Close Reading Information and Evidence

There are three main elements in this area of understanding… Identifying key information and topic sentences Context questions Linking In answering each you must use your own words as far as possible – even when not specifically asked to do so.

Picking out the Main Points When answering this type of question you need to be able to pick out the main points and separate them from illustrations or anecdotal evidence used to expand and back up the point. Any answers must be in your own words as far as possible.

There are a number of markers you can use to identify the main points: Identify the topic sentences; Identify the ‘signposts’ for each point (firstly, secondly, thus, conversely etc.); As a result, identify the main point. Picking out the Main Points

Surely the most sensible way to “crack down” on illegal workers is to permit legal alternatives. Not just because of woolly liberalism – though that’s a perfectly decent instinct – but because of enlightened self- interest. Recently, I was reading an analysis of what was happening to the economy in the Highlands and Islands. The writer welcomes the fact that the population of that area has gone up 20% in one generation. But he goes on to say that “labour shortages of every kind are becoming the biggest constraint in the way of additional economic expansion.” He adds: “In principle the solution to this problem is readily available in the shape of the so-called asylum seekers or economic migrants that our country, likes most countries, seems determined to turn away.” While, for the most part, immigrants to the Highlands and Islands have recently come from England, the future lies in casting the net much wider. That would be, after all, yet another Scottish solution to a Scottish problem, given that this nation regularly suffers from population loss, exporting tranches of economic migrants all over the world every year. It’s been something of a national hobby, which is why there is almost no corner of the globe where you won’t stumble over a Caledonian society enthusiastically peopled by folks who will do anything for the old country bar live in it.

Q: Using your own words as far as possible, outline three important points which are made in these paragraphs to develop the argument about immigration. (3 marks) Pick out the ‘signposts’ for each point: Surely… Not just… While… Given that… Then write each point briefly in your own words… Worked Example

Answer: The writer believes that we should permit immigration and this would be in line with our inclusive traditions. It would help our economy especially in places where there is a shortage of workers. She also believes that we should encourage new residents to come to Scotland from all over the world just as Scots have gone all over the world in the past. Each of the yellow bits would earn you one mark! Worked Example

Context Questions This aspect of understanding tests your ability to work out what a key word or expression means from the sentences surrounding it. To answer you must look at what comes before and after the word or phrase and work out the full meaning. It is not enough to just write the meaning of the word. You must also show how the context helped you to arrive at that meaning!

Worked Example If you hail from Glasgow you will have friends or relatives whose roots lie in the Irish Republic. You will have Jewish friends or colleagues whose grandparents, a good number of them Polish or Russian, may have fled persecution in Europe. You will eat in premises run by Italian or French proprietors. It is a diverse cultural heritage enriched now by a large and vibrant Asian population and a smaller but significant Chinese one. Q: By referring closely to these lines, show how you are helped to understand the meaning of the expression “diverse cultural heritage”. (2 marks)

Answer: “Diverse” means a large number of different types of people and the listing of different cultures such as Chinese and Italian leads to this conclusion. While “cultural heritage” tells us that it’s something we all are familiar with as part of our history regardless of background because we all go to things such as Italian and Chinese restaurants. Worked Example

Linking Questions This aspect of understanding tests your ability to identify key words, phrases or techniques which are used to indicate how points are linked, how an argument develops or how points relate to each other.

Linking Questions Examples of Linking Words Words which show a further point is being made: e.g. Furthermore, in addition, also, secondly, then etc. Words which show that the next point will challenge the last one: e.g. But, on the other hand, conversely etc. Words which remind a reader where they are in a piece of writing. e.g. Firstly, secondly, so, to sum up, in conclusion, finally etc. Words which illustrate a point just made. e.g. For example, to illustrate this etc. Paragraphs may also be linked by asking a question at the end of one paragraph and answering it in another.

When approaching this type of question, you must examine the sentence, word, or phrase that is the link, pick out the important parts (quote) and: examine how it refers back to the author’s point just made with a relevant quotation from the previous paragraph and then; examine how it refers to the point about to be made with a relevant quotation from the next paragraph. Linking Questions

This week the Home Secretary was assuring his French counterpart that Britain would clamp down even more severely on those working here illegally. At the same time plans are advanced for “accommodation centres”, which will have the immediate effect of preventing natural integration, while children of immigrants are to be denied the harmonising effect of integrated schooling. Meanwhile, even more sophisticated technology is to be employed to stem the numbers of young men who risk their lives clinging to the underside of trains and lorries, or are paying obscene sums of money to the 21 st century’s own version of slave traders – those traffickers in human misery who make their fortunes on the back of others’ desperation. Yet at the heart of this ever more draconian approach to immigration policy lie a number of misconceptions. The UK is not a group of nations swamped by a tidal wave of immigration. Relatively speaking, Europe contends with a trickle of refugees compared with countries who border areas of famine, desperate poverty or violent political upheaval.

Q: Referring to specific words or phrases, show how the sentence “Yet … misconceptions” performs a linking function in the writer’s line of thought. (2 marks) Worked Example

Answer: The word ‘Yet’ indicates a change in direction. “Draconian approach” refers back to the previous paragraph where harsh measures such as denial of “inter-racial schooling” for children are explored. “Misconceptions” tells us that she will then explore the aspects of immigration that we misunderstand, such as the “trickle” of refugees, rather than the “tidal wave” we imagine it to be. Worked Example