WHAT IS READING FOR ANALYSIS
AND EVALUATION?
This is when you are given a passage
to read and questions to answer on the
passage to check your understanding.
FIRST OF ALL…
Read the passage you have been given.
✰ Begin by reading any information in italics at
the beginning and end of the passage.
✰ Read over the passage – CAREFULLY.
✰ Skim read the questions.
QUESTIONS ARE SPLIT INTO DIFFERENT
CATEGORIES:
Write these in your jotter.
1.
2.
3.
4.
‘In your own words’ questions.
Word choice questions.
Context questions.
Linking questions.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
‘Write down an expression’ questions.
Sentence structure questions.
Tone questions
Imagery questions
Questions that ask ‘how does a writer
continue/develop an idea?
We will look at each of these in detail
1. ‘
In your own words’ questions
What are these questions looking for?
 They are looking for information given in your own words.
 This shows that you understand what they are asking about
and that you understand what the passage is telling you.
× They DO NOT want you to quote directly from passage.
EXAMPLE:
‘The
kids are getting under your feet and I’m
not home much these days to see to your
eating. You’ll get three full meals a day.’
What two reasons did Jane offer to suggest why Mansie
would be better off in the home? Answer in your own
words.
Discuss in your groups.
Try these two examples in your jotter.
‘You get the impression from the set of her jaw
that the Queen is not particularly enjoying the
latest display of mime in the rain…’
Explain in your own words what the author means when he
says that you can tell by the ‘set of her jaw’ that the queen
is not enjoying herself.
…teenagers
grunt and slouch and get cross and
go red and qualify as little more than a subspecies that might one day grow into
humans…
In your own words state what the writer’s opinion of
teenagers is.
2. Word choice questions
Words are chosen for effect. Words can make you think about more
than just a literal meaning.
Words have connotations. These are the associations we give to words
– the ideas we are made to think about when we hear or read a word.
e.g. Think of ‘sunny’- we associate words such as warm, bright, happy
with it.
If we used ‘sunny’ to describe a person then these qualities are
associated with that person.
2. WORD CHOICE QUESTIONS
What are these questions looking for?
When a question asks you to comment on word choice think about
the associations conjured by that word.
 First identify the words being used for the effect.
 Then explain what the effect is.
 The effect is what the word makes you think.
EXAMPLE:
‘The transaction seemed to fluster her, as if she
might not have enough to pay for the few things
she had bought. A tin of lentil soup. An individual
chicken pie. One solitary tomato.’
How does the writer emphasise that she had only
bought a ‘few things’ by word choice?
Discuss in your groups.
Try these two examples in your jotter:
‘He
was breathing heavily and the smell was
inconceivably foul; it was the reek of rotting flesh,
of festering wounds, of ancient perspiration, and of
fear.’
Explain fully how the writer emphasizes the smell
through word choice.
The miserable town began to dampen his spirits. Not a
day went by without at least a few hours of drizzle, the
sort of rain that seeped into the bones, making it hard to
consider doing anything, leaving the holidaymakers
huddled round the fireplaces staring blankly at the board
games they didn’t really want to play.
Explain how the writer’s word choice helps to create an
impression of the mood of the holidaymakers.
3. Context questions
These questions are about the meaning of words. They will
ask you to give the meaning of a word by looking at the
words and sentences around the word and using these clues,
work out what the word could mean.
Hint: Try pretending the word is not there and instead it has been
left blank. Ask yourself – What word would I put in that blank?
Try out some words and see what makes sense.
Another useful tip is work out is it a verb or a noun or an adjective…?
3. Context questions
What are these questions looking for?
These questions often ask you to show how the context (the words
which appear near to it) helps you to understand the meaning of a
word or phrase.
 You have to say what you think the meaning of the word is.
AND
 Quote the words nearby that help you to come to that meaning.
AND
 Explain how they do so.
EXAMPLE:
‘Billy Connelly’s beard was reportedly last seen
being used as a merkin by a village elder who had
lost all of his hair as a result of poor diet.
Give the meaning of the word ‘merkin’ from the
context of the paragraph.
Discuss in your groups
NOW TRY THESE TWO IN YOUR JOTTER.
Macaulay Culkin had both his parents legally
blocked from controlling his 17 million dollar
fortune, a move that estranged him from his father.
Show how context helps you to understand the
word ‘estranged’.
•
He walked over to the bar and decanted some fresh whisky
into his glass. He passed it to his guest who swirled the glass,
sniffed and smiled, ‘A vintage year”.
•
There was nothing left except the dusty, soft remnants of
some ginger snaps. I shook the crumbs from the table and
looked carefully for any fingerprints.
•
She had more vigour than any woman I had ever known of
that age. She could outrun teenagers half her years, and
seemed to be always on the go.
4. ‘
Linking’ questions
What are these questions looking for?
A linking sentence is one which links two paragraphs
together. Usually this sentence will appear at the start
of the second of two paragraphs.
Look carefully at the sentence which is the link. There
will be two parts to this sentence, One part will refer to
the content of the paragraph before. The other part of
the sentence will introduce the subject of the next
paragraph.
To answer this type of question you need to do four
things.
①Quote the word(s) that link back
②Explain what subject/idea they link
back to.
③Quote the word(s) that link forward
④Explain the subject/idea they link
forward to.
EXAMPLE:
Some people firmly believe that all overweight
people are lazy and unfit. However are such
opinionated attitudes particularly helpful? Might we
not be better off looking to the facts of the situation?
The reality is that many people are extremely active
and physically very fit.
How do the sentences in green provide a linking
function?
overweight… opinionated attitude
lazy
facts of the situation
and unfit
reality…
active…
fit
TRY THESE TWO EXAMPLES IN YOUR JOTTER.
Here is where Guy Fawkes plotted, Isaac Newton did sums. The beatles
made records, the anti-slavery lobby was founded, Oscar Wilde
partied…and there were bigger events: Roman invasions, plagues,
fires, Zeppelin bombings, air raids.
However, the culture and history don’t stop at the city gates.
Dotted around London are countless beautiful villages, and exquisite
country houses. Like a well age face, Greater London’s history show its
lines.
Explain how this sentence is an appropriate link between the paragraph
it begins and the previous one.
In Madras, as in other garrison towns in India, there
were many orphan children of European soldiers who
had been killed or died of diseases or had been
unaware that they had a child. These children faced
an unenviable future. In the Hindu community of their
mothers they were unacceptable and in the European
community they were equally unacceptable because
of their native upbringing.
How does the green sentence provide a linking
function?
In the last example the linking sentence began
with the word ‘these’.
Words such as these, there, that are determiners
referring to something that has just been talked
about.
They provide a clue and are usually used at the
beginning of the linking back part of the sentence.
5. ‘Contrast’ questions
What are these questions looking for?
A contrast is a comparison which highlights
the differences between subjects. The
writer deliberately pairs two things in this
way to emphasise the difference which will
be significant.
A contrast is a comparison which shows up
the differences between subjects.
The writer is deliberately pairing two ideas
together to flag up the difference which
will be important in some way.
Questions often ask you to state what the
contrast actually is. Contrast is the pairing
of opposing ideas for example large and
small or dark and light.
To answer the question fully you must state
both sides of the comparison.
EXAMPLE:
It is a place that has shaped the world, and that the world
has shaped. Massive and intimate, traditional but everchanging, hugely multicultural but ineffably British,
Greater London is almost impossible to define – and almost
impossible to resist.
In your own words explain two of the contrasts mentioned in the last
paragraph to be found in the present-day London life.
Now try these two examples:
To leave the enormous sprawling dust-blown city of
gridlock and gritty buildings was bliss…we were in
open country, little settlements of square mudblock
houses…a solitary car or truck and on one remote
road twenty men going home after prayer.
In your own words give two contrasts the writer
noticed on his journey from Cairo to the countryside.
In our sitting room my aunt seemed very exotic, and rather theatrical:
not at all like my “staid” country mother with her scrubbed grousemoor complexion. For “house-wives” how unalike they seemed! On a
scale of prettiness my aunt might have scored seven marks out of ten:
she certainly “made the most of what she had’ – as my mother would
say of certain women she didn’t quite approve of.
When my aunt took off her coat she was wearing a canary silk suit
underneath. and my mother looked most uncomfortable in the other
big wing-chair, pulling her tweed skirt over her kneesand tugging at
the pearls around her throat.
Give details of two obvious contrasts between the aunt and the
mother.
6. WRITE DOWN AN EXPRESSION
This type of question is asking you to find an
expression (or group of words) in the paragraph
that you are directed to.
Usually the information is so important its worth two
marks.
The question does not want whole sentence.
They only want the exact expression.
Find the expression and write it down.
Example:
As societies around the world become
increasingly multi-ethnic, the arguments about
racism tend to be less about whether it is wrong
or right.
Quote an expression that tells you that the ethnic
mix in societies is increasing.
Now try these in your jotter:
We stood in the corridor while a hatchet-faced Austrian
woman yanked our bunk-beds into place – there wasn’t
room in the carriage for the three of us. Barking the news
that she would be waking us up at 7a.m with a cup of instant
coffee and a piece of cheese, the woman departed.
Quote two words or expressions which illustrate the manner
of the woman on the train.
There was a stranger seated at the kitchen table, a
most horrible and wild stranger who looked worse
than the brigands of childhood tales.
Quote the expression that sums up the speaker’s
impression of the stranger.
7. Sentence Structure Questions
How a sentence is put together is often significant as
this can be used to reflect meaning. Sentence structure
really covers five areas:
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
Punctuation and lists.
Repetition
Sentence length
Word Order
Climax and anti-climax
What are these questions looking for?
1. You must note what has been done,
what is unusual about the sentence
(quotation).
2. You must explain what effect this has
on the reader, what it makes the reader
think.
Example:
Ken is lucky that Julie can drive one of the trucks,
change the 2 feet high tyres, make sure Alex does
his school lessons on his laptop, cook, make
sandwiches and dish out the £2 tickets.
How does the structure of the whole sentence help
to reinforce the idea of how busy Julie is?
Try these example. What technique is being used and
what is the effect?
She was bored of teachers and bored of classmates.
She was bored of lessons and bored of the work.
The government has failed to live up to its promise. Is
this morally right?
 He failed his exam.
 He failed English, Maths, Science, Art and History.
 He failed everything; he never paid attention.
 Blushing, she fled.
8. Tone Questions
Sometimes you will be asked to identify the tone of
a particular paragraph and explain how the writer
establishes the tone.
At other times you may be told what the tone is and
asked how it is created.
When you are trying to establish the tone of a
paragraph, imagine the tone of voice that might be
used if the paragraph was being read aloud.
A good starting point is often to consider if the tone
is light-hearted or serious.
Then try to be more specific.
Humorous – writer finds the subject funny.
Light-hearted – conversational and funny.
Conversational – chatty, friendly tone.
Enthusiastic/effusive tone – used in advertising to persuade.
Flippant – mocking/ not taking it too seriously.
Irony – when writer says the opposite of what he means. Humorous but often
with a serious point to be made.
Satirical – extreme irony. Funny in a savage way to ridicule his subject.
Tongue-in-cheek- writer will sound serious but there will be a sense of
ridicule behind his words. e.g. euphemism is a common feature here. ‘tired
and emotional’ often means drunk.
Serious – used for solemn occasions such as a funeral.
Once you have identified the tone, the next step is to
think about how that tone is created.
Tone is created by word choice and by sentence
structure and imagery too.
Think of Scottish sporting success and you’ll be thinking
for a long time. There’s been the occasional glorious
spark in football, such as Celtic winning the European
cup in 1967, Archie Gemmill’s goal in 1978 or Aberdeen
winning the Cup Winner’s Cup in 1983, but this is
ancient history. Likewise, Alan Wells won the olympic
100m over a quarter of a century ago. Rugby grand slams
have been absent from these parts since 1990.
Comment on the tone of ‘but this is ancient history’. (2)
Sarcastic – suggesting it is no longer relevant
Dissatisfied with the green ‘public lavatory’ décor
of the Scottish Mountaineering Club’s hut in Glen
Coe, he decided to redecorate it in tasteful custard
yellow with curious red psychedelic designs.
Describe the tone of the word ‘tasteful’.(2)
Ironic – he means the opposite, i.e. tasteless and hideous.
Nobody likes the idea of being proved wrong. Indeed for
months I had fought with the idea of owning a digital music
player. In a series of heated conversations with more
technical –savvy friends, I repeatedly argues that I just did
not see the point. ‘But its so brilliant, you can listen to
anything you want,’ one said, to which I replied “Why
would anyone want to carry around his entire collection of
music?” The answer? “Because you can.”
Identify the tone and comment on how it is created.
(2)
Informal – colloquial language such as ‘savvy’ and by use of dialogue
9. Imagery Questions
To answer this type of question you have to:
1. Quote the image.
2. Then think
DENOTATION – just as (what does image mean)
CONNOTATION – so too (what does it make
you think of)
EXPLANATION – what is the writer telling
you by using the image?
Example
The moon is a ship sailing on a sea of
clouds.
This is a metaphor.
It compares the moon to a ship.
Just as a ship moves slowly along the sea so
too does the moon seem to move slowly along
the clouds in the night sky.
The writer uses this to explain how the moon
is moving across the sky.
Now try these
This is taken from a passage about car boot sales.
Beware of the antique dealers. They will surround
your table at this early hour like wild dogs around a
carcass.
How does the writer use imagery to describe how the
antique dealers behave? (2)
Have you noticed that modern Britain is the most
matriarchal society in the history of the world? The
four most famous figures in public service since the
war have been women…
I cannot say what the effect of this curious fact has had
on women, but, as a man, I feel very grateful. It had
added interest, surprise and mystery to what would
otherwise have been the flat landscape of men in suits.
In your own words how does the image of ‘flat
landscape’ help you appreciate the writer’s meaning?
(2)