Cambridge A-Level English Language: Paper 1 Reading (9093)

This guide covers Paper 1 Reading, one of two AS Level papers in Cambridge International AS & A Level English Language (9093), Version 2. In Paper 1, candidates are primarily assessed on skills and techniques related to reading; the full A Level adds Paper 3 Language Analysis and Paper 4 Language Topics.

Where this fits in 9093

Paper 1 asks candidates to read widely across genres and styles and respond to unseen texts analytically, discursively and creatively. The knowledge and understanding developed here is shared directly with Paper 2 Writing, which the syllabus explicitly builds on the same foundation.

Syllabus coverage

CAMBRIDGE INTERNATIONAL AS & A LEVEL ENGLISH LANGUAGE (9093) — PAPER 1 READING

The syllabus does not number its subject content into subsections; the two groupings below are an editorial summary of the named content, not syllabus subsection numbers.

• Knowledge and understanding — the conventions of a wide range of written textual forms (such as articles, reviews, blogs, autobiographies, travel writing and scripted speech); the linguistic elements and literary features of texts (including vocabulary, figurative language, phonology, tense, narrative perspective and paragraph- and text-level structure); the significance of audience in the design and reception of texts; and how genre, purpose and context contribute to meaning
• Skills and techniques — reading a range of unseen texts; analysing how linguistic elements combine to create meaning; writing analytically about the effects of linguistic and literary features; selecting and interpreting quotations and evidence with precision; integrating evidence into a cohesive argument; and writing short, directed pieces in response to a text, including in the same or a different style

How to approach it

Because the knowledge and understanding above is explicitly shared with Paper 2, building a genuinely wide reading habit across the example genres – news journalism, travel writing, speeches, blogs – pays off across both papers rather than only this one. The skills above reward precision over volume: practise selecting a small number of well-chosen quotations and building sustained, specific commentary around them, rather than surveying a text broadly. The directed writing tasks – writing in the same style as a given text, or a different style while reusing its content – are distinctive to this syllabus, so practise both directions explicitly rather than assuming general creative writing skill transfers automatically.

Official syllabus

Cambridge International AS & A Level English Language (9093) syllabus for 2024, 2025 and 2026 — cambridgeinternational.org. A successor syllabus for 2027 and 2028 has since been published under the same code; it states there are no significant changes affecting teaching, so the technique and structure content here remains current, but check the latest syllabus for your own exam series.

What the paper requires

Two things are tested together: analysis of an unseen text, and directed writing in which you reshape material for a different audience, purpose or form.

Both depend on the same underlying skill — recognising how choices of language create effects — but they apply it in opposite directions. Analysis takes a text apart; directed writing builds one to specification.

Analysing an unseen text

Work systematically through the frameworks rather than commenting on whatever catches the eye first.

• Form and structure — how the text opens, develops and closes; paragraph lengths; shifts in focus or time.
• Lexis — semantic fields, connotation, formality, concrete against abstract, monosyllabic against polysyllabic.
• Grammar — sentence types (simple, compound, complex, minor), sentence length and variety, active or passive voice, mood, modality.
• Imagery — metaphor, simile, personification, and crucially what the comparison implies.
• Tone and voice — the attitude conveyed, and whether it shifts.
• Point of view — first, second or third person, and the distance it creates.

Every observation needs the same three-part treatment: identify, quote, explain the effect. The explanation must connect to the writer’s purpose and the reader’s experience.

Directed writing

You will be given a form (letter, speech, article, diary, report), an audience and a purpose, and material to draw on.

• Form dictates conventions — a speech needs direct address and rhetorical patterning; a report needs headings and neutral register.
• Audience dictates register, vocabulary and assumed knowledge.
• Purpose dictates structure — to persuade, order arguments for impact; to inform, order them for clarity.

Use the source material but transform it: select what serves your purpose, reorganise it, and recast it in your own words. Copying stretches of the original earns no credit for genuine transformation, so treat rephrasing as central to the task rather than incidental to it.

Adopting a consistent voice — a persona appropriate to the form — is what separates competent from strong responses.

Comparing your response with the source

Question 1’s second part asks you to compare your own directed response in 1(a) with the original text – its form, structure and language – not to summarise what you wrote. Structure the comparison by point (form, then structure, then language) rather than describing your own text and the source one after the other, since an integrated, point-by-point comparison demonstrates the comparative skill this question targets more clearly than two separate descriptions placed side by side. This part carries more marks than the writing task itself, so it repays as much planning time.

A reflective commentary explaining your own linguistic choices is required on Paper 2 Writing, not here – do not confuse the two tasks.

Worked example

Analysing: “The factory stood silent, its chimneys cold, its gates chained.”

Tricolon              three parallel clauses build a cumulative sense of
                      finality
Personification       "stood silent" gives the factory human stillness,
                      suggesting death rather than mere closure
Lexical field of cold "silent", "cold", "chained" -- absence of heat,
                      sound and movement, all markers of industrial life
Asyndetic listing     no conjunctions; the clauses accumulate flatly,
                      mirroring resignation
Past tense, third person  detached observation, no consolation offered

Effect: the closure is presented as irreversible and the reader's
sympathy is directed at the loss rather than at any cause.

Common mistakes

Feature-spotting with no explanation of effect. Summarising content instead of analysing language. Lifting phrasing from the source in directed writing. Ignoring one of form, audience or purpose. Treating the 1(b) comparison as a summary of your own response rather than a comparison of form, structure and language against the source.

Quick revision checklist

• Work through form, lexis, grammar, imagery, tone and point of view systematically.
• Identify, quote and explain — every time, with the effect tied to purpose.
• Match form conventions, register and structure to the audience and purpose given.
• Transform source material rather than reproducing it.
• Compare your own directed response with the source by point – form, then structure, then language – rather than describing each in turn.