AQA English Language Paper 2 Section B Walkthrough - examiner guide

Question 5 on Paper 2 is worth 40 marks. That is half the paper. Most students treat it as an afterthought, something they'll figure out on the day. The students who score highest treat it as the most prepared question on the paper, because it is the one where preparation gives you the biggest advantage. Unlike the reading questions, where the extract determines what you can write about, Question 5 gives you complete control. The form, the techniques, the structure, all of it is in your hands. Which means all of it can be rehearsed.

This guide covers everything you need: what transactional writing actually is, how each of the seven forms works, how to make your writing genuinely interesting rather than merely competent, and how to plan an answer in five minutes that holds together for forty.

What Actually Is Transactional Writing?

Transactional writing is writing for a particular purpose, in a particular format, to a particular audience. Every piece you write must serve the needs of that audience and present a clear opinion or argument. The examiner is looking for writing that feels purposeful, not writing that could have been about anything, addressed to anyone, in any form.

The mark scheme is split across two Assessment Objectives.

AO5 is worth 24 marks and covers content and organisation, your range of ideas, use of language techniques, appropriate tone, suitability for the form and purpose, and paragraph structure.

AO6 is worth 16 marks and covers technical accuracy, spelling, punctuation range, grammar, sentence length variation, and structural techniques such as direct address and rhetorical questions.

The Seven Forms

Magazine Article

Formal letter

Informal letter

formal tone. Your address top right, date, their address on the left, "To whom it may concern" if unnamed or "Dear Mr/Ms [Name]" if named. Average paragraph lengths. No language techniques. Facts and statistics. "Yours faithfully" if you addressed them formally, "Yours sincerely" if you used their name. Purpose: inform and convince.

This has never come up before

informal tone. Your address at the top, "Dear [Name]", average paragraphs, language techniques welcome, "Kind regards" or "Yours" to close. Purpose: entertain and inform.

informal tone.

Title, four subheadings using alliteration, shorter paragraphs, lighter language, anecdotes, language techniques, facts and statistics, quotes from the general public or celebrities. Purpose: entertain and inform.

Newspaper Article

formal tone.

Title, one to two subheadings, longer and denser paragraphs, no language techniques, facts and statistics, expert quotes from professors, MPs, or scientists. Purpose: inform and educate.

Speech to peers

informal tone.

No title needed. Two to three topics with a concluding paragraph. Facts and statistics. Direct address throughout. Rhetorical questions. Could open or close with a famous quote. Short sentences for impact. Purpose: inform and convince.

Speech to adults

formal tone.

No title needed. Formal register throughout. Two to three topics with a concluding paragraph. Facts and statistics. Purpose: inform and convince.

Leaflet/guide

mixed tone.

Title, four to six subheadings using alliteration, short paragraphs, facts, bullet points — the majority of the text can be bulleted if the form requires it. Purpose: inform and inspire.

Six Ways to Make Your Writing Stand Out

Most students write competent but forgettable answers. These six techniques separate a grade 7 from a grade 5.

One — Have a clear objective. Do not just write about the topic. Decide what you want to achieve and take deliberate actions in each paragraph to achieve it. Choose an unexpected or ambitious objective.

Example: A magazine article on climate change. Generic objective — raise awareness of climate change. Better objective — make the reader feel personally disgusted by government inaction.

Two — Break up facts with language techniques. Never let a statistic sit alone. Wrap it in technique immediately.

Example: 89% of people joined our protest — we were like a tsunami on the Houses of Parliament. A powerful force sweeping away inaction. Cleansing the filth of government ignorance.

Three — Use structural choices to make information land. Anaphora, tricolon, and deliberate short sentences create rhythm and emphasis that plain prose cannot.

Example: The government are wrong. The government are wasting our planet. The government needs change.

Four — End with a strong Call To Action. Your final paragraph should deliver your objective in the clearest possible terms. Tell the reader exactly what you want them to do.

Five — Tell a story. Use an anecdote — a personal story about the topic — or invent a case study of someone affected by the issue. This is where you can use descriptive writing and language techniques freely, and it almost always lifts the quality of the whole piece.

Six — Make up statistics. You do not need to know real figures. Invent them — but make them realistic. Ask yourself: what statistic would give this point the most impact? Then write it.

How to Plan Your Answer

Spend five to ten minutes planning before you write. Students who plan consistently outperform students who do not.

Step 1 — Come up with three to five talking points relevant to the topic.

Step 2 — Work out what statistics or facts would support each point. Invent them if needed.

Step 3 — Develop each talking point in note form.

Step 4 — Ask yourself questions about each point to deepen it. What are the consequences? Who is affected? What would change if this improved?

Step 5 — Decide on your Call To Action before you start writing. Know your ending before you begin.

Full Mark Example Essay

The question below appeared on a past AQA paper. The essay that follows achieved full marks. Read it as a reader first. Then read it again as a student — noticing the objective, the structural choices, the techniques, and where the Call To Action lands.

Question: "Our addiction to cheap clothes and fast fashion means young people in poorer countries have to work in terrible conditions to make them. We must change our attitude to buying clothes now." Write an article for a magazine or website arguing your point of view. [40 marks]

Clothing causes social chaos: and we might not even know it…

Open your wardrobe and you'll likely see a stack, if not a drawer full of t-shirts. There are one or two that are washed-thin and on the verge of fraying; some slightly faded graphic tees who have clearly seen better days; and that one shirt you purchased at a museum, which still has a tag on it.

Next year, a fourth of the contents of this drawer will be gone, replaced with new, vibrant, flashy t-shirts. And haunting this pile of discarded clothing is the hard work and sweat of hundreds of workers, their lives ignored and disregarded by the very people who encourage it.

Your t-shirt likely started its journey somewhere in India, where young children no older than ten wade up and down sweltering cotton fields, day in, day out, painstakingly picking cotton buds with their calloused hands. Once their basket is full, they bring it to the main building, where one of their friends carefully separates the fluff from the seeds before it is sent to the mill and shipped to Bangladesh as a fully formed sheet of fabric.

A little girl unloads the fabric from the truck. She sits down at her desk — row 64, column V — and begins to sew. Her movements are calculated, precise, clearly honed from months, if not years, slaving away at her rickety wooden desk in a sea of other girls and women in this crumbling, concrete building.

The bell rings at nine in the evening. The girl packs up her tools and trudges to her dormitory along with the horde of slow-moving, exhausted workers. Coughing is rife, and she thinks of herself as lucky that she hasn't caught anything yet. But living with sixteen other people crammed into metal bunks makes the incoming sickness impossible to dodge.

She can only hope that the coughing doesn't turn into something worse. Last year, a girl from her room had come down with a cough. The next day, she hadn't arrived at her desk.

Two days later, a new girl took over her old desk.

Wait, am I the problem?

Every time you buy a t-shirt, every time you decide it has served its purpose and throw it away, there is a boy in a cotton field, a girl in the factory, and countless other faceless people whose lifestyles you have encouraged. With fast fashion more popular than ever, consumerism is also at a new high.

And it is your consumerist mindset, your disregard for their lives, that continues this vicious cycle of low costs and high prices. We mindlessly exploit and oppress those who cannot afford to speak up — every single day — without a second thought.

Man is a greedy, selfish being.

Every year, the average person purchases 25 pieces of new clothing, and 2,000 tons of fast fashion ends up in landfill sites. These brands claim they have changed. But does the boy now have access to sanitation and education? Does the girl have stable accommodation away from her family?

This is the impact of our choices. We are the feeders of this cycle — it exists because of us. It is up to us to change, so that the hundreds of millions of children out there can access the life they deserve.

I, for one, am making the change today. Ask yourself: can you live with knowing what your addiction really costs? The lives you upend, just so you can own something a little newer, a little brighter, a little cooler. If you cannot — then I suggest you make the change too.

What Makes This a Full Mark Answer

AO5 — the objective is clear from the first paragraph and lands with full force in the final one. The structural choices are deliberate — the two-sentence paragraph about the new girl taking the desk is the most devastating moment in the essay, created entirely through structural restraint. Language techniques appear throughout. The form conventions of a magazine article are met. The Call To Action is specific and personal.

AO6 — sentence length is varied throughout. Parenthesis is used correctly. The punctuation range includes semicolons, dashes, and ellipsis. Grammar is accurate throughout.

Past Paper Questions to Practise

Use these to practise planning and writing under timed conditions. Five minutes planning, forty minutes writing. Time yourself strictly.

One — Magazine article. "Our addiction to cheap clothes and fast fashion means young people in poorer countries have to work in terrible conditions." Write an article for a magazine arguing your point of view.

Two — Letter to a newspaper editor. "It is people who have extraordinary skill, courage and determination who deserve to be famous, not those who have good looks or money." Write a letter to the editor arguing your point of view.

Three — Magazine article. "People are often going on expensive holidays, but you don't need to spend a lot of money." Write a magazine article expressing your views.

Four — Broadsheet newspaper. "Homework has no value. Students should be relaxing in their free time." Write an article for a broadsheet newspaper explaining your point of view.

Five — Newspaper article. "All sport should be fun, fair and open to everyone. These days, sport seems to be more about money, corruption and winning at any cost." Write an article for a newspaper explaining your point of view.

Six — Speech to peers. "Important lessons I have learned in my life." Deliver a speech to your peers on this topic.

Seven — Leaflet. Your local library wants to encourage young people to read more. Write the text of a leaflet explaining the benefits of reading.

Eight — Magazine article. "Animals are important to our world in many different ways." Write an article for a magazine competition.

Nine — Charity leaflet. A local charity is hoping to gain more publicity. Write the text of a leaflet explaining the charity's work and why it is important.

Ten — News website article. "Travel is expensive, dangerous, damaging and a foolish waste of time." Write an article for a news website arguing your point of view.

Eleven — Broadsheet newspaper. "Snow seems picturesque and exciting but in reality causes accidents, inconvenience and economic disruption." Write an article for a broadsheet newspaper explaining your point of view.

Download the Full Guide

The complete transactional writing guide is available as a free PDF below, formatted for printing and revision.

Work Through This With Me Directly

Knowing the forms and techniques is the foundation. Applying them under timed conditions on an unseen topic is a different skill — and that is what we practise in every session. I mark every practice answer and give written feedback on exactly what is costing marks.

If you'd like to work through this with me directly, book a free introductory call here and we can talk through exactly where you are and what you need to hit your target grade.