language analysis

I don’t know about you, but I have found the AQA English Language, Paper 1, Question 3- commenting on the structure of a text- mighty troublesome this year! As much as I try to help students identify shifts in time, character, location, and find interesting patterns,… Read More

So what is this nebulous image that the student has disdained to divulge? Which elusive emotion is it that the reader is supposedly experiencing? And, indeed, yes, just what on earth is going on!? Such bland and unfocused ‘explanations’ as these could refer to any one of millions of evocative words or phrases whereas a well-targeted response will be specific to just one particular word or phrase and will outline one or more very precise ways in which this particular instance of the writer’s use of language may affect a reader. It might help students to answer such a question more directly, and astutely, if they firstly consider the various possible ways in which a writer’s use of language can affect a reader: Read More