GCSE English Language Paper 2 Question 5: Article Examples & How to Answer

AQA GCSE English Language (8700) Paper 2, Question 5 is the paper's single writing task: 40 of Paper 2's 80 marks, split 24 for content and organisation (AO5) and 16 for technical accuracy (AO6), asking you to write to a specified audience, purpose and form — often, though not always, an article. This guide covers exactly how it is marked, works through a full model article answer, and lists what examiners consistently penalise.

This is AQA's GCSE English Language specification, not Cambridge's IGCSE First Language English — if your school enters you for a different specification or board, the marks and structure below will not match yours. Everything here is checked directly against AQA's own 8700 specification document and scheme-of-assessment page in this session (see sources).

Where Question 5 sits in Paper 2

Paper 2, "Writers' Viewpoints and Perspectives", is a 1 hour 45 minute, 80-mark written exam worth 50% of the GCSE. It has two sections: Section A (Reading, 40 marks) asks four questions about two linked non-fiction source texts from different time periods; Section B (Writing, 40 marks) is Question 5 alone — a single extended writing task. AQA's specification states the paper assesses, in sequence, AO1, AO2 and AO3 for the reading section, and AO5 and AO6 for the writing section — giving reading and writing an equal 50/50 weighting within the paper.

Section A's four questions build in length and demand — a short 4-mark question, two mid-length questions, and a 16-mark extended comparison question — but none of that affects Question 5 directly beyond sharing the same source material's theme. Question 5's own task is unrelated in form: it asks for original writing on the theme introduced in Section A, not further analysis of the source texts themselves.

How Question 5 is marked: AO5 and AO6

AQA's specification states that Section B "will specify audience, purpose and form, and will use a range of opinions, statements and writing scenarios to provoke a response" — meaning the exact task changes every series, but the underlying skill being tested (write persuasively, to a stated audience, in a stated form) does not. AQA's own paper does not print an official time allocation for Question 5, but many teachers and revision guides recommend roughly 45 minutes on it — proportional to its 40 marks out of the paper's 80 — which is sensible timing practice rather than a board rule.

What the task actually specifies

Because the form is set by the task line each series, article is one option among several — letter and speech are common alternatives — not a guaranteed format. That is exactly why reading the task line carefully, before planning, matters more here than in a question where the format never changes: writing a well-structured letter in response to a task that specifically asked for an article does not earn AO5 marks for organisation and form, however well argued the content is.

A full model answer, marked against AO5 and AO6

"'Social media does more harm than good for teenagers.' Write an article for a national newspaper in which you explain your point of view on this statement." (An original task written for this article, in the discursive/persuasive style AQA's Section B sets — not a reproduction of any AQA specimen or past-paper task.)

THE APP DIDN'T RUIN MY GENERATION. IT JUST SHOWED EVERYONE WATCHING

Every generation gets blamed for the thing it grew up holding. Ours happens to be a rectangle of glass. Before that, it was television; before that, comic books; before that, the novel itself was accused of rotting young minds. So when a headline declares that social media is destroying teenagers, I read it the way I read every one of its predecessors — with one eyebrow raised.

That is not to say the concern is invented. Anyone who has watched a group of friends sit in silence, four phones glowing, knows something has changed about how we spend time together. Anxiety, comparison, the exhausting performance of a curated life — these are real costs, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest. But a cost is not the same as a verdict. Social media did not invent teenage insecurity; it gave it a faster, more visible stage.

What the "does more harm than good" argument consistently leaves out is everything the same platforms make possible. A teenager in a small town finds a community of people who share their exact, specific interest — something no school corridor could ever offer. A young person questioning who they are finds language for it, sometimes for the first time, from strangers who have already lived through it. None of that shows up in a headline about screen time, because it does not fit the story being told.

So instead of another ban, another moral panic, another lecture about "when I was your age" — how about this: teach media literacy the way we teach fire safety, as a genuine, compulsory skill, not an afterthought bolted onto a PSHE lesson nobody remembers. Trust teenagers with the tool, and teach them to use it well, rather than simply taking it away and hoping the problem disappears with it.

The phone was never the villain. What we do with it always was.

Why this scores well against AO5 and AO6: the headline takes a clear, argued position rather than restating the topic, and the opening paragraph uses a historical comparison (television, comic books, the novel) to hook the reader before the argument itself begins — both reward organisation and imaginative communication. Paragraph two concedes the opposing view honestly before paragraph three pivots to counter it, which is exactly the kind of developed, two-sided argument AO5 rewards over a one-note rant. The register stays consistent with "a national newspaper" throughout — measured, confident, fewer contractions than a school-magazine piece would use — and the final one-line paragraph mirrors the headline's structure, a deliberate structural echo. Sentence variety (short declaratives against longer, subordinated ones), accurate punctuation including a colon and paired em dashes, and a controlled range of vocabulary demonstrate AO6 without the piece reading as artificially dense.

Common mistakes that cost marks on Question 5

• Writing the wrong form for the task — a well-organised letter when the task specifically asked for an article does not earn AO5's form and organisation marks.
• Losing track of time and rushing the final paragraph, where accuracy (AO6) is most likely to slip under pressure.
• A one-sided argument that never acknowledges an opposing view — a developed, two-sided piece consistently scores higher on AO5 than an unbroken rant.
• Drifting from the specified audience or purpose partway through — starting in the register of a national broadsheet and ending in the tone of a casual blog post.
• Reaching for unnecessarily elaborate vocabulary that reads unnatural rather than genuinely "ambitious" — AO6 rewards accurate, purposeful vocabulary, not the longest available word.
• Using only one sentence length or structure throughout — a real range (short for impact, longer and subordinated for development) is what AO6's "range of sentence structures" specifically credits.

A pre-submission checklist for Question 5

• Does the answer use the exact form (article, letter, speech or otherwise) the task specified?
• Is the register matched consistently to the stated audience and purpose, start to finish?
• Does the argument acknowledge and respond to an opposing view, rather than arguing one side only?
• Is there a genuine range of sentence lengths and structures, not one repeated pattern?
• Have the last two minutes been left to check spelling, punctuation and grammar rather than writing right up to time?

TutorWick provides live one-to-one online tutoring for AQA GCSE students across Maths, English, the sciences and humanities, with personalised study plans and past-paper practice — including timed Question 5 answers marked against AO5 and AO6 specifically, rather than a general "does it sound good" reaction.

Do I have to write an article for Question 5?

No. The task specifies the form each series — article, letter and speech are all common — so the first step is reading the task line, not assuming article by default.

Is Question 5 the same on every exam series?

The marking structure stays the same — 40 marks, AO5 and AO6, roughly 24/16 — but the specified audience, purpose, form and topic change each series. Read the task line carefully every time rather than assuming it repeats a previous series.