Writing to analyse, review and comment

If you are following Edexcel or OCR courses you will be asked to write, analyse, review or comment as well as persuade, argue and advise. Both pieces of writing will be based on unseen texts.

If you have worked through the Reading non-fiction sections of this revision site you will have seen how to understand and interpret a non-fiction text; you will have looked at how and why it was written and presented in the way that it was. This is what you need to understand for an exam that tests you on writing to analyse, review or comment. What you must remember is that your writing is being tested as well as your understanding.

Analyse: carry out a detailed study, looking for understanding and interpretation.

Review: general survey or a report assessing the features of a document.

Comment: to give an opinion or an explanation.

All these skills are covered within the Reading non-fiction section of this website.