Reading 20th-Century Prose: Language and Structure

Reading a prose extract

In the reading paper you meet a short prose extract you have never seen before and analyse how the writer has built it. Reading well means more than following the story. You find the ideas the writer puts across, both the ones stated openly and the ones only hinted at. You look at the writer choices with language: the words, the images and the shapes of the sentences. You also look at structure, which is how the whole extract is put together and ordered, from its opening to its close. Above all, the marks come from explaining the effect of a choice on the reader, not from simply naming it. This module works on one short extract, written for this module, so you can practise close reading and back every point with evidence from the text.

The extract

Read this short extract carefully. Every question that follows works on it. *The last bus had gone. Maria stood under the flickering streetlamp, her coat pulled tight against a wind that smelled of rain and cold metal. The street was empty now, the shutters down, the puddles holding broken pieces of light. Somewhere a dog barked once and fell silent. She counted the coins in her pocket for the third time, as if counting might change the number. It did not. Far off, a single car swept its headlights across the wet road, then was gone, and the dark came back heavier than before. Maria began to walk.*

Analysis toolkit

Learn what each term lets you DO with an extract, not just what it is called.

How to build an analysis point

Every point you write follows the same three parts, and the third is where the marks are. First, quote a short word or phrase from the extract, just a few words. Second, name the technique precisely, whether that is imagery, personification or a particular sentence form. Third, and most important, explain the effect on the reader: say what the choice makes them picture, feel or understand. If you cannot finish that third part, you have spotted a technique rather than analysed one. Two or three points built this way, each tied to the text, beat a long paragraph that only lists what the writer has done.

Find the personification

Here are three phrases from the extract. Tap the one that uses PERSONIFICATION, giving a living quality to something that is not alive.

• The writer describes
• puddles holding broken pieces of light
• , then writes that
• the dark came back heavier than before
• , and ends with
• Maria began to walk

The short sentence

The extract twice uses a very short sentence, such as "It did not." What is the main effect of a short sentence here?

• It lands with a blunt finality that stands out against the longer sentences around it
• It shows the writer had run out of ideas
• It tells the reader the exact time of day
• It is a spelling mistake

Match the technique to its meaning

Counting techniques

Suppose an extract uses 4 language techniques in total, and 1 of them is personification. Subtract to find how many of the techniques are not personification.

Complete the reading facts

Language that appeals to the senses, such as sight or smell, is called _____. Giving a human or living quality to something that is not alive is _____. The way a whole text is built and ordered is its _____. Naming a technique earns little on its own, so a strong point must explain its _____ on the reader.

Build the analysis point

Build one analytical sentence about the extract by choosing the best option for each gap.

Order the structure

Put the stages of how this extract is built in order, from the opening.

• It opens with a problem: the last bus has gone
• It builds a cold, lonely atmosphere in the empty street
• A passing car offers a brief flicker of light, then goes
• It ends with a short, decisive sentence as Maria walks

A strong analysis point

Select the TWO things a strong analysis point must include.

• A short quotation from the text
• An explanation of the effect on the reader
• A guess about the private life of the writer
• The number of pages in the book

Analyse the extract

Read each case and choose the best response, with a reason.

• You want to analyse the phrase "the dark came back heavier". You have quoted it and named it as personification. What must you add?
• You are asked about the structure of the extract, not its language. What should you comment on?
• A student writes only that the writer uses imagery and then stops. What would raise the mark?

Analyse the prose extract

A friend has to analyse how the writer of this extract uses language and structure, and does not know where to start. Explain how to analyse a prose fiction extract.

• Explain what to look for in how the writer uses language, with an example from the extract
• Explain what imagery and personification are
• Explain what is meant by the structure of an extract
• Explain why every point needs a short quotation as evidence
• Finish by explaining why the effect on the reader is what earns the marks