Close Reading Skills

Close Reading Skills Higher

Imagery • You must show that you understand the literal ‘origin’ of the text. • You must show that you can see how the writer is extending this metaphorically to help make a point.

Simply picking out the words which contain the image will score no marks. • Adding lots of vague comments which are not tied to understanding and analysis of the image will also score no marks.

Simile Too many tourists are so wedded to their camera that they cease to respond directly to the beauty of the places they visit. They are content to take home a dozen rolls of film instead, like a bank full of Monopoly money. Show how the simile used here highlights the writer’s disapproval of the behaviour of tourists. (2A)

Answer • Although there are so many photographs being brought home and ‘bank’ suggests they are valuable, they are actually of no value, in the same way Monopoly money has no value outside the game – CONNOTATIONS of ‘bank’ and ‘monopoly’ • This shows that the tourists had not valued or appreciated the things they were photographing – links it with the writer’s disapproval – the effect of the simile.

Simile The Thames marks the edge of things. It is what makes north London north, and south London south. Like a twisty ruler, it measures out the intricate social gradations between the east and west of the city. Show how the imagery of these lines helps to develop the statement, ‘The Thames marks the edge of things.’ (3A)

Answer • Describes it as being like ‘a twisty ruler’. • A ruler is normally straight but the river bends so the ruler has to be bendy too. • The idea of ‘marks out’ is developed by the fact that rulers allow you to measure and mark out different lengths, like different parts of the city. • The ‘gradations’ suggest that you are measuring different levels, like different classes of people.

Metaphor • Identify the metaphor. • Show how the connotations of the metaphor help to enlarge, or refine, your idea of what is being described. • Show the link between the connotations which you have chosen and the literal meaning of the words used.

Metaphor Too many tourists are so wedded to their camera that they cease to respond directly to the beauty of the places they visit. Show how the metaphor highlights the writer’s disapproval of tourists.

Answer • Metaphor is ‘wedded’. • Connotations of wedded – permanent relationship, close relationship, dependency. • Has the effect of illustrating how completely indispensable the camera is to the tourist.

Personification • Identify or quote the personification that you are dealing with. • Show how the literal and figurative meanings merge to create an effect. • Say what the effect is.

Personification And in August this year, a tremor of apprehension ran through the scientific community when the Russian ice-breaker Yamal, on a tourist cruise of the Arctic, muscled its way through the unusually thin ice to the North Pole to find itself sailing serenely into an astonishingly clear blue sea. What impression are you given of the progress of the Yamal by the imagery of these lines?

Answer • ‘muscled’ • Gives the idea of the boat making its way through the ice as if it were a human being shouldering its way through the ice by muscle power. • It makes it seem forceful and energetic.

Word choice • You are being asked to select key words and show how the connotations of these words are being exploited by the writer. • There are no marks for simply picking out the words. • There are no marks for repeating the question.

A useful strategy can be to compare the word you’ve chosen with a more ‘neutral’ word, e.g. ‘She strode into the room’. A more neutral word would be ‘walked’. Difference: the choice of ‘strode’ suggests a purposeful action by a confident person.

Word choice Admittedly, Saturday night TV may not reek of Latin glamour. But the new Dirty Dancing film, soon to reach UK cinemas, makes up for that. Set in the blistering heat of Cuba, Havana Nights features the sort of drippingly sexy salsa that you really have to be Latin to pull off. How does the word choice in these lines create an exotic description of salsa dancing? (2A)

Reek – suggests smell of something animal, sweaty, sexy. • Dirty Dancing – sexual connotations of the dance. • Blistering heat – heat is so intense that it makes paint or skin blister. • Cuba – glamorous location. • Drippingly sexy – energetic dancing, meltingly attractive.

Because of the popularity of partner dancing - as opposed to the lone experience of shuffling one’s feet and randomly jerking your arms at a club/family wedding – the BBC has decided to make a celebrity version of Come Dancing at the centrepiece of its new Saturday night schedule. How does the word choice in these lines show that the writer thinks that dancing on one’s own as opposed to with a partner is not very satisfying.

Close Reading Skills