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Teaching the structure question in Language Paper 1

Question 3 asks how the writer has structured the whole source to create one named effect, for 8 marks in about ten minutes. What changed in 2026, what AQA’s examiners say goes wrong, and a routine built on the beginning, the shifts and the end.

Quick guide for teachers · 4 minute read

Question 3 on AQA’s Language Paper 1 is worth 8 marks, assesses AO2 and covers the whole source. Its wording changed for the June 2026 exams. AQA’s summary of the changes says: “Question 3 now focuses on a single effect”. The version in the sample paper reads:

“You now need to think about the structure of the source as a whole. This text is from the middle of a novel. How has the writer structured the text to create tension?”

Three bullet points follow: how tension has increased or decreased by the end of the source, how the writer uses structure to create an effect, and any other structural features, such as changes in mood, tone or perspective. Before 2026 the question asked how the writer had structured the text “to interest you as a reader”, as in June 2023. Past papers from before 2026, and many resources, still use that wording.

The named effect is now the thread through the answer. In AQA’s answers and commentaries for the updated questions, the answer placed in Level 1 “acknowledges the presence of tension in the extract but does not explore how the writer’s choices contribute to this effect”. The answers higher up keep returning to how the structure builds and releases tension.

What goes wrong

The examiners’ reports below were written about the old wording. The question still tests the same skill for the same marks, so their warnings carry over.

  • Stopping at the start. In June 2023: “Many students focused on the beginning of the extract only. This meant that it was difficult to show any structural shifts or understanding.”
  • Beginning, middle and end, and nothing in between. In June 2022: “Examiners reported that many students tended to restrict their comments to just the beginning, middle and end, without much comment on the effects of any other section.”
  • Sentences with no structural reason. The 2023 report again: “Writing about sentences was not often linked to why that sentence type at that point in the text.”
  • Language analysis in a structure answer. Similes and adjectives belong to Question 2 unless the student shows what they do to the shape of the whole text. The notes for the first structure lesson in our Language Paper 1 unit list this as the first misconception to watch for.

The same 2023 report names what worked: “Those students who are able to note smaller structural shifts and explain the effect of these are often more successful.”

A routine: beginning, shifts, end

  1. Read the source once for what happens. On the second read, mark the margin each time the focus moves: a new place, a new person, a jump in time, a change of mood.
  2. The beginning. What does the writer show first, and how does it set up the effect named in the question?
  3. The shifts. Choose two moves between the start and the end and say what each one does to the effect. The 2022 report found many answers skipping this step.
  4. The end. Where has the effect got to by the last line, compared with the first?
  5. Write three short paragraphs. Each one says where in the source it is (at the start, then, by the end), uses a short quotation, names the structural move and explains its effect on the reader.

Ten minutes is tight. Two for the marking-up, eight for writing, and no retelling of the plot.

Three extracts to teach it with

All three are in the public domain, so you can print them in full.

‘To Build a Fire’ (Jack London, 1908), the fire under the tree, suits the new tension question well. The extract opens on the fire, “snapping and crackling and promising life”. One flat sentence turns it: “But before he could cut the strings, it happened.” The narration then steps back in time to explain the mistake, climbs to the top of the spruce and follows the snow down bough by bough, until “the fire was blotted out!” The last paragraph moves inside the man’s head as he grows calm. Tension builds, breaks, and then settles into an uneasy calm.

‘The Monkey’s Paw’ (W. W. Jacobs, 1902), the opening, moves like a camera. It starts outside, “Without, the night was cold and wet”, comes into the parlour where “the fire burned brightly”, narrows to a chess game in which Mr White takes “sharp and unnecessary perils”, then widens again when “the gate banged to loudly” and a visitor walks in from the dark. Danger waits outside a safe room, then comes in.

‘The Open Window’ (Saki, 1914), the ending, shows what a final shift can do. The focus moves from the terrified visitor to the girl who caused his terror, and the story ends on a one-sentence paragraph: “Romance at short notice was her speciality.” The reader rereads everything before it as a trick.

For each one, set the question with a named effect (tension, suspense, surprise) and ask students to track only that. Language Paper 1, question by question covers every question on the paper for students.

Sources

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