The questions
What the paper actually asks
Component 3 sets its unseen prose task in a consistent shape, and knowing the shape is half the planning done before you open the paper. Everything on this page paraphrases the board’s published materials; confirm the details against the current specification, past papers and mark scheme.
Reading the question
The question names a focus and asks you to explore how the writer presents it. Underline the focus and hold onto it: answers drift when they analyse the passage in general instead of the passage through the lens the question sets.
This section grows as the class materials arrive.
Planning in five minutes
Read once for the whole, once with a pencil. Choose the moments that speak to the focus, order them into a line of argument rather than a tour, and write a one-sentence answer to the question before the essay starts. The plan is the essay; the writing is delivery.
This section grows as the class materials arrive.
Structuring the answer
Open with your claim, not with context or throat-clearing. Each paragraph takes one step of the argument, quotes briefly, and moves from method to effect. The close is a judgement, not a summary: what the passage finally does with its subject.
This section grows as the class materials arrive.
What examiners reward
In paraphrase: an informed personal argument in accurate critical language, and analysis of how the writer’s choices shape meaning. Device-spotting without effect earns little; a smaller number of moments read closely earns more than a catalogue. Check the weightings against the current published grid.
This section grows as the class materials arrive.