Mark Scheme (Results)

November 2024

Pearson Edexcel International GCSE

In English Language (4EA1)
Paper 01: Non-fiction Texts and Transactional
Writing
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November 2024
P75917
Publications Code: 4EA1_01_2411_MS
All the material in this publication is copyright
© Pearson Education Ltd 2024
General Marking Guidance

• All candidates must receive the same treatment. Examiners must mark the
first candidate in exactly the same way as they mark the last.
• Mark schemes should be applied positively. Candidates must be rewarded
for what they have shown they can do rather than penalised for omissions.
• Examiners should mark according to the mark scheme not according to
their perception of where the grade boundaries may lie.
• There is no ceiling on achievement. All marks on the mark scheme should
be used appropriately.
• All the marks on the mark scheme are designed to be awarded. Examiners
should always award full marks if deserved, i.e. if the answer matches the
mark scheme. Examiners should also be prepared to award zero marks if
the candidate’s response is not worthy of credit according to the mark
scheme.
• Where some judgement is required, mark schemes will provide the principles
by which marks will be awarded and exemplification may be limited.
• When examiners are in doubt regarding the application of the mark scheme
to a candidate’s response, a senior examiner must be consulted before a
mark is given.
• Crossed out work should be marked unless the candidate has replaced it with
an alternative response.
• Plans in the lined response area of the question paper/answer booklet should
not be marked unless no other response to the question has been provided.
This applies whether the plan is crossed out or not.

Specific Marking Guidance

When deciding how to reward an answer, examiners should consult both the
indicative content and the associated marking grid(s). When using a levels-based
mark scheme, the ‘best fit’ approach should be used.
• Examiners should first decide which descriptor most closely matches the
answer and place it in that level.
• The mark awarded within the level will be decided based on the quality of
the answer and will be modified according to how securely all bullet points
are displayed at that level.
• Indicative content is exactly that – they are factual points that candidates
are likely to use to construct their answer.
• It is possible for an answer to be constructed without mentioning some or
all of these points, as long as they provide alternative responses to the
indicative content that fulfils the requirements of the question. It is the
examiner’s responsibility to apply their professional judgement to the
candidate’s response in determining if the answer fulfils the requirements
of the question.

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Placing a mark within a level
• Examiners should first decide which descriptor most closely matches the
answer and place it in that level. The mark awarded within the level will be
decided based on the quality of the answer and will be modified according
to how securely all bullet points are displayed at that level.
• In cases of uneven performance, the points above will still apply.
Candidates will be placed in the level that best describes their answer
according to the descriptors in that level. Marks will be awarded towards
the top or bottom of that level depending on how they have evidenced
each of the descriptor bullet points.
• If the candidate’s answer meets the requirements fully, markers should
be prepared to award full marks within the level. The top mark in the level
is used for work that is as good as can realistically be expected within that
level.

AO1 Read and understand a variety of texts, selecting and interpreting

information, ideas and perspectives.
AO2 Understand and analyse how writers use linguistic and structural devices
to achieve their effects.
AO3 Explore links and connections between writers’ ideas and perspectives, as
well as how these are conveyed.
AO4 Communicate effectively and imaginatively, adapting form, tone and
register of writing for specific purposes and audiences.
AO5 Write clearly, using a range of vocabulary and sentence structures, with
appropriate paragraphing and accurate spelling, grammar and
punctuation.

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Section A: Reading

Question AO1 Read and understand a variety of texts, selecting and interpreting Mark
Number information, ideas and perspectives.

1 Racial stereotyping is a big problem in sport and can have a huge impact on
someone’s life. Vietnamese bodybuilder, Amazin LeThi, was bullied
mercilessly for being the only Asian person involved in sport growing up.

Accept any of the following, up to a maximum of two marks:

• ‘Vietnamese’ (1)
• ‘bodybuilder’ (1)
• ‘bullied (mercilessly)’ (1)
• ‘(the only) Asian (person)’ (1)
• ‘involved in sport (growing up)’ (1) (2)

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Question AO1 Read and understand a variety of texts, selecting and interpreting Mark
Number information, ideas and perspectives.
2 She says growing up in Australia was an incredibly hostile environment as an
ethnic minority, and she experienced bullying from kids at school, people in
the community and even teachers.

‘I must have been seven years old,’ Amazin recalls. ‘One teacher made me
stand up in front of the whole class – I was the only Asian child in the class –
and they used me to illustrate an example of what failure looks like. All the
kids just laughed.

‘The teacher then threw the blackboard eraser and I remember it hitting me.

‘I remember thinking in that moment – I will never be humiliated like that

ever again, and I never want anyone else to experience that humiliation.’

This is when Amazin found sport. Throwing herself into physical activity
provided an outlet from the pain she felt at being singled out and
persecuted. But the team environment wasn’t exactly welcoming.

Accept any reasonable explanation of Amazin LeThi’s experiences as a

child, in own words where possible, up to a maximum of four marks.
For example:

• as a child, Amazin lived in Australia

• it was not a friendly environment for racial minorities
• other children at the school were unkind to her
• she was also treated badly by local people and staff at the school
• there were no other children of the same ethnicity as Amazin in her
class
• when she was seven years old, a schoolteacher singled her out
because of her race / humiliated her
• the other pupils in the class found this humiliation amusing
• her educator hurled a board rubber (which struck Amazin)
• she determined that she would never suffer such mortification
again
• she hoped that no one else would suffer in that way
• Amazin discovered that participating in sport relieved the suffering
caused by discrimination that she experienced
• she was not made to feel comfortable as part of a sporting team/
she felt pushed out

Reward all valid points. (4)

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Question AO1 Read and understand a variety of texts, selecting and interpreting Mark
Number information, ideas and perspectives.
3 Amazin fell victim to the damaging stereotypes about Asian people in sports. It
was assumed that she wouldn’t fit in in athletic environments, that she
wouldn’t be any good at sports, that she would never achieve anything.

‘We are seen as very nerdy, very geeky, very studious,’ says Amazin. ‘So, we
can’t be good at sports – we can’t be fast, we can’t be strong.

‘I loved athletics, but I was bullied by my teammates. I loved sprinting, but I

was pulled aside by my coach and told that I was slowing the team down, that
Asian people aren’t very good at fast sports, and he told me to try out for long-
distance running instead because that will suit my physique.’

For Amazin, the use of archaic1 racial stereotypes about east Asians pushed
her out of an environment that she loved and made her feel completely
unwelcome. With team sports off the table, Amazin returned to her first love:
weight training.

Accept any reasonable description of Amazin LeThi’s experiences within

the world of sport, up to a maximum of five marks.

For example:

• Amazin suffered from prejudice caused by assumptions about how

she would perform in sports based on her ethnicity: ‘fell victim to the
damaging stereotypes about Asian people in sports’
• people thought that she would be unsuited to the world of sport: ‘she
wouldn’t fit in in athletic environments’
• they also believed that she would be unsuccessful at sport: ‘that she
would never achieve anything’
• Amazin felt that others have preconceived notions of Asian people as
intellectual ‒ “geeky’’ ‒ and therefore not sporty
• she loved participating in athletics but was treated unkindly ‒
‘‘bullied’’ ‒ by the other athletes
• her trainer judged her performance harshly because of her ethnicity:
‘’Asian people aren’t very good at fast sports’’
• she was withdrawn from sprinting despite her love for it, and advised
to try longer races because of her body type
• although Amazin loved athletics, old-fashioned attitudes led to her
feeling excluded: ‘archaic racial stereotypes … made her feel
completely unwelcome’
• feeling that she could not take part in team sports, she went back to
weight training – ‘returned to her first love’

Reward all valid points. (5)

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Question Indicative content
Number
4 Reward responses that explain and analyse how the writer uses language and
structure to create interest in her ideas.

Examiners should refer to the following bullet points and then to the table to come to
an overall judgement.

Responses may include some of the following points:

• the short opening sentence announces the writer/speaker as ‘a storyteller’,

establishing her credentials and engaging the audience in the ideas she is about to
relate
• the second sentence introduces the theme of the speech and the use of the
second-person pronoun ‘you’ involves the audience
• the use of the noun ‘danger’ in the phrase ‘‘‘the danger of the single story’’’ is
unexpected and intriguing
• the writer uses memories of her childhood and anecdotes from her later life to
illustrate her ideas about storytelling and create interest
• the writer adopts a humorous and, at times, self-deprecating tone, for example
when referring to the stories she wrote as a child that ‘my poor mother was
obligated to read’
• juxtaposed and antithetical lists of images convey the differences between the
characters in the stories she read and the life that she lived: ‘they played in the
snow, they ate apples, and they talked a lot about the weather’; ‘We didn’t have
snow, we ate mangoes, and we never talked about the weather’. The parallel
structures of the sentences serve to further emphasise the contrast
• emotive adjectives, ‘impressionable’, ‘vulnerable’, convey how easily influenced a
reader may be by a story and the use of the first-person plural ‘we’ links the
audience and the writer/speaker
• the writer names renowned writers who influenced her, thus engaging listeners
who may have read them or introducing them to new readers
• in relating the anecdote of Fide, the writer uses ethos to show that she is as guilty
as anyone else of making false judgements, thus giving credibility to her message
and perhaps leading listeners to question some of their own attitudes
• many audience members would recognise the statements in the mother’s direct
speech and so this provides a further connection with the writer and her
experiences
• the single short-sentence paragraph ‘She assumed that I did not know how to use
a stove’ draws attention to the ignorant and limiting judgements about others that
people unwittingly make
• the parallel construction in ‘a single story of Africa: a single story of catastrophe’
deliberately links the two final words to show how deleterious people’s
assumptions can be

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• the repetition of the phrase ‘single story’ and its use as a metaphor for wider
issues such as racial stereotyping reinforce the key ideas of the speech
• the use of emotive abstract nouns such as ‘pity’ and ‘guilt’ and adjectives such as
‘guilty’ and ‘ashamed’ in the speech are engaging and enhance the sense of the
powerful feelings that are evoked by single stories
• the verbs used in the asyndetic listing of phrases to describe the stereotyped
qualities of Mexican people (‘fleecing’, ‘sneaking’, ‘being arrested’) serve to further
show how damaging single stories can be
• towards the end of the speech, the tone becomes more upbeat and the
consecutive short repetitive sentences ‘Stories matter. Many stories matter’ show
how the writer is keen to emphasise the good points about stories
• negative impacts of stories ‒ ‘used to dispossess and to malign’ ‒ are followed by
their antitheses ‒ ‘can also be used to empower and humanize’ ‒ in a parallel
construction with the lingering emphasis being on their positive qualities
• the writer uses time markers to show how it has taken years for her to learn and
refine her thoughts and opinions
• the speech, as a whole, is very engaging; its accumulation of ideas and arguments
supported by personal anecdotes and use of ethos and pathos, builds to a
powerful climax
• the final single-sentence paragraph offers words of wisdom and advice to ‘reject
the single story’, and use of the first-person plural pronoun provides a strong link
between the audience and the writer/speaker
• the speech concludes with the idea that if we follow this advice we can ‘regain a
kind of paradise’; the metaphor, with its religious overtones, provides us with an
image of innocence and purity.

Reward all valid points.

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Question 4
Level Mark AO2 Understand and analyse how writers use linguistic and structural
devices to achieve their effects.
0 No rewardable material.
Level 1 1–2 • Basic identification and little understanding of the language and/or
structure used by writers to achieve effects.
• The use of references is limited.
Level 2 3–4 • Some understanding of and comment on language and structure
and how these are used by writers to achieve effects, including use
of vocabulary.
• The selection of references is valid, but not developed.
Level 3 5–7 • Clear understanding and explanation of language and structure
and how these are used by writers to achieve effects, including use
of vocabulary and sentence structure.
• The selection of references is appropriate and relevant to the points
being made.
Level 4 8–10 • Thorough understanding and exploration of language and
structure and how these are used by writers to achieve effects,
including use of vocabulary, sentence structure and other language
features.
• The selection of references is detailed, appropriate and fully
supports the points being made.
Level 5 11–12 • Perceptive understanding and analysis of language and structure
and how these are used by writers to achieve effects, including use
of vocabulary, sentence structure and other language features.
• The selection of references is discriminating and clarifies the points
being made.

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Question Indicative content
Number
5 Reward responses that compare the ways in which the writers present their ideas
and perspectives about the experiences described.
Examiners should refer to the following bullet points and then to the table to come
to an overall judgement.
Responses may include some of the following points:
• both extracts feature women who are successful writers: in Text One we are told
that Amazin LeThi ‘became the first internationally published Vietnamese health
and fitness author’ and the speech in Text Two was delivered by Chimamanda
Ngozi Adichie, a highly regarded author, who opens with ‘I’m a storyteller’
• both writers show how stereotyping can lead to prejudice
• both texts relate a woman’s experience of being stereotyped by others: in Text
One Natalie Morris tells how LeThi ‘fell victim to the damaging stereotypes about
Asian people in sports’; in Text Two, Adichie’s roommate ‘felt sorry for me’, as she
‘had a single story of Africa’
• both show how single stories can cause harm: in Text One, Morris reports how
for LeThi ‘archaic racial stereotypes pushed her out of an environment she loved’
and in Text Two Adichie states that ‘Stories have been used to dispossess and to
malign’
• both texts include anecdotes from childhood to illustrate points made: in Text
One LeThi recounts how, at age seven, a teacher singled her out as the only Asian
child and treated her cruelly; in Text Two the writer tells of her experience, aged
eight, of visiting Fide’s village and learning how misleading a single story can be
• both texts relate experiences from the main protagonist’s life as a young adult: in
Text One, LeThi ‘ended up homeless’ and ‘the racial discrimination and bullying
she had suffered led to a deep depression’. In Text Two Adichie ‘left Nigeria to go
to university in the United States’, where she was met with ‘a kind of patronizing,
well-meaning pity’
• both texts show how widespread prejudice can be: in Text One the writer shows
how LeThi was victimised by her teacher, fellow pupils, her sports teammates
and coach and in Text Two Adichie relates how her mother, her roommate,
‘media coverage’ – and even she herself – have all believed in single stories
• both writers use a single-sentence paragraph to draw attention to an episode of
prejudice: in Text One LeThi recounts, shockingly, how ‘‘The teacher then threw
the blackboard eraser and I remember it hitting me’’ and in Text Two Adichie
recalls her roommate’s ignorance: ‘She assumed that I did not know how to use a
stove’
• emotive language is employed by both writers: in Text One LeThi was ‘bullied
mercilessly’ in an ‘incredibly hostile environment’ and ‘persecuted’, and in Text
Two Adichie refers to ‘pity’ and ‘shame’
• both texts convey strong emotions created by prejudice: in Text One LeThi was
‘’humiliated’’, felt ‘‘very unsafe’’ and ‘completely unwelcome’ and in Text Two
Adichie says she is ‘guilty in the question of the single story’ and ‘overwhelmed
with shame’

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• both writers include a list of three assumptions caused by stereotyping to
emphasise how negative it can be: in Text One Morris says of LeThi, ‘It was
assumed that she wouldn’t fit in in athletic environments, that she wouldn’t be
any good at sports, that she would never achieve anything’. In Text Two Adichie
says a common view of Mexicans saw them ‘as people who were fleecing the
healthcare system, sneaking across the border, being arrested’
• both texts show how personal lessons have been learned: in Text One LeThi
explains how she had to acquire the skills to deal with adversity such as ‘’learning
to push past pain’’; in Text Two Adichie ‘realized that I had … bought into the
single story of Mexicans’
• both texts make reference to the importance of a story: in Text One LeThi is now
‘able to share her story ‒ and she knows how important that is’; in Text Two
Adichie states simply that ‘Stories matter’
• in both texts the final words from the main protagonist are uplifting: in Text One
LeThi outlines the ‘’unique skills that help us to thrive in difficult situations’’; in
Text Two Adichie tells her audience that ‘when we realize that there is never a
single story about any place, we regain a kind of paradise’
• both texts have a purpose to inform and educate, but Text Two also sets out to
persuade the audience to ‘reject the single story’
• Text One is a news article, written in the third person but including direct
quotations from its subject, LeThi, whereas Text Two is a speech and a first-hand
account of personal experiences and beliefs
• in Text One, LeThi is Vietnamese and ‘was adopted from an orphanage as a baby
and brought to Australia’, whereas in Text Two Adichie is ‘from a conventional,
middle-class Nigerian family’
• Text One focuses on the harmful consequences of racial and gender stereotyping
in sport, whereas Text Two looks more broadly at ‘‘’the danger of the single story’’’
based on race
• In Text One, the account of LeThi’s determination to overcome the persecution
she suffered presents a personal example of Text Two’s message that, ‘Stories
can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity’
• Text One does not offer any explanation for the stereotyping that persists, but in
Text Two Adichie describes how a single story is created and then perpetuated
and reveals that ‘I too am just as guilty’
• Text One looks at the severe consequences on an individual of stereotyping ‒ for
LeThi racial bullying ‘led to a deep depression’; in Text Two Adichie does not
describe such personal suffering, but does state that ‘Stories have been used to
dispossess and to malign’
• Text One has a very serious and sombre tone, but Text Two, although conveying
a strong message, injects a lighter note at times.

Reward all valid points.

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Question 5
Level Mark AO3 Explore links and connections between writers’ ideas and perspectives,
as well as how these are conveyed.
0 No rewardable material.
Level 1–4 • The response does not compare the texts.
1 • Description of writers’ ideas and perspectives, including theme,
language and/or structure.
• The use of references is limited.
Level 5–8 • The response considers obvious comparisons between the
2 texts.
• Comment on writers’ ideas and perspectives, including theme,
language and/or structure.
• The selection of references is valid, but not developed.
NB: candidates who have considered only ONE text may only achieve a
mark up to the top of Level 2
Level 9–13 • The response considers a range of comparisons between the
3 texts.
• Explanation of writers’ ideas and perspectives, including
theme, language and/or structure.
• The selection of references is appropriate and relevant to the
points being made.

Level 14–18 • The response considers a wide range of comparisons between

4 the texts.
• Exploration of writers’ ideas and perspectives, including how theme,
language and/or structure are used across the texts.
• References are balanced across both texts and fully support
the points being made.

Level 19–22 • The response considers a varied and comprehensive range of

5 comparisons between the texts.
• Analysis of writers’ ideas and perspectives, including how theme,
language and/or structure are used across the texts.
• References are balanced across both texts; they are
discriminating and fully support the points being made.

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SECTION B: Transactional Writing

Refer to the writing assessment grids at the end of this section when marking
questions 6 and 7.

Question Indicative content

Number
6 Purpose: to write a letter – informative, persuasive and discursive.

Audience: the readers of a national or local newspaper. The focus is on

communicating ideas about the ways in which teenagers today are perceived.
There should be an attempt to engage and influence the audience.

Form: the response should be set out effectively as a formal letter, using
organisational features. Candidates do not have to include postal addresses but
should include an appropriate salutation and letter ending. There should be
clear organisation with an introduction, development of points and a conclusion.

Responses may:
• consider why some older people may have a negative view of teenagers,
for example critical media presentation, limited interaction with young
people, a belief that things have changed since they were young
• offer views agreeing or disagreeing with the statement
• give the writer’s own opinion about teenagers, perhaps providing a
more balanced or positive approach
• write from a personal or more general point of view
• adopt a particular persona
• include anecdote, ‘statistics’ or ‘expert’ opinion.

The best-fit approach

An answer may not always satisfy every one of the assessment criteria for a
particular level in order to receive a mark within that level range, since on
individual criteria the answer may meet the descriptor for a higher or lower
mark range. The best-fit approach should be used to determine the mark which
corresponds most closely to the overall quality of the response.

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Question Indicative content
Number
7 Purpose: to write an article for a magazine – informative and persuasive.

Audience: general readership of a magazine. The focus is on exploring the

benefits of taking part in sport. There should be an attempt to engage and
influence the audience.

Form: candidates may use some stylistic conventions of an article such as

heading, sub-heading or occasional use of bullet points. Candidates should not
include features of layout such as pictures. There should be clear organisation
with an introduction, development of points and a conclusion.

Responses may:
• explore the benefits to physical wellbeing of taking part in sport such as
improved fitness, maintaining a healthy weight, reduced risk of certain
ailments, good hand-eye coordination
• consider the mental health benefits of taking part in sport, for example: a
reduction in anxiety, a sense of wellbeing created by endorphins,
improved self-esteem
• look at any other advantages of taking part in sport such as building new
friendship groups, travelling to new places
• examine what new skills might be acquired through sports participation
such as how to work as part of a team, strategies to deal with difficult
situations, learning to manage disappointment and/or success
• write from a personal or more general point of view
• include anecdote, ‘statistics’, ‘expert’ opinion.

The best-fit approach

An answer may not always satisfy every one of the assessment criteria for a
particular level in order to receive a mark within that level range, since on
individual criteria the answer may meet the descriptor for a higher or lower mark
range. The best-fit approach should be used to determine the mark which
corresponds most closely to the overall quality of the response.

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Writing assessment grids for Questions 6 and 7

Questions 6 and 7

Level Mark AO4 Communicate effectively and imaginatively, adapting form, tone and
register of writing for specific purposes and audiences.

0 No rewardable material.
Level 1 1–5 • Communication is at a basic level, and limited in clarity.
• Little awareness is shown of the purpose of the writing and the
intended reader.
• Little awareness of form, tone and register.
Level 2 6–11 • Communicates in a broadly appropriate way.
• Shows some grasp of the purpose and of the expectations/
requirements of the intended reader.
• Straightforward use of form, tone and register.
Level 3 12–17 • Communicates clearly.
• Shows a clear sense of purpose and understanding of the
expectations/requirements of the intended reader.
• Appropriate use of form, tone and register.
Level 4 18–22 • Communicates successfully.
• A secure realisation of purpose and the expectations/requirements
of the intended reader.
• Effective use of form, tone and register.

Level 5 23–27 • Communication is perceptive and subtle.

• Task is sharply focused on purpose and the expectations/
requirements of the intended reader.
• Sophisticated use of form, tone and register.

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Questions 6 and 7

Level Mark AO5 Write clearly, using a range of vocabulary and sentence structures, with
appropriate paragraphing and accurate spelling, grammar and
punctuation.
0 No rewardable material.
Level 1 1–3 • Expresses information and ideas, with limited use of
structural and grammatical features.
• Uses basic vocabulary, often misspelt.
• Uses punctuation with basic control, creating undeveloped,
often repetitive, sentence structures.
Level 2 4–7 • Expresses and orders information and ideas; uses paragraphs
and a range of structural and grammatical features.
• Uses some correctly spelt vocabulary, e.g. words with
regular patterns such as prefixes, suffixes, double
consonants.
• Uses punctuation with some control, creating a range of
sentence structures, including coordination and subordination.
Level 3 8–11 • Develops and connects appropriate information and ideas;
structural and grammatical features and paragraphing make
the meaning clear.
• Uses a varied vocabulary and spells words containing
irregular patterns correctly.
• Uses accurate and varied punctuation, adapting sentence
structures as appropriate.
Level 4 12–15 • Manages information and ideas, with structural and
grammatical features used cohesively and deliberately across
the text.
• Uses a wide, selective vocabulary with only occasional spelling
errors.
• Positions a range of punctuation for clarity, managing
sentence structures for deliberate effect.
Level 5 16–18 • Manipulates complex ideas, utilising a range of structural and
grammatical features to support coherence and cohesion.
• Uses extensive vocabulary strategically; rare spelling errors
do not detract from overall meaning.
• Punctuates writing with accuracy to aid emphasis and
precision, using a range of sentence structures accurately and
selectively to achieve particular effects.

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