Six lessons for the paper about how English varies — from person to person and from century to century — and how to write the two comparative essays that prove you can read the variation.
The exam's shape, the four mark strands, and the habit that protects a quarter of every mark: both texts in every paragraph, joined by hinges.
Idiolect, sociolect, dialect, accent, register, mode, accommodation — plus the concept that wins essays: covert prestige, the status of staying loyal to your roots.
How personality gets onto a silent page: graphology, register collisions, minor sentences, allusions as demographic data — and the two-step from feature to person.
Transcripts read fluently: spontaneity features, accent in /slashes/, dialect as identity — and the three questions that turn any interview into analysable performance.
An 18th-century advice text beside a modern talk: informalisation, sentence slimming, the authority migration — and the continuities weaker answers always miss.
Annotating a pair, planning by angle, the five-part comparative paragraph, weak-versus-strong answers, and a timed flight on fresh texts with a full feature key.
The same exam's other written paper: one 45-mark essay on a child's language development. Six lessons — transcripts, the five theories, and the full essay method.