English Language Revision Paper 1, Question 3 Structure Can you remember how you would start an answer to Question 3? Think of “journey” and “whole” then go into parts. English Language Revision Paper 1, Question 3 Structure

Have your eyes peeled for these structural things across the whole text: Why the text starts in a certain way. Whether we change character/perspective and why? How the text develops  does the writer change focus? Do we have time changes? Flashbacks? Flashforward? Positioning sentences in a certain place for impact. Movements  zooming in/out , going from character’s thoughts to outside, moving from in and out of places Pace  is there a gradual development (Do you realise something slowly?) or is it quick/fast paced development?

The key word for question 3 is ‘interest’ Curious Intrigued Uneasy Suspicious Eager to know

Remember these phrases for q3 The writer takes the reader on a journey where they realise… The writer deliberately places this information here to interest… As the text develops the focus shifts to…

No matter what the question is you need to simply summarise how the writer places information in certain places (beginning, middle and end) and why. Possible q3’S How has the writer structured the text to develop tension? How has the writer structured the text to focus the reader’s attention? How has the writer structured the text to interest you as a reader? How has the writer structured to text to make the reader nervous?

Then the parts of the journey How has the writer structured the text to focus the reader’s attention? This means what is your attention drawn to as the text progresses AND the effect of this  learn new things, curious, sympathy, uneasy. Whole journey first SUCCESSFUL ANSWER: Summarise the whole journey Then break the text into parts: The beginning Middle End Then the parts of the journey

Your task: Read the extract Keep in mind: The writer controls what the reader sees and what information they receive. The writer can withhold information for a while or skip parts of a story to be biased. The writer will shift your attention in either a gradual or fast paced way.

A MODEL ANSWER The writer structured the text to take thee reader on a journey in the first person shifting in time from the present to the past so that we gradually realise that the narrator is remembering memories of his first love Sally and it isn’t until the end that we learn he is going to have to attend his love’s wedding. This journey leaves us gaining sympathy for the narrator that we didn’t have at the start. At the start, the writer focuses in detail on the landscape of a mountain in a positive way and there is an initial sense that the narrator had a love for this place through clues like “I traced the weaving path” as the narrator clearly misses this place This detail that the writer uses such as “bathing in the dying embers”. This is confirmed through the one line paragraph “This was the town of my youth”. From here the writer shifts from the impersonal detail about a place to the personal details of the narrator’s life so that the reader gradually develops a connection with the narrator. The beginning would have made the reader feel as if this extract would predominantly only focus on a place but we are cleverly and without realising, taken into feeling involved in the narrator’s life instead. As the text develops it has a time-shift as the writer changes our attention to the past and we learn new information that the narrator has “secret late-night” encounters in this town. This focuses our attention on an intriguing clue that the narrator has had a secret love here. The continued first person voice throughout the extract so that we always remain close to the narrator’s thoughts and as the text further develops our attention shifts to a new character: Sally. We learn details that are the most intriguing parts of the extract and develop some tension such as “Sally hadn’t felt the same longing for the metropolis”. The writer deliberately places this information here so that the reader begins to piece together that the narrator must want to see Sally again and that could be why he is remembering the mountain and place where she was at the start. The text ends with the writer returning the reader to the present “the tolling of the church bells brought me back”. The writer deliberately withholds key information to leave the reader shocked and saddened as we finally learn that the reason the narrator is remembering Sally and returning to this place is because he must go to her wedding: a heart-breaking realisation for the reader. In particular by leaving “with a sigh of nostalgia, I began the final leg of my journey” at the end rather than starting with this, the writer has cleverly made sure the reader has been on a gradual journey in a short space of time where we learned a lot about the narrator and his relationships when we would not have expected it with a beginning focused on a “mountain”.

Summarise what the whole journey is Then the key parts in the beginning How the text develops. What are the changes? What shifts? What new information do we learn? How does the text end? Was it expected? Why not start in the way it ended? Your turn: How has the writer structured the text to focus the reader’s attention? The writer takes the reader on a journey where they realise… The writer deliberately places this information here to interest… As the text develops the focus shifts to…