EuraStudy
This topic maps onto one assessed element in full: Unit A2 3, Extended Writing, which is 18 percent of the A level. It is one essay written in Irish in one hour in response to ONE set literary text — and unlike AS 3, which offers films as well, every option here is literary. Each text has two open-ended question options and the candidate answers one. The response is assessed on AO2, AO4 and AO3 together, weighted 8.4, 4.8 and 4.8 as percentages of the A level, so understanding of the text is the largest single component. The specification also names the critical skills it wants: developing arguments; presenting views, opinions and justifications; analysing critically; evaluating; comparing characters; and appreciating themes and literary styles. Appendix 4 prescribes three options — an anthology of short stories, a novel, and a selection of poems by four named poets — and the choice between them shapes two years of study.
5 sections~29 min reading time4 competenciesLevel Foundation 2 · Standard 1 · Advanced 2
basic level
The AS equivalent, Unit AS 3, is the same shape at a lower weight and with a film option: one hour, one essay in Irish, one of two questions on one set work, assessed on AO2, AO4 and AO3 at 5.6, 3.2 and 3.2. Everything you learn there about locating evidence transfers here. What does not transfer is the film option — at A2 every prescribed work is literary.
higher level
A2 3 is 18 percent of the A level against AS 3's 12, and its AO2 allocation nearly doubles from 5.6 to 8.4. The specification also lists six critical skills for this unit that it does not list for AS 3, and A2 units carry synoptic assessment. In practice that means the A2 essay must argue rather than describe, must handle more than one interpretation, and must compare — which is why the poetry option, with three poems by each of four poets, gives some candidates an advantage they do not expect.
Reading depth: In depth
Text size: Standard
The A2 3 prescribed works
A draft A2 3 paragraph presents a view and appreciates a theme. Show how to add the four skills it is missing — developing an argument, analysing critically, evaluating, and comparing characters — without adding length.
A paragraph that says a character is lonely, gives one example, and observes that loneliness is a theme of the work. Two skills present: presenting a view, appreciating a theme. Nothing wrong with it, and nothing at A2 level about it either.
An argument has a direction. Instead of 'this character is lonely', write that the loneliness CHANGES — that it is one thing at the beginning and another by the end, and that the change is what the passage is doing. Ag tús an scéil is uaigneas de chineál amháin é; faoin deireadh is uaigneas de chineál eile é.
Analysis is about HOW, not only what. Name the means: the vocabulary the author chooses, the length of a sentence, what is not said, a repetition, a shift of tense. Baineann an t-údar úsáid as abairtí gearra anseo, rud a fhágann an chuma ar an scéal go bhfuil an carachtar as anáil. The author uses short sentences here, which makes the character seem out of breath.
Evaluation is a judgement about how well something works, marked as a judgement. Dar liom, is é seo an chuid is láidre den scéal, mar go n-oibríonn an teicníc gan í a mhíniú. In my view this is the strongest part of the story, because the technique works without being explained. One sentence, and the essay now has a voice.
Comparison is named in the specification's own list and is the skill most often absent. Put the character beside another one — from the same work, or, in the anthology and poetry options, from a different one. Tá difear mór idir uaigneas an charachtair seo agus uaigneas an charachtair sa dara scéal: tá an chéad duine ina aonar agus tá an dara duine i measc daoine.
Four added sentences, one per skill. The paragraph has grown by about forty words and by four of the six named criteria. That is the cheapest improvement available in the whole unit, and it requires no additional knowledge of the text — only a decision to do four specific things.
Result: A two-skill paragraph turned into a six-skill one by four added sentences: a direction of change to make it an argument, a named technique to make it analysis, a judgement explicitly owned to make it evaluation, and a second character placed beside the first to make it comparison.
Typical mistakes
Active revision
Write the six named critical skills on a card and mark any essay you write against all six. Most first drafts do two: present views and appreciate themes. The four that are usually missing — develop an argument, analyse critically, evaluate, and compare characters — are the four that separate an A2 essay from an AS one, and each of them can be added deliberately.
Active recall
Recall the key points — then reveal.
Sources: CCEA GCE Irish specification (2016) — §3.6 and §6.6 Unit A2 3 (CCEA)
Your centre is deciding between the anthology, the novel and the poems. Set out honestly what each demands, so that the choice is made on the right grounds.
Six separate works, six authors, six sets of characters, and therefore six times the surface area. The advantage is comparison: the specification names comparing characters as a critical skill, and an anthology hands you five other stories to compare with. The cost is depth — six stories known moderately well is a weaker position than one known thoroughly.
One narrative, one set of characters, one arc, and the deepest possible knowledge of a single text. The advantage is that everything connects and that a candidate can genuinely master it. The cost is that comparison must be internal — character against character, early against late — and that a question aimed at an aspect you neglected has no alternative to fall back on.
Twelve poems, three each by Ó Ríordáin, Ó Searcaigh, Ó Direáin and Mhac an tSaoi. The advantage is enormous: each poem is short enough to know completely, including its exact words, and four poets give you comparison across voices, periods and preoccupations. The cost is that poetry demands close attention to language, which is harder in a second language, and that a candidate who cannot discuss HOW a poem works will have very little to say.
A candidate who reads slowly and remembers structure may do best with the novel. One who is good at noticing patterns across texts may do best with the anthology. One whose Irish is strong enough to discuss word choice, sound and image should seriously consider the poems, because twelve short texts learned exactly is the most defensible evidence base of the three.
Quotation. Poems are short and can be learned word-perfect; short stories can yield a handful of exact phrases; a novel is very hard to quote accurately from memory. Since an accurate quotation is the strongest evidence in a literary essay and an inaccurate one is damaging, this factor is worth more weight than it usually gets.
In practice the option is chosen by the centre and taught to the class. If you have a view, express it early; if the decision is made, stop comparing and start working. Two years of study is more than enough to do well on any of the three, and the option chosen matters far less than the record you build of it.
Result: Three options with genuinely different profiles: the anthology buys comparison at the cost of depth, the novel buys depth at the cost of alternatives, and the poems buy exact quotation and cross-voice comparison at the cost of requiring close linguistic attention — with quotability the most under-weighted factor in the choice.
Typical mistakes
Active revision
Write out, from memory and then checked against the specification, the exact title of your set work with every fada in place, and the exact names of its author or poets. Then do the same for the other two options, so that you cannot confuse them. Ten minutes, and it removes an entirely avoidable class of error.
Active recall
Recall the key points — then reveal.
Sources: CCEA GCE Irish specification (2016) — Appendix 4; §3.6 (CCEA)
Show the architecture of a single A2 3 paragraph built from a located image, using a general worked structure rather than the text of any prescribed poem.
Sa dara rann den dán, filleann an file ar an íomhá a bhí sa teideal. In the second stanza of the poem, the poet returns to the image that was in the title. Precise about where, and it already contains an observation — that the image recurs — which is the beginning of an argument.
Say exactly what is there. Which words, which sounds, what is repeated, what is absent. If you have an exact quotation, use it here; if not, describe the line. The discipline is to finish this sentence before beginning to interpret, because a description that has already been bent towards a claim is not evidence.
Cuireann an athrá sin béim ar an athrú atá tagtha ar mheon an fhile idir an dá rann. That repetition emphasises the change that has come over the poet's outlook between the two stanzas. Note that the claim names the MECHANISM — repetition — and not merely the effect, which is what turns an assertion into analysis.
Ach ní hé sin an t-aon léamh atá air. D'fhéadfaí a rá gur cuimhne atá ann seachas athrú. But that is not the only reading of it. One could say it is a memory rather than a change. The conditional autonomous d'fhéadfaí is exactly right, and offering a second reading is one of the six named critical skills.
Alternatively, put it beside another poet: Tá difear suntasach idir an dóigh a láimhseálann an file seo an íomhá agus an dóigh a láimhseálann file eile den cheathrar í. There is a notable difference between how this poet handles the image and how another of the four handles it. Comparison is named in §3.6 and the poetry option makes it easy.
AO2, knowledge of the text: moves one and two, both located. AO4, critical analysis and evaluation: moves three and four. AO3, accuracy: the genitive an fhile, the lenition in an dara rann, and the conditional autonomous d'fhéadfaí. Four sentences, three objectives, one image.
Result: A four-move paragraph — locate, describe without interpreting, claim with a named mechanism, then qualify with a second reading or compare with another poet — satisfying all three of the unit's objectives from a single located image, and using no quotation that has not been learned exactly.
Typical mistakes
Active revision
For each prescribed poem you study, build one card: the exact title with its fadas, three exactly-learned short quotations, three images described in your own words with their locations, and one sentence saying what the poem does rather than what it says. Twelve cards for the poetry option, and they are the whole evidence base for the essay.
Active recall
Recall the key points — then reveal.
Sources: CCEA GCE Irish specification (2016) — Appendix 4; §3.6 and §6.6 (CCEA)
An open-ended question asks whether a character is 'sympathetic'. Show how to interrogate the term first, and how that shapes the whole essay.
The word carrying the weight is 'sympathetic' — báúil. It is not a fact about the text; it is a judgement about a reader's response, and different readers respond differently. Noticing that is the analysis of the question §6.6 asks for.
Braitheann an freagra ar cad is brí le báúil: an gciallaíonn sé go dtaitníonn an carachtar linn, nó go dtuigimid é, nó go bhfuil trua againn dó? The answer depends on what sympathetic means: does it mean we like the character, that we understand him, or that we pity him? Three readings, and each will produce a different essay.
Glacfaidh mé leis go gciallaíonn sé go dtuigimid é, agus déanfaidh mé an cás sin. I shall take it to mean that we understand him, and I shall make that case. Declaring the reading is honest, it is a critical move, and it makes the rest of the essay coherent.
Three or four paragraphs, each locating an episode, describing it precisely, naming a mechanism, and claiming. All of them now serve the SAME question — do we understand him — rather than drifting between liking, pitying and understanding, which is what an essay without a defined term does.
Put the character beside another — in the anthology, from a different story; in the novel, from the same one; in the poems, a speaker from a different poet. Tá an carachtar seo níos báúla ná an carachtar eile, cé nach ndéanann sé rud ar bith níos fearr. This character is more sympathetic than the other, although he does nothing better. A comparison that produces a paradox is worth two that do not.
Mar fhocal scoir, is dóigh liom go bhfuil sé báúil sa chiall a luaigh mé ag an tús, ach nach mbeadh sé báúil sa chiall eile ar chor ar bith. As a final word, I think he is sympathetic in the sense I mentioned at the start, but that he would not be sympathetic in the other sense at all. The essay ends where it began, which is what makes it an argument rather than a list.
Result: An essay shaped by interrogating one word: three possible meanings offered, one chosen and declared, a body built from located evidence all serving the chosen meaning, one comparison producing a paradox, and a close that returns to the term and distinguishes the senses — which is critical analysis of the question, exactly as §6.6 asks.
Typical mistakes
Active revision
Take a past-style question on your set work and write only two sentences: one interrogating the question's key term, and one naming the comparison you will make. Then plan the essay from those two. Do it for six different questions. Twelve sentences, and it builds the two habits that most reliably distinguish an A2 essay.
Active recall
Recall the key points — then reveal.
Sources: CCEA GCE Irish specification (2016) — §3.6, §4.5 and §6.6 (CCEA)
Show how a theme map is built and why it produces better essays than revising theme by theme.
Lay out your evidence cards and read them. Themes emerge from evidence far more reliably than evidence is recalled from themes, and a theme identified from your own cards is one you can actually support, which a theme borrowed from a study guide often is not.
Write them in the language you will use: an t-uaigneas, loneliness; an t-athrú, change; an teanga, language; an chuimhne, memory; an dílseacht, loyalty. Naming them in Irish means the essay's topic sentences are already half written.
Every theme needs at least three located pieces of evidence or it is not a theme you can write about for an hour. If a theme attracts only one card, either it is not really present in the text or your record is thin there — and either finding is useful.
A card attached to two or three themes is your strongest evidence, because it can be redeployed against several possible questions. Mark those cards. In an examination with two unpredictable options, a piece of evidence that serves three themes is worth three that serve one.
Revising theme by theme produces general statements about the text with vague support. Revising card by card and then mapping produces located evidence with themes attached. When the question arrives, the first is a paragraph you cannot evidence and the second is evidence you can attach to whatever is asked.
Cover the map and, for each theme, try to name its three cards from memory with their locations. Anything you cannot name is not yet available to you under examination conditions, however well you know it in principle. Repeat until all fifteen come back.
Result: A theme map built upward from evidence rather than downward from themes: four or five themes named in Irish, three located cards attached to each, the multi-theme cards marked as the strongest evidence, and a memory check that confirms the whole map is retrievable under examination conditions.
Typical mistakes
Active revision
Build the four-part record over a term: the spine in week one, four evidence cards a week for four weeks, the quotation bank in week six, and the theme map in week seven — all in Irish. In week eight, write one essay using only the record and no other materials. Whatever you found yourself unable to support is the next four cards.
Active recall
Recall the key points — then reveal.
Sources: CCEA GCE Irish specification (2016) — §3.6, §6.6 and §4.3 (CCEA)
References & sources