Notes · English LanguageUK · A-Levels

Textual variations and representations

This topic applies the language levels to a wide range of spoken, written and multimodal texts, asking how each is shaped by mode, audience, purpose, genre and register, and how its language choices construct particular representations of people, groups, places and ideas. It is the basis of AQA Paper 1 Section A, where two contrasting texts are analysed and compared, and it is where contextual analysis (AO3) and the exploration of connections (AO4) are chiefly assessed.

5 sections~21 min reading time3 competenciesLevel Foundation 1 · Standard 2 · Advanced 2

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Exam profile

AO1 · Apply the language levels and terminology systematically to spoken, written and multimodal textsAO3 · Analyse and evaluate how mode, audience, purpose, genre and register shape meaning and representationAO4 · Explore connections across texts, comparing how each constructs meaning

Operators:analysecompareexplore howexplain howevaluate how

basic level

AS-Level expects secure identification of mode, audience, purpose and genre and their effect on a single text's language.

higher level

The full A-Level requires integrated analysis of how contextual factors construct representation, and confident comparison of two contrasting texts (AO4).

Depth

Text

Contents · 5 sections

Textual variations and representations

Mode: the spoken-written continuum#

FoundationAQA 7702/1 Section A textual variationsDfE GCE English Language subject content

Spoken vs written mode

Fig. 1Mode is a continuum: prototypical speech and writing differ in typical features, but blended and multimodal texts share features of both.

Mode refers to the channel of communication - broadly whether a text is spoken or written - but the crucial insight is that mode is not a simple binary. It is better understood as a continuum, with prototypical spontaneous speech (a chat between friends) at one end and prototypical formal writing (an academic article) at the other, and a great many texts falling in between. A scripted speech is written to be spoken; a lecture is spoken but planned; a text message is written but speech-like. Placing a text on the continuum, rather than merely labelling it 'spoken' or 'written', is the analytically mature move.

Prototypical spoken language, being typically spontaneous, interactive and time-bound, tends to show non-fluency features (fillers such as 'er' and 'um', false starts, repairs, repetition), simpler and looser grammar with coordination rather than subordination, incomplete or non-standard constructions, deixis relying on the shared physical context ('over there', 'this one'), vague language and phatic talk, and the whole apparatus of interaction - turn-taking, adjacency pairs, feedback. Because it is co-constructed in real time, speech can leave much implicit that writing must spell out.

Prototypical written language, being typically planned, permanent and non-interactive, tends towards standard forms, more complex and complete sentence structures with subordination, greater lexical density and precision, and graphological organisation (paragraphs, headings, punctuation) that has no spoken equivalent. Writing must be more explicit because the reader is usually absent and cannot ask for clarification. These are tendencies, not laws: a poem may be fragmentary, a transcript of a formal address may be highly structured. The analyst's job is to notice which features a given text actually shows and why.

Many contemporary texts are multimodal or blended, combining written words with images, sound and layout, or mixing speech-like and writing-like features - the domain David Crystal analysed as 'Netspeak'. Digitally mediated communication (texts, social-media posts, instant messages) is written but often has the spontaneity, informality, deixis and interactivity of speech, plus new resources such as emojis, non-standard spelling and abbreviation. Analysing blended mode means identifying which features come from which end of the continuum and explaining how the mixture suits the text's purpose and audience - for example, how a brand's social-media post borrows the intimacy of speech to build rapport with followers.

Worked example

Placing a text on the mode continuum

A voice-note transcript reads: 'yeah so um I was gonna say - the thing is right - just bring the blue one okay'. Where does it sit on the continuum, and why?

Spot the spoken-like features
Fillers ('um'), discourse markers ('so', 'right', 'okay'), contraction ('gonna'), a false start/self-interruption, and deixis ('the blue one') relying on shared context.
Spot any written-like features
Almost none: no subordination, no standard punctuation logic, no graphological organisation - the text is near the spoken end.
Explain the placement
It is spontaneous, interactive and time-bound, so it sits close to prototypical speech despite being 'written' as a transcript; the deixis works only because sender and receiver share a context.
Link to purpose
The informality and reliance on shared knowledge suit a quick, intimate instruction between people who know each other well.

Result: The transcript sits near the spoken end of the continuum: its non-fluency, discourse markers, contraction and context-dependent deixis are all hallmarks of spontaneous interactive speech, appropriate to a casual instruction between intimates.

Typical mistakes

Treating mode as a rigid binary and missing the point that most texts blend spoken and written features.
Listing spoken-language features generically ('there are fillers') without analysing what they show about the specific interaction or how they affect meaning.

Active revision

Analyse how a social-media post from a company blends spoken-like and written-like features, and explain how the blended mode serves its purpose of engaging an online audience.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: GCE AS and A level subject content for English language (Department for Education)

Context, audience, purpose and genre#

StandardAQA 7702/1 Section A textual variationsDfE GCE English Language subject content

The situational variables

Fig. 2The situational variables that shape a text's language; analysing how each is realised in the language is the substance of AO3.

Every text is shaped by its context of production and reception, and four situational variables are the standard starting point: audience, purpose, genre and mode. The audience is who the text is for; the purpose is what it is trying to do; the genre is the recognised type of text it belongs to; and mode is the channel. These are not independent - a purpose is pursued through a genre for an audience in a mode - but separating them analytically lets you explain precisely why the language is as it is. The mnemonic GAP (Genre, Audience, Purpose), sometimes extended to GAPS or GAMP, is a useful prompt provided it becomes a springboard for analysis rather than a set of boxes to tick.

Audience analysis goes beyond naming a target group. Texts construct an implied or ideal reader through their assumptions, address and register: a text that uses second-person 'you', in-group slang and assumed shared knowledge positions its reader as a familiar insider, while one that defines its terms and stays formal assumes a distant, general or specialist reader. Audiences can be primary or secondary, addressed or overhearing, narrow or mass. The analytical questions are how the text signals who it is for, and how it positions that reader - as a friend, a customer, a subordinate, an expert.

Purpose is rarely single. The traditional purposes - to inform, to instruct, to persuade, to entertain, to advise, to describe, to express - frequently combine, and much of the interest lies in the mixture: an advert entertains in order to persuade; a charity appeal informs in order to move to action. Genre supplies conventions - the expected structures, features and register of a recipe, a news report, a blog, a political speech - which producers exploit, adapt or deliberately subvert. Recognising the genre lets you notice when a text conforms to expectations (reassuring the reader) and when it breaks them (surprising or challenging the reader).

The relationship between these variables and the language is the substance of AO3. A children's information leaflet, a legal contract and a lifestyle blog on the same topic will differ at every level - lexis, sentence structure, graphology, pragmatics - because their audiences, purposes and genres differ. The skilled analyst does not simply assert 'this is aimed at teenagers' but shows how the informal lexis, the direct address, the short sentences and the emoji-laden graphology jointly construct and address that audience for a particular purpose. Context is the through-line of the whole subject: the same feature means different things in different contexts, which is why contextual analysis, not feature-labelling, is what earns credit.

Worked example

Analysing audience positioning

A trainer brand's advert reads: 'You train harder. We build harder. Meet your new PB machine.' Analyse how it constructs and positions its audience.

Identify the address
Direct second-person 'You' and the possessive 'your' address the reader individually; the parallel 'You... We...' builds a partnership between brand and buyer.
Read the assumed knowledge
'PB' (personal best) is in-group fitness jargon; using it unglossed positions the reader as a committed, knowledgeable athlete who belongs to the community.
Link to purpose
The flattering construction of the reader as a serious trainer serves the persuasive purpose: the product is framed as the natural partner for someone with that identity.
State the contextual meaning
The advert does not describe the trainers; it sells an identity, addressing an idealised audience of dedicated athletes and inviting the reader to see themselves as one.

Result: Through individual address and unglossed in-group jargon the advert constructs an idealised audience of committed athletes and flatters the reader into that identity - an audience-positioning strategy serving the persuasive purpose.

Typical mistakes

Treating GAP as a labelling exercise - stating audience, purpose and genre in the introduction and then never returning to them in the analysis.
Naming a single purpose when texts usually combine purposes, and missing how one purpose serves another.

Active revision

Compare how two texts on the same topic but for different audiences (for example a children's leaflet and an adult article) use language to address their readers and achieve their purposes.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA AS and A-level English Language (7702) specification (AQA)

Register: field, tenor and mode#

StandardAQA 7702/1 Section A textual variationsDfE GCE English Language subject content

Halliday's register variables

Fig. 3Halliday's three register variables - field, tenor and mode - jointly determine the language variety appropriate to a situation.

Register is the variety of language appropriate to a particular situation, and M. A. K. Halliday analysed it into three dimensions that together capture the situation of a text. Field is what the text is about - its subject matter and the specialist lexis and semantic fields that go with it. Tenor is the relationship between the participants - their relative status, social distance and degree of formality. Mode is the channel and the part language plays (spoken or written, spontaneous or planned). Analysing register through field, tenor and mode is more precise than the vague labels 'formal' and 'informal', because it separates out the different situational pressures on a text's language.

Field is realised chiefly in lexis: a legal text draws on legal jargon and Latinate terminology, a football commentary on the semantic field of the game, a recipe on culinary and quantitative lexis. Identifying the field explains not just the vocabulary but the assumed knowledge - a text dense with unglossed specialist terms assumes an expert reader, whereas one that defines its terms addresses a lay audience. Field also shapes grammar: procedural texts favour imperatives, reports favour the past tense and passive, and so on.

Tenor is realised across several levels and is where formality is analysed. Markers of a formal, distant tenor include Latinate and polysyllabic lexis, standard grammar, full forms rather than contractions, impersonal constructions (passive voice, third person, nominalisation) and negative politeness (indirectness, hedging). Markers of an informal, close tenor include colloquialism, slang and contractions, direct address and first/second person, simpler grammar, and positive politeness (in-group markers, humour). Tenor is not fixed by topic: a specialist can write about a technical field in an informal tenor for a general audience, which is exactly the kind of adjustment analysed in representation and directed-writing questions.

The three variables interact, and a text's register is the net result. A well-judged text matches its field, tenor and mode to its situation; the interest often lies in a mismatch or a deliberate shift - a serious topic treated in a jokey tenor for effect, or a register shift within a text that signals a change of relationship or stance (upshifting into formality to assert authority, downshifting into colloquialism to build solidarity). Register analysis feeds directly into the context topics: occupation is largely a matter of field and tenor, power is realised through tenor, and directed writing is essentially the deliberate construction of an appropriate register for a brief.

Worked example

Analysing a register shift

A university tutor emails a student: 'Dear Sam, Please find attached the feedback. Honestly it's a strong draft - just tighten the intro! Best, Dr Lee'. Analyse the register.

Field
Academic feedback: 'feedback', 'draft', 'intro' locate the text in an educational field with light specialist lexis.
Tenor - the formal frame
The salutation 'Dear', the imperative softened by 'Please', the sign-off 'Best' and the title 'Dr Lee' construct a professional, slightly hierarchical tenor.
Tenor - the informal shift
'Honestly', the contraction "it's", the positive evaluation 'strong', the exclamative 'tighten the intro!' and the clipped 'intro' downshift into warmth and encouragement.
Explain the effect
The shift from formal frame to informal core lets the tutor combine institutional authority with supportive rapport - asserting expertise while softening criticism to protect the student's positive face.

Result: The email's register moves from a formal professional frame into an informal, encouraging core; the deliberate tenor shift lets the tutor exercise authority and build rapport at once, mitigating the face-threat of criticism.

Typical mistakes

Calling a text 'formal' or 'informal' without specifying the features that make it so or which dimension (field, tenor, mode) is involved.
Assuming a technical field forces a formal tenor - the two are independent, and adjusting tenor while keeping the field is a key skill.

Active revision

Analyse the register of a workplace email, using field, tenor and mode to explain how it manages the relationship between sender and recipient.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: GCE AS and A level subject content for English language (Department for Education)

Representation: constructing people and ideas in language#

AdvancedAQA 7702/1 Section A textual variationsDfE GCE English Language subject content

How language constructs a representation

Fig. 4Representation is built: naming, modification, transitivity and modality construct a version of reality that positions the reader to judge in a particular way.

Representation is the way language constructs a version of reality rather than simply reflecting it. No text is a neutral window: every choice of word and structure builds a particular picture of the people, groups, places, events and ideas it describes, and could always have been made differently. The analytical task is to reconstruct the choices - to ask what representation this text builds, through what linguistic means, and in whose interest. Representation is the point at which the language levels become politically and socially consequential, and it is a major strand of AO3.

Naming and labelling are among the most powerful representational tools. What you call something frames how it is understood: 'asylum seekers', 'migrants', 'refugees' and 'illegals' denote overlapping groups but carry sharply different connotations and evaluations. Related lexical choices include modification (the adjectives and nouns that pre- and post-modify a head noun build up a characterisation), lexical connotation (choosing 'slim' over 'skinny'), and the semantic field a text draws on (describing protest with the lexis of warfare or of celebration). Each choice loads the representation before any explicit argument is made.

Grammar represents as powerfully as lexis. Transitivity - the analysis of who is depicted as doing what to whom - reveals agency: making a group the actor in material processes ('the gang attacked') represents them very differently from making them the affected participant or deleting them. Voice matters here too: the agentless passive ('mistakes were made') hides responsibility. Point of view and modality position the reader - first-person narration invites identification, high-modality assertions ('this will devastate communities') present opinion as certainty, and pronoun choice ('we' versus 'they') constructs in-groups and out-groups. These grammatical resources let a text guide the reader's judgement while appearing merely to report.

Because representation is built rather than found, comparison is especially revealing: two texts about the same event, group or idea will represent it differently, and setting their choices side by side exposes the constructedness of each. This is why AQA pairs contrasting texts. Evaluating representation also connects to the discourses, diversity and power topics - representations of gender, region, class and ethnicity carry social attitudes, and analysing them shows how language both reflects and reinforces the way groups are seen. The mature analysis therefore never treats a representation as the truth about its subject, but as one constructed version whose linguistic machinery can be laid bare.

Worked example

Analysing representation through transitivity and naming

Two reports of the same event: (A) 'Police clashed with protesters' and (B) 'Officers charged the crowd'. Analyse the difference in representation.

Compare the naming
'protesters' names a purposeful political group, while 'the crowd' names an undifferentiated mass; 'Police' is institutional and neutral, 'Officers' individualises the actors.
Analyse transitivity
In A the reciprocal verb 'clashed' shares agency between two parties, representing mutual conflict; in B the material verb 'charged' makes the officers sole agents acting upon 'the crowd', who are the affected participant.
State the representations
A represents a two-sided confrontation with responsibility shared; B represents a one-sided action by the police against a passive crowd, foregrounding police agency.
Explain the reader effect
The transitivity and naming choices position the reader to apportion responsibility differently - A invites a 'both sides' reading, B invites sympathy with the crowd and scrutiny of the police.

Result: The shared reciprocal 'clashed' distributes agency and blame, while the material 'charged' with a passive 'crowd' concentrates agency on the police - so identical events are represented as, and judged as, very different through transitivity and naming.

Typical mistakes

Asserting that a text is 'biased' or 'negative' without analysing the specific linguistic choices that construct the representation.
Treating representation as the neutral content of a text rather than as a constructed version that could have been made otherwise.

Active revision

Analyse how a newspaper report represents a particular group or individual, focusing on naming, modification and transitivity, and explain how these choices position the reader to judge them.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA AS and A-level English Language (7702) specification (AQA)

Comparing texts and writing to a brief#

AdvancedAQA 7702/1 Section A textual variationsDfE GCE English Language subject content

Integrated comparison structure

Fig. 5Strong comparison is organised by points of comparison, cross-referencing both texts under each, not analysed text by text.

AQA Paper 1 Section A pairs two thematically linked but contrasting texts and requires both close analysis of each and an exploration of the connections between them (AO4). Effective comparison is INTEGRATED, not sequential: rather than analysing Text A fully and then Text B, the strongest answers organise by point of comparison - mode, then representation, then register - and move between the texts, so that each observation about one illuminates the other. The comparison should be genuinely analytical, identifying not just similarities and differences but the reasons for them in the texts' differing contexts.

Fruitful bases for comparison come straight from the topic: how the two texts differ in mode and its features; how each addresses and constructs its audience; how their purposes and genres shape them; how their registers differ in field, tenor and mode; and, above all, how each represents the shared subject through naming, modification, transitivity and modality. The best comparisons find a real analytical thread - for instance that both texts persuade but one through intimacy and the other through authority - and pursue it with precise, cross-referenced textual evidence.

Directed writing tasks ask the student to produce a text of their own on a language topic for a specified audience and purpose, which tests AO2 (understanding of language issues) and AO5 (expertise and creativity in writing). Success depends on constructing an appropriate register for the brief - matching field, tenor and mode to the specified audience and genre - and on deploying knowledge of language accurately and accessibly for a non-specialist reader. The task is not an essay: it demands genre awareness (an opinion piece, a script, an article), a clear sense of audience, and controlled, purposeful crafting.

The two skills reinforce each other. Analysing how expert texts construct audience, purpose and representation gives the student a repertoire to draw on when writing their own directed pieces; and writing to a brief deepens the understanding of the choices that analysis uncovers. Both are governed by the same principle that runs through the topic: language is chosen for a context, and the relationship between the two is the object of study. Whether analysing or producing, the student is always reasoning about how contextual factors and linguistic choices combine to make meaning.

Worked example

Planning a directed-writing task

Plan a directed-writing piece: an opinion article for a general online audience arguing that text-messaging does not harm young people's literacy (approximately 350 words).

Fix the register from the brief
Genre = opinion article; audience = general online readers (non-specialist); tenor = engaging but informed; mode = written to be read on screen. Aim for accessible register with light metalanguage explained.
Marshal the language knowledge (AO2)
Draw on real understanding: texting is a blended mode with creative orthography; Crystal's argument that abbreviation requires knowledge of full forms; the descriptivist point that change is not decline.
Craft for the audience (AO5)
Open with a hook (a myth to bust), use rhetorical questions and a clear line of argument, gloss any terms ('this blend of speech and writing - what linguists call a new mode'), and keep sentences readable.
Structure and close
Structure: myth -> evidence -> reframe as change not decline -> call to relax. End memorably, reinforcing the descriptivist stance without jargon.

Result: A successful plan fixes an accessible opinion-article register from the brief, deploys accurate language knowledge (blended mode, Crystal, descriptivism) and crafts it for a general audience with hooks, glossed terms and a clear argumentative arc - satisfying AO2 and AO5 together.

Typical mistakes

Writing two separate analyses side by side and calling it a comparison - true comparison cross-references throughout and explains the reasons for differences.
In directed writing, ignoring the specified audience and genre and producing a generic essay, or being inaccurate about the language concepts being communicated.

Active revision

Compare how two contrasting texts on the same topic use language to represent it differently, organising your response by integrated points of comparison rather than text by text.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: GCE AS and A level subject content for English language (Department for Education)

References & sources

Sources

Department for Education

GCE AS and A level subject content for English language

AQA

AQA AS and A-level English Language (7702) specification

Textual variations and representations

5 sections~21 min reading time3 competenciesLevel Foundation 1 · Standard 2 · Advanced 2

Textual variations and representations

Key points

Placing a text on the mode continuum

Key points

Analysing audience positioning

Key points

Analysing a register shift

Key points

Analysing representation through transitivity and naming

Key points

Planning a directed-writing task

Sources

Textual variations and representations

Key points

Placing a text on the mode continuum

Key points

Analysing audience positioning

Key points

Analysing a register shift

Key points

Analysing representation through transitivity and naming

Key points

Planning a directed-writing task

Sources