Analysis of Word Choice and Imagery in Writing

1. Analysing Word Choice and Imagery (and the Link Question) Higher/Intermediate 2

2. Word Choice • IDENTIFICATION = try to comment on individual/single words • EXPLANATION EXPLAINDENOTATION (literal meaning) EXPLAINCONNOTATIONS (suggestions of word) ANSWER the QUESTION– link analysis to what you have been asked to show.

3. Example But anyone connected to normal life knows why so many parents find it easier to not work. Because every morning outside most schools the working parents are involved in negotiations. How does the writer’s word choice show how difficult it is to arrange childcare while working?

4. Suggested Answer The writer’s use of ‘Negotiations’,meaning to discuss something in order to come to an agreement,suggests that it is a difficult and complex process in order to arrange childcarebecause it involves compromise and a variety of different people getting involved.

5. This is all made worse by the frustrating English notion that kids are basically a nuisance. For example, try going into a pub with your kids and the landlord will dive across to snarl ‘GET THEM OUT’ as if you walked in with a flock of sneezing turkeys. Worst of all are those Wetherspoons pubs, where the policy seems to be that children are barred because they might ruin the atmosphere by giggling, which would spoil the carefully cultivated ambience of wretched misery. How does the writer’s word choice convey how British pub landlords view children?

6. Most workplaces act as if having kids is a peculiar hobby. You might as well say you’ve got to get back to feed your octopus. How does the writer’s word choice suggest how most workplaces view having children?

7. They greeted each other timidly at first, as though they were strangers on a blind date, but as the conversation spluttered to a start, the pair began to relax. After only half an hour they began to get on like a house on fire. The conversation began to flow and the lively recalling of memories filled them both with a familiar warmth. How does the writer use word choice to convey the changing relationship between the characters?

8. At the last corner before the school’s street they both halted in an accustomed way and he squatted down to give her a kiss. She didn’t mind the ritual but not outside the gates: her pals might see that would be too embarrassing. How does the writer use word choice to suggest that the couple regularly make this stop?

9. I have huge admiration for women like Karren Brady, vice-chairman of West Ham, and Sian Massey, who must hear remarks from the terraces every Saturday which make Andy’s offside jibe look like Gray’s Elegy. But it’s a fact that football remains an intensely masculine arena, a field of dreams in which the domesticated male, feeling downtrodden at work and home, can let his atavistic, very unmodern self off the leash. The other day I was asked, not very politely, to leave the room where my own menfolk were watching a Chelsea match. How does the writer use word choice to suggest that men see football as an escape from everyday life?

10. Imagery • IDENTIFICATION = identify (by quoting) the image and if possible what type of image it is (simile, metaphor, personification) • EXPLANATION EXPLAINLITERAL ROOT of image – its literal meaning, what the comparison is EXPLAINMETAPHORICAL MEANING – what is suggested by the comparison ANSWER the QUESTION– link analysis to what you have been asked to show.

11. EXAMPLE At times, teaching is just like banging your head against a brick wall. How does the writer’s imagery show his feelings about teaching as a career choice?

12. SUGGESTED ANSWER The writer uses the simile ‘banging your head against a brick wall’ to convey his feelings that teaching can be unrewarding. JUST AS‘banging your head against a brick wall’would be painful, pointless and ultimately unproductive, SOthe writer is suggesting teaching can be a struggle which is difficult, unrewarding and at times does not achieve anything.

13. But, whether they are transient or would-be settlers, they face an uphill battle trying to find employment. People with real skills and talents to offer us find themselves in the black economy, or unemployed, because of a sluggish system of processing applications, allied to regulations which preclude the legal marketplace. How does the writer use imagery to reveal how difficult it is to find employment?

14. A 27 year-old man who used to be known as Jon Venables has been taken into custody for an undisclosed reason at an unknown location. That is all there is to say, or should be. But this simple news item has been wilfully exploded into a stream of righteous wrath owing to what this man did 17 years ago. It is as well we should remind ourselves what this was, and examine why we should delight in recalling the horror all over again. For that is what is happening. How does the writer use imagery to suggest the news item has been blown out of proportion?

15. This is all made worse by the frustrating English notion that kids are basically a nuisance. For example, try going into a pub with your kids and the landlord will dive across to snarl ‘GET THEM OUT’ as if you walked in with a flock of sneezing turkeys. Worst of all are those Wetherspoons pubs, where the policy seems to be that children are barred because they might ruin the atmosphere by giggling, which would spoil the carefully cultivated ambience of wretched misery. How does the writer’s imagery convey how British pub landlords view children?

16. They greeted each other timidly at first, as though they were strangers on a blind date, but as the conversation spluttered to a start, the pair began to relax. After only half an hour they began to get on like a house on fire. The conversation began to flow and the lively recalling of memories filled them both with a familiar warmth. How does the writer use imagery to convey the changing relationship between the characters?

17. He told her to take a seat while he called security, but when he turned from her she let out a thin wail that made him recoil from the phone. She had both her temples between her hands, as if afraid her head might explode. She let out another shrill wail. It ripped out of her like something wild kept prisoner for years. It seemed to make the room shrink around them. How does the writer use imagery to suggest how emotional the woman is?

18. The Link Question • QUOTE the words/phrase that link back • EXPLAIN in your own words exactly what they link back to (sum up the writer’s previous point) • QUOTE the words/phrase that refers on or introduces the next point • EXPLAIN in your own words what they introduce (sum up the writer’s next point)

19. EXAMPLE And now there’s added pressure as you’re expected to play a role in elaborate piles of homework. Even if your child is at junior school, they’ll come home with a note saying: ‘Please be aware that next Monday is the start of Sanskrit Week. As all our pupils will required to make a presentation during assembly in Sanskrit, please ensure your child has a working knowledge of this language, and two choices of South Asian costume for each day.’ This is all made worse by the frustrating English notion that kids are basically a nuisance. For example, try going into a pub with your kids and the landlord will dive across to snarl ‘GET THEM OUT’ as if you walked in with a flock of sneezing turkeys. Worst of all are those Wetherspoons pubs, where the policy seems to be that children are barred because they might ruin the atmosphere by giggling, which would spoil the carefully cultivated ambience of wretched misery. How does ‘This is… a nuisance’ act as a link at this point in the writer’s argument?

20. SUGGESTED ANSWER ‘This is all made worse’links back to the writer’s discussion of the pressure put on working single parents by schools who expect them to take an active role in their child’s education. ‘basically a nuisance’introduces the writer’s next point about how children are viewed by pub landlords.

21. Sometimes this panic about childcare makes you feel terrible. You hear your child suddenly scream in agony and your first thought is, ‘Oh my god, I hope they haven’t broken their leg, as I’ve no idea what I’d do with them all day.’ And now there’s added pressure as you’re expected to play a role in elaborate piles of homework. Even if your child is at junior school, they’ll come home with a note saying: ‘Please be aware that next Monday is the start of Sanskrit Week. As all our pupils will required to make a presentation during assembly in Sanskrit, please ensure your child has a working knowledge of this language, and two choices of South Asian costume for each day.’ How does ‘And now…piles of homework’ act as a link at this point in the writer’s argument?

22. And somehow these parents must be forced into work, because we can’t continue to fund people who are draining the resources on the state, etc. But it’s not easy to see where these jobs might be. For example, one job traditionally suitable for mothers was working in local banks, but these have mostly shut down. Luckily, all this shedding of staff has helped banks become more profitable than ever, so HSBC has been able to award three of their top executives a pay deal worth £18 million, which would pay the benefits of 5,000 single parents for a year. So presumably there will now be a Government think-tank into how to stop the burden of ever-increasing handouts to bank-executives. How does ‘Luckily…parents for a year.’ act as a link at this point in the writer’s argument?

23. Cryonics isn’t the science of weeping but, rather, the idea that you can preserve folk at shiveringly low temperatures and defrost them in the future. Mr DJ Maclennan, 36, of Skye, is making £40-a-month insurance payments to cover the £40,000 cost of having his brain bunged into a flask and frozen in the desert. For £70,000, you can have your whole body done, but I suppose that depends if you like the thing or not. Personally, I’d rather have a new one. One that does what it’s telt. And DJ reckons they might be able to regenerate something for you. Many of you will think this business queasy or sinister. The fear is that your brain comes alive in the future, but has to be permanently attached to machines, or housed in a Dalek-like structure. But Mr Maclennan has thought carefully about all this, and I like the cut of his jib. He’s a Mac, has a beard and lives in a wonderful place. It might be handier if he lived near Phoenix, Arizona, right enough, since that’s where they do the freezing. How does ‘Many of you…queasy or sinister.’ act as a link at this point in the writer’s argument?

24. The crime was very nasty indeed, and the boys were justly punished for it. But the crowd wanted something more. They beat their fists upon the van that carried the boys to and from court, baying for vengeance. It seems the fists are still clenched, even today, and the desire for blood unquenched. We cannot feel anger at this man who was detained yesterday, for we no longer know who he is. He may be married. He may be a father. He may have a job. He may be kind and considerate. He may be rotten and deceitful. He may have shoplifted. He may have sold drugs. It does not matter, for we are not interested in him; we are interested in the little boy who terrified us with his malice all those years ago, and we do not want to let that shudder evaporate and lose its power. How does ‘We cannot…know who he is.’ act as a link at this point in the writer’s argument?