This deep dive covers 🔍 What Counts as a Quotation? within Avoiding Paraphrase-as-Quote for GCSE English Language. Revise Avoiding Paraphrase-as-Quote in Quote Handling for GCSE English Language with 10 exam-style questions and 4 flashcards. This topic shows up very often in GCSE exams, so students should be able to explain it clearly, not just recognise the term. It is section 2 of 4 in this topic. Use this deep dive to connect the idea to the wider topic before moving on to questions and flashcards.
🔍 What Counts as a Quotation?
A quotation is the writer’s actual words, reproduced exactly, inside inverted commas. It is not a summary of what the writer said. It is not a description of what happens. It is not a restatement of the passage in your own language.
AQA’s AO1 descriptor requires students to “use textual references to support and illustrate interpretations”. A paraphrase does not supply textual reference — it supplies the student’s own interpretation dressed as evidence.
The tell-tale sign: if removing the inverted commas makes no difference to the sentence, the “quote” is probably paraphrase.
| ✗ Paraphrase dressed as quote | ✓ Actual embedded quotation |
|---|---|
| The writer says “the sea was rough and the sailors were scared”. | The writer describes the sea’s “blind, blundering fists”. |
| These words are NOT in the text. The student has written their own summary and placed it in quotation marks. No analysis is possible because there is nothing unusual about “rough” or “scared” when applied to storms and sailors. | These ARE the writer’s actual words. “Blind” applied to ocean waves and “fists” as a noun image of impact are both specific choices the writer made. Analysis can begin because the words themselves are interesting. |
Quick Check: A student writes: “The writer says ‘the old man struggled to walk across the ice’.” The original passage reads: “He moved across the ice with the patient tenacity of something that had long since stopped expecting the ground to cooperate.” What is wrong with the student’s “quote”?
The student’s “quote” is not the writer’s actual words. “Struggled to walk across the ice” is the student’s summary. The writer never used any of those specific words in that order. By replacing the actual language with paraphrase, the student has destroyed all the analytical material: “patient tenacity,” “something” (dehumanising), “stopped expecting the ground to cooperate” (comic resignation). The only way to earn AO1 and AO2 marks is to use the writer’s actual words inside inverted commas.
Practice questions for Avoiding Paraphrase-as-Quote
What is the key difference between a paraphrase and a quotation?
The original text reads: 'He moved across the ice with the patient tenacity of something that had long since stopped expecting the ground to cooperate.' A student writes: the writer says 'the old man struggled to walk on the ice'. Is this a genuine quotation?