2c. Content of Prose Literature (H443/03) - Learners will be required to: — OCR A-Level Latin

This criterion requires you to read a passage from your set prose text closely and respond to it in sustained written argument. Understanding means showing you grasp what the passage says, who does what to whom and why it matters in the work as a whole. Responding means building an interpretation supported by evidence from the passage: quotation, close reference to wording, structure and characterisation, and comment on the author's choices. A strong answer moves from observation to analysis, explaining how a detail creates an effect or advances a theme, rather than paraphrasing. For example, you might show how a historian's arrangement of speeches shapes the reader's judgement of a political decision, or how a novelist's narrative voice controls sympathy. Organise your response around points, each anchored in the text, and keep your claims proportionate to the evidence you cite.

This criterion asks you to show that you understand the historical, political, social and literary background against which a prescribed prose set text was written and received. In practice you select relevant contextual material, such as the author's career, the genre and its conventions, the political or social setting of the work, or the expectations of its original audience, and use it to illuminate the text rather than simply to narrate it. The strongest responses integrate context into an argument about the text: a point about a character's behaviour is sharpened by reference to Roman values, or a comment on structure is informed by knowledge of the genre. Keep contextual claims accurate and tied to the period of the set text, and make clear how the context helps explain or interpret a specific feature of the work.

Translation is a performance skill: you render a Latin passage from a set prose text into clear, accurate English. Work clause by clause. Identify the main verb first, then its subject, then the objects and any subordinate clauses, so that the Latin word order does not drag your English into confusion. Resolve case, tense, voice and mood before you choose English words, and keep the sense of connectives such as particles and pronouns that hold the argument together. Render idiom by its English equivalent rather than word for word, and keep proper names recognisable. Write continuous English prose, not a gloss or a list. Check afterwards that every Latin clause has an English counterpart and that the English reads naturally on its own.

This is an analytical essay task on a passage from a set prose text. Address four strands: literary style (word choice, sentence structure, rhythm, figures of speech, tone), characterisation (how a figure is presented through what they say, do and are called), argument (the sequence of claims, evidence and rhetorical moves) and literary meaning (what the passage conveys and how form shapes that meaning). Anchor every point in specific Latin words or constructions from the passage, then explain the effect. Quote only wording that is actually in the passage, and attribute any reported speech to its speaker. Build a line of argument rather than a list, and weigh how the strands work together.

This criterion asks you to produce a sustained written argument about prose literature, using two kinds of evidence together: close study of the prescribed set text in Latin and wider material read in translation. A strong response states a clear line of argument, then supports each stage with specific evidence — a short Latin phrase from the set text, accurately translated and analysed for its language and effect, and a relevant point from the translated material that sets the set text in context. For example, when discussing Cicero's rhetoric you might quote a Latin phrase from the set text, explain the rhetorical device, then use translated background about the trial or Roman courts to show why the device matters. Plan before writing, keep every paragraph tied to the question, and balance set-text detail with translated context rather than treating one as decoration.