How to write about form: the key conventions of a newspaper article

Question 2 sits in Section B of Paper 1. It is worth 25 marks, half of the whole paper, and gives you one unseen text of roughly 550 to 750 words to analyse for form, structure and language. The marks are split unevenly. AO1, understanding the text’s meaning, context and audience, is worth 5 marks. AO3, analysing how the writer’s choices of form, structure and language create meaning, is worth 20. Understanding the text matters, but analysis is where most of your marks are won.

Form is often the section students find hardest to pin down, so this guide focuses on it, using a newspaper science feature about bringing back the woolly mammoth.

What form means

In Question 2, form means the key conventions of the text type: the features writers of that kind of text most commonly use. It is not the same as structure, which is how the whole text is organised, opened, sequenced and ended. Nor is it language, which is the writer’s choice of words. Keeping the three apart makes each part of your answer sharper.

Start with purpose and audience

Before you look for conventions, ask what the text wants to do to its reader. The mammoth article has three purposes. It informs, explaining how de-extinction would actually work. It explores, giving both sides of the debate a fair hearing. And it provokes thought, leaving the final judgement to the reader. Its audience is an educated general readership with an interest in science but no specialist knowledge.

Keep these in mind. Your strongest points about form will connect each convention back to them.

The five key conventions

1. Headline and standfirst. The headline captures attention; the standfirst, the short summary underneath, frames the issue and signals the article’s angle. Here the headline asks whether bringing back the mammoth is science’s boldest experiment or “its biggest mistake”. Because it offers two possible answers, the reader is pulled into a debate straight away and reads on to find out which is right. The standfirst ends “Not everyone is celebrating”, which warns the reader that the article will present conflict, not just good news. Together, they frame the whole piece as a debate.

2. Byline. A science feature names the writer and often their specialist role. Here the writer is not just named but described as “science correspondent”. That job title makes the reader trust the information, because it comes from a journalist who specialises in science.

3. Subheadings. These divide a longer feature into sections and guide the reader like signposts. Subheadings such as “How would it work?” and “The case against” tell the reader what kind of information is coming next. The first is a question, mirroring exactly what a curious reader would be wondering at that point.

4. Expert quotations. Experts add credibility, often from different sides of the debate. The article quotes a geneticist who supports the project and a conservation biologist who opposes it. Hearing from both sides makes the reader feel the article is fair and balanced, which builds the newspaper’s credibility.

5. Specialist terms explained with facts and figures. Science features use technical vocabulary, but because they are written for the general public, terms are made clear and supported with evidence. The phrase “known as de-extinction” names the idea at the very moment the reader needs it, and the figure “more than 99%” gives a precise fact about how closely elephants and mammoths are related. Precise numbers make the explanation feel reliable.

From spotting to analysing

The key lesson for form is simple: never just spot a convention. Always explain what it does for the reader. “The article has a byline” earns little. Explaining that the title “science correspondent” assures readers the information comes from an informed source is analysis.

Notice the pattern in the five points above. Each one names the convention, gives a short quotation, then explains the effect on the reader and links it to purpose or audience. Strong answers select short, well-chosen quotations, use precise terminology and connect choices to audience and meaning. Weaker answers list features with no explanation, describe effects vaguely, or quote at great length.

Don’t mix up your sections

Some features can look like form but belong elsewhere. A tricolon, three items grouped together for rhythm, balance, emphasis and memorability, is a language feature: “faster, cheaper, and more precise” belongs in your language paragraphs. Sentence variety is also language when you analyse how short sentences shape tone and mood; “Not everyone is convinced” is blunt and understated, cooling the mood after the excitement before it. The article’s circular ending, which returns to the mammoth as “a creature of museums and memory”, is structural, because it is about how the whole text is organised.

A quick checklist for Question 2

1. Purpose, audience and context: open with what the text does, who it is for and the context it was written in.
2. Form: analyse the key conventions of the text type and what they do for the reader.
3. Structure: zoom out to the opening, the sequence, the connectives and the ending.
4. Language: give a short quotation and explain its effect on meaning, tone or mood.
5. Evidence: quotations of five words or fewer, with precise terminology.