Perspectives on community, local and global issues: QCE Essential English Unit 3
“Identify and explain the perspectives on community, local and global issues presented in texts, including whose voices are included or left out, and select and use subject matter to support a perspective in your own texts”
Texts construct perspectives on community, local and global issues through selection, omission, framing, word choice, emphasis and whose voices are included. Ask whose perspective it is and who is missing. In your own texts, select relevant, varied subject matter that supports your perspective and responds to an opposing view.
Jump to a section
What this dot point is asking
Unit 3 focuses on creating and shaping perspectives on community, local and global issues. You need to identify the perspective a text presents, explain how the text constructs it, notice whose voices are heard or silenced, and select subject matter to support your own perspective when you create texts.
The answer
Issues at three scales
- Community issues: within a group you belong to (school rules, a sports club decision).
- Local issues: affecting a suburb, town or region (a new road, a local business closing, youth services).
- Global issues: affecting people worldwide (climate change, online privacy, access to clean water).
How texts construct perspectives
- Selection: which facts, examples, people and images are included.
- Omission: what and who is left out.
- Framing: how the issue is defined (a safety issue, a money issue, a freedom issue).
- Language: connotations of words ("protesters" or "activists", "development" or "overdevelopment").
- Placement and emphasis: what appears first, largest or most often.
- Voices: whose opinions are quoted and whether they are presented as experts or as ordinary people.
Whose perspective is this? Who benefits if I agree? Whose voices are included, and whose are missing? What has been left out? How would the text change if someone else wrote it?
Selecting subject matter for your own texts
When you create a text (such as a spoken response), choose subject matter that:
- clearly supports your perspective;
- is relevant and convincing for your audience (local examples for a local audience);
- mixes evidence types (facts, examples, personal stories, expert views);
- acknowledges and responds to an opposing view, which makes you more credible.
An invented news story headlined "Youth Crime Wave Grips Town" includes a police statistic, a quote from a shop owner and a photo of a smashed window.
- Perspective: young people are a threat to the town.
- Selection and language: "wave" and "grips" suggest an overwhelming, frightening problem.
- Omission: no young people, youth workers or data on the causes of crime are included.
- Effect: readers are positioned to fear young people and support tougher policing rather than youth services.
- Alternative perspective: a youth worker might frame the issue as a lack of activities and support for teenagers.
- Confusing a topic with a perspective
- "Plastic waste" is a topic; "plastic bags should be banned" is a perspective.
- Treating news as neutral
- Selection and framing always shape the message.
- Ignoring your own audience
- Choose subject matter that will matter to the people you are addressing.
Practice questions
Original practice questions graded from foundation to exam level, each with a full worked solution. Try them before revealing the solution.
foundation3 marksAn invented local newspaper article about a proposed skate park quotes two angry neighbours and the council's noise report, but no young people. Identify the perspective presented and explain one effect of the omission.Show worked solution →
- Perspective
- the skate park is a noisy problem for residents.
- Omission
- young people, who would use the park, are not quoted.
- Effect
- readers only hear objections, so the article positions them to oppose the park and makes the benefits for young people invisible.
Marking guide: 1 mark for the perspective, 1 mark for the omission, 1 mark for its effect.
core4 marksExplain how the same issue, a four-day school week, could be framed from two different perspectives, giving an example of word choice for each.Show worked solution →
Framed as a wellbeing gain (a student perspective): "A four-day week would give exhausted students time to rest and recharge." The words "exhausted" and "recharge" present the change as healthy and caring.
Framed as a care burden (a working parent perspective): "A four-day week would leave working families scrambling for childcare." "Scrambling" suggests stress and disruption, framing the change as a problem for families.
The issue is the same, but framing and word choice guide the audience towards different conclusions.
Marking guide: 2 marks per perspective with a word-choice example and explanation.
exam6 marksPlan a short opinion piece for your school newsletter on a community issue of your choice. Show how you would select subject matter to support your perspective and acknowledge an opposing view.Show worked solution →
Example plan: Issue: the school should install water refill stations and ban single-use plastic bottles at the canteen.
- Perspective and thesis: "Our school can cut plastic waste and save families money by switching to refill stations."
- Subject matter selected: a count of bottles collected in one week of bin audits (local evidence), the cost of bottled water compared with refilling, a quote from the Year 12 environment captain, and an image of a full recycling bin.
- Why these choices: local evidence feels relevant to the audience (parents and students); cost appeals to families; a student voice shows support from the school community.
- Opposing view acknowledged: some students forget bottles; response: the canteen could sell low-cost reusable bottles.
- Language choices: inclusive "our school", a rhetorical question, and a clear call to action at the end.
Marking guide: 1 mark for a clear perspective, 2 marks for selected subject matter with reasons, 1 mark for acknowledging an opposing view, 1 mark for audience-aware language, 1 mark for a logical structure.