Developing Analysis

Developing Analysis

Learning intentions • To develop ‘explanation’ sections of paragraphs • To be confident using more than one piece of evidence • To embed quotations within a sentence • To vary explanatory vocabulary

Critical Essays • Just like close reading, critical essay writing tests three skills: • UNDERSTANDING • ANALYSIS • EVALUATION

Understanding • This is the easy part. You will demonstrate understanding through: • Summarising • Choosing appropriate ‘Points’ to make • Remembering and using quotations • Explaining the context of a quotation

Analysis • This is part of your ‘explanation’. • You need to show how and why a specific feature of language has been used. • For example, when analysing similes, you talk about what is being compared and what the connotations are.

Evaluation • This is the second part of your explanation. • You are explaining how effective the language is, • You are explaining what effect it has on you, • You are explaining how it fits the question

Four-part explanation • 1) How/why the feature of language has been used • 2) How effective it is • 3) Your personal reaction to it • 4) How it links to the question

Choose a poem which has an important message. Owen uses similes to show the true state of the soldiers during WWI. The poem opens with the description, ‘Bent double, like beggars under sacks…’

Four-part explanation • Owen compares the soldiers, who are typically thought of as bold and noble, to sickly, dishevelled creatures who are usually disregarded by society. • This is effective because it emphasises how the war did not create heroes, but made men shells of what they used to be, with no honour or glory.

3) The comparison forces the reader to understand the true effects war has on a soldier. • 4) By using this comparison, Owen conveys the important message that the reality of war is far from the glamorous idea some people possessed.

Your turn • Take the next simile in the poem, and do a four step explanation.

Word Choice • A further technique Owen uses to show the true horror of war is word choice. In stanza one, Owen describes the soldiers as ‘lame’ and ‘blood-shod’. • 1) ‘Lame’ means to have lost the use of a leg, and ‘blood-shod’ suggests the men have been shoed like horses, but with blood. • 2) These are effective examples of word choice because… • 3) ….. • 4)……

Varying your vocabulary • This shows… • This highlights… • This conveys… • This creates… • This emphasises… • This proves… • This suggests… • This displays… • This describes… • This portrays…

Using several pieces of evidence • You have written two paragraphs on the use of similes in the poem. However, you could easily write one paragraph on similes, using more evidence. • Using more evidence shows you have a strong knowledge of the text, and strengthens the point you are making.

Transferred Epithets • To convey the horror of war, Owen deploys a number of transferred epithets. In stanza one, he refers to the ‘haunting flares’, suggesting that the presence of death constantly surrounds the soldiers. The technique is used again when Owen describes the ‘clumsy helmets’ in stanza two, highlighting the soldiers’ panicked desperation to survive.

The transferred epithets effectively highlight the reality of war, as both show the soldiers are not reacting in the heroic way they are expected to – they are both resigned to death, and desperate to avoid it. • This evokes sympathy in the reader, as we feel that the soldiers are normal people, frightened by a terrifying situation. • The message of war as a place of horror rather than nobility is strongly displayed through these transferred epithets which show the true emotions of the men.

Your turn • Now choose another technique – metaphor, word choice, theme – and use at least two pieces of evidence in your paragraph.

Learning review • What did you find useful today? • What did you not find useful? • What else can I do to help you develop your essay skills?

Developing Analysis