An Inspector Calls essay question — Edexcel GCSE English Literature 1ET0
Edexcel GCSE English Literature · 1ET0
An Inspector Calls essay question
What you need to know
How the post-1914 question works: one essay from a choice of two on the whole text, each headed by a short quotation, worth 40 marks: 16 for AO1, 16 for AO3 and 8 for spelling, punctuation, vocabulary and sentence structure (AO4).
How to plan and write the essay, using An Inspector Calls as the worked example, with a model answer and commentary.
A question set out as Pearson Edexcel sets it, with its task wording and marks; the short exchange printed above it is described in your own words, quoting only a few of its words.
Paper 1 Section B: closed book, about 50 minutes of the 1 hour 45 minute paper.
What earns the marks: knowledge of the whole text and a personal, critical argument (AO1), and context, including Priestley's purpose, woven into every point (AO3); language analysis (AO2) earns no marks in this essay, so methods are discussed only as they reveal meaning and purpose.
Spelling, punctuation, vocabulary and sentence structure: the 8 marks this essay carries, and spelling the characters' and the writer's names correctly.
A model answer of about 700 words, with the level and mark an examiner would give and why, and a Grade 5 and a Grade 8 paragraph side by side.
The summer 2025 questions: on the treatment of the working class and on secrets, and the ideas the mark scheme and examiners' report reward.
How to use the time and avoid the commonest mistakes: retelling the plot, bolting context on at the end, and analysing language that earns no marks.
Quoting in a closed-book essay: short, precise quotations of a few words, woven into sentences, rather than long passages.
