1. Close Reading Mrs Adams 2009

2. Understanding Questions ► 1Use your own words ► Some close reading questions are designed to test whether you understand the basic meaning of the text. ► For example (from the higher exam 2002, question 2a)) ► “At our end of the corridor there is a musical cacophony, at theirs a profound and disheartening silence.” (lines 13-15) ► Using your own words as far as possible, explain the meaning of the sentence. (2) U

3. ► Answer ► In modern society music can be heard in almost all places at all times (1 mark) and in the Dark Ages access to music was extremely limited (2 marks)

4. Don’t COPY ► Don’t fall into the trap of using the writer’s difficult words (in this case words like cacophony, profound and disheartening) because you are not quite sure what they mean. ► You will lose marks if you use the writer’s words, even if it is obvious you know what the writer means. ► This is the easiest sort of question you will get in an exam, so don’t throw marks away. Use your own words.

5. 2Context questions ► As well as showing you understand the writer’s general meaning, you will also be asked more specific questions. ► For instance, ► Show how the opening paragraphs provide a context which enables you to understand the meaning of the word “cacophony.”

6. Answer ► Cacophony seems to mean ‘a lot of noise all at once’ (1). I was able to work this out from the next sentence which talks of all the “different voices waiting to be heard.” (1) ► You don’t have to give a dictionary definition to get a mark, but you MUST give some sort of definition or you’ll drop a mark. You need to pinpoint what words or sentence helped you work out the meaning as well.

7. 3Big Scoring Understanding Questions ► There are often quite big scoring understanding questions and it is important to do these, even if you are running out of time, as it is a good way to pick up easy marks. ► For instance (2002, question 5) ► Consider lines 65-92. ► Using your own words as far as possible, identify five benefits the gramophone has brought to the world of music (5) U

8. Answer ► The amount of music available to people increased ► All different types of music easily available ► Same piece of music could be heard repeatedly ► Mistakes by musicians could be corrected ► Live performance can be recorded ► Answers don’t have to be in sentences. ► You are getting marked on your understanding not your grammar. ► If you are not sure if you have five different things write down six. ► You won’t get marks off for things you get wrong in these questions.

9. UNDERSTANDING QUESTIONS ► REMEMBER ► – with most understanding questions you don’t need to quote, ► so avoid using the writer’s words as it could cost you marks.

10. Analysis Questions ► Analysis Questions ► You are going to be asked several analysis questions in the exam. ► These are not difficult once you understand what the questions are asking you to do.

11. 1Tackling structure questions ► Basically structure questions ask you to look at punctuation and how it helps the writer to get her/his meaning across. ► Does the writer use long sentences (often used to get across complex ideas) or short sentences (often used to make a clear simple point)? ► What about punctuation marks? For instance, does a paragraph or sentence use lots of commas (trying to list all the important details)? ► Are words or structures repeated (this can help emphasise a point)?

12. EXAMPLE ► Show how the writer’s sentence structure and imagery emphasise the contrasting musical environments of people in the Dark Ages and people today. You should refer to lines 13-27 in your answer. (4) A ► Some aspects you could mention – ► Uses a list (lines 20-21) to show us how many different situations where we listen to music. ► Balanced structure of looking “At our end” of the corridor and “at theirs” makes the contrast easier to understand. ► Repetition of this structure helps to emphasise both sides of the contrast of past and present in music. ► The short sentences in the middle of the paragraph (lines 21-23) emphasise the extent to which music affects our lives and focuses on the points they make.

13. ► You don’t have to use all of these. If you point out one technique and explain how it works clearly you will get 2 marks. ► Look out for elements mentioned above, but also think about the points below when answering structure questions. ► Look out for strange order of words (brings attention to words near the beginning or end of a sentence – this is true in poetry as well).

14. PUNCTUATION in sentence structure questions ► Look out for use of more complex punctuation like – semi-colons (used to contrast or balance two closely connected sentences) ► or colons (introduces a list or the explanation of a previous statement)) ► Look out for rhetorical questions (where no answer is really expected) ► and question marks in general (these might be trying to get us to think about lots of complex ideas) ► Look out for lots of full stops (several short sentences can build tension). ► Good writers will use a variety of sentence lengths

15. 2Imagery and use of Language ► In an imagery question you need to find words that stand out to you, that you maybe expect to see somewhere else. You need to focus on specific words that remind you of other things or words that seem very positive or negative. ► Let’s take the same question we used in the last example ► - Show how the writer’s sentence structure and imagery emphasise the contrasting musical environments of people in the Dark Ages and people today. You should refer to lines 13-27 in your answer. (4) A

16. Imagery ► Is a term that means… ► SIMILE ► METAPHOR ► PERSONIFICATION ► You can write about any of these three things if you’re asked about figures of speech or imagery

17. Here are some of the words we could discuss: ► Using the word “corridor” suggests length and distance. ► “Blaring” suggests loud and annoying and “soundtrack” suggests something going on constantly through a film. ► “trickle” suggests water in a very low and limited amount. ► The overall contrast is between the “cacophony” (very loud set of noises interfering with each other) and the near “silence” (a very clever word to use when we are talking about music) at the other end of the “corridor.