Close Reading

1. Close Reading Analysis Questions – Sentence Structure: Punctuation

2. Analysis Questions • Understanding Questions – What has the writer said? • Analysis Questions – How has the writer said it? • This type of question tests your ability to identify (using appropriate terminology) and examine the techniques or language features the writer has used to put his/her ideas across.

3. Analysis Questions - Structure When writing an answer to an analysis question, it is helpful to apply the following structure: • Identify unusual language features you have discovered, quoting them where necessary. • Explain what the feature you have identified contributes to the passage. For Example: • The writer uses repetition: “The boy was really, really tired.” • The repetition of the word “really” is used to emphasise the point that the boy was extremely tired.

4. Close Reading Analysis Questions – Sentence Structure

5. Analysis Questions – Sentence Structure Some of the most common features of sentence structure are: • The type of sentences used. • The way in which sentences are grouped in paragraphs. • The punctuation used to separate and link different types of sentence. • The use of sentence patterns.

6. Close Reading Analysis Questions – Sentence Structure: Punctuation

7. Sentence Structure: Punctuation • Punctuation is a tool that writers use to organise the words in their writing. • It is used to: • separate ideas into distinct sentences; • organise and connect information within sentences. • Therefore punctuation is vitally important when considering sentence structure.

8. Sentence Structure: Punctuation • There are many different uses of punctuation in the English language. • Some uses of punctuation that crop up most commonly in Close Reading questions will be outlined in the following slides: • Inverted Commas • Colons • Semi-colons • Parenthesis • Dashes • However, it is important to bear in mind that there are many others.

9. Punctuation: Inverted Commas Inverted commas serve four main purposes: • To indicate the title of a play, poem, film, etc. • “The Crucible”, “War Photographer”, “Neighbours” • To indicate direct speech • “Did you have a good weekend?” asked Anne. • To indicate a quotation • Duffy describes the war photographer: “a priest preparing to intone a mass”. • To indicate that the writer is in some way distancing him/herself from the words contained in the inverted commas. • In Victorian times foreign travel was the preserve of the “superior” classes of society.

10. Punctuation: Colons Colons serve three main purposes: • To introduce a quotation: • Duffy describes the war photographer: “a priest preparing to intone a mass”. • To introduce a list • I went to the shops and bought the following items: some fruit, a loaf of bread, a newspaper and a pint of milk. • To indicate an explanation or expansion of the previous statement: • The boy missed his bus: he had been up until four the previous morning and therefore slept in.

11. Punctuation: Semi-colons Semi-colons serve two main purposes: • To function as a full stop between two closely connected ideas: • The sentence was never carried out; the man was allowed to go free. • To separate items in a list • I went to the shops and bought the following items: some fruit, a loaf of bread, a newspaper and a pint of milk. • I went to the shops and bought the following items: some fruit, including bananas, apples and pears; a loaf of bread, as we had recently run out; a newspaper, to read the football results; and a pint of milk.

12. Punctuation: Parenthesis • Parenthesis is the technique of using punctuation to mark off information in order to distinguish it from the rest of the sentence. • The information contained in the parenthesis isn’t essential to the technical construction of the sentence. • Parenthesis can be created by using a range of punctuation: • Commas • The boy, who had been up until four o’clock in the morning, slept in and missed his bus. • Brackets • The boy (who had been up until four o’clock in the morning) slept in and missed his bus. • Dashes • The boy – who had been up until four o’clock in the morning – slept in and missed his bus.

13. Punctuation: Dashes Dashes serve three main purposes: • To indicate an explanation or expansion of the previous statement (in the same way a colon does): • The boy missed his bus – he had been up until four the previous morning and therefore slept in. • To indicate parenthesis • The boy – who had been up until four o’clock in the morning – slept in and missed his bus. • To indicate breaking off mid-sentence: • “What on earth – ” This last effect can also be achieved by using ellipsis: • “What on earth … ”

14. Punctuation: Sample Question Comment on the writer’s use of sentence structure in the following extract: At this time pass all the characters of the Spanish streets: the dark-veiled women hurrying home from the priest; the Civil Guard whom nobody greets; gold-skinned sailors and strutting carters; goat-faced ruffians down from the hills; and old men with the hollow eyes of hermits – their skin stretched thin on chill ascetic bones.