Literary essay skills, Year 10: language, structure and Shakespeare's verse

AO2

提示It comes between the objective for response and evidence and the one for context.

为什么AO2 asks you to analyse how the writer creates meanings and effects, using subject terms where they help.

The effect: what the metaphor suggests and why the writer chose it

提示Naming is only the first step.

为什么Spotting techniques without explaining them is often called feature-spotting. The explanation is what the analysis marks are for.

Its connotations

提示The term starts with con-.

为什么Analysing language usually means asking what a chosen word suggests beyond its plain meaning, and why a near-synonym would not do the same job.

Yes: explaining precisely what the words suggest is what matters

提示The objective says terminology should be used “where appropriate”.

为什么A correct term helps when it makes your point clearer. A clear explanation with no label is better than a label with no explanation.

The second treats the character as something the writer made, so it points to the writer's choices

提示One sentence has an extra person in it.

为什么Characters are not real people. Keeping the writer in your sentences keeps you analysing methods and purposes instead of retelling the story.

Form

提示It is the kind of text something is.

为什么Form is the type of text and the conventions that come with it. Structure is how the parts of one particular text are ordered and arranged.

The turning point

提示A two-word term; the first word is what a road does at a bend.

为什么Asking where it falls, and why the writer put it there, is one of the most useful structure questions for any text.

A circular (or cyclical) structure

提示Think of a shape with no beginning or end.

为什么The return invites the reader to compare the two moments and notice what is different.

Juxtaposition

提示A long word from Latin; its first part means “next to”.

为什么Writers set a generous character beside a mean one, or a calm scene before a violent one, so the contrast does the work.

A downfall, usually ending in death

提示It does not finish happily.

为什么Because the audience expects the fall, the interest lies in how and why it happens. Knowing a form's conventions lets you comment on what a writer does with them.

Blank verse

提示The first word of the term can also mean empty.

为什么It keeps a regular beat without rhyme, so it can sound close to natural speech while still being verse.

10

提示Tap out the beats in a line of Shakespeare's verse on your fingers.

为什么“Penta” means five: five iambs, each of two syllables.

The second

提示Say the word “because” aloud and listen.

为什么The rhythm is often compared to a heartbeat. When a line breaks the pattern, it is worth asking what the writer wanted to stress.

Servants and comic characters

提示Verse was the grander way of speaking.

为什么This is a tendency, not a rule. Nobles also speak prose in letters, in relaxed talk or when their minds are disturbed, and that is when the switch is worth commenting on.

An aside

提示The term suggests words spoken to one side.

为什么Asides let the audience know what a character really thinks while a scene with others carries on.

What a character privately thinks and feels

提示Nobody else is there to be deceived.

为什么By convention a character alone on stage speaks the truth as they see it, so the audience can compare it with what they say to others.