What Are the Three Types of Subject Terminology?
August 24, 2025 |
Subject Terminology
Today we are tackling one of those phrases that seems to haunt every English GCSE mark scheme: subject terminology. You will see it written everywhere, but what does it actually mean? And more importantly, how do you use it in the exam without tying yourself in knots?
Well, the answer starts with knowing that subject terminology comes in three main flavours: language, structure, and form.
1. Language
Language terminology is all about the words a writer uses.
Think of it as the close-up camera shot. You are zooming in on the tiny details:
If a question asks you to “analyse the writer’s use of language” (AQA Paper 1, Question 2, for example), this is what they want.
2. Structure
The structure of the text can be seen as the zoom out to the wide camera shot: the whole text.
3. Form
Form is the trickiest one, because it is specific to the type of text.
Examples:
In poetry - enjambment, rhyme scheme, stanza structure
In plays - stage directions, soliloquy, dialogue
In novels - chapters, epistolary form, narration style
All form techniques are also either language or structure, but not all language and structure techniques are form. (Like the old saying: all thumbs are fingers, but not all fingers are thumbs!)
Why Does This Matter?
Because not every exam question wants all three. Sometimes it is just language, sometimes structure, sometimes both — and for Literature essays, form is often in there too.
Get it right, and you show the examiner you know exactly what you are doing. Get it wrong, and you risk writing a beautiful essay… that does not answer the question.
Well, the answer starts with knowing that subject terminology comes in three main flavours: language, structure, and form.
1. Language
Language terminology is all about the words a writer uses.
Think of it as the close-up camera shot. You are zooming in on the tiny details:
- Metaphor, simile, personification
- Word classes (verbs, adjectives, nouns, adverbs)
- Lexical fields and semantic fields
- Sentence types and word order (syntax) [note: this one is a grey area and can also come under strutcure!]
If a question asks you to “analyse the writer’s use of language” (AQA Paper 1, Question 2, for example), this is what they want.
2. Structure
The structure of the text can be seen as the zoom out to the wide camera shot: the whole text.
- Structure is about the order and organisation of a piece:
- Narrative perspective (first person, third person)
- Shifts in focus (from setting - character - dialogue)
- Changes in tone or mood
3. Form
Form is the trickiest one, because it is specific to the type of text.
Examples:
In poetry - enjambment, rhyme scheme, stanza structure
In plays - stage directions, soliloquy, dialogue
In novels - chapters, epistolary form, narration style
All form techniques are also either language or structure, but not all language and structure techniques are form. (Like the old saying: all thumbs are fingers, but not all fingers are thumbs!)
Why Does This Matter?
Because not every exam question wants all three. Sometimes it is just language, sometimes structure, sometimes both — and for Literature essays, form is often in there too.
Get it right, and you show the examiner you know exactly what you are doing. Get it wrong, and you risk writing a beautiful essay… that does not answer the question.
