Close Reading

1. Close Reading Analysis Questions

2. 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.

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.:

8. 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’. Went Wandered travelled

9. 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)

10. Frequent Topics 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.

12. 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

13. Advice Word 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.

14. 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

15. 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.

16. 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.

17. Exercise Identify 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. • 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.

18. Exercise 2. 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.

19. 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.

20. Tips If 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.

21. 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.

22. Imagery • Combined term for figurative language, simile, personification, metaphor etc. • You must: • Identify the image • Explain why it is effective.

23. 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.

24. ‘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)

25. 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.

26. 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.

27. 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?

28. 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.

29. 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.

30. 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’.

31. 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.

32. 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.

33. 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)

34. 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.

35. 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).

36. 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’

37. 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

38. 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.

39. 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

40. 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.

41. 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

42. 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.

43. 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.

44. 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.

45. 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.

46. 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.

47. 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

48. 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

49. 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).’

50. 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.