Sample answers

The poet says excuse me standing on one leg I'm half-caste. Half-cast means when you have two different races, like when a canvas is red and green.

mix red and green is a half-caste canvas.

But he says if you come back tomorrow you will see a different (whole) person instead of only half the story.

and I will tell you de other half of my story.

Examiner's Note:

• candidate seems to have grasped roughly what the poem is about
• however, the paragraph is poorly expressed, so the ideas are very unclear
• the writing is poor with words being joined together
• the quotes don't quite connect with what is said about them
• suggests F/G candidate

The argument of the poem comes out in the way it is written. You could almost say that the poem is written in a mixed language - it's a kind of English, but it's also in Caribbean. The poet writes 'wid' and instead of 'with' to show that the speaker has a Caribbean accent. Some people might call this half-caste language, saying that it's not proper English, but Agard would say it's just a different variety of English. Also, he writes in a jokey style, like I explained above, it's like he's teasing people who think he's "only" half-caste, and taking the mickey is a good way of putting your ideas across, and making people think again, which is why Agard wrote the poem. So the way the poem is written suits what it's trying to say.

Examiner's Note

• good drawing together of ideas
• two good general points clearly made
• because this is a conclusion, it relates to detailed points made earlier
• suggests A/B candidate