Close Reading Workshop

1. Close Reading Workshop Linking Questions: Revision

2. Remember! You are being asked to show how a certain sentence acts as a link between two paragraphs at a particular point in the passage.

3. Remember! • Linking questions are Analysis questions and are usually worth 2 marks.

4. Remember! Four-step-method: • Step 1. Quote. • Step 2. Link back. • Step 3. Quote again. • Step 4. Link forward.

5. Remember! Four-step-method: Step 1: • Quote from the linking sentence. Step 2: • Show how that quote makes alink back to earlier in the passage, using your own words. Step 3: • Quote again from the linking sentence. Step 4: • Show how that second quotation makes a link forward to what is to come in the passage, using your own words.

6. Example question Show how the underlined sentence acts as a link at this point in the passage (2) Her mother left her at the age of five. As a result, she was forced to fend for and pay for herself: ensuring she had enough to eat; clothes to wear and shelter from the elements. Despite her harsh childhood, Emma’s ancestry linked her to wealth and social standing. Her grandmother was Lady of the local clan, with a grand manse and estate to her family name, which was renowned throughout the country.

7. Model Answer: ‘Despite her harsh childhood,’links back to the previous paragraph where the author writes about the poverty Emma experienced, as she was responsible for herself and had to find her own food, clothe herself and find her own lodgings. ‘Emma’s ancestry” links forward to where we are told that her family had owned a large home with a great deal of land. They were very well known and admired in their area.

8. Example Question Referring to specific words and/or phrases, show how the sentence “But nowadays . . . false.” performs a linking function in the writer’s argument (2)

9. So what do you do at these Olympics? Cherry-pick moments of glory and grace, and hope you have not been deceived? What, when you really think about it, is the alternative? You could reel back the years of Olympic history and, sure, only a dead soul would not feel surges of excitement: Seb Coe coming back at Steve Ovett in Moscow; Carl Lewis winning gold in Atlanta in 1996 with his last jump; Michael Johnson in his gold shoes after Muhammad Ali came blinking into the spotlight and lit the flame. But nowadays only a fool digs into the past without questioning, however fleetingly, what was true and what was false. You couldn’t go through the 1988 Olympics in Seoul and ever abandon the need to ask that question. There was never a betrayal like Ben Johnson’s. He took us to the stars with that 100 metres run, which etched disbelief on the face of second-placed Carl Lewis. He shattered the world record, and you knew when it happened you would never forget the coiled power that was released so astonishingly. And then, in the grey dawn of the following day, you saw him exposed as a drugs cheat, hustled to the airport, a stunned, inarticulate man, who for the rest of his life will say, in a halting voice forever invaded by bitterness, that he committed athletics’ only unforgivable sin—being caught.

10. “digs into the past” links back to the previous paragraph where the author describes some of the most memorable and incredible performances in the history of the Olympics. “what was true and what was false” links forward to where the author discusses how Ben Johnson’s incredible Olympic achievement turned out to be a result of drug-cheating.

11. “golden boy” links back to the previous paragraph where the author describes how, at school, Alastair was very successful academically and had many skills outwith the classroom, too. “sad contrast” links forward to where we are told of how Alastair did very poorly at university and he ended up leaving after struggling academically and with his mental health.