Spot the Technique

Spot the Technique 🔍

Paper 1, Section A gives you an unseen fiction extract and four questions. The marks don't come from *finding* techniques — they come from explaining their **effect on the reader**. This module walks Q1 to Q4 on one short passage, so you learn the exact shape each answer needs.

The extract 📖

Read this short passage (written for this module — your real exam extract will be different): *The lighthouse had not shone for thirty years, but Mara climbed the spiral stairs anyway, one hand trailing the cold iron rail. Each step exhaled a breath of dust. At the top, the great lamp sat blind under its dome of cracked glass, and the sea beyond lay flat and grey as a coin. She had come to remember, or perhaps to forget — she was no longer certain which. Below, the town slept on, indifferent. A gull screamed once and was gone. Mara pressed her palm to the glass, and for a moment, in the smeared reflection, she saw her mother's face looking back.*

Q1 — just list them 📝

**Q1 (4 marks, AO1)** gives you a few lines and asks for **four** things that are **explicitly stated**. No analysis, no techniques, no explanation. Grade-9 tip: it is four easy marks — write four short, separate, literal points and **move on**. Over-explaining Q1 just wastes time you need for Q3 and Q4.

A valid Q1 point

For a Q1 on the opening lines, which of these is a valid answer — something explicitly stated in the extract?

• The lighthouse had not shone for thirty years
• Mara feels guilty about her mother
• The writer uses personification
• The passage has a sad mood

Q2 — analyse the language 🔤

**Q2 (8 marks, AO2)** asks how the writer uses **language** — word choice, imagery, sentence forms — in a given part of the extract. The winning shape is always the same: **identify** a technique, **quote** it, **name** it with the right terminology, then — the part that earns the marks — **explain its effect on the reader**.

Build the answer

An interactive activity.

Find the simile

An interactive activity.

Name each technique

What earns the mark

You have quoted "the town slept on, indifferent" and named it personification. What is the best explanation of its EFFECT?

• It makes the town feel uncaring, emphasising how alone and unnoticed Mara is
• It tells us that it is night-time
• It is a simile comparing the town to a sleeping person
• It has no real effect; the writer just needed a sentence

Q3 — analyse the structure 🏗️

**Q3 (8 marks, AO2)** looks like Q2 but is about **structure across the WHOLE extract**, not language in one spot. Think about how the writer **orders** things: **where the focus starts and ends**, shifts in **focus** (zooming in or out), **time** shifts, **perspective** changes, **withheld** information and **foreshadowing**. Track the beginning, middle and end.

Q3, not Q2

The single most common Q3 mistake is answering it like Q2. Which of these belongs in a Q3 (structure) answer?

• How the focus narrows from the whole lighthouse and sea down to a single reflected face
• The simile "flat and grey as a coin"
• The connotations of the word "blind"
• The personification in one sentence

Spot the structure

Midway through, the writer withholds Mara's reason for coming — "to remember, or perhaps to forget — she was no longer certain". What structural technique is this?

• Withheld information, which creates intrigue and makes the reader want to read on
• A simile
• Alliteration
• Direct speech

Q4 — evaluate the statement ⚖️

**Q4 (20 marks, AO4)** is the big one. It gives you a **critical statement** about part of the text and asks **to what extent you agree**, using evidence from the whole of that part. The golden rule: keep **returning to the statement**. The most common way to lose marks is drifting into general analysis instead of constantly evaluating *the given view*.

Evaluate it

An interactive activity.

In the exam 🎓

Paper decoded. Grade-9 habits for Section A: • **Q1**: four short, explicit points — no analysis — then move on. • **Q2 & Q3**: same shape — **identify → quote → name → explain the EFFECT** (the effect earns the marks). Q3 is **structure across the whole extract**, never language in one spot. • **Q4**: keep returning to the **given statement** — evaluate the view, don't just analyse.