Does spelling and grammar matter in GCSE English Literature paper?

[Ursulla42]

Obvs I know it does in the language paper but wondering how many marks would be lost in Literature essays if spelling grammar and punctuation is poor?

If it's poor in language exam then surely it will also be poor in lit? It needs to be decent in both or they will of course lose marks.

Particular questions are SPAG marked, but it’s not just spelling and grammar - it’s the use of academic vocabulary as well.

On the board we use it’s the Shakespeare essay and the 20th century text essay that are SPAG marked. The poetry and 19th century questions aren’t. It depends on the exam board but it’s very clear in the spec.

That said, even when it is included it’s only 5 marks out of the 40 available on our board.

You can find mark schemes readily available online for all of the exam boards. For AQA AO4 (ie SPAG) is worth 8 raw marks out of 160 across the two papers and is only examined on the Shakespeare and 'modern texts' questions.

There will be longer answers in science that are SPAG marked too, again it is worth around 5 marks.

What @ThanksItHasPockets said

to add, it does make a difference if it inhibits clarity - AO1 is about quality of communication as well as ideas and essay structure so if it’s so tangled it’s hard to understand then that’s a problem. If the spelling is just incredibly poor but I can read it pretty fluently then it’s the aO4 marks at stake.

Thank you all for your replies. We have a bit of work to do but at least we know now.

Well purely anecdotal but I'd say not as much. My son got a 3 in his Eng Lang but a 5 in Eng Lit 😬 Appalling SPAG but still made some convincing observations and arguments.

(And then we had ongoing discussions around whether Eng Lit counted for passing English GCSE!)