GCSE English Language - Analysing a writer’s use of language - Live Revision Workshop

[00:00:20]hey good morning all and welcome to today's Eurovision session which is on how to analyze the language within a text designed to get you those upper marks then I just check that everyone can hear me if one of you could just type into the chat box for me yes then I will know that all the sound is working if I don't see a yes then that will be quite worrying because obviously then I am just talking to myself so if somebody could just type yes in the chat box if you can hear me no I'm still not seeing a yes so there should be a chat box to the side of your screen if you're able to hear me can you just type yes into that chat box for me no I'm still not seeing anything I'm going to assume that you can hear me um because I haven't had any problems I didn't have any problems yesterday um but so assuming that you can I have a poll that's been created and I just would like you to answer that first of all it's obviously asking you about whether you're confident with analyzing a language of a text there are multiple choice options yes I'm confident no I'm not confident I'm somewhat confident could you just respond to that poll and click the option that applies to you so I can get a sense of how confident you are with analyzing the language of a text so you could all just answer that Poll for me that would be great and again for those of you who've just joined welcome to today's session we will be looking at analyzing the language of a text could one of you please just type yes into the chat box to let me know that you can hear me and that my mic is working or maybe the message is not working maybe the message function isn't working and I can't see okay hopefully you can hear me so let's get started now first of all the skills that you will be tested on okay let me just type something oh perfect good thank you Kobe I thought I was talking to myself there for a moment so the basics obviously for language you are being tested on ao2 it's your ability to analyze language techniques use correct subject terminology and again it's not just about identifying those it's about looking at how they have an impact on the reader what do they draw attention to basically whenever you hear that word effect it's asking you um essentially what do these language techniques highlight so you're going to be given an extract from the source that you're reading a particular part of it and you'll be asked to comment on the writer's use of language to describe maybe an idea a place a person an object be very careful with the lines you've been given make sure you stay within those lines your question can be phrased in different ways depending on the examples you're with it might be that you're asked to analyze the language and structure at the same time it might be that you're just asked to focus on the writer's use of language for example look in detail this extract online so and so to so and so of the source how does the writer use language here to describe and then they would give you your focus and when of course you're looking at language yes you're looking for those big techniques personification metaphors so on you also want to show some close Word level analysis so zoom in on keywords if you're able to identify what type of word that is even better sentence types as well you'll be asked to focus on particular sentence construction how that adds to your understanding of language AQA specify that doesn't mean that you have to but obviously it's there as an option so essentially they're testing you on your skill to draw meaning to infer meaning to read between the lines okay so that's just the basics now how many language techniques do you know can you start typing into the chat box the language techniques that you remember straight off the top of your head there is an easy way to remember a good chunk of them which is the acronym go massive I'm not sure if you have heard of that before but we will go through that in a moment just type into the chat box any language techniques that you are familiar with that you remember think about some of the very very obvious ones maybe then the less obvious ones do that thank you maybe there's a time delete the chat box okay I'm going to go through these with you as you can see if you look at the first letter of each of these terms up to here a native language it spells out go massive it's a really good acronym to remember group of three triplet three things listed in a row onomatopoeia sound metaphor comparison of two things where you say something is something else alliteration repetition of the same letter at the beginning of words sibilance that's particularly the repetition of the S sound in one or more words similarly comparison of two things like our as the senses sensory language imagery vivid imagery what type of imagery is it though be careful with that don't just say imagery always state is it threatening imagery sad imagery and then you're a bit more specific looking at the use of vocabulary verbs emotive language and then of course you have these other ones as well personification that's a fantastic one um giving human qualities to something pathetic fallacy is another great one using the weather to reflect the nude of events or personifying the weather repetition when something is said more than once and then of course there are many others as well which I cannot fit onto the screen but you have for example plosives the repetition of p b sounds you have dissonance the repetition of harsh sounding letters such as c k so there will be a whole range of things that you can be looking at symbolism for example and as long as you are able to cover a range not all of them because obviously they won't all be in the passage that you're reading but as long as you can cover a range then obviously you have a better chance of getting a good Mark because if you're just repeating the same techniques all the time then they're going to think well this student doesn't know many language techniques and that's the whole point of the question now obviously when you're zoom in in on Words it helps if you can identify the word type sorry about some of the letters there they run on to the next slide it's to do with the formatting of the screen if of course you can identify those words that's great positive adjectives negative adjectives aggressive adjectives and then so forth there are more word classes than the ones you can see here on the screen very easy to just Google different word classes and it will come up with a very comprehensive list for you but they are some of the most obvious ones there and then of course if you're talking about nouns that can be broken down into concrete now and abstract noun and so forth if you're not sure though I would say don't get it wrong just write down the word and because what you don't want to do is make inaccurate um identification you want everything that you've written to be accurate okay so you have your different word types there hopefully you're familiar with those and then you've got sentence types of course now again depends on the examples you're with with aq8 sentence type does count as part of language analysis really the ones that are worth commenting on would be simple sentences because they're short because they stand out because they're drawing attention to something important for example there was silence they can create a very dramatic effect they can raise tension complex sentences obviously they can reflect a character's ongoing internal thoughts they can emphasize the detail in something they can Quicken the pace they can reflect an unfolding situation dumbling over a street who willed himself to keep going to keep running from the shadow that pursued him but with every step he managed to take forward he felt the ground pulling him under you can see how that very long run on sentence there gives a sense of how this character here is in great danger and in great threat so we have that extended sentence that reflects that growing fear the growing danger and even if you're reading that aloud you um can't really take a pause can you so complex sentences if one stands out to you and you believe it to be significant obviously do comment on it now what steps do you take when analyzing the language of a text tell me how you would approach analyzing the language of text what do you do what's your method and type it into the chat box for me I'll just repeat that question in the chat box might be for example that some of you like to read through the text and annotate as you're reading some of you might let's highlight in different colors some okay thank you so you highlight definitely highlight in this very important think about what you highlight are you highlighting everything or just highlighting specific things any others any other contributions there read and highlight keypads exactly okay so do remember the focus of the question again sometimes it is easy to forget when you're under exam conditions the pressure gets to you um you what you don't want to be doing is highlighting everything that you spot because of course you can't write about everything it's going to become very confusing and you'll end up with um a highlighted extract that looks like a rainbow so only highlight quotes that are relevant now if you are with AQA you need a minimum of three and three actually is substantial because they give you a very short extract actually and if you're analyzing those quotes in detail you will have comprehensive paragraphs within the time that you're given of course if you're with other boards um so if you are with edgecast for example they do expect to see more than that so the example that I'm going to go through with you today um actually shows you how you can analyze quotes in detail which would match directly with AQA but also how you can um uh let's say include a wider range of quotes if you're with for example um educats because they don't typically um they don't typically need that same level of detail as eighth grade does and then obviously consider the overall presentation of the subject so this is key when you have read through that extract when you have a good understanding of the focus within that extract ask yourself how is it overall presented then what you do is you break that presentation down into separate observations once you have those separate observations then you can use those as stepping stones into your supporting evidence so think of the observations as your points um and then you can think of the Stepping Stones obviously they're not stepping stairs are your evidence is your supporting evidence all right but within all of that you have to identify techniques zoom in on keywords remember the effect of the language on the reader again if you're not familiar I don't know I'm sure you all are at this stage but um Point evidence technique and Analysis zoom in analysis that gives you a nice detailed analysis of one reference um make sure that if you are with for example educast that some of your quotes that you write down contain that very comprehensive analysis if you are for example with AQA and you're just going to be writing about three quotations because that's all you can manage in the time you have make sure they all contain that level of analysis all right but that's something everyone's very familiar with you might know it as a different acronym um you might for example have the technique before the evidence that is fine as long as it's all there okay entrance openings here just in case you are a bit um perplexed on on how to get your ideas out again nothing new here really um you've just got some different synonyms that are given us that you don't sell I could power it um everything's coming out and it's flowing nicely all right so let's have a look at a text today then now we are going to have a look at this question here how does the writer use language to present the environment in this scene as we read I want you to identify any language techniques and I want you to consider their impact on the reader so the focus is on the environment now you would probably typically think right the environment so it's just setting it's just landscape but in this environment you will actually find that it's made up of different things yes it is to do with the setting but it's also what is within that setting that is surrounding the narrator okay so just keep that in mind so let's have a read of it first of all I'm giving you a relatively long extract um this would be considered quite long for the language question but it's so that you can um obviously um see the detail you can pick out have a wider range of um quotes to select from and so forth so this passage is taken from the story of Dracula the original story of Dracula by Bram Stoker and within this passage you have a young man being driven in a carriage towards the castle of Count Dracula so again the little bit of information that they give you right at the beginning of the exam um you know we'll we'll give you a good understanding or at least allow you to anticipate what's going to happen in the extract so let's have a read of this as I'm reading through ask yourself can I spot any language techniques what effects do they have we were hemmed in with trees which in places arched right over the road making it seem like a tunnel great frowning rocks guarded us on either side though we were in shelter we could hear the rising wind for it moaned and whistled through the Rocks as we swept along it grew colder and colder still and fine powdery snow began to fall so that soon everything was covered with a white blanket the sharp winds still carried the howling of the dogs the bane of the Wolves sounded nearer and nearer as though they were closing around us from every side I grew dreadfully afraid and the horses shared my fear the driver stopped the horses suddenly the howling of the walls ceased all together then by the Light of the Moon sailing through the black clouds I saw around us a ring of wolves with white teeth and lulling red tongues with long singly Limbs and shaggy hair they're a hundred times more terrible in the Grim silence which held them than when they held for myself I felt a sort of paralysis of fear all at once the Wolves began to howl as though the Moonlight had some peculiar effect on them the horses jumped about and reared and looked helplessly around with eyes that rolled in a way painful to see but the living Ring Of Terror surrounded them on every side I shouted and beat the side of the carriage hoping to scare the walls away just them a heavy Cloud passed across the face of the moon so that we were again in darkness they're very tense extract now what techniques Can you spot there we've already got good the fact that there is this auditory imagery there is this sensory language that shows the intensity of the wind what else can you spot within that what kind of things jumped out to you and how is the environment presented overall that's my big question to you how is the environment presented overall in that extract what color imagery of blackpool-based danger good pending indicates they're trapped gate okay so how is the environment presented overall if you had to sum that up in the sentence what would you say because this essentially becomes your your leading sentence when you start your response so stoker presents this environment as what would you say and then have a think about how you would break that down even further what are the reasons for your overall impression of that environment does anyone have any ideas not sure okay let me go through this with you so we have overall this environment conveys the themes of fear isolation there is a very dominant feeling of fear and you have a sense that this narrator his journey to Carriage he's in that's being led by the horses he does feel very very isolated okay it's it's your typical Gothic setting isn't it now if you were to obviously break that down the setting is this very dark it's a very foreboding place isn't it you have that real sense of dread we also have this very strong feeling of danger this vulnerability that is faced by the characters and we also have this feeling of entrapment helplessness each of those things that I've listed there show that the environment is a place of fear and isolation you might not use those specific words you might choose to sum it up as something with slightly different phrasing that's absolutely fine but all I've done is I've taken that big central idea and then I've broken it down and I've broken it down by looking overall at what is being described in each paragraph now you may just get one paragraph so just be aware of that but that doesn't mean that there might not be different things different things being focused on within that paragraph it just helps you it helps you understand the framework of what you're reading and it helps you have a more solid idea of how that extract is progressing in its presentation of the environment so we've got the environment this percentages being filled with dangers the protagonist is surrounded by vicious animals exactly good Perfect all right but there you go that is my top tip to you look at how it's presented overall break it down into your separate observations they will become the guiding point for you finding your quotes and they will essentially become your points at the beginning of each paragraph okay so this one would be if you wrote three paragraphs all right now let's have a look at the use of language techniques that we can find within this extract So within that first paragraph there soon we were hemmed in with trees now yeah we did have a comment about this in the chat box actually indicating that they're trapped exactly and that verb so again if you can identify the word type even better that verb hemmed indicates this feeling of confinement it also creates the sense of claustrophobia if you think about what it would be like to be hemmed in the trees trees can be very tall very oppressive they look very dominating and so it would create this sense of claustrophobia of being unable to escape we then also have this description of great Browning rocks now obviously rocks can't frown so we know that we've got personification there that creates this feeling of foreboding if you feel like even the physical landscape around you is mournful then that's not going to fill you with great confidence is it the environment is going to leave you feeling very uneasy then you'll notice that there is this strong focus in the weather so essentially we have pathetic fallacy it talks about the rising wind for it moaned and whistled through the Rocks so again we have personification but this time of the Wind or you could refer to its pathetic policy and that sound that auditory sound really adds to this sense of foreboding it creates a sense of urgency that sound actually signifies danger ahead it it emphasizes this sense of isolation and when you add on to that this sound of the disturbing wind um moaning moaning has negative connotations doesn't it it's it's not something that you associate with something that's Pleasant or happy or comfortable add on that description of the fine powdery snow now that sounds quite magical doesn't it fine powdery snow everything covered with a white blanket but in the context of what's being described here in the context of an environment that actually seems quite threatening what you could argue and again this is where you're thinking on a higher level you could talk about that snow being yes the literal it's falling it's covering everything but also metaphorical because that environment the snow that is contributing to that environment is smothering everything and if it's smothering everything covering everything in a white blanket then you could also argue that it's suffocating it's suffocating obviously the character within that environment it's suffocating everything else within that environment so you have something that is typically seen as quite Majestic and beautiful that actually adds to this sense of threat following on from that you could pick up on the baying of the wolves and this is where the bang of the Wolves is first introduced but that's it's actually something that's repeated um this sound of the walls is referred to um throughout this extract and so that repetition gives this sense that they're closing in um that they're getting closer and that threat is very close and that all contributes to the rise intention so you can see how actually there are so many things that you can comment on just within that first paragraph it allows you to cover a range of techniques and personification it's a metaphor to sensory language auditory language do the use of verbs um there's a lot that you can comment on and it all nicely ties together that's the first example now have a think about what emerges in that second paragraph where it suddenly starts talking about the howling of the Wolves decent all together and then by the Light of the Moon sailing through the black clouds I saw around us a ring of wolves with white teeth and loling red tongues with long sinewy Limbs and shaggy hair there are a hundred times more terrible in the Grim silence which held in them when they held myself I felt sort of paralysis of fear and just list in the chat box for me any further techniques that you can identify in there what would you comment on about them what do you think adds to this sense of this very uneasy environment I'll just type the question into the chat box good well done the lack of noise creates a sense of uneasiness exactly that's the first thing that you pick up on isn't it the first paragraph We have the sound of the Wind um and we have the baying of the walls there's even this reference to the wind carrying the howling of the dogs but now it it just suddenly stops and that's very very like you said it's very very uneasy what else could we comment on in that paragraph let's see what else might we spot think about the way that the wolves are described about the imagery think about connotations that you associate with certain words such as red for example to think about sentence link do we have any other ideas let me go through the second paragraph I came in so we come on to this this very first sentence which was immediately spotted by one of you suddenly the howling of the Wolves see still together it's a brief sentence um but you also have this repetition it's going back to the howling um which is mentioned in the first paragraph that were just repeated and obviously we come back to the work the Wolves again now that's very disconcerting it's very uncomfortable but also that sudden transition into silence it tells you something about how this situation is becoming increasingly unpredictable no one likes silence it's it's the unknown it's what you associate with the unknown so that's a very powerful um piece of evidence that you could comment on and then you also have um that description of the Wolves now we've got that the color imagery of red can symbolize the Wolves less for blood exactly good well done so we're thinking about what we associate with that adjective and of course that adjective read um it it does give you you do associate red with danger in this context anyway you do associate it perhaps with Bloodshed with aggression um you know it's it's almost a warning sign isn't it so really the way that those wolves are described White Teeth lowling Red tongues long singly limbs shaggy hair they have this wild appearance obviously they're wild creatures but there's something very something very primitive about them um and that gives you a strong sense of their physical presence stoker is deliberately focusing on their physicality because it's intimidating and so you have this real sense of Menace real sense of danger so we've shifted somewhat haven't we from the description of obviously the actual weather to now a focus on the Wolves now you wouldn't have to write about that because that's more to do with structure when you're talking about Focus but you can see with this passage you can very clearly see the transitions between the paragraphs and again you've got a couple of things that have been highlighted there that would that would make for some very good analysis not only that you you could actually also comment on how that first brief sentence is Then followed by and that second description of the moon and the walls you have the multi-clauses there adding to this growing tension so again that you will always find other things that you can comment on but just remember you have a time limit so don't beat yourself up about it um you might not be able to comment on everything have a look at the last paragraph now all at once the Wolves began to howl through the Moonlight um oh sorry all at once the Wolves began to howl as though the Moonlight had had some peculiar effect on them the horses jumped about the reared and looked helplessly around with eyes rolled in a way from painful to see but the living ring of terrorists surrounded them on every side I shouted and beat the side of the character hoping to scare the walls away just then a heavy Cloud passed across the face of the moon so everywhere again in darkness now what techniques Can you spot in this one is again the tension just keeps growing and growing they think about how the wolves are effectively surrounding the horses but also surrounding um this this Carriage essentially think about the effect that has on the horses how the horses respond to what's in their environment think about the description of the horses because that tells you also about how they're responding think about the use of sound again the use of imagery with weather good the wolves are creating chaos something bad is or something bad happening feels imminent exactly kinesthetic imagery of the horses clearly presents the fear that other animals have of the world creatures yes exactly something that's uncontrollable and of course we know that animals react with Instinct they can immediately sense danger good okay let's have a look and see what we've got so we have again this repetition we come back to all at once the Wolves began to howl the sound begins once more um that's very um you know again highlighting the sense of impending Danger we also have um the fact that the horses jumped reared their eyes rolled in a way that was painful to see all of these verbs here indicate the chaos and they indicate the fear they indicate their confusion from the horses it's you know you have essentially the vulnerable being juxtaposed against um this very dangerous threat in an environment um not only that look at the syntax look at again how you have these multi-clauses that fragmentation that is reflexive of the anxiety and the urgency that is felt there and then of course um this living Ring Of Terror very very powerful metaphor there of course comes back to um this idea of being enclosed like being hemmed in with the trees unable to escape entrapped a very very powerful piece of language there and then have a look at how it finishes with the heavy Cloud passing across the face of Amelia once again the darkness that Darkness obviously becomes synonymous with danger but also the Moonlight um is something that you would typically associate with what's comforting if you have the light of the meaning it offers um Clarity on everything but they're being suffocated Into Darkness and so again it it ends on a very very ominous note and that use a pathetic fallacy that use of personification you know the heavy Cloud Crossing across the face of the Moon leaves both the reader and the narrator feeling very very uneven so lots of potential ideas there that you could write about obviously and what I've been trying to do is is show you how things build up so we're not just talking about quotes in isolation if you want to get those upper marks you need to show that there's a point to the quotations that you've selected you need to show that you've selected because they're building up a very obvious imagery of this environment and any connections that you can make between them obviously are going to show your perceptive skills all right now let's have a look at what this would look like if you were writing it up into a response again this is the main idea the environment conveys the themes of fear and isolation and if you're able to bring in some things such as a theme that's being highlighted again that's going to show that you're very perceptive and something that is um they would expect to find with those upper bands on the mark scheme we're then going to take these ideas as our stepping stones into the quotes so we have a nice strong Focus so that we're showing our Progressive understanding of what is being presented with this environment so let's have a look at this first paragraph I apologize it's so squashed there's something to do with crowdcast and the formatting of their screen my version there's plenty of space on this one it all becomes squashed together so I have tried to separate it but I can see uh let's cut off the first line which is typical um let me just find my version of this PowerPoint and I will read actually that first slide so what I've got there is the first paragraph that's highlighted at the top um that's the section that we're looking at and then the paragraph that you can see below is based on those quotations all right now that's not to say that you have to use those quotations you might choose you know to select a different one and that's absolutely fine but I'm just selecting the ones that will offer you some of the best potential for analysis so the response begins stoker links his presentation of the environment with the themes of fear and isolation so there we go that was our general observation and Begins by establishing the setting as a dark and foreboding place with threatening inhabitants this is our first stepping stone into the quotations the use of the verb hemmed creates a sense of confinement and claustrophobia whilst the personification of the Rocks as frowning sets an ominous foreboding tone suggesting that danger is looming now as you can see our strong Focus point is in bold we've got subject terminology in red where it's the highlighted in yellow so that's our first piece of analysis but we're going to show the development of our understanding when this is combined with the description of the weather doka creates a place which feels deeply unsettling for both the character and the reader so make sure you are addressing the reader throughout the continued use of personification and sensory language With the Wind which moaned and whistled creates a sense of urgency and the mournful sounds contribute to an unsettling atmosphere so can you see how whenever I'm underlining something we're adding we're layering our analysis this together with the Eerie sound of the baying of the Wolves which sounded nearer and nearer now do you see what I've done there I've got brackets here if you want to insert a quote and it doesn't grammatically make sense with the rest of your sentence you can insert a word that does make it grammatically correct but just make sure you insert it it's I'll read that again this together with the Eerie sound of the baying of the Wolves which sounded nearer and nearer contribute to a growing sense of isolation particularly the emphasis on the weather with its fine powdery snow creates an image of snow that is deceptively oppressive the reader is able to sense the environment's bleakness and hopelessness and the snow could be interpreted as a metaphor for the way in which the environment is gradually suffocating and covering everything in an unyielding layer of snow so you'll probably be able to see that with this last comment fine powdery snow um the analysis there you've got a little bit more detail when you are analyzing your quotes if you're with an example I'd like for example educast where you have to refer to quite a few you won't be able to analyze all of them in that same level of detail because you don't have the time so you need to make sure that you choose a selection of them where you have that really strong tight analysis and then maybe for a few others you just have really sharp perceptive comments but they're not you don't have the endless comments on them so I'm trying to show you here how it worked for both examples with AQA and when you're analyzing one quick in detail with the other examples where you have a mixture and you have to cover a wider range but as you can see that good range of language techniques range of quotations and everything seamlessly connects together we start off with the trees then we move on to obviously the sounds we look at the actual um the the weather the the snow that's falling and it all contributes to this very dark foreboding place okay so hopefully that's giving you an idea of how you can analyze in some nice um high level detail any questions at this stage if you do have any questions just pop them into the chat box no okay let's move on then let's have a look at the next paragraph so this one focuses on the silence that suddenly enters the scene dopa also conveys the vulnerability of the narrator and horses against the environment so there's our stepping stone now we're going to look at our supporting evidence the sudden transition from auditory description to the howling of the wall ceasing altogether creates a jarring moment of Stillness and uncertainty and this adds to the disconcerting mood this is further exaggerated by the brief sentence and the repetition of howling which create a moment of high tension and unpredictability when the writer describes the Wolves as having white teeth and lulling red tongues long sinuy long senior limbs that should say and shaggy hair the perturbing adjectives give the reader a sense of their immediate physical presence and Menace and this is heightened by the connotations of the adjective red which is typically connected with danger aggression and suffering there is nothing Majestic about their appearance instead they appear as primitive wild and bloodthirsty creating an immediate sense of threat it is therefore no surprise that the narrator feels a paralysis of fear in this environment as there is a sheer sense of Terror and helplessness in the face of the Wolves so again we have nice layered analysis here we focus on this quote first of all we then look at obviously you've got your language technique say highlighted in red um so we talk about how this tension is growing we look at the imagery of the wolves and you'll notice here that I preface adjectives with perturbing perturbing meaning disturbing so again when you're zooming in on word type always try to if you can describe what is added to that word type if it's a verb is it a violent verb is it a playful verb if you're looking at adjectives again is it um a sad adjective is it a happy adjective what would you say about it in this case it's perturbing and we have the connotations of the adjective read again where I'm underlining this is where you're moving through your analysis and you're simply layering everything okay you're adding you know one observation after the next so that is for the second paragraph now we would move on to the final paragraph now you know in the final paragraph slightly longer this one finally the environment reinforces a sense of confinement and helplessness now that's our final stepping stone the repetition of the howl of the Wolves which progresses into a living Ring Of Terror leave the reader with a sense of urgency and Dread at the same time the metaphor emphasizes the predatory nature of the walls who ensnare and capitalize upon their victim's fear this living Ring Of Terror suggests that what surrounds the characters is not just an abstract or imagined fear but a tangible and real presence that is alive and is actively encircling them consequently this intensifies the feeling of claustrophobius that was something we mentioned at the beginning of the dreams as the characters are unable to escape the threat that moves over them further to this the writer's use of multi-clauses mirror the anxiety felt by the horse as a narrator Dean when the horses jumped about and reared the living ring of terrorists surrounded them on every side Joker effectively conveys a sense of the chaos fear and confusion felt by the horses whilst also hinting at the narrator's own distress his use of personification in a heavy Cloud which passed across the face of the moon so again I've had to reset a word there British grammatically makes sense also adds to the oppressiveness and disorientation as the Moon is typically associated with light and Clarity but the passing of a cloud over it creates a sense of obscurity and mystery adding to the uncertainty surrounding the characters as they are temporarily unable to see or understand what is happening around them in summary stoker effectively presents a frightening and treacherous environment due to its inhabitants but his usopathetic fallacy also AIDS the reader in experiencing the fear that the characters so desperately feel so what you want to do if you can and if you've got time is have what you would call kind of mini conclusion it's not necessary for this type of question but I think it just shows the examiner that obviously in light of everything you've said this is your understanding of how the environment has been depicted So within this one here um hopefully you'll be able to see that we have this strong strong focus on obviously this living Ring Of Terror um that that metaphor oh I just realized actually I haven't highlighted the other um language techniques in red but hopefully you can spot those so we've got this metaphor obviously this living room of Terror that's spoken about in quite a bit of depth and we will return to that initial comment about claustrophobia felt at the beginning multi-clauses obviously another language technique mirroring the anxiety felt um we've then also got the use of personification of course and with that last reference with the cloud passing across the face of the Moon um so again layered analysis that reference to pathetic fallacy at the end all of it shows a very deep perceptive um understanding of what's being presented you've got judicious selection of quotes it's not just any old quotes that have been chosen um you've got ones that effectively help convey um that that threat of the environment so yes hopefully that's a full response all right and that tells you naturally what the environment is how it's been presented how the reader feels that fear along with the narrator and remember you might be asked to focus on setting equally you might be asked to focus on character um hopefully this allows you to see that when you're asked to comment on a setting it might not just be made up of landscape it can actually also be made up of what's within that as well any questions about that no okay so top tips really remember the focus of the question um only highlight quotes that are relevant to that consider your overall presentation of the subject that's your starting point okay and that's often the place where students struggle to begin first of all so your first sentence is your overall understanding of the presentation of whatever they've asked you to focus on write that down into stepping stones into your separate observations think about obviously how they then lead into your supporting evidence make sure that you have a range of techniques that have been identified zoom in on keywords and that offers you that even closer analysis and comment on the effect of language on the reader but don't start saying things like this makes the reader want to read on um this interests the reader there is no point putting generic comments in there as you can see when I was referencing the reader it was only when it gave a real sense of how the reader was feeling in response to reading that Passage okay so that was that extract that hopefully has given you a comprehensive understanding we have a few minutes left so I thought I would give the opportunity to have a look at an extract yourself and look at your understanding your interpretation of this extra rather than me guiding you through this one now test your own skills so we have another extract um this one is from Charles Dickens and really it's just an opportunity for you to identify any language techniques consider their impact on the reader and then share those thoughts with me in the chat box so this is from the novel little diet and in this extract Dickens is describing the Streets of London it was a Sunday evening in London gloomy close and stale imagining Church powers of all degrees of dissonance sharp and flat backed and clear vast and slow made the brick and mortar Echoes hideous Melancholy streets in a penitential Garb of soot deep to The Souls of the people who were condemned to look at them out of Windows in dire despondency in every thoroughfare up almost every alley and down almost every turning some Dolph or Bell was throbbing jerking tolling as if the plague were in the city and the dead carts were going around everything was bolted and barred that could be POS that could possibly furnish relief to an OverWatch people no pictures no unfamiliar animals no rare plants or flowers no natural or artificial Wonders of the Ancient World all taboo with that enlightened strictness that the ugly South Sea Gods in the British museum might have supposed themselves at home again nothing to see but street street streets nothing to breathe but straight Street streets nothing to change the brooding mind will raise it up nothing for the spent toilet to do but to compare the monotony of his seventh day with the monotony of his six days think what a weary life he led and make the best of it or the worst according to the probabilities so a really strong focus on setting there um and naturally that that description there I'm pretty sure you won't be giving something of that level of difficulty but it is great in terms of being able to identify techniques to gain a general understanding of the impression of how London is presented so what are your thoughts how do you think that London is presented first of all overall in this extract any idea type your thoughts into the chat box we're picking up on technique straight away yes so repetition of no shows the lack of nature in the city yes it's very very Bleak isn't it what's the overall presentation of London that's that's your first thought of call and you want to be able to have your overview before you start delving into the details in your idea foreign would you describe it for example as Melancholy would you describe it as um very depressing would you describe it as bleak exactly okay it is it's very mundane it's very polluted and you do have this real sense of this depressing and oppressive atmosphere once you've got that remember you can then break it down into your separate observations and they will be your Stepping Stones on to your actual evidence um let's very quickly so we have a few minutes left let's have a look at some of the techniques that you might have spotted you will we've got a few there in the chat box but you can see we have strong use of negative adjectives highlighted in yellow there for you we have the personification imagine in church bells look at how even the church bells have been corrupted you wouldn't describe church bells as maddening typically they are supposed to offer a comforting sound but here they're described as ringing out with degrees of dissonance very harsh very harsh and welcoming sounds we've got this use of alliteration dire despondency really highlighting the neglect of this place we have got this use of stibulence for example deep to the souls everything being covered in in in soot you know this very polluted atmosphere you have similes as if the plague were in the city and the dead carts were going around there's this feeling that this city has become essentially donde dreary um and there's this real sense of hopelessness that permeates this whole environment that could be one thing that could be one stepping stone for you the writer presents the idea of how there is a hopelessness that permeates the environment and you could talk about how the writer presents a very oppressive environment and that could be a stepping stone um you could talk about how the environment shapes the people's mental state that could be another stepping stone so you want to have your general observations that men can link to is your quotes that support that but as you can see a strong feature of this one is repetition nothing Street streets nothing Street streets so we have the use of anaphora uh the repetition at the start of a sentence that's repeated think about how that repetition again emphasizes this sense of hopelessness this sense of bleakness okay they're very very depressing description overall now will they give you an extract that has that much potential for language analysis probably not because they are not that cruel they're not going to overwhelm you um you might find that there's half the amount of things that you can comment on and in a way that's better because you don't have to make that um decision or my goodness which quotes do I analyze but either way the important thing to remember is that you have a range of quotes that you are able to identify a different range of techniques within those quotes and that they all link back to a central observation that you're offering your your stepping stone observation let's call it okay but that's it for today um and what I've just shown you there at the very end you can do that with any piece of writing you know you might um look at something um from a novel flip it open to a page see what you can identify uh you might Google short extracts um from stories practice yourself but the more familiar you become the techniques obviously the more competent you will be so that is it for today um thank you for attending today's session if you have an exam coming up good luck with that if you have your exam next year then start your practice early you will be 100 more confident by the time that you get we get to your exam so thank you for attending and good luck bye