IGCSE 0500 PAPER 1:
Skill 1: Interrogate the Text
Critical Reading Tools
Think of critical reading as a bit like an autopsy: you have a piece of text laid out in front of you
and you need to dissect it. To do that, you need to learn what tools there are, how to use them,
and when to select the right one. These reading tools are going to help you to better
interrogate the texts you’re given in the exam.
The 4 tools are:
Question
Clarify
Evidence
Infer
Question
The first tool to use is your Question tool – this is to get to the basics of what you’re dealing
with.
As you start reading the text, find out what is going on by asking yourself: who, what, where,
when and why.
So who are the people, what are they doing, where are they, when is this happening, and why –
why is it happening to them and why is it important.
So if you’re struggling to even understand what on earth is going on in the text, before you
even get to all the writer’s techniques, just use the Question tool to ask those basic questions.
Clarify
Try to clarify any gaps you might have because there might be some difficult words you’ve just
never seen before. Perhaps the text is taken from a broadsheet so it has some sophisticated
language, or there might be some jargon because it’s on quite a bizarre or niche subject.
You’ll need to try and clear up any confusion you have about the text, especially if a word is in a
key sentence. The best way to solve that is to:
1. Break the word down to its root; strip it of any prefix or suffix (any letters before or
after it).
For example, if you hadn’t come across the words ‘abnormal’ or ‘normalize’ before, you
can clarify their meaning by cutting off the prefix of suffix.
Normal | Abnormal | Normalize
2. Look at the words around it and check that the root word you have makes sense in the
context of whatever else is written.
3. And if it doesn’t make sense, then cover it up and fill in the blank! Think of a word that
could go in its place.
For example:
“She was a multifaceted woman with many talents.”
If you don’t know what ‘multifaceted’ means, cut it to it’s root. What letters before or after the
main word can we cut? We have ‘multi’, which we know means ‘many’ (as in, multiple or
multiplex). The word ‘many’ is also in the sentence so that goes in our favour; we’re then able
to infer that it means the woman has lots of different sides to her. So we could replace that
word ‘multifaceted’ with the word ‘interesting’ or something similar, to see if it makes sense.
And it does.
“He had a powerful and malignant presence.”
What does malignant mean? What prefix or suffix can we cut to get to the root? We might get
too ‘mal’ as in, bad. The words around it don’t help much either – because powerful can be a
good or bad trait. But at least we’re now 50/50 as to whether it’s a good thing. But the fact we
have a hunch that ‘mal’ means ‘bad’, that helps tips in favour of ‘malignant’ meaning something
negative, particularly if we’re aware of the word having other associations (i.e., cancer, a
malignant tumour), so we’re fairly sure then that a ‘malignant presence’ must be a negative
thing. So, to double-check, let’s replace it with the word ‘’unpleasant’ and see if that fits in with
other descriptions of him in the text, which it does.
Evidence
This next tool is fairly self-explanatory! You just need to look around the text for evidence. The
exam will ask you to identify certain words or phrases that suggest a particular meaning. You’ll
need to examine the text and sift through it to find the explicit meaning the question is looking
for.
Infer
Your Infer tool is where you make some informed inferences – or interpretations – about the
text, based on any clues, signs, hints, or any patterns you come across.
If this was an autopsy or an x ray, you’d be looking for fractures or bruises or marks on the body
– anything that gives you subtle hints.
But in language you’re looking for moods and emotive language and semantic fields, and
connotations. This helps you to read between the lines and get to the implied meaning, or the
intention of the writer, by looking at their techniques and style. It’s also how you can pick up on
any bias in the text.
Exam Tip
Be aware that the exam board will have deliberately chosen texts that include
difficult words that you’re likely to not understand! That might seem cruel, but
it’s to test whether you have this skill to clarify meaning and to problem-solve
any confusion you get from reading a text
Summarize the Text
Summarize
This is where you need give a concise but cohesive overview of the text.
Use your Critical Reading Tools to chop up the text, digest it and pick out its key points. Now
you need to rewrite it as a summary, using your own words.
Exam Tip
You’re given a wordcount of just 120 words for this question – so it’s a very short
summary.
Try to practice writing 120 word summaries of your favourite books or films, so
that you become good at communicating the key, salient points.
Use Your Own Words
It’s important you use your own words in your summary, and not to repeat key words or
phrases from the text.
The best way to avoid that is to go to the thesaurus you keep in your brain and find a synonym
of the word.
So if the text says “She was thrilled with the outcome”, run that key word “thrilled” through
your internal thesaurus and find words like “pleased”, “delighted”, “overjoyed” etc.
For example:
“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
– Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
This one is tricky – because we have to find a synonym for ‘friends’, ‘enemies’, ‘remember‘ and
‘silence‘ – almost the whole quote! But reworded looks like this:
“When our allies stand by and say nothing, that stays with us longer than the memory of
whatever our adversaries had to say.”
It’s much less elegant than the original quote! But at least the meaning is still there and we’ve
used our own words. But it’s longer than the original quote – which is fine when it’s such a
short quote, but sometimes you’ll need to condense a passage.
This is where you need to learn to paraphrase. For example:
“It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let
things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.”
– Leonardo da Vinci
A paraphrased version could be:
“Successful people are proactive – they go out and make a difference, rather than wait
around.”
Practice paraphrasing by finding some long quotes and rewriting them so they’re shorter and in
your own words.
Exam Tip
Only summarize the facts and information in the text.
Don’t try to embellish it or add any extra details that aren’t there. You’re not
being asked you opinion or to reflect and comment on the content, ONLY to
summarize.
SKILL 2: Analysis
Analysis
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:
4. What have they done?
What have they written about? What’s the meaning and purpose of the text?
5. How have they done it?
What writing techniques have they used? Think of your figurative language
techniques.
6. 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 analyze 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 emphasize 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 compoundcomplex 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 heading is more sensationalist because the word “fury” has more emotionally
charged connotations; it implies 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.
SKILL 3: Register & Tone
Rewriting a Text
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)