1

2

…

3

This question will ask you to list 4 things about a specific topic from a specific section of the text. It will look something like the example below:

Activities to help you practise for Question 1 Tick when complete

TEST

Use the ‘test yourself’ section to practise finding information about a specific topic. Read the extracts and then list 4 things asked in the question.

CREATE Search the website below and read the opening of a selection of these books. Find key information in their opening sentences.

https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/classic-must-reads

TOP TIPS:

0 1

Read again the first part of the Source from lines 1 to 7.

List four things from this part of the text about the weather in Cornwall.

[4 marks]

1 ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2 ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3 ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4 ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do not spend too long on this question – no more than 5 minutes. Make sure you are answering the question. Refer to the specified lines of the text only. Keep it quick – either summarise OR quote, not both. Read the extract carefully and make sure you are not inferring.

4

Mark scheme:

This assesses AO1: Identify and interpret explicit and implicit information and ideas.

Indicative content; students may include:

It was a cold day The weather had changed overnight There was a wind There was mist on the hills The air was clammy The air was cold It was raining

Or any other valid responses that you are able to verify by checking the Source.

0 1

Read again the first part of the Source from lines 1 to 7.

List four things from this part of the text about the weather in Cornwall.

[4 marks]

1 __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2 __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3 __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4 __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Jamaica Inn

It was a cold grey day in late November. The weather had changed overnight, when a backing wind brought a granite sky and a mizzling rain with it, and although it was now only a little after two o’clock in the afternoon the pallor of a winter evening seemed to have closed upon the hills, cloaking them in mist. It would be dark by four. The air was clammy cold, and for all the tightly closed windows it penetrated the interior of the coach. The leather seats felt damp to the hands, and there must have been a small crack in the roof, because now and again little drips of rain fell softly through, smudging the leather and leaving a dark-blue stain like a splodge of ink.

5

Step 1: Read the extract and highlight words/phrases relating to the question.

Step 2: Summarise or quote 4 things relating to the question.

E.g. The weather…

5

Read the extract List 4 things… From The Gift by Cecelia Ahern

On Christmas morning an air of calm settles outside. The emptiness on the streets doesn’t instill fear; in fact it has the opposite effect. It’s a picture of safety, and, despite the seasonal chill, there’s warmth. For varying reasons, for every household this day of every year is just better spent inside. While outside is somber, inside is a world of bright frenzied colour, a hysteria of ripping wrapping paper and flying coloured ribbons. Christmas music and festive fragrances of cinnamon and spice and all things nice fill the air. Exclamations of glee, of hugs and thanks, explode like party streamers. These Christmas days are indoor days; not a sinner lingering outside, for even they have a roof over their heads.

List 4 things we learn about Christmas morning: 1.

2.

3.

4.

From Watership Down by Richard Adams Toward the edge of the wood, where the ground became open and sloped down to an old fence and a brambly ditch beyond, only a few fading patches of pale yellow still showed among the dog's mercury and oaktree roots. On the other side of the fence, the upper part of the field was full of rabbit holes. In places the grass was gone altogether and everywhere there were clusters of dry droppings, through which nothing but the ragwort would grow. A hundred yards away, at the bottom of the slope, ran the brook, no more than three feet wide, half choked with kingcups, watercress and blue brooklime.

List 4 things we learn about the landscape: 1.

2.

3.

4.

From Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

On the following morning, at daybreak, Jean Valjean was still by Cosette's bedside; he watched there motionless, waiting for her to wake.

Some new thing had come into his soul.

Jean Valjean had never loved anything; for twenty-five years he had been alone in the world. He had never been father, lover, husband, friend. In the prison he had been vicious, gloomy, chaste, ignorant, and shy.

List 4 things we learn about Jean Valjean: 1.

2.

3.

4.

From Heroes by Robert Cormier My name is Francis Joseph Cassavant and I have just returned to Frenchtown in Monument and the war is over and I have no face.

Oh, I have eyes because I can see and ear-drums because I can hear but no ears to speak of, just bits of dangling flesh. But that’s fine, like Dr Abrams says, because it’s sight and hearing that count and I was not handsome to begin with. He was joking, of course. He was always trying to make me laugh.

List 4 things we learn about Frances: 1.

2.

3.

4.

6

This question will ask you to analyse how the writer has used language in a specific section of the text. It will look something like the example below:

Activities to help you practise for Question 2 Tick when complete

TEST Use the ‘test yourself’ section to practise analysing language. WORKSHEETS Complete the language technique worksheets.

CREATE Search the website below to help you identify and learn a range of language techniques. Create a glossary of key terms. http://literary-

devices.com/

TOP TIPS:

0 2

Look in detail at this extract from lines 8 to 18 of the Source:

The wind came in gusts, at times shaking the coach as it travelled round the bend of the road, and in the exposed places on the high ground it blew with such force that the whole body of the coach trembled and swayed, rocking between the high wheels like a drunken man. The driver, muffled in a greatcoat to his ears, bent almost double in his seat in a faint attempt to gain shelter from his own shoulders, while the dispirited horses plodded sullenly to his command, too broken by the wind and the rain to feel the whip that now and again cracked above their heads, while it swung between the numb fingers of the driver. The wheels of the coach creaked and groaned as they sank into the ruts on the road, and sometimes they flung up the soft spattered mud against the windows, where it mingled with the constant driving rain, and whatever view there might have been of the countryside was hopelessly obscured.

How does the writer use language here to describe the effects of the weather?

You could include the writer’s choice of:

words and phrases language features and techniques sentence forms.

[8 marks]

Do not spend too long on this question – no more than 10 minutes. Make sure you are answering the question refer to the specified lines of the text only. Identify specific techniques accurately. Quote the techniques but keep quotes short (just enough prove your analysis). Specific effects nothing too general. Focus on effect of technique, relating it back to the text. Keep focussed on language – not punctuation or structure (even though it says you can talk

about sentences - this is dodgy ground). Don’t tell the examiner what the technique means – they will know. Go straight to analysis – don’t put an introduction unless it is definitely going to pick up

marks about language analysis.

10

15

7

0 2

Look in detail at this extract from lines 8 to 18 of the Source:

The wind came in gusts, at times shaking the coach as it travelled round the bend of the road, and in the exposed places on the high ground it blew with such force that the whole body of the coach trembled and swayed, rocking between the high wheels like a drunken man. The driver, muffled in a greatcoat to his ears, bent almost double in his seat in a faint attempt to gain shelter from his own shoulders, while the dispirited horses plodded sullenly to his command, too broken by the wind and the rain to feel the whip that now and again cracked above their heads, while it swung between the numb fingers of the driver. The wheels of the coach creaked and groaned as they sank into the ruts on the road, and sometimes they flung up the soft spattered mud against the windows, where it mingled with the constant driving rain, and whatever view there might have been of the countryside was hopelessly obscured.

How does the writer use language here to describe the effects of the weather?

You could include the writer’s choice of:

words and phrases language features and techniques sentence forms.

[8 marks]

Step 1: Read the extract and highlight words/phrases relating to the question and annotating the technique/word type.

Step 2: Pick 3-4 different techniques that you think are effective in relation to the question.

Top Tip: Do not keep writing about the same technique for each paragraph – make links about the recurring technique and it’s effect in one paragraph.

Step 3: Identify specific techniques the writer has used and find appropriate short quotes.

Step 4: Explain and analyse why the writer has used the technique and the effect it creates.

Top Tip: Do not make general statements that could be about any text e.g. makes the reader want to read on. Keep referring back to the effect in relation to the specific text in the paper.

10

15

nouns

verb/personification

simile

adjective

adverb senses

sibilance/ onomatopoeia

8

Mark scheme:

This question assesses Language ie: Words / Phrases / Language Features / Language Techniques / (Sentence Forms!) AO2: Explain, comment on and analyse how writers use language to achieve effects and influence readers, using relevant subject terminology to support their views

AO2 content may include the effect of ideas such as:

use of sentence length variously related to the content of the extract use of, for example, nouns and verbs to enhance description the cumulative effect of chosen words and phrases employing imagery such as simile.

Level 4 paragraph: The opening paragraph consists of a single, complex sentence perhaps reflecting the onward movement of the coach. The adjective ‘exposed’ and the noun ‘force’, evoke the idea of vulnerability, danger, and how little control man has over the power of nature. The verb ‘rocking’, progresses the cumulative effect of the list of verbs, ‘shaking’, ‘trembled’, ‘swayed’ leading to the simile, ‘rocking between the high wheels like a drunken man’ suggesting the coach is lurching haphazardly, its movement out of control.

Level 3 paragraph: The opening, complex sentence is long and so gives the effect of a never-ending storm. Then nouns like ‘gusts’ and ‘force’ are used to show the reader how unpredictable and strong the wind was. The effect of the wind on the coach is built up by the writer’s use of verbs –‘shaking’, then ‘trembled’, then ‘swayed’. The word ‘trembled’ makes it sound as if the coach is almost frightened of the weather.

Level 2 paragraph: The writer says, ‘The wind came in gusts at times shaking the coach’. The word ‘gusts’ emphasises that sometimes the wind blew stronger than others and was making the coach shake or shudder. The phrase, ‘shaking the coach’, has the effect of making us feel frightened for the passengers because you shake when you are afraid.

Level 1 paragraph: The writer says ‘The wind came in gusts at times shaking the coach’. The word ‘gusts’ emphasises that sometimes the wind was strong and was making the coach shake.Note: Level 1 and 2 specify use ‘the word’, whereas Level 3 and 4 identify the specific word types e.g. noun, verb, adjective.

Level 4 Detailed, perceptive analysis 7-8 marks

Shows detailed and perceptive understanding of language: • Analyses the effects of the writer’s choices of language • Selects a judicious range of textual detail

Level 3 Clear, relevant explanation 5-6 marks

Shows clear understanding of language: • Explains clearly the effects of the writer’s choices of language • Selects a range of relevant textual detail • Makes clear and accurate use of subject terminology

Level 2 Some understanding and comment 3-4 marks

Shows some understanding of language: • Attempts to comment on the effect of language • Selects some appropriate textual detail • Makes some use of subject

Level 1 Simple, limited comment 1-2 marks

Shows simple awareness of language: • Offers simple comment on the effect of language • Selects simple references or textual details

9

Useful phrases... ...for writing a point

...for adding a quote

...for commenting on a quote

...for synthesising information

10

Read the extract Question From The Gift by Cecelia Ahern

If you were to stroll down the candy-cane façade of a suburban housing estate early on Christmas morning, you couldn’t help but observe how the houses in all their tinseled glory are akin to the wrapped parcels that lie beneath the Christmas trees within. For each holds their secrets inside. The temptation of poking and prodding at the packaging is the equivalent of peeping through a crack in the curtains to get a glimpse of a family in Christmas-morning action; a captured moment that’s kept away from all prying eyes. For the outside world, in a calming yet eerie silence that exists only on this morning every year, homes stand shoulder to shoulder like painted toy soldiers: chests pushed out, stomachs tucked in, proud and protective of all within. Houses on Christmas morning are treasure chests of hidden truths. A wreath on a door like a finger upon a lip; blinds down like closed eyelids. Then, at some unspecific time, beyond the pulled blinds and drawn curtains, a warm glow will appear, the smallest hint of something happening inside. Like stars in the night sky which appear to the naked eye one by one, and like tiny pieces of gold revealed as they’re sieved from a stream, lights go on behind the blinds and curtains in the half-light of dawn. As the sky becomes star-filled and as millionaires are made, room by room, house by house, the street begins to awaken.

Practise question: How does the writer use language to describe the atmosphere at Christmas?

From Watership Down by Richard Adams At the top of the bank, close to the wild cherry where the blackbird sang, was a little group of holes almost hidden by brambles. In the green half-light, at the mouth of one of these holes, two rabbits were sitting together side by side. At length, the larger of the two came out, slipped along the bank under cover of the brambles and so down into the ditch and up into the field. A few moments later the other followed. The first rabbit stopped in a sunny patch and scratched his ear with rapid movements of his hind leg. Although he was a yearling and still below full weight, he had not the harassed look of most "outskirters" -- that is, the rank and file of ordinary rabbits in their first year who, lacking either aristocratic parentage or unusual size and strength, get sat on by their elders and live as best they can -- often in the open -- on the edge of their warren. He looked as though he knew how to take care of himself. There was a shrewd, buoyant air about him as he sat up, looked around and rubbed both front paws over his nose. As soon as he was satisfied that all was well, he laid back his ears and set to work on the grass. His companion seemed less at ease. He was small, with wide, staring eyes and a way of raising and turning his head which suggested not so much caution as a kind of ceaseless, nervous tension. His nose moved continually, and when a bumblebee flew humming to a thistle bloom behind him, he jumped and spun round with a start that sent two nearby rabbits scurrying for holes before the nearest, a buck with black-tipped ears, recognized him and returned to feeding.

Practise question: How does the writer use language to describe the landscape?

11

Read the extract Question From The Shakespeare Curse by J.L. Carrell Wrapped in a gown of blue-green velvet trimmed with gold, a queen’s crown on his head, the boy sat drowsing in the throne near the centre of the Great hall, just at the edge of the light. Tomorrow, it would be the king who sat there. Not a player king, but the real one, His Majesty King James 1 of England and V1 of Scotland. Tonight, however, some-one among the players had been needed to sit there and see just what the king on his throne would see as Mr Shakespeare’s new Scottish play, blood- spattered and witch-haunted, conjured a rite of nameless evil. The boy, who was not in this scene, had volunteered. But the rehearsal had been unaccountably delayed, stretching deep into the frigid November night, until it was almost as cold inside the unheated hall as it was in the frost-rimed courtyards below. The heavy gown, though, was warm, as the hours crawled on, the boy found it hard to keep his eyes open. Well out of the torchlight illuminating the playing area, a grizzled man-at-arms in a worn leather jerkin, gaunt as a figure of famine, leaned against the wall at the edge of the tapestry, seeming to drowse as well.

Practise question: How does the writer use language to describe the atmosphere in the hall?

From Street Cat Bob by James Bowen I first met him on a gloomy Thursday evening in March. There was a hint of frost in the air that night when me and my friend Belle arrived back at my new flat in Tottenham, north London, after a day busking around Covent Garden. The strip lighting in the hallway was broken, but as we made our way to the stairwell I noticed a pair of glowing eyes in the gloom. When I heard a gentle meow I realised what it was. Edging closer, I could see a ginger cat curled up on a doormat outside one of the ground-floor flats in the corridor that led off the hallway. I hadn’t seen him around the flats before, but even in the darkness I could tell there was something about him. He wasn’t at all nervous; in fact, there was a quiet, calm confidence about him. From the shadows he fixed me with a steady, curious, intelligent stare. It was as if he was saying: ‘So who are you and what brings you here?’

Practise question: How does the writer use language to describe his first encounter with his cat?

From The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown Renowned curator Jacques Saunière staggered through the vaulted archway of the museum’s Grand Gallery. He lunged for the nearest painting he could see, a Caravaggio. Grabbing the guilded frame, the seventy-six-year-old man heaved the masterpiece toward himself until it tore from the wall and Saunière collapsed backward in a heap beneath the canvas. As he had anticipated, a thundering iron gate fell nearby, barricading the entrance to the suite. The parquet floor shook. Far off, an alarm began to ring. The curator lay a moment, gasping for breath, taking stock. I am still alive. He crawled out from under the canvas and scanned the cavernous space for somewhere to hide. A voice spoke, chillingly close. ‘Do not move.’ On his hands and knees, the curator froze, turning his head slowly. Only fifteen feet away, outside the sealed gate, the mountainous silhouette of his attacker stared through the iron bars. He was broad and tall, with ghost-pale skin and thinning white hair. His irises were pink with dark red pupils. The albino drew a pistol from his coat and aimed the barrel through the bars, directly at the curator. ‘You should not have run.’ His accent was not easy to place. ‘Now tell me where it is.’ ‘I told you already,’ the curator stammered, kneeling defenceless on the floor of the gallery. ‘I have no idea what you are talking about!’

Practise question: How does the writer use language to describe the curator’s anxiety?

12

Word types:

The sentences below have been split into parts. Can you identify the term for each word?

Word types: Noun (subject), noun (object), pronoun (subject), pronoun (object), adjective, article, verb, adverb, conjunction, preposition.

1. The / dog / ran / into / the / road / and / the / car / just / missed / it.

2. We / are having / a / big / party, / so / you / must come.

3. The / big / bear / escaped / from / the / zoo / and / was / never / seen / again.

4. The / dancers / were / so / shocked / they / had to stop / the / show.

13

Use a quotation Use speech marks Embed quotations

Use an adjective in your explanation

Use a verb in your explanation

Use an adverb in your explanation

Explain the effect of a single words in LOTS of detail

Explain the effect of an adverb or adjective

Explain the effect of a verb

Explain the effect of a simile or metaphor

Explain the effect of alliteration

Explain the effect of onomatopoeia

Explain the effect of an oxymoron

Explain the effect of hyperbole

Explain the effect of anaphora

Explain the effect of personification

Explain the effect of pathetic fallacy

Explain the effect of metonymy or synecdoche

Explain the effect of the writer’s use of a semantic field

Make another suggestion on the same quotation

Make connections between the writer’s language choices

Make connections between the writer’s language devices

Use new words from the thesaurus or your knowledge organiser in your analysis

Explain the overall effect of the piece because of the writer’s language choices

Write ‘this implies’ Write ‘this highlights’

Write ‘this reinforces’

Write ‘this emphasizes’

Write ‘this further emphasises’

Write ‘this intimates’

Start a sentence: One of the first powerful moments in the play/ novel/ poem/extract is….

Start a sentence: While on the surface… underneath

Start a sentence: Despite…

Start a sentence: Although…

Start a sentence: The most interesting thing about…

Start a sentence: Throughout the poem/ novel/ play/ extract….

Start a sentence: To emphasise a sense of… the writer

Start a sentence: To reinforce a sense of… the writer

Start a sentence: On the one hand… yet on the other

Start a sentence: In some ways …

Start a sentence: Not only… but…

Start a sentence: The poem/novel/play questions the idea of….

Work your way across the rows for a top band analytical answer

14

Q1 Write ‘S’ next to the similes and ‘M’ next to the metaphors below.

a) She was a fraying cable of tension and anger, which could snap at any moment.….

b) The glassy eye of the lake watched us in silent judgement. …..

c) Like a flock of tired ducks, we clustered around our teacher, who had brought us

snacks to keep us going on the journey. …..

d) His eyes were hot coals, burning fiercely at the vision he saw before him. …..

Q2 What impression of the sky is the writer trying to create with the metaphors below?

The night sky was a cloth of violet silk scattered with gemstones.

…………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………………

Q3 Read the texts below. How does the use of analogy in the second text make it more

effective?

A running tap wastes around 6 litres A running tap wastes the equivalent

of water for every minute it’s left of seventeen cups of tea for every

running. minute it’s left running.

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

………………………………………………………………………………………….

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

………………………………………………………………………………………….

15

Q4 For each extract, circle the technique being used. Then explain one effect that the

technique creates.

a) “The computer grumbled into life, before smugly informing me that it was starting

on six hours of updates.”

Personification / alliteration / onomatopoeia

…………………………………………………………………………....................

……………………………………………………………………………………….

b) “The buzz and the chatter of the students ruined the tranquillity of the scene.”

Personification / alliteration / onomatopoeia

………………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………

c) “Bag a bargain at Brigson’s – Portsmouth’s Premier Pig Farm!”

Personification / alliteration / onomatopoeia

………………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………

Q5 Underline one example of personification and one example of alliteration in this advert, then explain their effect on the reader on the lines below.

A Call for Heroic Hikers!

Are you a fearsome fell-runner? Or maybe you just enjoy long strolls through the hills? Whatever your ability, we want you to sign up for our 40-mile Wilderness Walk, taking place in the mountainous forest above Tennerton. If you train hard, you’ll not only get fit, but triumph over a challenging foe and raise lots of money for charities in the local area.

To answer the cry of the hills and get involved, visit the council’s website.

Effect of personification: ……………………………………………………………….

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

Effect of alliteration: …………………………………………………………………...

16

…………………………………………………………………………………………

Q6 Find an example in the extract below of each of the following descriptive techniques.

The air smelt of scorched grass. I could feel the blistering sun burning into my skin as I trudged slowly through the prickly, dry vegetation, my heavy load cutting cruel lines into my drooping shoulders. In the distance, the air shimmered in the waves with the heat. I felt as if I were underwater, constantly being pulled back by the tidal drag of the temperature, every step an effort, every breath a trial.

Descriptive adjectives: …………………………………………………………………

Describing different senses: ……………………………………………………………

Descriptive verbs: ………………………………………………………………………

Imagery: ………………………………………………………………………………..

Q7 Circle which extract is the better example of descriptive writing and explain your answer using examples from the text.

i) My first football match was great. The sights and sounds were amazing.

ii)

I remember my first football match so clearly: the sound of the fans as loud as ten jet engines; the emerald green pitch; and the buzzing, electric atmosphere. I’ll never forget it.

Extract i) / ii) is the most descriptive because …………………………………..

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

………………………………………………………………………………………….

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

………………………………………………………………………………………….

17

This question will ask you to analyse how the writer has used structure in the text. It will look something like the example below:

Activities to help you practise for Question 3 Tick when complete

TEST Use the ‘test yourself’ section to practise analysing structure. DESIGN Design a poster of the 5 key questions to ask about structure. Learn

them!

GLOSSARY Learn the key terminology in the glossary and practise identifying the structure in different fictional texts.

CREATE Create a mind map of key terms and find examples in a range of texts.

TOP TIPS:

0 3

You now need to think about the whole of the Source.

This text is from the opening of a novel.

How has the writer structured the text to interest you as a reader?

You could write about:

what the writer focuses your attention on at the beginning how and why the writer changes this focus as the Source develops any other structural features that interest you.

[8 marks]

Do not spend too long on this question – no more than 10 minutes. Identify specific structural techniques accurately. Specific effects nothing too general. Focus on effect of structure, relating it back to

the text. Keep focussed on structure. Don’t tell the examiner what the technique means – they will know. Go straight to analysis – don’t put an introduction unless it is definitely going to pick

up marks about structure analysis.

18

This extract is from the opening of a novel by Daphne du Maurier. Although written in 1936 it is set in the past. In this section a coach and horses, with its passengers, is making its way through Cornwall to Jamaica Inn.

Jamaica Inn

It was a cold grey day in late November. The weather had changed overnight, when a backing wind brought a granite sky and a mizzling rain with it, and although it was now only a little after two o’clock in the afternoon the pallor of a winter evening seemed to have closed upon the hills, cloaking them in mist. It would be dark by four. The air was clammy cold, and for all the tightly closed windows it penetrated the interior of the coach. The leather seats felt damp to the hands, and there must have been a small crack in the roof, because now and again little drips of rain fell softly through, smudging the leather and leaving a dark-blue stain like a splodge of ink.

The wind came in gusts, at times shaking the coach as it travelled round the bend of the road, and in the exposed places on the high ground it blew with such force that the whole body of the coach trembled and swayed, rocking between the high wheels like a drunken man.

The driver, muffled in a greatcoat to his ears, bent almost double in his seat in a faint endeavour to gain shelter from his own shoulders, while the dispirited horses plodded sullenly to his command, too broken by the wind and the rain to feel the whip that now and again cracked above their heads, while it swung between the numb fingers of the driver.

The wheels of the coach creaked and groaned as they sank into the ruts on the road, and sometimes they flung up the soft spattered mud against the windows, where it mingled with the constant driving rain, and whatever view there might have been of the countryside was hopelessly obscured.

The few passengers huddled together for warmth, exclaiming in unison when the coach sank into a heavier rut than usual, and one old fellow, who had kept up a constant complaint ever since he had joined the coach at Truro, rose from his seat in a fury; and, fumbling with the window-sash, let the window down with a crash, bringing a shower of rain upon himself and his fellow-passengers. He thrust his head out and shouted up to the driver, cursing him in a high petulant voice for a rogue and a murderer; that they would all be dead before they reached Bodmin if he persisted in driving at breakneck speed; they had no breath left in their bodies as it was, and he for one would never travel by coach again.

Whether the driver heard him or not was uncertain: it seemed more likely that the stream of reproaches was carried away in the wind, for the old fellow, after waiting a moment, put up the window again, having thoroughly chilled the interior of the coach, and, settling himself once more in his corner, wrapped his blanket about his knees and muttered in his beard.

His nearest neighbour, a jovial, red-faced woman in a blue cloak, sighed heavily, in sympathy, and, with a wink to anyone who might be looking and a jerk of her head towards the old man, she remarked for at least the twentieth time that it was the dirtiest night she ever remembered, and she had known some; that it was proper old weather and no mistaking it for summer this time; and, burrowing into the depths of a large basket, she brought out a great hunk of cake and plunged into it with strong white teeth.

Mary Yellan sat in the opposite corner, where the trickle of rain oozed through the crack in the roof. Sometimes a cold drip of moisture fell upon her shoulder, which she brushed away with impatient fingers.

She sat with her chin cupped in her hands, her eyes fixed on the window splashed with mud and rain, hoping with a sort of desperate interest that some ray of light would break the heavy blanket of sky, and but a momentary trace of that lost blue heaven that had mantled Helford yesterday shine for an instant as a forerunner of fortune

19

What should you think about?

Where am I? Location Setting

Who is here? Protagonist Character

Whose views am I hearing?

1st/2nd/3rd person narration Narrative voice Narrative perspective Omniscient narrator Unreliable narrator

How is time being used?

Introduction Conclusion/Denouement Chronological structure Climax/Climactic moment Flashback Flashforward Foreshadow

How is the extract organised?

Topic sentence Summary Pattern/Sequence Connection Repetition Repeated motif

Step 1: Pick 3-4 different techniques that you think are effective in relation to the question.

Top Tip: Do not keep writing about the same technique for each paragraph. Structural devices include: Whole text: narrative perspectives, openings, development, endings, character introductions, setting

analysis Paragraph: shifts in action, the effects of different paragraph lengths Sentence: how sentence construction affects our feelings

Step 2: Identify specific techniques the writer has used within the structure.

Step 3: Explain and analyse why the writer has used this structure and the effect it creates.

Top Tip: Do not make general statements that could be about any text. Keep referring back to the effect in relation to the specific text in the paper.

0 3 You now need to think about the whole of the Source. This text is from the opening of a novel. How has the writer structured the text to interest you as a reader? You could write about:

what the writer focuses your attention on at the beginning how and why the writer changes this focus as the Source develops any other structural features that interest you.

[8 marks]

20

Setting (Character and Place) Deductive: moving from a general description or topic to a specific description or topic Inductive: moving from a specific description or topic to a general description or topic Beginning: the opening of a text Ending: the end of a text Exposition: where the writer reveals information to the reader about the character, setting or past

Plot

Chronological: events presented in the order in which they occurred Rising action: events or incidents designed to build to a plot climax Catalyst: the addition of an element that precipitates or speeds up events Climax: the culmination of events into an intense and/or significant moment Falling action: events after a climax, before the end Resolution/Denouement: the final part of a plot, where all strands are drawn together and resolved Flashback: a scene set in a time earlier than the time in the main plot Foreshadowing: a warning or indication of a future event Precursor: something that comes before a similar thing; a forerunner Dialogue: speech Dual narrative: where a plot is told by two narrators

Theme

Juxtaposition: two contrasting images or ideas presented alongside each other Repetition: an idea, word or series of words that are repeated Bookending: when a text begins and ends with the same words, sentence or idea

Character

Narrator: a character/voice who tells the story First person: a story told by and including a narrator - using ‘I’ Second person: addressing the reader as ‘you’ Third person: a story told by a narrator about others – using ‘he’/’she’ Omniscient: an all-knowing (knows all feelings, thoughts and events) narrator Dialogue: speech

Elements of grammar and punctuation

Main clause: a clause, with both a subject and a verb, that can stand alone Dependent clause: a clause, with both a subject and a verb, that is dependent on a main clause to make

sense Preposition: a phrase that indicates place or time Adverbial: a phrase that gives additional detail to a clause – how something occurs Fragment: a word or group of words written as a sentence despite not having a main clause Discourse marker: word or phrase that indicates changes of time, place or topic Paragraph: a section of writing, usually focused on one theme or idea Topic sentence: a sentence that expresses the main idea of the paragraph in which it occurs – often the

opening sentence of the paragraph Full stop: the mark that indicates the end of a sentence Question mark: the mark that indicates the end of a question Exclamation mark: the mark that indicates an exclamation (a loud, often sudden sound) Colon: the mark proceeding a list, quotation, expansion or explanation Semi-colon: the mark that joins two independent sentences that are linked in meaning Ellipsis: the mark that indicates missing information or information to come Bracket: the mark used to add an aside or additional information Dash: the mark used to link, whilst drawing emphasis to, the words following it

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Key question 1: What is the extract about?

– Where is the extract taking place? – Who is in the extract? – What time is it? – What is the weather like? – Where would this extract happen in a novel? – What would happen immediately before and after this extract?

Key question 2: What is it really about? Or: What is the writer really doing here?

– Are characters being introduced? How are they? – Is there a sudden change in the events in the extract? – Is some key piece of information being revealed? – Is a character going on a journey? – Is there a consequence happening to a character? – What are the physical descriptions of the character? – What do they say? – Are there any comments made by another character? – What are the actions of the character?

Key question 3: How does the reader’s feelings change in the extract?

– How do we feel when we read the extract? – Do we like the character? – Do we feel sorry for them? – Do we feel the same throughout the extract or do our feelings change? – How do we feel at the start of the extract compared to the end?

Key question 4: How does it all link together?

– Is anything Repeated? – it happens again – Is anything Reflected? - it is connected in someway – Is anything Inverted? - it’s opposite is used – Is anything Mirrored? - it happens again or it is copied in a different way

Key question 5: Why is the writer using structure to make you feel something?

– Why does the writer want you to feel this way about the character? – Why does the writer use all the structural devices looked at to make an

impact on the reader?

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Mark scheme:

This question assesses how the writer has structured a text. Structural features can be:

at a whole text level eg. beginnings / endings / perspective shifts; at a paragraph level eg. Topic change / aspects of cohesion; at a sentence level when judged to contribute to whole structure.

AO2: Explain, comment on and analyse how writers use structure to achieve effects and influence readers, using relevant subject terminology to support their views

AO2 content may include the effect of ideas such as: the overall structure of a journey – moving through place the change of structural focus from outside to inside the consistent reminder of the weather, recapitulated through the text narrowing down the focus to the individual characters.

Level 4 Detailed, perceptive analysis 7-8 marks

Shows detailed and perceptive understanding of structural features: • Analyses the effects of the writer’s choice of structural features • Selects a judicious range of examples • Makes sophisticated and accurate use of subject terminology

Level 3 Clear, relevant explanation 5-6 marks

Shows clear understanding of structural features: • Explains clearly the effects of the writer’s choice of structural features • Selects a range of relevant examples • Makes clear and accurate use of subject terminology

Level 2 Some understanding and comment 3-4 marks

Shows some understanding of structural features: • Attempts to comment on the effect of structural features • Selects some appropriate examples • Makes some use of subject terminology, mainly appropriately

Level 1 Simple, limited comment 1-2 marks

Shows simple awareness of structural features: • Offers simple comment on the effect of structural features • Selects simple references or examples • Makes simple use of subject terminology, not always appropriately

Level 4 paragraph: The text, about a journey, is structured to also take the reader on a journey: from the general to the specific; from the outside to the inside; from the weather, through the coach, the driver and horses, to the passengers.

There is also a constant reminder of the weather which permeates each part – the ‘little drips of rain’ that came through the roof and, later, ‘the rain oozed through the crack in the roof’ onto Mary’s shoulder – so the reader is constantly made wet and uncomfortable, just like the passengers. Around the middle of the extract, the outside and the inside are made to coincide when the old man opens the window – this also moves the focus of the reader to the inside of the coach

The text narrows down to take the reader from the countryside of Cornwall – the wide ‘granite sky’ and the evening which ‘closed upon the hills’, to the inside of Mary Yellan’s head as she contemplates the weather and hopes for a ‘momentary trace’ of ‘blue heaven’.

Level 3 paragraph: The main structure of the story, which begins with the weather, moves from the outside with the rain and wind that came ‘in gusts’ and which includes the driver and horses, to the inside of the coach and the individual characters who are the passengers. The reader is able to understand the extremity of the weather and then go inside to the relative calm and meet the passengers. As the extract develops it changes the focus from the weather to the driver, then the horses, then the coach, then the passengers. The reader’s experience narrows down to Mary Yellan, whose thoughts take the reader back to the weather.

Level 2 paragraph: The writer writes about the weather in the first paragraph which makes the reader feel they were there in the cold and rain. It then moves on to focus on some individuals, so we can pick them out – the driver and then the people inside the coach, making the reader feel more comfortable but still feeling the drips of rain. So overall the writer changes the focus from outside to inside.

Level 1 paragraph: The text is written in paragraphs which makes it easy to read. It tells us about the weather first which sets the scene and then moves on to tell us about the coach.

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Read the extract Question From The Book Thief By Markus Zusek First up is something white. Of the blinding kind. Some of you are most likely thinking that white is not really a colour and all of that tired sort of nonsense. Well I’m here to tell you that it is. White is without question a colour, and personally, I don’t think you want to argue.

A REASSURING ANNOUNCEMENT Please, be calm, despite that previous threat.

I am all bluster – I am not violent. I am not malicious.

I am a result. Yes, it was white. It felt as though the whole globe was dressed in snow. Like it had pulled it on, the way you pull on a jumper. Next to the train line, footprints were sunken to their shins. Trees wore blankets of ice. As you might expect, someone had died. They couldn’t just leave him on the ground. For now it wasn’t such a problem, but very soon, the track ahead would be cleared and the train would need to move on. There were two guards. There was a mother and her daughter. One corpse. The mother, the girl and the corpse remained stubborn and silent.

* ‘Well, what else do you want me to do?’ The guards were tall and short. The tall one always spoke first, though he was not in charge. He looked at the smaller, rounder one. The one with the juicy red face. ‘Well,’ was the response, ‘we can’t just leave them like this, can we?’ The tall one was losing patience. ‘Why not?’ And the smaller one damn near exploded. He looked up at the tall one’s chin and cried, ‘Spinnst du? Are you stupid!?’ The abhorrence on his cheeks was growing thicker by the moment. His skin widened. ‘Come on,’ he said, traipsing through the snow. ‘We’ll carry all three of them back on if we have to. We’ll notify the next stop.’ As for me, I had already made the most elementary of mistakes. I can’t explain to you the severity of my self-disappointment. Originally, I’d done everything right: I studied the blinding, white-snow sky who stood at the window of the moving train. I practically inhaled it, but still, I wavered. I buckled – I became interested. In the girl. Curiosity got the better of me, and I resigned myself to stay as long as my schedule allowed, and I watched. Twenty-three minutes later, when the train was stopped, I climbed out with them.

A small soul was in my arms. I stood a little to the right.

Practise question: You now need to think about the whole of the source. The extract is from the opening of the novel. How has the writer structured the text to interest you as a reader? You could write about:

1. The narrative voice 2. The location and setting 3. The way characters are introduced 4. The way action and events develop

throughout the extract. 5. Paragraphs and sentence length.

You could use What-How-Why for this question

You must think about what the overall feeling is and what structural devices have been used.

Answer how does the writer use these structural devices to create an overall feeling? What are the techniques that stand out? Try to find at least three different techniques.

Analyse why you think of a certain feeling is created. Why has the writer chosen these words in particular – what are the connotations of each word?

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Read the extract Question From The Shakespeare Curse by J.L. Carrell PROLOGUE November, 1606 Hampton Court Palace Wrapped in a gown of blue-green velvet trimmed with gold, a queen’s crown on his head, the boy sat drowsing in the throne near the centre of the Great hall, just at the edge of the light. Tomorrow, it would be the king who sat there. Not a player king, but the real one, His Majesty King James 1 of England and V1 of Scotland. Tonight, however, some-one among the players had been needed to sit there and see just what the king on his throne would see as Mr Shakespeare’s new Scottish play, blood- spattered and witch-haunted, conjured a rite of nameless evil. The boy, who was not in this scene, had volunteered. But the rehearsal had been unaccountably delayed, stretching deep into the frigid November night, until it was almost as cold inside the unheated hall as it was in the frost-rimed courtyards below. The heavy gown, though, was warm, as the hours crawled on, the boy found it hard to keep his eyes open. Well out of the torchlight illuminating the playing area, a grizzled man-at-arms in a worn leather jerkin, gaunt as a figure of famine, leaned against the wall at the edge of the tapestry, seeming to drowse as well. At last, movement stirred in the haze of light. Three figures, cloaked head to toe in black, skimmed in a circle about the cauldron set in the centre of the hall, their voices melding into a single chant somewhere between a moan and a hiss. ‘What is it you do?’ rasped the player king as he entered, eyes wide with horror. The answer whined through the echoing hall like the nearly human sound of the wind, or maybe the restless dead, seeking entry at the eaves: A deed without a name. Not long afterwards, a phalanx of children, eerily beautiful, had drifted into the light, gliding one by one past the throne. In the rear, the smallest held up a mirror. On the throne, the boy-queen sat bolt upright. Against the wall, barely visible in the outer darkness, the old soldier’s eyes flickered open. A few moments later, the boy slid from the throne and melted into the darkness at the back of the hall. Behind him, the man followed like an ill-fitting shadow.

Practise question: You now need to think about the whole of the Source. This text is from the opening of a novel. How has the writer structured the text to interest you as a reader? You could write about:

what the writer focuses your attention on at the beginning

how and why the writer changes this focus as the Source develops

any other structural features that interest you.

25

Read the extract Question From Street Cat Bob by James Bowen Fellow Travellers There’s a famous quote I read somewhere. It says we are all given second chances every day of our lives. They are there for the taking. It’s just that we don’t usually take them. I spent a big chunk of my life proving the truth of that quote. But then, in the early spring of 2007, that finally began to change. It was then that I made friends with Bob. Looking back on it, I see that it might have been his second chance too. I first met him on a gloomy Thursday evening in March. There was a hint of frost in the air that night when me and my friend Belle arrived back at my new flat in Tottenham, north London, after a day busking around Covent Garden. The strip lighting in the hallway was broken, but as we made our way to the stairwell I noticed a pair of glowing eyes in the gloom. When I heard a gentle meow I realised what it was. Edging closer, I could see a ginger cat curled up on a doormat outside one of the ground-floor flats in the corridor that led off the hallway. I hadn’t seen him around the flats before, but even in the darkness I could tell there was something about him. He wasn’t at all nervous; in fact, there was a quiet, calm confidence about him. From the shadows he fixed me with a steady, curious, intelligent stare. It was as if he was saying: ‘So who are you and what brings you here?’ I couldn’t resist kneeling down and greeting him. ‘Hello mate. I’ve not seen you before. Do you live here?’ He just looked at me, as if he was still checking me out. I stroked his neck, but couldn’t feel a collar. Perhaps he was a stray. London had plenty of those. I could feel that his coat was in a poor state. From the way he was rubbing against me, he was also clearly in need of a bit of tender loving care, or TLC. ‘Poor chap. He’s really thin,’ I said, looking up at Belle, who was waiting by the foot of the stairs. She sighed, knowing I had a weakness for cats. ‘James, he must belong to whoever lives there,’ she said, nodding towards the door of the nearest flat. ‘He’s probably just waiting for them to come home and let him in. Let’s go.’ Reluctantly, I followed her up the stairs. I knew I couldn’t just pick up the cat and take it home with me. What if it did belong to the person living in that flat? Besides, the last thing I needed right now was a pet that needed care. I was a recovering drug addict and failed musician living a hand-to-mouth life in sheltered housing. Taking care of myself was hard enough.

Practise question: You now need to think about the whole of the Source. This text is from the opening of a novel. How has the writer structured the text to interest you as a reader? You could write about:

what the writer focuses your attention on at the beginning

how and why the writer changes this focus as the Source develops

any other structural features that interest you.

26

Read the extract Question From The Diving Bell and the Butterfly By Jean-Dominique Bauby

Through the frayed curtain at my window, a warm glow announces the break of day. My heels hurt, my head weighs a ton, and something like a giant invisible cocoon holds my whole body prisoner. My room emerges slowly from the gloom. I linger over every item: photos of loved ones, my children's drawings, posters, the little tin cyclist sent by a friend the day before the Paris–Roubaix bike race, and the IV pole hanging over the bed where I have been confined these past six months, like a hermit crab dug into his rock.

No need to wonder very long where I am, or to recall that the life I once knew was snuffed out Friday, the eighth of December, last year.

Up until then I had never even heard of the brain stem. I've since learned that it is an essential component of our internal computer, the inseparable link between the brain and the spinal cord. That day I was brutally introduced to this vital piece of anatomy when a cerebrovascular accident took my brain stem out of action. In the past, it was known as a "massive stroke," and you simply died. But improved resuscitation techniques have now prolonged and refined the agony. You survive, but you survive with what is so aptly known as "locked-in syndrome." Paralyzed from head to toe, the patient, his mind intact, is imprisoned inside his own body, unable to speak or move. In my case, blinking my left eyelid is my only means of communication.

Of course, the party chiefly concerned is the last to hear the good news. I myself had twenty days of deep coma and several weeks of grogginess and somnolence before I truly appreciated the extent of the damage. I did not fully awake until the end of January. When I finally surfaced, I was in Room 119 of the Naval Hospital at Berck-sur-Mer, on the French Channel coast -- the same Room 119, infused now with the first light of day, from which I write.

An ordinary day. At seven the chapel bells begin again to punctuate the passage of time, quarter hour by quarter hour. After their night's respite, my congested bronchial tubes once more begin their noisy rattle. My hands, lying curled on the yellow sheets, are hurting, although I can't tell if they are burning hot or ice cold. To fight off stiffness, I instinctively stretch, my arms and legs moving only a fraction of an inch. It is often enough to bring relief to a painful limb.

Practise question: You now need to think about the whole of the Source. This text is from the opening of a novel. How has the writer structured the text to interest you as a reader? You could write about:

what the writer focuses your attention on at the beginning

how and why the writer changes this focus as the Source develops

any other structural features that interest you.

27

Read the extract Question From The Fault in Our Stars By John Green A boy was staring at me. I was quite sure I'd never seen him before. Long and leanly muscular, he dwarfed the molded plastic elementary school chair he was sitting in. Mahogany hair, straight and short. He looked my age, maybe a year older, and he sat with his tailbone against the edge of the chair, his posture aggressively poor, one hand half in a pocket of dark jeans. I looked away, suddenly conscious of my myriad insufficiencies. I was wearing old jeans, which had once been tight but now sagged in weird places, and a yellow T-shirt advertising a band I didn't even like anymore. Also my hair: I had this pageboy haircut, and I hadn't even bothered to, like, brush it. Furthermore, I had ridiculously fat chipmunked cheeks, a side effect of treatment. I looked like a normally proportioned person with a balloon for a head. This was not even to mention the cankle situation. And yet—I cut a glance to him, and his eyes were still on me. It occurred to me why they call it eye contact. I walked into the circle and sat down next to Isaac, two seats away from the boy. I glanced again. He was still watching me. Look, let me just say it: He was hot. A nonhot boy stares at you relentlessly and it is, at best, awkward and, at worst, a form of assault. But a hot boy . . . well. I pulled out my phone and clicked it so it would display the time: 4:59. The circle filled in with the unlucky twelve-to-eighteens, and then Patrick started us out with the serenity prayer: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. The guy was still staring at me. I felt rather blushy. Finally, I decided that the proper strategy was to stare back. Boys do not have a monopoly on the Staring Business, after all. So I looked him over as Patrick acknowledged for the thousandth time his ball-lessness etc., and soon it was a staring contest. After a while the boy smiled, and then finally his blue eyes glanced away. When he looked back at me, I flicked my eyebrows up to say, I win.

Practise question: You now need to think about the whole of the Source. This text is from the opening of a novel. How has the writer structured the text to interest you as a reader? You could write about:

what the writer focuses your attention on at the beginning

how and why the writer changes this focus as the Source develops

any other structural features that interest you.

28

Read the extract Question From Watership Down by Richard Adams The primroses were over. Toward the edge of the wood, where the ground became open and sloped down to an old fence and a brambly ditch beyond, only a few fading patches of pale yellow still showed among the dog's mercury and oak tree roots. On the other side of the fence, the upper part of the field was full of rabbit holes. In places the grass was gone altogether and everywhere there were clusters of dry droppings, through which nothing but the ragwort would grow. A hundred yards away, at the bottom of the slope, ran the brook, no more than three feet wide, half choked with kingcups, watercress and blue brooklime. The cart track crossed by a brick culvert and climbed the opposite slope to a five-barred gate in the thorn hedge. The gate led into the lane. The May sunset was red in clouds, and there was still half an hour to twilight. The dry slope was dotted with rabbits -- some nibbling at the thin grass near their holes, others pushing further down to look for dandelions or perhaps a cowslip that the rest had missed. Here and there one sat upright on an ant heap and looked about, with ears erect and nose in the wind. But a blackbird, singing undisturbed on the outskirts of the wood, showed that there was nothing alarming there, and in the other direction, along the brook, all was plain to be seen, empty and quiet. The warren was at peace. At the top of the bank, close to the wild cherry where the blackbird sang, was a little group of holes almost hidden by brambles. In the green half-light, at the mouth of one of these holes, two rabbits were sitting together side by side. At length, the larger of the two came out, slipped along the bank under cover of the brambles and so down into the ditch and up into the field. A few moments later the other followed. The first rabbit stopped in a sunny patch and scratched his ear with rapid movements of his hind leg. Although he was a yearling and still below full weight, he had not the harassed look of most "outskirters" -- that is, the rank and file of ordinary rabbits in their first year who, lacking either aristocratic parentage or unusual size and strength, get sat on by their elders and live as best they can -- often in the open -- on the edge of their warren. He looked as though he knew how to take care of himself. There was a shrewd, buoyant air about him as he sat up, looked around and rubbed both front paws over his nose. As soon as he was satisfied that all was well, he laid back his ears and set to work on the grass. His companion seemed less at ease. He was small, with wide, staring eyes and a way of raising and turning his head which suggested not so much caution as a kind of ceaseless, nervous tension. His nose moved continually, and when a bumblebee flew humming to a thistle bloom behind him, he jumped and spun round with a start that sent two nearby rabbits scurrying for holes before the nearest, a buck with black-tipped ears, recognized him and returned to feeding.

Practise question: You now need to think about the whole of the Source. This text is from the opening of a novel. How has the writer structured the text to interest you as a reader? You could write about:

what the writer focuses your attention on at the beginning

how and why the writer changes this focus as the Source develops

any other structural features that interest you.

29

This question will ask you to analyse to what extend do you agree with a statement about the text - usually how the writer has used methods (language, structure, sentences, focus, perspective, character and setting) to create a certain impression within the text. You will need to find evidence evaluating and either proving/disproving the statement. It will look something like the example below:

Activities to help you practise for Question Tick when complete

TEST Use the ‘test yourself’ section to practise analysing methods. GLOSSARY Write a glossary of terms that show you are EVALUATING.

CREATE Create a mind map of key method a text can use to convey meaning

TOP TIPS:

0 4

Focus this part of your answer on the second part of the Source from line 18 to the end.

A student, having read this section of the text said: “The writer brings the very different characters to life for the reader. It is as if you are inside the coach with them.”

To what extent do you agree?

In your response, you could:

write about your own impressions of the characters evaluate how the writer has created these impressions support your opinions with references to the text.

[20 marks]

Spend 25-30 minutes on this question. Only use the specified area of the text. Keep focussed on the question and referring back to key ideas in the statement. Identify specific methods – use correct terminology. Specific effects nothing too general - keep relating back to the text. Don’t tell the examiner what the technique/ term means – they will know. Remember to use all the skills language and structural analysis skills you have gained

in questions 2 and 3 and put them all into this question. You will waste time if you re-write out the statement you are analysing, the

examiner will know it, just evaluate what aspects you agree/disagree with. This is a READING question – do not confuse it with Paper 2 Section B.

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This extract is from the opening of a novel by Daphne du Maurier. Although written in 1936 it is set in the past. In this section a coach and horses, with its passengers, is making its way through Cornwall to Jamaica Inn.

Jamaica Inn

It was a cold grey day in late November. The weather had changed overnight, when a backing wind brought a granite sky and a mizzling rain with it, and although it was now only a little after two o’clock in the afternoon the pallor of a winter evening seemed to have closed upon the hills, cloaking them in mist. It would be dark by four. The air was clammy cold, and for all the tightly closed windows it penetrated the interior of the coach. The leather seats felt damp to the hands, and there must have been a small crack in the roof, because now and again little drips of rain fell softly through, smudging the leather and leaving a dark-blue stain like a splodge of ink.

The wind came in gusts, at times shaking the coach as it travelled round the bend of the road, and in the exposed places on the high ground it blew with such force that the whole body of the coach trembled and swayed, rocking between the high wheels like a drunken man.

The driver, muffled in a greatcoat to his ears, bent almost double in his seat in a faint endeavour to gain shelter from his own shoulders, while the dispirited horses plodded sullenly to his command, too broken by the wind and the rain to feel the whip that now and again cracked above their heads, while it swung between the numb fingers of the driver.

The wheels of the coach creaked and groaned as they sank into the ruts on the road, and sometimes they flung up the soft spattered mud against the windows, where it mingled with the constant driving rain, and whatever view there might have been of the countryside was hopelessly obscured.

The few passengers huddled together for warmth, exclaiming in unison when the coach sank into a heavier rut than usual, and one old fellow, who had kept up a constant complaint ever since he had joined the coach at Truro, rose from his seat in a fury; and, fumbling with the window-sash, let the window down with a crash, bringing a shower of rain upon himself and his fellow-passengers. He thrust his head out and shouted up to the driver, cursing him in a high petulant voice for a rogue and a murderer; that they would all be dead before they reached Bodmin if he persisted in driving at breakneck speed; they had no breath left in their bodies as it was, and he for one would never travel by coach again.

Whether the driver heard him or not was uncertain: it seemed more likely that the stream of reproaches was carried away in the wind, for the old fellow, after waiting a moment, put up the window again, having thoroughly chilled the interior of the coach, and, settling himself once more in his corner, wrapped his blanket about his knees and muttered in his beard.

His nearest neighbour, a jovial, red-faced woman in a blue cloak, sighed heavily, in sympathy, and, with a wink to anyone who might be looking and a jerk of her head towards the old man, she remarked for at least the twentieth time that it was the dirtiest night she ever remembered, and she had known some; that it was proper old weather and no mistaking it for summer this time; and, burrowing into the depths of a large basket, she brought out a great hunk of cake and plunged into it with strong white teeth.

Mary Yellan sat in the opposite corner, where the trickle of rain oozed through the crack in the roof. Sometimes a cold drip of moisture fell upon her shoulder, which she brushed away with impatient fingers.

She sat with her chin cupped in her hands, her eyes fixed on the window splashed with mud and rain, hoping with a sort of desperate interest that some ray of light would break the heavy blanket of sky, and but a momentary trace of that lost blue heaven that had mantled Helford yesterday shine for an instant as a forerunner of fortune

31

Step 1: Disregard the area that is not specified in the question.

Step 2: Highlight key ideas in the question and decide what is actually being asked.

“The writer brings the very different characters to life for the reader. It is as if you are inside the coach with them.”

How has the writer used language, structure, sentences, focus, perspective, character and setting to create convincing/interesting characters for the readers?

Step 3: Highlight and annotate a range of features used that relate to the task.

Step 4: Spend 5 minutes planning your answer.

Step 5: Evaluate how successful the writer is in using a range of methods that create an effect - either proving or disproving the statement in the question.

Top Tip: Use a range of methods (e.g. one paragraph about language, one paragraph about structure/ sentences, one paragraph about characters/setting and one paragraph about perspective).

Top Tip: Spend about 5 minutes per paragraph with detailed evaluating and analysis.

Step 6: Spend 5 mins checking and editing – Have you evaluated? Have you mentioned the writer and specific methods/techniques? Have you mentioned the effect created on the reader? Have you used specific references/quotes to the text? Have you only used the specified area?

0 4

Focus this part of your answer on the second part of the Source from line 18 to the end.

A student, having read this section of the text said: “The writer brings the very different characters to life for the reader. It is as if you are inside the coach with them.”

To what extent do you agree?

In your response, you could:

write about your own impressions of the characters evaluate how the writer has created these impressions support your opinions with references to the text.

[20 marks]

32

Mark scheme:

AO4 Evaluate texts critically and support this with appropriate textual references

AO4 Content may include the evaluation of ideas such as: the passengers as a unified group, all in the same predicament the individual characteristics of the passengers, their actions and reactions to the situation

they are in interactions between the characters – the dynamic between the characters how the writer has used, for example, language, structure, tone to make an impression on

the reader.

Level 4 Perceptive, detailed evaluation 16-20 marks

Shows perceptive and detailed evaluation: • Evaluates critically and in detail the effect(s) on the reader • Shows perceptive understanding of writer’s methods • Selects a judicious range of textual detail • Develops a convincing and critical response to the focus of the statement

Level 3 Clear, relevant evaluation 11-15 marks

Shows clear and relevant evaluation: • Evaluates clearly the effect(s) on the reader • Shows clear understanding of writer’s methods • Selects a range of relevant textual references • Makes a clear and relevant response to the focus of the statement

Level 2 Some evaluation 6-10 marks

Shows some attempts at evaluation: • Makes some evaluative comment(s) on effect(s) on the reader • Shows some understanding of writer’s methods • Selects some appropriate textual reference(s) • Makes some response to the focus of the statement

Level 1 Simple, limited 1-5 marks

Shows simple, limited evaluation: • Makes simple, limited evaluative comment(s) on effect(s) on reader • Shows limited understanding of writer’s methods • Selects simple, limited textual reference(s) • Makes a simple, limited response to the focus of the statement

Level 4 paragraph: We might think that the passengers are a unified group because the writer refers to them collectively: ‘The few passengers huddled together for warmth’, but their actions suggest how different they are. The ‘old fellow’ is short tempered and pompous with a sense of his own importance, but also ridiculous in his actions. The writer’s choice of the word ‘petulant’ shows how his behaviour was childish. He also makes rash statements – that he would ‘never travel by coach again’ which the reader knows is of no interest to the driver he is swearing at. In the end, he is reduced to muttering. These complexities help the reader understand the stresses of the journey and the different sides to the man.

Level 3 paragraph: The writer brings the characters alive by making them behave and react differently. The ‘old fellow’ from Truro loses his temper with the driver but makes things worse for everybody by opening the window and ‘bringing a shower of rain on himself and his fellow passengers’. This amuses the reader because the man is angry and foolish. We also understand the irony of his actions and how pointless it is cursing the driver, who the reader knows is doing his best. The writer makes the man seem unreasonable and out of control by the use of excessive, almost violent words like ‘rogue’ and ‘murderer’.

Level 2 paragraph: The characters are good because the writer includes detail to make them seem different. The ‘old fellow’ makes us laugh because he is so angry that he is ‘fumbling’ with the window sash and so gets everybody wet. The writer makes us understand that he is also grumpy by telling us that he had ‘kept up a constant complaint ever since he joined the coach from Truro’.

Level 1 paragraph: The characters are good because you can see what they are like. The old man is funny because he opens the window and makes everybody wet. Also the writer makes us understand he is angry by saying ‘he rose from his seat in a fury’.

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Read the extract Question From The Book Thief By Markus Zusek First up is something white. Of the blinding kind. Some of you are most likely thinking that white is not really a colour and all of that tired sort of nonsense. Well I’m here to tell you that it is. White is without question a colour, and personally, I don’t think you want to argue.

A REASSURING ANNOUNCEMENT Please, be calm, despite that previous threat.

I am all bluster – I am not violent. I am not malicious.

I am a result. Yes, it was white. It felt as though the whole globe was dressed in snow. Like it had pulled it on, the way you pull on a jumper. Next to the train line, footprints were sunken to their shins. Trees wore blankets of ice. As you might expect, someone had died. They couldn’t just leave him on the ground. For now it wasn’t such a problem, but very soon, the track ahead would be cleared and the train would need to move on. There were two guards. There was a mother and her daughter. One corpse. The mother, the girl and the corpse remained stubborn and silent.

* ‘Well, what else do you want me to do?’ The guards were tall and short. The tall one always spoke first, though he was not in charge. He looked at the smaller, rounder one. The one with the juicy red face. ‘Well,’ was the response, ‘we can’t just leave them like this, can we?’ The tall one was losing patience. ‘Why not?’ And the smaller one damn near exploded. He looked up at the tall one’s chin and cried, ‘Spinnst du? Are you stupid!?’ The abhorrence on his cheeks was growing thicker by the moment. His skin widened. ‘Come on,’ he said, traipsing through the snow. ‘We’ll carry all three of them back on if we have to. We’ll notify the next stop.’ As for me, I had already made the most elementary of mistakes. I can’t explain to you the severity of my self-disappointment. Originally, I’d done everything right: I studied the blinding, white-snow sky who stood at the window of the moving train. I practically inhaled it, but still, I wavered. I buckled – I became interested. In the girl. Curiosity got the better of me, and I resigned myself to stay as long as my schedule allowed, and I watched. Twenty-three minutes later, when the train was stopped, I climbed out with them.

A small soul was in my arms. I stood a little to the right.

Practise question: Focus this part of your answer on the second part of the Source from line 24 to the end. A student, having read this section of the text said: “The writer creates an atmosphere of uncertainty for the reader.” To what extent do you agree? In your response, you could:

write about your own impressions of the characters

evaluate how the writer has created this atmosphere

support your opinions with references to the text.

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Read the extract Question From The Shakespeare Curse by J.L. Carrell PROLOGUE November, 1606 Hampton Court Palace Wrapped in a gown of blue-green velvet trimmed with gold, a queen’s crown on his head, the boy sat drowsing in the throne near the centre of the Great hall, just at the edge of the light. Tomorrow, it would be the king who sat there. Not a player king, but the real one, His Majesty King James 1 of England and V1 of Scotland. Tonight, however, some-one among the players had been needed to sit there and see just what the king on his throne would see as Mr Shakespeare’s new Scottish play, blood- spattered and witch-haunted, conjured a rite of nameless evil. The boy, who was not in this scene, had volunteered. But the rehearsal had been unaccountably delayed, stretching deep into the frigid November night, until it was almost as cold inside the unheated hall as it was in the frost-rimed courtyards below. The heavy gown, though, was warm, as the hours crawled on, the boy found it hard to keep his eyes open. Well out of the torchlight illuminating the playing area, a grizzled man-at-arms in a worn leather jerkin, gaunt as a figure of famine, leaned against the wall at the edge of the tapestry, seeming to drowse as well. At last, movement stirred in the haze of light. Three figures, cloaked head to toe in black, skimmed in a circle about the cauldron set in the centre of the hall, their voices melding into a single chant somewhere between a moan and a hiss. ‘What is it you do?’ rasped the player king as he entered, eyes wide with horror. The answer whined through the echoing hall like the nearly human sound of the wind, or maybe the restless dead, seeking entry at the eaves: A deed without a name. Not long afterwards, a phalanx of children, eerily beautiful, had drifted into the light, gliding one by one past the throne. In the rear, the smallest held up a mirror. On the throne, the boy-queen sat bolt upright. Against the wall, barely visible in the outer darkness, the old soldier’s eyes flickered open. A few moments later, the boy slid from the throne and melted into the darkness at the back of the hall. Behind him, the man followed like an ill-fitting shadow.

Practise question: Focus this part of your answer on the second part of the Source from line 15 to the end. A student, having read this section of the text said: “The writer creates an atmosphere of mystery for the reader.” To what extent do you agree? In your response, you could:

write about your own impressions of the characters/ setting

evaluate how the writer has created this atmosphere

support your opinions with references to the text.

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Read the extract Question From The Diving Bell and the Butterfly By Jean-Dominique Bauby

Through the frayed curtain at my window, a warm glow announces the break of day. My heels hurt, my head weighs a ton, and something like a giant invisible cocoon holds my whole body prisoner. My room emerges slowly from the gloom. I linger over every item: photos of loved ones, my children's drawings, posters, the little tin cyclist sent by a friend the day before the Paris–Roubaix bike race, and the IV pole hanging over the bed where I have been confined these past six months, like a hermit crab dug into his rock.

No need to wonder very long where I am, or to recall that the life I once knew was snuffed out Friday, the eighth of December, last year.

Up until then I had never even heard of the brain stem. I've since learned that it is an essential component of our internal computer, the inseparable link between the brain and the spinal cord. That day I was brutally introduced to this vital piece of anatomy when a cerebrovascular accident took my brain stem out of action. In the past, it was known as a "massive stroke," and you simply died. But improved resuscitation techniques have now prolonged and refined the agony. You survive, but you survive with what is so aptly known as "locked-in syndrome." Paralyzed from head to toe, the patient, his mind intact, is imprisoned inside his own body, unable to speak or move. In my case, blinking my left eyelid is my only means of communication.

Of course, the party chiefly concerned is the last to hear the good news. I myself had twenty days of deep coma and several weeks of grogginess and somnolence before I truly appreciated the extent of the damage. I did not fully awake until the end of January. When I finally surfaced, I was in Room 119 of the Naval Hospital at Berck-sur-Mer, on the French Channel coast -- the same Room 119, infused now with the first light of day, from which I write.

An ordinary day. At seven the chapel bells begin again to punctuate the passage of time, quarter hour by quarter hour. After their night's respite, my congested bronchial tubes once more begin their noisy rattle. My hands, lying curled on the yellow sheets, are hurting, although I can't tell if they are burning hot or ice cold. To fight off stiffness, I instinctively stretch, my arms and legs moving only a fraction of an inch. It is often enough to bring relief to a painful limb.

Practise question: Focus this part of your answer on the second part of the Source from line 11 to the end. A student, having read this section of the text said: “The writer brings the characters to life for the reader. It is as if you feeling the same emotions.” To what extent do you agree? In your response, you could:

write about your own impressions of the character/emotions

evaluate how the writer has created these impressions

support your opinions with references to the text.

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Read the extract Question From The Fault in Our Stars By John Green A boy was staring at me. I was quite sure I'd never seen him before. Long and leanly muscular, he dwarfed the molded plastic elementary school chair he was sitting in. Mahogany hair, straight and short. He looked my age, maybe a year older, and he sat with his tailbone against the edge of the chair, his posture aggressively poor, one hand half in a pocket of dark jeans. I looked away, suddenly conscious of my myriad insufficiencies. I was wearing old jeans, which had once been tight but now sagged in weird places, and a yellow T-shirt advertising a band I didn't even like anymore. Also my hair: I had this pageboy haircut, and I hadn't even bothered to, like, brush it. Furthermore, I had ridiculously fat chipmunked cheeks, a side effect of treatment. I looked like a normally proportioned person with a balloon for a head. This was not even to mention the cankle situation. And yet—I cut a glance to him, and his eyes were still on me. It occurred to me why they call it eye contact. I walked into the circle and sat down next to Isaac, two seats away from the boy. I glanced again. He was still watching me. Look, let me just say it: He was hot. A non-hot boy stares at you relentlessly and it is, at best, awkward and, at worst, a form of assault. But a hot boy . . . well. I pulled out my phone and clicked it so it would display the time: 4:59. The circle filled in with the unlucky twelve-to-eighteens, and then Patrick started us out with the serenity prayer: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. The guy was still staring at me. I felt rather blushy. Finally, I decided that the proper strategy was to stare back. Boys do not have a monopoly on the Staring Business, after all. So I looked him over as Patrick acknowledged for the thousandth time his ball-lessness etc., and soon it was a staring contest. After a while the boy smiled, and then finally his blue eyes glanced away. When he looked back at me, I flicked my eyebrows up to say, I win.

Practise question: Focus this part of your answer on the second part of the Source from line 13 to the end. A student, having read this section of the text said: “The writer shows the self-conscious nature of the character to the reader.” To what extent do you agree? In your response, you could:

write about your own impressions of the characters

evaluate how the writer has created this impression

support your opinions with references to the text.