Reading comprehension

An inference

HintYou read between the lines — the writer leaves the clue, you supply the meaning.

The whyRetrieval finds words that are actually on the page; an inference builds on them. Questions signal it with verbs like 'suggests' or 'implies'.

An opinion

Hint'Everyone agrees' is a trick — ask whether any measurement or record could settle it.

The why'Everyone agrees' and 'finest' cannot be checked, so this is a view dressed up as a fact. Writers use the disguise to make a view sound settled.

Skimming

HintYou want the shape of the whole piece, not one detail — the stone bouncing across the pond.

The whyYou use it to decide whether a text is worth reading properly, or to grasp the shape of an article before answering questions on it.

synthesis

HintNot shrinking one article, but welding matching details from a pair of them together.

The whyIt is the skill behind the two-source question on a GCSE English Language paper: each detail from one article is matched to its partner in the other, and the link is stated rather than left for the examiner to spot.

Context

HintThe company a word keeps — everything around it that narrows down what it could mean.

The whyGood readers guess from the sentence before reaching for a dictionary. The words either side usually rule out most meanings on their own.

Summarising

HintWhat you do when a friend asks what a film was about and you have thirty seconds.

The whyA good one keeps the main ideas and drops the examples. Copying whole sentences out of the passage is the commonest way to lose marks here.

A quotation

HintThe bit you lift word for word and fence off with speech marks.

The whyThe best ones are short — a few words you can actually pick apart. A whole sentence dropped in usually carries more than you can explain.

An advertorial

HintA blend of two words: one for selling, one for a paper's own opinion column.

The whyWorking out purpose and audience is the first move in any analysis, and it is hardest when a text hides them — a sponsored post, a press release printed as news, or this. Ask who paid for the words.

Second person

HintRare in novels, common in instructions and choose-your-own-adventure books.

The whyIt is the rarest viewpoint in fiction because it drags the reader into the character's shoes; writers use it to unsettle, or to give instructions.

Biased

HintThe word for a referee who wants one team to win.

The whyIt shows in what is left out as much as in what is said. Loaded word choices and one-sided evidence are the usual giveaways.

Sarcasm

Hint'Well, that went brilliantly,' said just after dropping the cake.

The whyTone of voice carries it in speech; in writing you have to spot it from the mismatch between the words and the situation around them.

An unreliable narrator

HintThe story comes from someone who lies, forgets, or does not understand what they are seeing.

The whyThe reader has to read past the telling to work out what actually happened, and the gap between the two is usually the point of the book.