Close Reading

Analysis Questions

What are Analysis Questions?

The ‘A’ code asks you to analyse the writer’s techniques.

HOW has the writer created a certain effect?

What TECHNIQUES have they used and more importantly, what are the EFFECTS of the technique.

You need to explain HOW the text delivers meaning.

A Common Error

Most marks are lost when candidates treat an Analysis Question as if it is an Understanding Question

Don’t explain WHAT is being said – explain HOW it is being said.

You are looking closely at the writer’s Style

Tips for Analysis Questions

• Quote from the text in your answer (to exemplify the technique being used)

• Comment on your quotations, explaining the EFFECT of the technique as fully and clearly as you can.

REMEMBER –

QUOTATION and EXPLANATION

Types of Analysis Questions

Questions deal with aspects of style. There are five broad categories:

Word choice and Expression

Figures of Speech

Sentence Structure (Punctuation)

Linking and General Structure

Tone

Analysis Questions will test your knowledge of literary techniques. Make sure you know them, can identify them and can comment on their effects.

Word Choice Questions

• The writer has selected their WORDs carefully. You need to work out why.

You must refer to the two meanings of the words in your answer:

• Denotation (Literal, factual, real meaning)

• Connotation (Symbollic meaning, associations of word)

Always think about how the meaning would be changed if another, more neutral word were used instead. This may help you work out the effect.

Exercise 1

Remember quote or find an expression in the text means you should copy a word or phrase exactly. If it says one word make sure you only write one word. Make sure for these types of question that you put your answer in inverted commas as you have taken it from the text.

You should always use a quotation/quotations in a word choice answer

You may also be asked to explain what a word means, e.g.:

Exercise 1

In the 2003 paper candidates were asked for a word which meant to ‘make a leisurely journey’.

Which of these words do you think was the answer? All are to do with movement. Only one, however, contains the idea of moving ‘leisurely’.

WentWanderedtravelled

Frequent Topics

Contrast

E.g. effect of contrasting word choice. To answer this candidates had to select words which were opposites or near opposites .

Jargon

This is technical language used by experts in a particular field (e.g. science/law etc)

Register

Means the type of language used.

E.g. one paper asked how the register in one section contrasted with the rest of the passage. In this case it was formal vs. informal.

The following table is to help you remember the main differences.

Frequent Topics

Formal Informal

Complete forms of verbs, e.g. I did not

Abbreviations, e.g. I didn’t

Complex, more intellectual words/phrases, e.g. ‘inevitable compromise’

Simple, everyday words/phrases, e.g. ‘give in’

Longer, more complex sentences; all sentences will be grammatically complete

Short simple sentences; some sentences may be minor sentences, without verbs, or start with words like ‘and’ and ‘but’

‘Literary’ punctuation marks, such as semi-colons and colons.

Simple punctuation marks such as commas, question marks, full stops and exclamation marks

Standard English, e.g. ‘beautiful’, ‘very important’

Dialect or slang forms, e.g. ‘bonnie’, ‘a big deal’

A distant, impersonal tone A chatty, friendly tone

Dialect

• Dialect is the name given to the style of spoken language in a particular area of the English speaking world.

• E.g. Scots

• Standard English – style of English understood everywhere

AdviceWord choice is often important in creating a mood.

The use of a large number of positive words will create a cheerful, upbeat impression, while a series of negative words will do the opposite.

Tone

• Tone is the personal flavour which a writer puts into his writing.

• Tone will reveal his feelings/attitude to his topic

• You must be able to IDENTIFY the tone and explain HOW it is created

• Tone may be created through a combination of language features/techniques

Example Tones• Humorous/Light-hearted – expressed by making jokes and using techniques

such as hyperbole. Purpose to amuse reader, poke fun at subject or him/herself

• Ironic/Sarcastic/Tongue and Cheek – Used if the writer wishes to criticise or mock something in a humorous way. Often done by saying the opposite of what is meant.

• Emotive – Aims to stir up emotions such as anger, pity or sympathy. Strong, emotional words are used. Details involving young or vulnerable people may be expressed.

Example Tones• Colloquial/chatty – The writer uses slang, abbreviations and short

sentences as if chatting to the reader. Often personal comments included, personal pronouns, 2nd person ‘you’.

• Persuasive/argumentative – Very positive expressions, such as superlative adjectives (‘best’, ‘biggest’). Typical of advertisements. Emotive language. Putting across opinion – rhetorical questions and use of the 1st person.

ExerciseIdentify the tone of the following extracts. Give at least one reason for each answer. The tone will be one of the following: informal, chatty, humorous, ironic, tongue in cheek.

1. There’s so much fascinating stuff to learn about this place, and that’s before you’ve got to the tricky business of remembering what everything is called.

Exercise2. A revolution is happening in the communications industry: ad

copywriters like me are standing back and watching as real people talk to real people. The scandal!

3. The moment I stepped into the taxi I knew something was wrong. For a start the driver was called Eddie and taxi drivers in New York shouldn’t have names.

Exercise

4. Take it from me, if you are in an open space with no weapons and a grizzly comes for you, run. You may as well.

5. ‘Hey everyone’, I call. I realise that the clients are all looking the other way. It turns out that we are not more than 50 yards from a small herd of giraffe. Actually, it’s 100 yards now. Not only was I the last to spot them, my shouting has scared them off.

TipsIf you are stuck swap the word/phrase for a more neutral one and this will often make the force of the word clearer.

• Quote to illustrate your answer• Comment, making a separate and precise

comment on each example.• Pick one example (quotation and

comment) for each available mark.

Figurative Language

The following figures of speech appear most frequently:

• Alliteration• Onomatopoeia• Simile• Metaphor• Personification• Hyperbole and Litotes• Oxymoron• Paradox• Pun/play on words – one word having two different meanings creates humour.

Imagery

• Combined term for figurative language, simile, personification, metaphor etc.

You must:

• Identify the image• Explain why it is effective.

The image is whatever thing the comparison is being made to. For example, when a writer describes the experience of camping out at night in ‘an inky wilderness’. He is comparing the surroundings to ink, which is black. This is an effective image as it tells us there is no light at all.

‘The wind is a mad travel agent, with a malicious and surrealist turn of wit. You want to go to France – the wind will maroon you for ten days at Dover. You want to go to the Shetland Islands, and the wind will make you spend a week in Bridlington as penance for your vanity. You can’t move without the wind’s consent, and when you do move, you find yourself suddenly rescheduled, headed for a destination that you hadn’t heard of ten minutes ago.

The purpose of lines 41-54 is to illustrate how the wind makes travelling in a small boat an adventure.Giving an example to support your answer, explain how the writer has used imagery to do this. (2 marks A code)

Sample Answer

The image used here is an example of personification. The wind is compared to ‘a mad travel agent’ who sends people to places they don’t want to go to and have not heard of. The image of being ‘suddenly rescheduled’ explains effectively how the changing wind forces the sailor to change his course, just as if a travel agent had sent a holiday-maker tickets to a place he had not chosen to go to.

Exercise 1

The Close reading paper in 2004 was an account of the experiences of a trainee safari guide in the African bush. He began by describing how everyone feels before a big event:

‘…as if they had just jumped out of a plane at the start of their first-ever sky dive, and realised they had forgotten their parachute’.

Explain how the writer has used imagery to explain how people feel.

Exercise 2

In the 2003 paper on Science and Scientists, the writer compared people who studied science to:

The rest of us who chose the gentler path of humanities subjects.

How does the writer’s imagery in this phrase help us understand his attitudes to science and non-science (humanities) subjects?

Look at the following answers. Only one of the answers is worth 2 marks. Which do you think it is and why?

• The imagery helps you to understand that the writer thinks humanities subjects are much easier than sciences while sciences are very difficult.

• The image of ‘the gentle path’ helps you understand that humanities are about gentle, kind things, while sciences are about harsher things.

• The writer thinks humanities subjects are easier. The image of students of humanities walking up a road which is less steep than the one scientists must walk up makes this clear, as it would require less effort.

Tips

With alliteration and onomatopoeia you must explain the effect of the sound that is being repeated.

Sound is closely related to meaning and tone. Many words, apart from the obvious ones like ‘buzz’ have an element of onomatopoeia.

Abrupt, heavy sounds like ‘d’, ‘b’ and ‘g’ are likely to have a punchy, blunt, aggressive tone. ‘D’ is often the initial letter in words with very negative meanings, such as ‘death’, ‘destruction’, ‘deadly’, ‘damned’.

‘T’, ‘p’ and ‘k’ are also abrupt, but lighter and sharper sounds. They might indicate neatness or preciseness: ‘perfect pike’.

Words beginning with ‘w’ seem to have a cold, sad sound, e.g. ‘wind’, ‘wet’, ‘weep’.

‘F’ and ‘s’ are very soft, gentle, whispering sounds which can be pronounced slowly.

‘L’, ‘m’ and ‘n’ are smooth, pleasant sounds which can also be prolonged. This group and the previous one often have a positive effect.

Certain combinations of sounds have particular effects, too.

‘Sl’ has a slithery sound and often begins words with unpleasant associations: ‘slime’, ‘slug’.

‘Cr’ has a grating, disturbing sound: ‘crack’, ‘crumble’.

Sometimes alliteration is used to create a humorous tone.

Exercise 1

‘A succession of soft suburban outings’.

Appeared in an article about sailing.

What is the effect of the writer’s use of alliteration in ‘a succession of soft suburban outings’? (Marks: 1, A code)

Exercise 2

• Pick out an example of alliteration in the following sentence from the passage about bears in America, and comment on its effect.

Nothing unnerved the native Americans more than the grizzly, and not surprisingly since you could riddle a grizzly with arrows - positively porcupine it – and it would still keep coming.

Pun/play on words

• A pun = a word with 2 different meanings being used to achieve a humorous effect.

• Play on words = an alternative word is used in a well-known phrase to create a comic effect (pun can also be called a play on words).

Such expressions are very popular with writers of newspaper headlines.

An article on obesity, for eg. was headed:

A FATTY NEW YEAR

Here, a similar word was substituted for the expected word ‘happy’

Exercise 1

A fashion article featured some sixth-year girls from a local secondary school who were photographed looking very glamorous in evening dresses.

The headline was: SCHOOL BELLES

Explain how this was appropriate for the article

Sentence Structure

The ‘structure of a sentence’ means the way which it is made up and how the various elements are arranged.

You must:

• Identify, describe the main features

AND• Explain their effect.

Tips

The most common reason for losing marks is commenting on something that is not sentence structure. Do not discuss ideas, or features such as word choice or alliteration. Even if it is right you will get no marks as you are not answering the question.

Look at punctuation. Punctuation is a key to sentence structure

Statements

• Tell you something. Most sentences are statements

• End in a full stop

• Most sentences are statements – Usually if other types are used you will have to comment.

• Writing full of statements – calm or impersonal tone.

Questions

• Ask something.

• Always end in a question mark.

• Challenge and involve the reader or show uncertainty in the writer

• Look out for rhetorical questions – what is expected answer? Aim to stir up strong emotions in the reader – emotive tone

Commands

• Tell you to do something.

• End with full stop or exclamation mark.

• Create effect of talking directly to the reader – getting involved.

• Creating specific feelings in the reader (empathy/sympathy), creating specific tone.

Exclamations

• Tell Express excitement, surprise or shock – conveying strong emotion.

• End with full stop or exclamation mark.

• Create effect of talking directly to the reader – getting involved.

• Creating specific feelings in the reader (empathy/sympathy), creating specific tone.

Minor Sentences

• Don’t contain a verb.

• E.g. ‘What now?’, ‘Time for a rest.’

• Very short and may create a tense or dramatic mood. Build up tension.

• Typical of informal language/slang.

Long Complex Sentences

• Contain several verbs and therefore several clauses.

• E.g. ‘It is merely to suspect that physicians marry quality with quantity when they judge how far to intervene.’

• Typical of written English, and usually, the more complex the sentence, the more formal the language.

• Contain complex ideas.

Short Simple Sentences

• Contain only one verb.

• E.g. ‘The older generation are a canny bunch.’

• Typical of speech and types of language that aim to communicate very quickly and directly.

• Have impact.

Patterns in Sentences

• List (may follow a colon or dash) - Provides detail/complexity, sense of action, building up of ideas, points etc

• Repetition - Repeated ideas will be emphasised/highlighted

• Climax/Anti-climax (following a list - Creates suspense/shows easing of tension

Other things to look out for:

• Tense – past/present/future

• Parts of speech – nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions – comment on effect of these, particularly unusual use.

• Parenthesis – extra piece of information, comment or clarification (within commas, brackets or dashes)

• Choice of person/voice – first or third

Parenthesis Examples:

• ‘A girl, not of her set, called Judith, giggled.’

• ‘On the friendly Greek Island of Cephalonia, the Elephtherious (try saying that with a mouthful of moussaka) will welcome you with open arms.’

• ‘The responsibility of the officer is to look after, to supervise, to lead (whatever that means).’

Exercise 1

Try and decide which technique is used in each of the following close reading extracts:

Where do you think you’d get a more satisfactory picture of the safety of Sellafield? The visitors’ centre? Or the pub down the road where the boffins knock off for a swifty after work? Exactly.

When they’re tackling questions in the pub, boffins leave the science bit alone because otherwise they see our eyes glaze over. They speak to our concerns as individuals. They generalise. They speculate. They are not rigorous in their explanations. They become unscientific.

One by one, Dave throws names at me. One by one, I forgot them.

In the case of New York taxis, they have the kind of drivers that are imported for the purpose of scaring you witless. It works.

Furious, the bear turned and gave chase- despite its lolloping gait, a bear can move up to 35 m.p.h. – and the two boys scrambled up trees.

Joe Betts was born in Queens, grew up in Brooklyn and was almost discovered at the 1964 World fair in New York at which he came second in the Battle of the Bands.

Dave introduced me to the vast range of skills that a safari guide needs; we’ve worked on Jeep and boat handling, plant and animal identification, tracking, safety, conversation issues and local politics.

Only when the taxi was out of sight did I realise he hadn’t given me change.

Commas (,)

• Separate phrases and clauses within a sentence

• A number of commas may indicate a list

• Can be used for parenthesis

• Used to create a brief pause

A Colon (:)

• Introduces a quotation or a list

• May balance two clauses of equal importance

• Can introduce and explanation or elaboration, or a summing up

A Semi-colon (;)

• Used where a longer pause than a comma is needed

• Used to break up a list of phrases rather than individual words

• Usually to indicate an expansion of an idea in the second part of the sentence

• Used instead of a conjunction to separate two principal clauses in a sentence

Inverted Commas (“”) or (‘’)

• Used to indicate direct speech, quotations and titles

• Shows a foreign/technical word

• Also shows when a word is not to be taken literally – word used in an unusual way

• Can show the writer has a different opinion – italics can also be used

Ellipses (…)

• Used to show uncertainty, trailing off of a sentence/thought/idea, hesitancy

• Can show something left unfinished/incomplete, unsaid

• Can suggest tension

• Ellipses refers to dots within a sentence. Aposiopeses is at end of sentence

In Analysis Questions…

• Always use the what/why principle:

- WHAT – what the technique isIDENTIFICATION

- Why – why it is being used i.e. its effectEXPLANATION

Linking and General Structure

The word ‘Structure’ suggests a building.

A piece of writing is built up using an introduction, the main text and a conclusion.

The various parts of the text will be linked by words, phrases and sentences which act as ‘mortar’ (joining the argument together – showing direction)

The Link Question

• Common type of structure question

• It will ask you how one or more sentences provide a link between two topics which follow one another.

• The link sentence provides a connection between the topics so that the reader can progress through the whole argument by logical steps.

The Link Question

• Look for transitional markers

• Find the part of the sentence that refers back to the topic of the last paragraph and

• Explain how the sentence introduces the next idea/topic in the argument (Looking forward)

How to answer a link question:

Four elements are required:

• Two quotations from the linking sentence(s), one referring to the previous topic and one to the topic that follows it.

• Two very brief summaries of the topics, in your own words

ExampleTaken from a fifth paragraph of a Close Reading paper:

‘So let us imagine that a bear does go for us out in the wilds. What are we to do?

The words ‘a bear does go for us’ refer back to the previous paragraph in which the author had talked about bears attacking people. The question ‘what are we to do?’ links forward to the next topic, which is a discussion of the advice given to people who are being attacked.

Question: How does the first sentence of the second paragraph form a link in the argument?

Following the Roman invasion in 43 AD, the south of Britain was totally subdued within thirty years; many Britons were sold as slaves and the land was covered with Roman roads and towns. Soon, south Britain was to be a complete Roman province, the townsmen speaking Latin and building for themselves those comfortable Roman houses with central heating. A Roman temple to the god Mithras has been excavated in the heart of London.

But, unlike their easy victory in the south, the north of the country resisted the foreign invaders. Here the Romans were never able to do more than hold down the natives for short periods. There were no Roman towns, no country houses, no temples, only forts and camps where soldiers lived for a time.

Example Answer

The words ‘easy victory in the south’ refer back to the Romans’ quick transformation of Southern Britain which is discussed in the previous paragraph.

The words ‘the north of the country resisted’ link to the next idea which describes how little the Romans were able to achieve in the north.