🍳 The Critic Who Never Said “Good”
🍳 The Critic Who Never Said “Good”
Marina Dupont, fictional restaurant critic for The Evening Standard, has a rule: she never uses the word “good”. In 14 years of reviewing, not once. “Good”, she says, “is what you say when you cannot think of the reason.”
AQA examiners have a similar rule for Q4. They do not reward the student who says “This is effective” without saying why. Q4 is an evaluation question, and evaluation means more than praise — it means grounding your judgement in the specific craft decision that made something work.
English Language glossary
- What does AQA Q4 mean by an 'evaluative' response?
- <strong>Evaluative</strong> means making a judgement about <em>how well</em> the writer achieved something — not just identifying what they did.<br><br><strong>Analysis:</strong> “The writer uses short sentences to create tension.” (identifies technique + names effect)<br><strong>Evaluation:</strong> “The writer <em>skilfully</em> uses short sentences because the structural pause is more unsettling than any further description could be.” (judges how well + gives reason)<br><br><em>Rule:</em> every evaluation verb needs a reason. Without the reason, the verb is an assertion, not a judgement.
Q4 on AQA English Language Paper 1 asks: “How does [the writer] use language to create [effect]?” or “How effectively does [the writer] present [something]?” The word “effectively” in the question is not decoration — it is an instruction. It is telling you that a judgement is r
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Quiz · Question 1 of 12
What does AQA Q4 require that Q2 and Q3 do not?
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