment Foundation, Reading fluency resource

  • Reading for pleasure

    Teaching and learning

    Reading that students choose to do in their own time, for enjoyment. The National Literacy Trust found that 36.1% of children and young people enjoyed reading in their free time in 2026, up from 32.7% in 2025.

    See also: Reading fluency

    Read more: Reading for pleasure at 14 to 16

    Source: National Literacy Trust, Children and young people’s reading in 2026

  • Real time

    Literature and drama

    When events on stage take as long as they would in life, with no jumps forward in time.

    An Inspector Calls runs in real time across one evening in one room.

    See also: Well-made play, Act

  • Rebuttal

    Language and grammar

    Your answer to a counter-argument: the reasons or evidence that show why your view still stands.

    For example, A phone locked away during lessons is still there for the walk home.

    See also: Counter-argument

  • Refrain

    Poetry

    A line or phrase repeated through a poem, often at the end of a stanza.

    Owen’s soldiers wait and wait: “But nothing happens” (‘Exposure’).

  • Regicide

    Context for the set texts

    The killing of a king, or a person who kills one. Macbeth’s murder of Duncan is regicide, and the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 planned to blow up King James I with both Houses of Parliament.

    See also: Divine right of kings, Gunpowder Plot

    Source: The Plot, UK Parliament

  • Register

    Language and grammar

    How formal or informal language is, chosen to suit the audience, purpose and form. A letter to a headteacher needs a formal register; a message to a friend can be casual.

    See also: Colloquial language, Standard English, Audience

  • Remembrance poppy

    Context for the set texts

    The red poppy worn in Britain to remember people who died in the First World War and later wars. Poppies grew on the battlefields of the Western Front, and artificial ones were first sold in Britain in 1921.

    In ‘Poppies’, the mother pins one on her son’s lapel: “spasms of paper red”.

    See also: Armistice

    Source: Why we wear poppies on Remembrance Day, Imperial War Museums

  • Repetition

    Language and grammar

    Using the same word or phrase more than once on purpose, to stress an idea or build a rhythm.

    In ‘Night Walks’ (1860), Dickens writes “Houselessness would walk and walk and walk”: the repeated verb makes the night feel endless.

    See also: Anaphora, Polysyndeton

  • Resit

    Exams and assessment

    Taking a GCSE exam again to try for a higher grade. GCSE English Language can be resat in the summer, or in November by students who were at least 16 on the previous 31 August; English Literature exams run only in May and June.

    See also: Condition of funding, Functional Skills

    Read more: If your child does not get a grade 4 in English

    Source: AQA, GCSE English Language 8700: general administration

  • Resolution

    Literature and drama

    The end of a story or play, when the main conflict is settled and some kind of order returns.

    Malcolm, the new king, calls the Macbeths “this dead butcher, and his fiend-like queen” (Act 5 Scene 8).

    See also: Climax, Plot

  • Results day

    Exams and assessment

    The day students receive their exam results. JCQ has set GCSE results day for the summer 2027 exams on Thursday 19 August 2027.

    See also: Grade boundaries, Review of marking

    Read more: Results day, and asking for a review of marking

    Source: JCQ, Key dates in the examination cycle: June 2027

  • Retrieval

    Language and grammar

    Finding information that is stated in a text and picking it out accurately. AQA Language Paper 1 Question 1 is a retrieval question: from summer 2026 it is multiple choice, and you shade the correct answer for each part.

    See also: Explicit information, Retrieval practice

    Source: AQA, GCSE English Language Paper 1: sample assessment materials, first exam June 2026

  • Retrieval practice

    Teaching and learning

    Bringing what you have learned back to mind from memory, with little or no prompting, for example by answering quiz questions without notes. The EEF’s 2021 review rated the evidence for quizzes, compared with no recap at all, as moderate and generally positive.

    See also: Spaced practice, Do Now, Retrieval

    Read more: What the evidence says about retrieval practice and the Do Now

    Source: Education Endowment Foundation, Cognitive science approaches in the classroom

  • Review of marking

    Exams and assessment

    A post-results service in which a different examiner checks the original marking for errors or unreasonable marks. The school requests it, with the student’s written consent, and the grade can go up, go down or stay the same.

    See also: Clerical re-check, Results day

    Read more: Results day, and asking for a review of marking

    Source: AQA, Review and priority review of marking

  • Rhetorical question

    Language and grammar

    A question asked for effect, with no answer expected or with an obvious answer. It makes the reader think, or nudges them towards the writer’s view.

    In Stave 1 of A Christmas Carol, Scrooge wants no answer when he asks Fred “What right have you to be merry? What reason have you to be merry?”

    See also: Direct address, Sentence functions

  • Rhyme

    Poetry

    Words that end with the same sound, such as done and won. Rhyme can link ideas or make an ending sound complete.

    The witches rhyme in Macbeth: “When the hurlyburly’s done, / When the battle’s lost and won.” (Act 1 Scene 1).

    See also: Rhyme scheme, Half-rhyme, Internal rhyme

  • Rhyme scheme

    Poetry

    The pattern of rhymes at the ends of lines, shown with letters. ABAB means lines 1 and 3 rhyme, and so do lines 2 and 4.

    Rossetti’s ‘Remember’ opens with an octave rhyming ABBAABBA.

    See also: Rhyme, Quatrain

  • Rhyming couplet

    Poetry

    Two lines in a row that rhyme. Shakespeare often ends a scene with one, which can sound final, like a door closing.

    “Hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell / That summons thee to heaven or to hell.” (Macbeth, Act 2 Scene 1).

    See also: Rhyme, Shakespearean sonnet

  • Rhythm

    Poetry

    The beat of a line of poetry, made by its pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables and by its pauses.

    The galloping rhythm of ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’: “Cannon to right of them”.

    See also: Metre, Stress

  • Romanticism

    Context for the set texts

    A movement in poetry in the late 18th and early 19th centuries that turned to nature and to strong feeling. Wordsworth, Blake and Shelley, all in the Power and Conflict cluster, were Romantic poets.

    See also: Pastoral

    Source: Romanticism, Poetry Foundation glossary

S

T

  • Tense

    Language and grammar

    The form of a verb that shows when something happens: past (she walked), present (she walks) or future (she will walk). Switching into the present tense can make a scene feel immediate.

    In Chapter 3 of The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald moves from the past tense into the present at the party: “Laughter is easier minute by minute”.

    See also: Verb

  • Tension

    Literature and drama

    A feeling of strain or suspense that makes the reader or audience anxious about what will happen next.

    Straight after Duncan’s murder, a knocking at the gate makes Macbeth jump: “Whence is that knocking?” (Act 2 Scene 2).

    See also: Cliffhanger, Climax, Comic relief

  • Textual reference

    Exams and assessment

    Evidence from the text: a quotation, or a close reference to a detail or event in your own words. AQA’s AO1 for English Literature asks for textual references, including quotations.

    See also: AO1 in English Literature, Closed book

    Read more: How many quotations should students learn?

    Source: AQA, GCSE English Literature 8702: scheme of assessment

  • Thane

    Context for the set texts

    An old Scottish title for a lord. Macbeth begins the play as Thane of Glamis, and in Act 1 he is also made Thane of Cawdor.

    “All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!” (First Witch, Act 1 Scene 3).

    Source: Thane, Merriam-Webster

  • Theme

    Literature and drama

    A main idea that a text explores, such as ambition or social responsibility. Strong answers say what the text suggests about the theme, as well as naming it.

    Marley’s Ghost sums up the novella’s theme of social responsibility: “Mankind was my business.” (A Christmas Carol, Stave 1).

    See also: Motif

  • Thesis statement

    Exams and assessment

    A sentence or two at the start of an essay that sets out your main argument in answer to the question. AQA’s examiners noted in 2023 that answers which began with a thesis usually scored well.

    See also: AO1 in English Literature, Topic sentence

    Read more: How to start an essay with a thesis statement

    Source: AQA, Report on the Examination: GCSE English Literature Paper 1, June 2023

  • Thomas Malthus

    Context for the set texts

    An English economist (1766 to 1834) whose Essay on the Principle of Population, first published in 1798, argued that population grows faster than the food supply. He also argued against the Poor Laws.

    Scrooge echoes Malthus when he says the poor had better die and “decrease the surplus population” (Stave 1).

    See also: Poor Law Amendment Act

    Source: Thomas Malthus, Encyclopaedia Britannica

  • Three levels of support

    Teaching and learning

    Our way of adapting one task: every student answers the same question about the same text, and only the support changes. The levels are Securing, Strengthening and Soaring, named in words only, and students move between them as they improve.

    See also: Securing, Strengthening, Soaring, Adaptive teaching

    Read more: One question, three levels of support

  • Tiers of vocabulary

    Teaching and learning

    A way of sorting words for teaching. Tier 1 words are everyday speech; Tier 2 words appear across many subjects, such as examine or establish; Tier 3 words belong to one subject, such as metaphor or caesura.

    See also: Disciplinary literacy, Subject terminology

    Read more: Teaching vocabulary in secondary English

    Source: Education Endowment Foundation, Improving literacy in secondary schools

  • Titanic

    Context for the set texts

    A passenger liner that sank on its first voyage, from Southampton to New York, on 15 April 1912, with about 1,500 deaths. Its builders had claimed it was practically unsinkable.

    Birling tells his family the ship is “unsinkable, absolutely unsinkable” (An Inspector Calls, Act 1).

    See also: Dramatic irony, Edwardian

    Source: RMS Titanic facts, Royal Museums Greenwich

  • Tone

    Literature and drama

    The attitude a writer, narrator or speaker takes, heard in their choice of words: for example angry, bitter, playful or tender.

    The soldier in ‘Remains’ sounds casual, almost shrugging: “End of story, except not really”.

    See also: Mood, Atmosphere

  • Topic sentence

    Language and grammar

    The sentence, usually the first, that tells the reader what a paragraph is about. In an essay, a topic sentence that answers the question keeps each paragraph on track.

    See also: What–How–Why paragraph, Discourse marker

  • Tragedy

    Literature and drama

    A play in which the main character’s choices bring about suffering and death, usually including their own. Macbeth is a tragedy.

    See also: Tragic hero, Hamartia, Catharsis

  • Tragic hero

    Literature and drama

    The main character of a tragedy: a person of high status whose flaw or mistake leads to their downfall, so the audience feels pity and fear.

    Macbeth begins as a brave general praised by his king and ends as a hated tyrant, killed in battle.

    See also: Hamartia, Hubris, Tragedy

    Read more: Macbeth: the story, act by act

  • Tricolon

    Language and grammar

    A group of three words, phrases or clauses, often building in force; also called the rule of three. Three items tend to sound complete, so speeches and persuasive writing use them often.

    In Typhoon (1902), Conrad’s gale “tries to grasp his limbs, fastens upon his mind, seeks to rout his very spirit out of him”.

    See also: Anaphora, Asyndetic list

  • Trochee

    Poetry

    A unit of metre made of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one, as in the word witches: WITCH-es.

    The witches’ lines often use trochees: “When shall we three meet again?” (Macbeth, Act 1 Scene 1).

    See also: Iamb, Metre

U

V

  • Verb

    Language and grammar

    A word for an action or a state of being, such as explode or seem. Every main clause has a verb, and a precise verb is often worth zooming in on.

    In Stave 1 of A Christmas Carol, the cold inside Scrooge “froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek”.

    See also: Modal verb, Imperative, Tense

  • Verbal irony

    Literature and drama

    Saying the opposite of what you mean, often to mock. When it is bitter or cruel, it is called sarcasm.

    As her parents relax, Sheila says, “I suppose we’re all nice people now” (An Inspector Calls, Act 3).

    See also: Irony, Satire

  • Verse

    Poetry

    Writing arranged in lines, usually with a regular rhythm. People also use verse to mean one stanza of a poem or song.

    Most of Macbeth is in verse; the Porter’s speech and Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking are in prose.

    See also: Prose, Stanza, Blank verse

  • Victorian

    Context for the set texts

    From the reign of Queen Victoria, 1837 to 1901. A Christmas Carol, published in December 1843, is a Victorian novella.

    See also: Poor Law Amendment Act, Workhouse

    Source: Victorian, Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries

  • Viewpoint

    Language and grammar

    What a writer thinks about a subject: their opinion or stance. In AQA Language Paper 2 Question 5 you write your own viewpoint on a statement.

    See also: Perspective, Counter-argument

    Read more: Planning your writing for Section B

    Source: AQA, GCSE English Language 8700: specification at a glance

  • Volta

    Poetry

    Italian for turn: the point in a poem, especially a sonnet, where the thought or mood changes.

    ‘Remember’ turns at line 9: “Yet if you should forget me for a while”.

    See also: Sonnet, Sestet

W

Z

  • Zooming in

    Language and grammar

    A structural move from a wide view to a close-up of one detail, like a camera. Zooming out does the opposite, pulling back to the wider scene.

    The first chapter of Ethan Frome (1911) opens on “The village” under snow, moves to the church windows, then zooms in on “Young Ethan Frome” walking along the street.

    See also: Focus, Structure

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