Every distinction begins with one topic at a time.- start now
Section A hands you a written text (about 500 to 600 words at Grade 10) and a visual text such as a cartoon or an image. It is worth 30 of Paper 1’s 70 marks and includes one question that links the two texts. At Home Language level the passages are denser and the questions push harder into inference, evaluation and craft, but every answer is still traceable to the page in front of you. You are marked on how carefully you read, not on what you already knew. The same three skills (comprehension, summary and language structures) make up your Term 1 test, Test 1, which CAPS sets at 35 marks in 45 to 60 minutes; it may be set out of a larger total and converted to 35, so check your own paper.
| Level | What it asks | Signal verbs | Answer style |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 · Literal | Say what the text states openly. | name, state the facts or reasons, identify, list, describe, relate; quote | Short: a word, a phrase or a brief quotation. |
| 2 · Reorganisation | Gather facts from more than one place and organise them. | summarise, group, state the similarities or differences, give an outline of | Draw the points together, usually in your own words. |
| 3 · Inference | Work out what is hinted, not stated. | explain the cause or effect, what does ... reveal, what is the writer’s attitude, how does the image affect your understanding | Give the meaning, then anchor it to a clue in the words. |
| 4 · Evaluation | Judge value, credibility and reasoning. | do you agree, is the argument valid, comment critically, is the writer justified | Take a clear stance, then justify it with evidence. |
| 5 · Appreciation | Respond to the text’s impact and the writer’s use of language. | discuss your response, comment on the writer’s use of language, discuss the effectiveness of the style or imagery | Name the technique, say what it does to the reader, and why it works. |
| Quote | In your own words | |
|---|---|---|
| Triggered by | “Quote”, “Write down the words”, “Identify the words” | “In your own words”, “Explain”, “What is meant by” |
| What you write | The writer’s exact words, inside quotation marks. Quote only what is asked, usually a word or short phrase. | The same idea in different words, as a full, clear sentence, with no quotation marks. |
| What the marker checks | That you found the right evidence and copied it exactly. | That you understood the idea, not merely found it. |
| Phase | What you do | Why it pays |
|---|---|---|
| Before reading | Skim and scan the title, headings, captions, layout and graphics; predict what the text is about; note the key words. | You walk into the passage knowing its topic and shape. |
| While reading | Use context clues for hard words; jot down the main and supporting ideas. | Each paragraph has a job, and you can find it again. |
| After reading | Answer the questions from low to high order, compare and contrast, and give your own opinion where asked. | The marks are in the questions, so return to the text for evidence. |
| Marks | What to give |
|---|---|
| (1) | One fact, one word, or one short quotation. |
| (2) | Two separate facts, or one point plus a supporting reason. |
| (3) | Three separate points, usually a level 3 or 4 answer. |
| (2 x 2) | Two points, each with its own explanation: a point plus its reason, twice. |
| Level | How to answer |
|---|---|
| Inference (3) | The meaning is hinted, not stated. Give it in your own words, then point back to the clue that proves it. For “true or false, give a reason”, the reason earns the mark, not the label. |
| Evaluation (4) | There is no single “correct” opinion: the mark rewards how well you support yours. State a clear stance, then justify it from the text in your own words. |
| Appreciation (5) | Name the technique or word, then say what it does to the reader and why it works better than a plainer choice. |
Invented for practice: a columnist writes that a school that had “never once won a single debate” changed after one determined teacher arrived, until “the pupils who used to stare at their shoes now argued the room into silence.”
Each answer matches its level and mark value: quote exactly for the literal mark, reword for the inference marks, and name the effect on the reader for the appreciation marks.
| What to do | |
|---|---|
| Reading Text B | Text B is usually a cartoon or an image. Read the caption, headings, font types and sizes and the layout, as well as the picture. Name the visual clue (a facial expression, a posture, a word in capitals) and then explain what it shows. |
| The linked question | One question asks about Text A and Text B together: use evidence from both and show how they connect. In the one Grade 10 test we have seen it was worth 3 marks; check the mark value on your own paper. |
| Critical language awareness | Separate fact from opinion, and spot bias, stereotypes and emotive or manipulative wording. |
Text A (invented): “Today’s learners give their best hours to the screen and their leftovers to the books.” Text B: the cartoon above.
Question: How does Text B support the view in Text A? (3)
One mark for evidence from each text and one for the link between them. An answer that describes only one text cannot earn the third mark.
The answer is already on the page. Comprehension asks only that you read slowly enough to see it.read twice, answer once
Invented extract: “We planted spinach and carrots in the first term, and beans in the second.”
Which cognitive level is the question “State what the pupils planted in the first term”, and why?
Invented extract: “Three things make Anele late: the taxi fare, the long walk from the rank and the slow morning queue.”
Which cognitive level is the question “State the reasons why Anele is often late”, and why?
Invented extract: “Mall A has free parking and forty shops but closes at six. Mall B charges for parking, has sixty shops and stays open until ten.”
Which cognitive level is the question “State the differences between the two malls”, and why?
Invented extract: “Zodwa lit the stove at five. By seven she had walked the little ones to school. At noon she sold vegetables at the corner, and at dusk she cleaned the church hall.”
Which cognitive level is the question “Give an outline of Zodwa’s day”, and why?
Invented extract: “When Coach read out the team, my name came last. I laughed loudly, so that no one would hear my voice shake.”
Which cognitive level is the question “What does the narrator’s laugh reveal about him?”, and why?
Invented extract: “The old bus rattled and wheezed along the gravel road.”
Question: Quote ONE word that shows the bus made a noise. (1) Which answer earns the mark?
Invented extract: “The committee deliberated for hours before reaching a unanimous verdict.”
Question: In your own words, what does the writer mean by ‘deliberated for hours’? (2) Which answer earns the marks?
Invented extract: “By nine the street was deserted: not a car, not a cat, not a shadow.”
Question: Quote the words that show the street was empty. (1) Which answer earns the mark?
Invented extract: “My brother stood on the podium, holding the cup I had polished for three weeks, and everybody clapped for him. Nobody looked at me, though my arms were still sore.”
Question: True or false: the narrator feels proud of his brother. Give a reason from the extract. (2) Which answer earns the marks?
Invented extract: “The pupils stared at their shoes, as if the floor might offer them a better answer.”
Question: In your own words, what does the writer suggest about the pupils? (2) A learner writes, in quotation marks, the whole sentence above. What is the marker’s comment?
Invented extract: “Zinzi gave up netball for three reasons: practices clashed with her tutoring, her knee was weak and her team had lost heart.”
Question: State TWO reasons why Zinzi gave up netball. (2) Which answer is sized correctly for the marks?
Invented extract: “The Mapungubwe Arts Festival begins on a Friday and ends on Sunday night.”
Question: On which day does the festival begin? (1) Which answer is sized correctly for the marks?
Invented extract: “Once the market sold only maize and cloth; now it sells phone covers too. Once there was a dusty track; now there is a paved road and a bus stop.”
Question: Explain TWO ways in which the market has changed. (2 x 2) Which answer is built correctly?
Invented extract: “The sound cut out twice, the singer arrived an hour late and the tickets cost double what we had been promised.”
Question: Why was the writer disappointed with the concert? (3) Which answer matches the mark value?
Invented extract: “Since the rains failed, the dam has shrunk to a muddy puddle, the cattle have been sold and Mr Nkosi has taken a night job in town.”
Question: In your own words, explain how the drought has affected the farm. (3) Which answer earns full marks?
Invented extract: “Mbali missed the exam when her taxi broke down. Later, the principal refused to let her write a replacement paper.”
Question: Summarise the TWO things that went wrong for Mbali. (2) Which answer combines both facts?
Invented extract: “Thabo’s interview was at ten. At nine fifty he checked the clock for the fifth time, wiped his palms on his trousers and rehearsed his name under his breath.”
Question: What does this suggest about Thabo? (2) Which answer is best?
Invented extract: “Mrs Dlamini turned the sign to CLOSED at noon, folded her apron over the empty crates and, for the first time that season, whistled all the way home.”
Question: What does this suggest about her morning? (2) Which answer is best?
Invented extract: “Every morning Sipho took the long way round, past the dump, to avoid the corner where the older boys stood.”
Question: What does this reveal about Sipho? (2) Which answer is best?
Invented extract: “Gogo put the photograph back in the drawer, gently, the way you put away something you are not ready to lose, and closed it with both hands.”
Question: What does this suggest about Gogo’s feelings? (2) Which answer is best?
Invented extract: “Our town council has once again announced a plan to fix the potholes. We have heard this before. We will hear it again.”
Question: What is the writer’s attitude to the council? (2) Which answer names the tone and the words that create it?
Invented extract: “Ah yes, our brilliant municipality has, in a stroke of genius, scheduled the road repairs for the one week the road is flooded.”
Question: Describe the writer’s tone. (2) Which answer is best?
Invented extract: “The old tree did not fall; it surrendered to the storm, one slow branch at a time.”
Question: Comment on the effectiveness of the word ‘surrendered’. (2) Which answer is best?
Invented extract: “The classroom was an oven, and our thoughts were bread that would not rise.”
Question: Comment on the effectiveness of the image ‘our thoughts were bread that would not rise’. (2) Which answer is best?
Invented extract: “She waited. And waited. Nothing.”
Question: Comment on the effectiveness of the short sentences. (2) Which answer is best?
Invented poster: the word FREE is printed in huge red capitals; below it, in tiny grey letters, are the words “with every R50 spent”.
Question: What is the effect of the different font sizes? (2) Which answer is best?
Text A (invented): “Our taps run dry for hours, yet the municipality calls it ‘a minor inconvenience’.”
Text B (invented cartoon): a man with an empty bucket stands at a tap under a sign reading MINOR INCONVENIENCE, and a long queue of people with buckets winds away behind him.
Question: How does Text B support Text A? (3) Which answer uses both texts?
Invented extract: “Those lazy teenagers ruin every bus ride with their noise.”
Question: Which feature of the writer’s language shows bias? (2) Which answer is best?
Invented extract: “Every learner who owns a phone fails maths. My nephew owns a phone and failed maths. So phones cause failure.”
Question: Is the writer’s argument valid? Give a reason. (2) Which answer is best?
Invented cartoon: at a science fair, every girl holds a lipstick where the boys hold a test tube.
Question: Is the cartoon fair to girls? Give a reason. (2) Which answer is best?
Invented extract: “At half past five Mama was already at the stall, counting yesterday’s coins twice, as though the second count might be kinder than the first.”
In your own words, what does this suggest about Mama’s situation? (3)
Money is tight: the family has very little and every coin counts. Counting twice shows she is worried and hopes the second total will be higher. Being at the stall so early shows she works hard and is determined to keep going.
Invented extract: “Our school banned phones in January. By June, the marks were up. Obviously, the ban worked.”
Do you agree with the writer’s conclusion? Substantiate your answer. (4)
I do not agree with the writer. The marks were up by June, but that only shows what happened after the ban. Something else could have raised the marks, so the ban is not proof. The school should compare its marks with a school that kept phones, or with the same learners before the ban.
Invented extract: “The taxi rank woke before the sun: engines coughing, hooters arguing, a hundred voices bargaining with the dark.”
Comment on the effectiveness of the image “hooters arguing”. (3)
It is personification: the hooters are given a human action, arguing. It makes the hooters sound angry and quarrelsome, as if they are fighting each other. The reader can hear the noise and picture a busy, crowded rank full of energy.
Explain to a Grade 8 learner how the mark in brackets, like (1), (2) or (3), tells you how much to write.
Explain to a Grade 8 learner how to tell a “quote” question from an “in your own words” question, and how to answer each.
Explain to a Grade 8 learner the difference between a tone question and a question that asks you to comment on the effectiveness of a word or image.
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Look at the worked example below first, then make your own. Tick off each topic as you finish it.
Example (already filled in)
| Date | Subject | Topic | Done |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mon 8 Jul | English Home Language | Your weakest topic, notes + summary | ✓ |
| Tue 9 Jul | English Home Language | Next topic + 10 practice questions | ✓ |
| Wed 10 Jul | English Home Language | A full past paper under time | – |
| Thu 11 Jul | English Home Language | Mark the paper, revise weak spots | – |
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| Date | Subject | Topic | Done |
|---|---|---|---|
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A winner is a loser who tried one more time.- keep going, all the way to the exam