WRITER’S EFFECT
If you think of the all questions that have come before this as an autopsy, than this Analysis
question is like the trial. And just like a lawyer or investigator would do, you need to look
at the evidence – in this case, your text extract – and ask three questions in order to
interrogate it and get to the truth:
1. What have they done?
What have they written about? What’s the meaning and purpose of the text?
2. How have they done it?
What writing techniques have they used? Think of your figurative language
techniques.
3. Why did they do it?
What effect were they hoping to achieve? How do they want you to think and feel?
How do you respond personally to the text – was the writer’s intention successful?
Meaning and Purpose
You should be able to work out the explicit and implicit meaning of the text
using your Critical Reading Tools.
But this question is focused more on HOW they’ve written the text, rather
than WHAT they’ve written about.
We’re looking at what core techniques they’ve employed to convey the meaning.
Writing Techniques
Going back to the criminal trial analogy, think of all the following techniques as pieces
of evidence in a crime! How many has the writer committed? Try to look out for these
when you’re reading and see how many you spot.
If there are any terms you don’t know, write the word down on a revision card with a brief
definition next to it, then regularly test yourself on your new words until you remember
them.
Exam Tip
When you’re asked to select three examples in the exam, don’t just write about the first
three you see! Pick out the best ones – those know you’ll have plenty to say about the
effect. Also, don’t set yourself an impossible task by choosing an obvious technique but then
scramble to analyse the effect. So if you pick out onomatopoeia, for example, of course write
about the sounds the writer wants you to ‘hear’– but why those noises specifically? How do
they link to the meaning?
Sentence Length
Look out for when writers vary the length of their sentences. Good writing has varied
sentence lengths – it’s not just one long sentences after another! That would just be boring.
Think about why they’ve chosen a short sentence after a few long ones – is it to emphasise a
point? To shock the reader? To increase pace for excitement or dramatic effect?
If the writer has noticeably varied their sentence lengths, then comment on that as a
technique and explain why you think they did it.
Exam Tip
For extra marks in the exam, specify the sentence type.
Is it a simple sentence, a compound sentence, a complex sentence, a compound-complex
sentence? Is the short sentence they’ve used actually a fragment sentence? It’s worth
brushing up on these when you’re revising as it might get you a couple of extra marks!
Connotations
The writer has chosen specific words and phrases very carefully – usually because they’re
loaded with connotations which have a particular effect on the reader.
A word’s basic connotations are positive or negative, which is always a good place to start!
But try to be more specific about the effect: does the writer want to make you outraged, or
upset, or amused etc?
So if the writer uses quite a powerful and impactful word, cut it out of the sentence and hold
it up to the light on its own; what other meanings can you see there? Does it radiate a
particular emotion? Do you think the writer has consciously used these connotations to
influence the reader some how?
For example:
“Child badly bitten by dog”
Vs.
“Child savagely bitten by dog””
That subtle but effective difference is down to that hyperbolic word “savagely” which has
connotations of a wild animal, something out of control, evil, and makes the image of the
attack far more dramatic. Just from one word.
“Anger over exam grade boundaries”
Vs.
“Fury over exam boundaries”
The second headling is more sensationalist because the word “fury” has more emotionally
charged connotations; it imples people are besides themselves with rage, and encourages
the reader to be outraged, too.
By showing the examiner you understand these techniques and connotations, you’re
demonstrating that you can’t be manipulated by language and you can spot manipulation a
mile off!
So by showing the examiner you understand these techniques and connotations, you’re
demonstrating that you can’t be manipulated by language and you can spot manipulation a
mile off!
Sounds
Sounds also help to convey and emphasis the meaning of a text.
If you’ve noticed the writer has used lots of consonance, for example, that makes the
writing sounds quite hard. Why have they chosen to do that? Do those repeated hard
sounds create a sense of anger or aggression, because the author wants
to provoke and antagonise?
And where assonance makes the writing sound soft, does that create
a soothing or gentle tone to emphasise the sensitivity of the topic?
Language Effects
A really important thing to remember when you’re commenting on the effect of the
language is to ask yourself DO YOU REALLY FEEL THAT?
It might sound like common sense, but lots of students in the exam will write something
they don’t actually believe, but at least sounds good!
Make sure the effect you’re writing about is genuine. If you spot a word that evokes
sympathy, ask yourself if you actually feel sympathetic? If a phrase encourages the reader to
feel outrage – do you actually get that feeling? If so, great – just make sure you explain
why and where that outrage comes from; either a memory or personal experience of a
topic, or just from a broad sense of injustice you share, which you think the writer is
relying on.
But if you’re honest with yourself and your answer feels a little contrived, then your
examiner will think so too! You’ll get higher marks when your answer rings true and sounds
genuine.
DIRECTED WRITING
This is where your Question tool from your Critical Reading Tools comes in handy, so you
can ask: who, what, where, when, why:
Who are you writing as?
So what Role are you taking on
What are you writing about?
What are the key facts from the text and what is the purpose of the writing?
Where has it taken place?
Imagine yourself in the scene.
When did it happen?
If it’s not clear, then you can always make that part up!
Why is this being written?
Who will be reading this and what sort of audience are you writing for?
How should you format your answer?
What form should your writing be in? It will tell you in the question so make sure you layout
the answer correctly.
Role
You need to take on someone’s else’s persona for this question; you’re not writing as
yourself.
You’re taking on a role, so you need to step into their shoes and write as them; the question
will tell you who the persona is (usually a journalist or a person mentioned in Text C). So
when you start writing your answer, ask yourself:
How would she/he answer the question?
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What is the character like? Are there any clues from the text to say whether they
are conservative or informal?
What is their writing style? Are they quite formal, or is their writing
more conversational and relaxed?
Although you’re writing as the character, make sure you use your own words. Don’t use
any phrases from the text in your answer as you’ll lose marks for that.
It might be helpful for you to imagine who these people are – give them an age and name,
even if it doesn’t state that in the text, so that when you’re asked to reflect on their thoughts
or feelings, they seem more like a real person to you. It’ll then make it much easier to
invent a voice for them.
Exam Tip
Be concise! Although you’re taking on a persona, this isn’t a creative writing task. Don’t
confuse it with any of your descriptive or narrative writing skills with this. You only
have 250-350 words, so stay focused on the task directed by the question.
Facts and Purpose
Now you know who you’re writing as, take them with you on a fact-finding mission
through the text. Look for the cold-hard facts in the text and highlight or underline them.
Referring to the facts is important, as you’ll be graded on your understanding of the text.
Then look further into the purpose of the writing. Read between the lines and pick up on
any inferences to find out what people thought and felt about whatever’s happened. Use
your other Critical Reading Tools to find out what emotions are there, so you can get
the tone of your writing right and use the correct connotations in your language.
Where and When
Think about where this has taken place. The location might be specified, in which case use
your skills from the Setting part of the writing exam to make sure you include enough detail
about it. If the location isn’t specified, then you can just make it up! Likewise with the time;
The text might specify whether this happened at day or night, or a particular time of year.
But if not, you can elaborate on that for some extra detail.
For instance, if you’re writing as a Head Teacher at the end of year assembly, you know
that’s likely to be summer – so you can perhaps mention the heat. It will make your
answer original and give it some personality. It also makes the writing more interesting,
which will always work in your favour to get extra marks from the examiner.
Why
So why are you (as the character) writing this? Who is going to be reading it? Keep
your audience in mind by imagining the person reading on the other side. That should help
keep your register and tone correct and consistent.
Form
You’ll be asked to write in one of the following forms:
News report
Magazine article
Formal letter
Formal report
Interview
Journal entry
Speech script
Make sure your answer is laid out on the page correctly and you adapt your language to
suit, to make sure the level of formality is appropriate.
Remember you can make up some extra details, like ages and names, which sometimes
helps emphasise the form. For example, when a newspaper article refers to a person, they
usually add their name, so: “Joe Ball, 19, from London says…”. Adding those small details
makes your writing sound more authentic, as that’s how a journalist would write.
Exam Tip
Although this is a reading paper, almost half the marks for this question is for your writing.
So remember your SPAG! (Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar)
PRACTISE PAPER- READING
Insert
Read Text A, and then answers Questions 1(a)–1(e) on the question paper.
Text A: How Apollo 11 brought humanity together
This text is an article about the moon landing.
In their space suits, three astronauts set out on a mission that would propel them and
all humanity into a new era.
In 1961, President John F Kennedy announced his plans to send astronauts to the
Moon. Just seven years later, commander Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and
Mike Collins were on their way to the Moon.
The Saturn V carrying them roared into the air, rising beautifully into the sky on a
perfect summer’s day. Once safely in orbit, Buzz Aldrin used an early colour video
camera to film a pastel blue Earth rapidly receding through the spacecraft window.
Turning the camera in towards the crew area, we see a joyful Neil Armstrong turning
upside down in the weightlessness he found himself in. Four days later, the
astronauts had arrived for the riskiest part of the mission.
Amid on-board computer problems, Neil Armstrong took manual control of the
landing craft, Eagle, calmly steering it away from dangerous boulders and a large
crater. Buzz Aldrin then spoke the first words spoken by a person on another world.
“Contact light. OK, engine stop…”
Armstrong confirmed what an anxious mission control had wanted to hear: “Houston,
Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.”
Whatever the time zone, people all across the world watched in awe. Six hundred
million followed the dark, indistinct pictures live on TV. After what seemed an age,
Neil Armstrong stepped on to the lunar surface, uttering the words that would
reverberate through history forever more.
“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
The astronauts planted America’s flag. But as Neil Armstrong read from a plaque he
placed on the lunar surface, it became clear that this was an achievement for all
humanity. “We came in peace for all mankind.”
The Apollo era was a time when all things seemed possible.
Space historian Prof Chris Riley believes that the Moon landing led to a cultural
transformation for our species that will remain with us.
“It is endlessly inspiring for what humanity can do when we have to rise to a single
impressive challenge. Right now, stopping the worst excesses of climate change
seems utterly impossible. The message of Apollo is that is totally achievable,” he says.
Read Text B, and then answers Question 1(f) on the question paper.
Text B: Apollo 11 – An Eye-Opening Documentary
The text is taken from a review of a documentary film called ‘Apollo 11’.
The documentary Apollo 11 starts, as the famous mission did, in Cape Canaveral,
Florida. Trucks ferry massive rocket props, machinery grinds as it would in any
construction zone, the sky is a crystal blue. The scene is, in a word, vibrant – so
startlingly alive that for the first few minutes, I wasn’t sure if I was watching footage
from 1969 or a Nasa promo shot from last year.
The 93-minute film is anchored by four pivotal moments in the Apollo 11 mission:
lift-off, landing the Eagle lunar module on the moon, reconnecting Eagle with the
Columbia spacecraft to return home, and re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere. We
already know the outcome of these risks, and yet the sequences are still mesmerizing.
With a score that ranges from swelling orchestra to a single thump, thump, thump of
a heartbeat, coupled with stitches of headset and Mission Control recordings, the
movie’s technical spacecraft scenes are less suspense baits than genuinely moving,
hypnotic odes to teamwork.
The film’s emotional power, however, comes not in the documentation of astronauts
in space (though that is, of course, undeniably arresting, even half a century on), but
in the absolutely incredible footage of the crowds who watched the launch from
Earth.
Apollo 11 juxtaposes massive feats of scale – groundbreaking engineering, built with
thousands of minds in cooperation – with mid-century modern ketchup packets and
outdated bathing caps. The film allows you, without commentary, to make meaning of
these contrasts.
While there are legitimate criticisms of America’s space program, it’s hard to argue
with a film that defers so humbly to the primary source material. There’s a deep
pleasure, especially now, in immersive historical voyeurism, in the illusion that we
can transcend the limitations of our own time and understand another collective
experience. And there’s something deeply kind in letting the archives stand on their
own, of giving the evidence we have of what happened in July 1969 the space to
breathe. Perhaps it’s that space – a record of people and incredulity and intense
focus, without talking heads or hyperbole – that’s the great humanizing force of
Apollo 11.
Text C
Read Text C, and then answers Questions 2(a)–(d) and Question 3 on the question paper.
Text C: The Martian
The text is taken from a longer narrative. At this point in the story, Mark tells us he is an astronaut
on an exploration mission to Mars. He has been left stranded.
I wonder if this log will be recovered before the rest of the crew die of old age. I
presume they got back to Earth all right. Guys, if you’re reading this: It wasn’t your
fault. You did what you had to do. In your position I would have done the same thing. I
don’t blame you, and I’m glad you survived.
It was a ridiculous sequence of events that led to me almost dying, and an even more
ridiculous sequence that led to me surviving.
The MAY is a spaceship. It has a lot of delicate parts. It can put up with storms to a
certain extent, but it can’t just get sandblasted forever. After an hour and a half of
sustained wind, NASA gave the order to abort. Nobody wanted to stop a monthlong
mission after only six days, but if the MAY took any more punishment, we’d all have
gotten stranded down there.
We had to go out in the storm to get from the Hab[1] to the MAY. That was going to be
risky, but what choice did we have?
Everyone made it but me.
I vaguely remember having the wind knocked out of me and my ears popping
painfully as the pressure of my suit escaped. The last thing I remember was seeing
Johanssen hopelessly reaching out toward me.
I awoke to the oxygen alarm in my suit. A steady, obnoxious beeping that eventually
roused me from a deep and profound desire to just die.
The storm had abated; I was facedown, almost totally buried in sand. As I groggily
came to, I wondered why I wasn’t more dead.
There was only one hole in the suit (and a hole in me, of course). I had been knocked
back quite a ways and rolled down a steep hill.
Right that moment I knew I was doomed. But I didn’t want to just die out on the
surface. I limped back to the Hab and fumbled my way into an airlock. As soon as it
equalized, I threw off my helmet.
Once inside the Hab, I doffed the suit and got my first good look at the injury. It
would need stitches. Fortunately, all of us had been trained in basic medical
procedures, and the Hab had excellent medical supplies. A quick shot of local
anaesthetic, irrigate the wound, nine stitches, and I was done. I’d be taking antibiotics
for a couple of weeks, but other than that I’d be fine.
I knew it was hopeless, but I tried firing up the communications array. No signal, of
course.
All the crew’s suits are networked so we can see each other’s status. The rest of the
crew would have seen the pressure in my suit drop to nearly zero, followed
immediately by my bio-signs going flat. Add to that watching me tumble down a hill
with a spear through me in the middle of a sandstorm … yeah. They thought I was
dead. How could they not?
They may have even had a brief discussion about recovering my body, but
regulations are clear. In the event a crewman dies on Mars, he stays on Mars. Leaving
his body behind reduces weight for the trip back. That means more disposable fuel
and a larger margin of error for the return thrust. No point in giving that up for
sentimentality.
So that’s the situation. I’m stranded on Mars. I have no way to communicate with
Hermes or Earth. Everyone thinks I’m dead. I’m in a Hab designed to last thirty-one
days. If the oxygenator breaks down, I’ll suffocate. If the water reclaimer breaks
down, I’ll die of thirst. If the Hab breaches, I’ll just kind of explode. If none of those
things happen, I’ll eventually run out of food and starve to death.
So yeah. I’m doomed.
QUESTIONS
Read Text A, How Apollo 11 brought humanity together, in the insert and then
answer Questions 1(a)–(e) on this question paper.
Question 1
(a) Name two of the astronauts on the moon landing mission.
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(b) Using your own words, explain what the text means by:
(i) ‘propel them and all humanity”’ ………………………………………………………
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(ii) ‘Earth rapidly receding.’ …………………………………………………………………..
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(c) Re-read paragraph 5, (‘Amid on-board… engine stop….’)
Give two reasons why landing the craft was dangerous.
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(d) Re-read paragraphs 7-9, (‘whatever the time zone… all mankind.’).
(i) Identify two items left on the moon.
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(ii) Explain why so many people all over the world were watching the event.
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(e) Re-read paragraphs 10-12, (‘The Apollo era… totally achievable,” he says.’).
Using your own words, explain why the moon landing has had a lasting cultural
impact.
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Read Text B, Apollo 11 – An Eye-Opening Documentary, in the insert and then
answer Question 1(f) on this question paper.
Question 1
(f) According to Text B, what made the documentary such an excellent film and why
do people still take an interest in the moon landing?
You must use continuous writing (not note form) and use your own words as far as
possible.
Your summary should not be more than 120 words.
Up to 10 marks are available for the content of your answer and up to 5 marks for the
quality of your writing.
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Question 2
Read Text C, The Martian, in the insert and then answer Questions 2(a)–(d) on this
question paper. Question 2
(a) Identify a word or phrase from the text which suggests the same idea as the words
underlined:
(i) It was down to strange circumstances that Mark survived.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. [1]
(ii) The spaceship can’t tolerate extreme weather indefinitely.
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(iii) He got woken up by an incessant alarm.
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(iv) Once he got inside, he took off his space suit.
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(b) Using your own words, explain what the writer means by each of the words
underlined:
All the crew’s suits are networked so we can see each other’s status. The rest of the
crew would have seen the pressure in my suit drop to nearly zero, followed
immediately by my bio-signs going flat. Add to that watching me tumble down a hill
with a spear through me in the middle of a sandstorm … yeah. They thought I was
dead. How could they not?
(i) crew ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… [1]
(ii) immediately …………………………………………………………………………………………………….. [1]
(iii) tumble ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. [1]
(c) Use one example from the text below to explain how the writer suggests Mark’s
experiences and feelings at the point he got left behind.
Use your own words in your explanation.
I vaguely remember having the wind knocked out of me and my ears popping
painfully as the pressure of my suit escaped. The last thing I remember was seeing
Johanssen hopelessly reaching out toward me.
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(d) Re-read paragraphs 13 and 15.
Paragraph 13 begins ‘All the crew’s suits …’ and is about the moment the crew
witnessed Mark getting left behind.
Paragraph 15 begins ‘So that’s the situation …’ and gives Mark’s impression of his
predicament.
Explain how the writer uses language to convey meaning and to create effect in these
paragraphs. Choose three examples of words or phrases from each paragraph to
support your answer. Your choices should include the use of imagery.
Write about 200 to 300 words.
Up to 15 marks are available for the content of your answer.
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Question 3
Re-read Text C, The Martian, in the insert and then answer Question 3 on this
question paper.
Question 3
You are Johanssen, a member of the crew. On the way home, you write a journal entry
about the day your crewmate Mark was left on Mars. You decide to write about:
What you saw and felt during the evacuation from Mars
What you remember about Mark’s last moments and his immediate reaction at being
left
What your reasons were for leaving Mark behind and what you think he thought in
his final moments
Write the words of your journal entry.
Base your journal entry on what you have read in Text C, but be careful to use your
own words.
Address each of the three bullet points.
Begin your journal entry with the first point.
Write about 250 to 350 words.
Up to 15 marks are available for the content of your answer and up to 10 marks for
the quality of your writing.
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