Mastering Exam Skills in Analyzing Language

Oct 13, 2024

Tutoring with Gavin: Exam Skills - Analyzing Writer's Language

Introduction

  • Series focused on essential exam skills in English language or literature.
  • Aim: Explain how to analyze writer's language to convey meaning and create effects.

Key Term: Imagery

  • Imagery: Umbrella term for literary techniques that create visual images in the reader's mind.
  • Example: Metaphor is a device used to create imagery.

Tip 1: Zoom In and Out

  • Zooming In and Out: A skill to understand examiners' requirements.
    • Zoom Out: Understand genre, audience, and purpose.
      • Example: A biography aimed at people over 40 for entertainment and information.
    • Zoom In: Focus on language and literary devices for imagery.

Tip 2: DICE Acronym

  • DICE stands for skills in assessment criteria:
    • Devices: Identify devices like metaphors or similes to create imagery.
    • Inference: Understand writer's inference in creating images.
    • Connotations: Recognize how words/images create meaning.
    • Effect: Explain the effect on the reader.
  • Example Analysis:
    • Sentence: "John exploded with anger."
      • Metaphor with connotations of unexpected violence.
      • Explosions as a metaphor could mean John's behavior is shocking/unpredictable.
      • Effect: Creates anticipation or dramatic tension.

Language Devices

  • Examples:
    • Metaphor, Simile, Personification, Pathetic Fallacy
    • Allusion, Power of Three, Repetition, Alliteration
    • Symbolism, Motif, Rhetorical Question, Hyperbole, Superlatives
  • Focus on dramatic verbs, powerful adjectives, or nouns with connotations.
    • Example: "Blood" can symbolize passion, horror, family, life, or death.

Sentence and Punctuation Focus

  • Sentence Types: Simple, Compound, Complex, Minor
  • Sentence Functions: Declarative, Imperative, Exclamatory, Interrogative
  • Punctuation: Exclamation marks, hyphens, ellipses, question marks

Tone

  • Identify tone: Sarcasm, irony, humor, or emotive language.

Tip 3: Use Transitional Phrases

  • Phrases to link points: "The writer begins by creating...", "The writer then uses...", "The writer also presents..."

Tip 4: Use Short, Embedded Quotations

  • Keep quotations short and embed them into your sentences.
  • Example: "The word exploded has connotations of sudden or unexpected violence."

Conclusion

  • Useful tips for exam revision.
  • Encouragement to like and subscribe for more tutorials.