in the summer 2018 exams more than a quarter of a million students failed to achieve above half marks in AQA English language paper 1 question 3 this question is less about what is happening and more about where it's happening and why and in this video we'll look at how to maximize your marks in this tricky structure analysis question question 3 is an 8 mark question analyzing the writers use of structure the assessment objective is a Oh to explain comment on and analyze how writers use language and structure to achieve effects and influence readers using relevant to subject terminology to support their view but just as question 2 focused only on the language elements of this assessment subjective question 3 focuses only on the structure element so what exactly does it mean to analyze structure in an extract put simply structure is about how the text is organized the order things take place in structure analysis is less about what is happening in a source and more about where it's happening and why that's important and there's a subtle difference between the what and the where but it's absolutely essential that you get your head around it one of the most common mistakes I see is that students end up writing answers to question 3 that are pretty much the same kinds of answers they write into question 2 so let's make sure that doesn't happen to you let's look at a sample question you now need to think about the whole of the source this text is taken from the beginning of a short story how has the writer structured the text to interest you as a reader you could write about what the writer focuses your attention on at the beginning of the source how and why the writer changes this focus as the source develops any other structural features that interest you 8 marks so there are two things students struggle with number one what kinds of things are structural features and number two how do I write about them in a way to get above three or four marks so let's start with a quick overview of some of the more common structural features flashbacks and flash-forwards where we go back in time or forward in time from the current moment in the story shifts in focus and perspective where the focus changes perhaps from outside to in or from setting to character from action to dialogue zooming in and out where the description moves like a camera zooming in close to one detail and then zooming out to a broader bigger description repetitions where something appears throughout the text for example continual references to weather a cyclical or circular structure where a story begins or ends in the same place foreshadowing an advanced hint of something that is to come later and on it goes however it's really important to point out that the source may have none of these structure as I've said is all about the shifting moving changing focus of an extract and you might only be able to write about those more subtle points such as alternating between action and dialogue burning up of tension or the move from outside to in whatever you find it's not enough to just spot these structural features and even to add some generic comments on effect such as it draws you in or makes the reader want to read on know once again just like in question 2 analysis of effect should be precise and contextualized to a specific point in the text and that's tricky it's tricky because what it essentially means is this depending on what the extract is about and what happens in it the effect of the structural device could be totally different let me give you a quick example in Frankenstein chapter 5 Frankenstein creates a monster bringing it to life and just as that happens there's this flashback now in that example we could say that the flashback is used as a digression to create tension as the reader fears more and more anxious to return to the tale of the monster probably imagining all the awful things that it's doing but in our extract here with brightly there's also a flashback it's a flashback to the church service and the song which inspired him on how to name his dog but is it used as a digression to create tension no not at all it's used perhaps to illustrate the power of hope upon brightly how dark and miserable his life was that a song about a glorified dairy filled with milk and honey had this amazing effect upon a man who was very hungry in this way the writers demonstrated how hunger despair can destroy a person so that a simple song can provide such solace or hope and that's how you get beyond a half mark so many students fail to write about the effect in a specific way avoiding vague and generalized comments now let's have a look at a sample paragraph the story begins and ends with brightly moving along on his journey the story begins with brightly wearily walking up the road to st. Mary TV came brightly his basket dragging on his arm and ends with him dreaming about a little cart as he trump to the moor by beginning and ending the story with brightly's journey the writer creates a circular narrative where brightly as trapped in his life of poverty mirroring the cycle of poverty brightly finds himself in the writer illuminates how it doesn't matter what brightly dreams of he's still hungry and homeless walking across a landscape he's too blind to appreciate and unable to ever achieve his dreams I hope you found this video useful if you'd like to see a longer video on this question then you can see one just here click on the screen and you'll be taken to that video please do subscribe to the channel