Reading Literary and Non-fiction Texts

How writers make you feel something

When you read a story or a piece of description, the words are doing more than telling you what happens: they are chosen to make you picture a scene and feel a mood. Reading well means noticing how. Writers use language techniques, such as choosing a striking word, comparing one thing to another, or appealing to the senses, and they use structure, such as how a text opens, where it shifts, and how it ends. Analysing a text means spotting these choices and, above all, explaining their effect on the reader. That last step is where the marks are: not just what the writer did, but what it does to you as you read. This module covers the main language and structure techniques and how to build a clear analysis of the effect a writer creates.

Language and structure words

Learn these terms before the techniques are matched to their effects. They name the tools a writer uses.

Match each language technique to its effect

Language against structure

Analysis draws on two levels of a text. Strong answers notice both, but they are different things.

Which is a simile?

Which of these phrases is a simile?

• her eyes were like deep pools
• her eyes were deep pools
• the eyes watched the door
• she had two eyes

Name the technique, then its effect

The mark of strong analysis is that it never stops at spotting a technique. Saying that a writer uses a metaphor earns very little; saying what that metaphor makes the reader see, think or feel earns the marks. So build every point in three moves: name the technique, point to the exact word or phrase, then explain the effect on the reader. The effect is the heart of it. Ask yourself two questions about the choice: why did the writer make it, and what does it do to me as I read? A point with no effect is only spotting; a point with an effect is analysis. When you feel stuck, simply describe the picture or the feeling the words create, and you are already explaining the effect.

Pick the language techniques

Select everything that is a language technique a writer can use.

• A simile
• A metaphor
• Personification
• The page number
• The book cover

Order how to analyse a literary text

Put the steps of analysing a literary text in a sensible order.

• Read the whole text to grasp its meaning and mood
• Pick out a word or phrase that stands out
• Name the technique the writer has used
• Explain the effect it has on the reader
• Link the effect back to the meaning or mood

Complete the analysis facts

A comparison using like or as is a _____. Describing one thing as if it is another is a _____. Language that appeals to the senses is _____. The mood or feeling a text creates is its _____.

Tap the two examples of imagery

Tap the TWO phrases that use imagery to create a vivid picture.

• the frost bit at her fingers
• the sky was a sheet of grey silk
• she walked to the shop
• it was a Tuesday

A chef seasoning a dish

A good chef does not add salt at random. A pinch here lifts the sweetness, a squeeze of lemon there cuts the richness, and every choice is made for a reason and for its effect on the person eating. A writer works the same way with words. A single sharp word, a comparison, a very short sentence dropped into a long paragraph, each is chosen for what it does to the reader. So when you analyse a text, do not just list the ingredients you can spot. Ask what each one was chosen to do, and how it changes the flavour of the whole piece. The seasoning is almost invisible on the plate, but the reader notices at once when it is missing.

The close-reading run

Answer each one correctly to keep your lives. Choose the best answer.

Analyse each extract

Read each situation and choose the best answer.

• In your answer you write only: the writer uses a metaphor. What is missing to make it analysis?
• A writer uses several very short sentences during an exciting chase. What is the likely effect?
• You want to analyse the word choice in a text. What should you do?

Build a literary-analysis sentence

Choose the word for each gap to complete one point of analysis.

Analyse how a writer creates an effect

Think of a piece of descriptive or fiction writing, real or imagined. Explain how a writer uses language and structure to create an effect on the reader.

• Explain what language techniques are, with examples such as simile and metaphor
• Explain what structure means in a text
• Explain how to identify a technique in a text
• Explain how to explain the effect it has on the reader
• Explain why naming the effect matters more than only spotting the technique