Close Reading

1. Close Reading Revision

2. Big Picture • We need to revise all techniques and approaches used in the close reading paper • You will use these notes to study over the Easter holidays and before the exam….if you hope to get a 1 and the chance to do higher!!

3. Before you even think about answering a question: • Read the passage at least once all the way through • When it refers you to a certain section-e.g. look at paragraph 1- DO IT! Never answer a question without looking back at the passage- even if you think you’re an elephant • Check and double check that you are doing what the question asks

4. Remember • Look for the key words in the question • Pay particular attention to words in BOLD • Always use your own words as much as you can unless you are asked to QUOTE or write down an expression • check how many marks it is worth: 2/0 or 2/1/0

5. What should you do if a question asks you to: Write down an expression? Write down a few words NEVER! NEVER! NEVER write a whole sentence- they’ll give you 0 marks!

6. Techniques to revise: • Sentence structure • Word choice • Imagery • Context • Link

7. Sentence Structure Sentence structure questions are looking for you to focus on what? • Punctuation • Lists • Sentence length • One word/sentence paragraph • Inversion

8. Punctuation

9. Punctuation Make the reader think/ involve the reader/ writer can answer it/ show confusion Question mark Give additional information- an aside that the writer has added Parenthesis dash Emphasise additional information Introduce a list/ extra info colon semi-colon Separate items in a list/ extra info Pause = tension/ give time to think ellipsis

10. 2004 paper about attracting hummingbirds Dutifully, I put on bright red lipstick, took a mouthful of sugar water, sat back, puckered my lips…and waited. Q. Identify and comment on one feature of punctuation in this sentence.

11. 2/1/0 question Identification of feature (1) and comment (1) Possible answers: Ellipsis (1) shows a pause to emphasise he waited OR List (1) highlights the number of actions to attract hummingbird

12. Dozens of hummingbird feeders, looking like upside-down jam jars, are dotted around the ranch. Hanging from trees, bushes, fences and buildings they are full of a simple magic potion (four parts water, one part white sugar) similar to the nectar of hummingbird flowers. Q. Identify and comment on the effect of two features of structure of this sentence

13. 2/1/0 List (1) gives idea of lots of feeders (1) Parenthesis (1) gives extra information of the food that attracts them (1)

14. Passage about a homeless man It was the reek of rotting flesh, of festering wounds, of ancient perspiration, and of fear. Q. Explain fully how the writer emphasises the smell from the man through sentence structure.

15. list/repetition (1) shows the variety of smells (1)

16. At that age I once stabbed my best friend, Fred, with a pair of pinking shears in the base of the neck, enraged because he had been given the comprehensive sixty-four-crayon Crayola box — including the gold and silver crayons — and would not let me look closely at the box: to see how Crayola had stabilized the built-in crayon sharpener under the tiers of crayons. Q. Identify and comment on two features of punctuation used in this paragraph

17. Parenthesis (1) to give extra information about how impressive the Crayola set was (1) • Colon (1) to introduce extra information about why he was so keen to look in the box (1)

18. But initial results of research they have conducted show that about a third of people suffer from what the researchers call “celebrity worship syndrome” and it affects their mental wellbeing. It raises a troubling question: in the era of “industrialised fame” , is hero worship bad for you? Q. 1.Why has the author used a question? 2. Why has the author used a colon? 3. Why have inverted commas been used?

19. Under her bed Katherine Hicks keeps six years of yellowing newspaper clippings about the former pop band Boyzone, and 70 videos of them performing. There might have been more if her attention had not moved on to Westlife, another pop sensation. In one year she has spent £3,000 to watch Westlife perform 17 times, and is such a regular concert fan that she believes the band now recognise her as an acquaintance, if not a friend. She now has her sights fixed on a new star: David Sneddon, first winner of the television show Fame Academy. She cornered Sneddon at two television appearances, though it is early days in her “acquaintance” with him. Q. Why has the writer put the word “acquaintance” in inverted commas?

20. Answer: she isn’t really an acquaintance OR He is being ironic

21. Word Choice

22. Steps to answer word choice question: • Quote word • Explain connotations • Say why this is effective

23. Then suddenly I began to move, back in the direction we had just come, to the street in which we had left the carriage. Abandoning all sense of decorum, I forced my way through the crowds, sometimes pushing violently, sometimes squeezing myself through gaps, so that people laughed or called angrily after me. Comment on the writer’s use of word choice in this paragraph to describe Christopher’s journey back.

24. “Violently” has connotations of anger and danger which is effective as it shows Christopher’s urgency and need to get to moving.

25. Tales of “jaikies” may remind a reader of the legendary Sheriff J Irvine Smith who, when on the bench in Greenock, regularly had to deal with a repeat-offender named Barney Noone who showed off his misplaced intellect by always addressing the bench in verse. Sheriff Smith thus prepared himself for Barney’s next inevitable verbal assault and after Barney recited some verse in mitigation, the sheriff replied: “Thirty days hath November, April, June and Barney Noone” Comment on the effectiveness of the writers word choice of “assault” in this context.

26. With the student elections over, the only buzz on campus comes from the whirring blades of helicopter parents, mums and dads who hover over their offspring, interfering at every opportunity. It's open day season and like every other university Sheffield is stuffed with bright-eyed parents dragging their less enthused offspring around the campuses.

27. Guides must also deal with the potential minefield of questions from their audience. Liberal parents ask whether free condoms are handed out during Freshers Week while their children turn a vibrant shade of crimson.

28. Gavin Aitchison was on the train from Edinburgh to York when he overheard some Celtic fans discussing the quality of refereeing in Scotland. Unfortunately one got a little tongue-tied and announced: “Referees all have a vienetta against Celtic”. Proof perhaps that Scottish football has gone to the Walls in recent years.

29. Inverted commas Italics