Directed Writing on Attitudes to Language: AS Paper 2 Section B Study Notes
Welcome to your complete guide for Paper 2 Section B (Language Discourses) of the AQA AS English Language (7701) exam! In this section, you are asked to tackle Question 3: a directed writing task worth 40 marks (out of the 70 total paper marks). You should spend around 50 minutes on this section.
Don't worry if directed writing feels daunting at first. Unlike a standard academic essay, this task allows you to show off your flair for writing while demonstrating real linguistic understanding. You are essentially taking academic ideas about how people use and judge language and turning them into an entertaining, persuasive piece of journalism (such as a lively broadsheet opinion article).
Let's break down everything you need to know, from the core linguistic debates to the top writing techniques that score top marks!
1. Understanding the Assessment Objectives: AO2 and AO5
Section B is split right down the middle into two equally weighted assessment objectives:
• AO2 (20 Marks) — Concepts and Issues: "Demonstrate critical understanding of concepts and issues relevant to language use."
This means showing that you understand linguistic ideas, theories, and public attitudes surrounding language diversity. You need solid linguistic substance rather than just general personal opinions.
• AO5 (20 Marks) — Expertise and Creativity: "Demonstrate expertise and creativity in the use of English to communicate in different ways."
This is where your writing craft comes in. You must adapt your style, register, tone, and format to suit a non-specialist, real-world audience (like readers of a national newspaper or magazine).
Key Takeaway: AO2 provides the linguistic brainpower; AO5 provides the journalistic style. You need both working together to reach the top mark bands.
2. The Core Debate: Prescriptivism vs. Descriptivism
At the heart of almost every language debate lies a fundamental tug-of-war between two opposing viewpoints:
Prescriptivism: The Rule-Makers
Prescriptivism is the belief that one variety of language has an inherently higher value than others and should be imposed as the correct norm. Prescriptivists view language variation, slang, or change as signs of "decay", "laziness", or "incorrect" grammar.
• Everyday Analogy: Think of a strict referee who believes the rulebook was written in stone a hundred years ago and blows the whistle on any new move.
Descriptivism: The Observers
Descriptivism is the linguistic and scientific approach that observes, records, and describes how language is actually used by real people in daily life, without making moral or aesthetic value judgements.
• Everyday Analogy: Think of a wildlife documentary maker who films how animals actually behave in the wild without telling the lions they are hunting "incorrectly".
Key Takeaway: When analyzing public debates, you will often find that non-linguists hold prescriptivist views, while modern sociolinguists take a descriptivist stance.
3. Jean Aitchison’s Metaphors for Prescriptivist Attitudes
Linguist Jean Aitchison created three famous diagnostic metaphors to categorize common prescriptivist complaints and "language decay" anxieties. These are fantastic tools to analyze public attitudes in your writing:
1. The Damp Spoon Syndrome
• The View: Language change is caused by sloppiness and laziness.
• The Metaphor: Leaving a wet spoon in the sugar bowl leaves a sticky mess. Prescriptivists think sloppy pronunciation (such as dropping the 't' sound or using slang) is just like leaving a damp spoon in the sugar.
• Linguistic Reality: Changes in pronunciation often follow natural patterns of phonetic ease rather than simple laziness.
2. The Crumbling Castle View
• The View: The English language was once a magnificent, perfect castle of pure grammar that is now gradually deteriorating and falling apart.
• The Metaphor: English must be defended like a historic monument against modern destruction.
• Linguistic Reality: English has never had a single "golden age" of perfection; it has constantly evolved and adapted throughout history.
3. The Infectious Disease View
• The View: "Bad" language habits and non-standard forms spread like a contagious illness from person to person.
• The Metaphor: Catching slang or regional phrasing is seen as catching a disease against which people should fight or quarantine.
• Linguistic Reality: People deliberately adopt language forms to show belonging, identity, and solidarity with social groups.
Memory Trick (D-C-I): Remember DCI (like a Detective Chief Inspector) — Damp spoon, Crumbling castle, Infectious disease!
4. Key Sociolinguistic Diversity Areas
The exam stimulus might touch on several diversity topics. Here are the core areas you should be ready to discuss:
A. Region: Accent and Dialect
• Standard English (SE) & Received Pronunciation (RP): Standard English is the dialect of grammar/vocabulary, while RP is the prestigious, non-regional accent. Both have high social prestige.
• Overt Prestige vs. Covert Prestige: Linguists such as William Labov and Peter Trudgill explored how prestige operates. Overt prestige is attached to socially dominant, standard forms (giving status in official settings). Covert prestige is attached to non-standard or regional forms, providing street credibility, local identity, and group solidarity.
• Dialect Levelling: Researched by Paul Kerswill, this is the process where local regional dialect features gradually disappear and become more uniform over time across geographical areas.
B. Social Class & Education
• Deficit vs. Difference: A deficit view assumes non-standard working-class speech is inadequate or lacking. A difference view recognizes it as a fully formed, valid system with its own consistent grammatical rules.
• Basil Bernstein: Explored the difference between the restricted code (context-bound, implicit language often used within close-knit social groups) and the elaborated code (explicit, context-free language favored in formal education and institutional settings).
C. Gender Discourses
Public discussions often debate how men and women speak. The four major linguistic frameworks include:
• Deficit Model (e.g., Robin Lakoff): Suggests women's language historically reflected insecurity or subordinate status through features like hedges, tag questions, and polite forms.
• Dominance Model (e.g., Zimmerman and West): Suggests male speakers tend to dominate mixed-sex conversations (e.g., through interruptions), reflecting societal power imbalances.
• Difference Model (e.g., Deborah Tannen): Views male and female communication styles as reflecting different subcultural goals (e.g., status/independence vs. connection/intimacy) rather than conflict.
• Dynamic / Diversity Model (e.g., Deborah Cameron): Argues that gender is socially constructed and performed. Language choices depend far more on context, role, and audience than biological sex.
D. Occupational Language & Plain English
• Jargon: Specialized vocabulary used within a professional field. While it allows fast, precise communication among experts, it can exclude or confuse outsiders.
• Plain English Campaign: A public campaign advocating for clear, accessible, jargon-free communication in official and legal documents so that public information is open to everyone.
5. Directed Writing Conventions (Mastering AO5)
In Section B, you must produce a polished piece of writing (most commonly an opinion article). To achieve high marks in AO5, you need to use clear sub-editorial features and an engaging rhetorical style.
Essential Sub-Editorial Features
Always include these structural features at the very start of your piece:
1. Intended Target Audience: State clearly who your article is written for at the top (e.g., Target Audience: Educated readers of a national broadsheet newspaper).
2. Catchy Headline / Title: Create a punchy, creative title using alliteration, a pun, or an intriguing question (e.g., Mind Your Language: Why the Grammar Police Need to Stand Down).
3. Strapline / Deck / Subheading: Write a one-sentence summary underneath your headline that expands on your main hook and outlines your stance.
How to Explain Academic Ideas for a General Reader
One of the biggest traps is writing like an academic essay. You must "translate" linguistic terms so an everyday reader can enjoy and understand them.
• Weak (Too Academic / Unglossed): "Labov's covert prestige proves that non-standard phonemes possess socio-indexical value."
• Strong (Accessible Journalism): "Sociologists have long recognized the power of 'covert prestige'—the hidden street credibility that comes with speaking in your hometown's authentic dialect rather than putting on a posh voice."
Rhetorical Techniques to Use
• Engaging Anecdotes: Start with a short, relatable real-world example or scenario.
• Rhetorical Questions: Challenge your reader's assumptions (e.g., "Is dropping your 't's really bringing about the collapse of civilization?").
• Humor and Irony: Lightly poke fun at extreme prescriptivist outrage.
• Balanced Counter-Arguments: Acknowledge the opposing side's valid points (e.g., the need for Standard English in formal job interviews) before showing why diversity matters.
6. Common Pitfalls and Examiner Advice
Make sure you avoid these frequent mistakes highlighted in examiner reports:
• "Name-Dropping" Without Explanation: Mentioning names like Cameron, Bernstein, or Labov without explaining what their research actually means harms your AO5 journalistic style. Explain the concept clearly in plain English.
• Writing a Standard Section A Essay: Do not write: "In this essay I will analyze the representation of dialect...". Remember, you are writing an opinion piece or article, not a literary essay!
• Forgetting Sub-Editorial Features: Failing to provide a stated target audience, headline, and strapline instantly costs you easy marks in format and conventions.
• Empty Creative Writing: Don't get so carried away with jokes and stories that you forget your linguistic concepts (AO2). Every paragraph should have a solid linguistic point.
• Uncritical Prescriptivism: Don't simply agree with moral panics about "lazy texting" or "broken English." Step back and critically examine why people hold those prejudices.
• Poor Time Management: Ensure you give Section B its full recommended 50 minutes. Leave 3–5 minutes at the end to proofread for spelling, punctuation, and smooth paragraph transitions.
Quick Review Summary Checklist
• Time: ~50 minutes | Marks: 40 marks (20 for AO2, 20 for AO5).
• Core Debate: Prescriptivism (judging/fixing) vs. Descriptivism (observing/analyzing).
• Aitchison's Metaphors: Damp Spoon (laziness), Crumbling Castle (decay from past perfection), Infectious Disease (catching bad habits).
• Key Concepts: Overt/covert prestige (Labov, Trudgill), dialect levelling (Kerswill), elaborated/restricted codes (Bernstein), gender frameworks (deficit, dominance, difference, dynamic), and Plain English.
• Format Checklist: Target audience statement, engaging headline, explanatory strapline, structured paragraphs, persuasive tone, and accessible explanations of linguistic ideas.