Higher marks in this strand come from analysis, not mere identification. Name a writer's method, then explain its effect. Across two texts, show how their choices differ.
Our teachers wrote the passages below so you can practise language analysis, structure analysis, and comparison of a shared theme. Work through the single-text tasks first, then the paired ones, revealing our plan only after you have written a full response.
1Read this passage we wrote. 'The sea had lost its manners. It came at the wall in grey shoulders, shrugging the boats sideways, and where it struck it did not splash so much as detonate, flinging spray the height of the lamp posts.
Between blows it drew back with a long hiss through the shingle, gathering itself, counting, and then it came again, harder, as if the land had said something it could not forgive.' Analyse how the writer uses language to present the power of the sea. Comment on specific words, phrases and language techniques, and explain their effect on the reader.
Show plan, model opening & checklist
Plan: Choose three or four precise choices and analyse each fully. The personification 'lost its manners' and 'something it could not forgive' makes the sea a wilful, angry force. The verb 'detonate' and the noun 'blows' bring violence.
The pause 'gathering itself, counting' creates menace before renewed attack. Always move from method to effect on the reader.
Model opening: From the first line, the writer personifies the sea as a wilful, aggressive force: to say it 'had lost its manners' turns the water into something that chooses to be violent.
Checklist:
- I analysed a few choices in depth rather than listing many
- I named the technique, quoted it, then explained its effect
- My points stay focused on the power of the sea
- I used subject terminology accurately
2Read this passage we wrote. 'At first you notice the noise: gulls, the tannoy, a child somewhere refusing to walk. Then the crowd thins as the platform empties, and you notice the space: the long shine of wet tiles, a single glove on a bench.
Finally there is only you and the man with the trolley, and the station, which seemed so large at rush hour, closes around the two of you like a held breath.' Analyse how the writer has structured the text to shift the reader's focus. Think about the order of ideas, how the perspective narrows, and where the writer chooses to end. Explain the effects of these structural choices.
Show plan, model opening & checklist
Plan: Structure is about order and movement, not word choice. Track the deliberate zoom: from broad noise, to the emptying space and one telling object, to a single figure and a closing image.
The signposts 'At first', 'Then' and 'Finally' guide the narrowing. Explain how ending on 'a held breath' leaves the reader with stillness and tension.
Model opening: The writer structures the passage as a slow zoom inward, opening on broad, busy sound ('gulls, the tannoy, a child') so the reader begins with the whole crowded scene.
Checklist:
- I wrote about structure (order, focus, endings), not just language
- I tracked how the focus narrows across the passage
- I commented on the effect of where the writer ends
- I used structural signposts as evidence
3Read these two passages we wrote. Text A: 'There is no honest hour like two in the morning in a great city. The pretences are asleep; only the bakers and the lonely are awake, and they nod to one another as equals.
I have never felt safer than on those wide, lamp-lit streets with no one on them but me and my own long shadow.' Text B: 'By night the city rearranges itself into a place I do not recognise. Doorways that sold bread by day now hold sleeping shapes; the underpass I hurry through at noon becomes a decision I have to make. I walk faster, keys laced through my fingers, counting the distance in bright shop windows.' Both writers describe a city at night.
Compare how the two writers present their different attitudes to being out after dark, and the methods they use to convey them. Refer to both texts.
Tried these practice tasks? A teacher can mark your child's attempt and explain the next step in a paid one-hour trial.
Show plan, model opening & checklist
Plan: Comparison rewards linked points, not two separate mini-essays. Set the attitudes against each other: A finds the empty city honest and safe; B finds it unfamiliar and threatening. Then compare method.
A uses warm personification ('pretences are asleep') and a companionable 'shadow'. B uses tense detail ('keys laced through my fingers', 'a decision I have to make'). Use connectives such as 'whereas' and 'similarly'.
Model opening: Although both writers walk the same city after dark, their attitudes are almost opposite: Text A treats the emptiness as a comfort, while for Text B it turns the familiar into a threat.
Checklist:
- I compared throughout using linking words, not text-by-text
- I made the contrasting attitudes explicit
- I supported each side with a named method and quotation
- I referred to both texts in roughly equal measure
4Read these two passages we wrote. Text A: 'Every delayed train is a gift of two unplanned hours; every wrong turning is a street I would never have chosen and now cannot forget. I travel to be lost.
The map is for people who want to arrive.' Text B: 'People romanticise getting lost. They have never sat on a kerb at midnight with a dead phone and a hostel that closed at ten. Adventure, in my experience, is mostly the retelling; at the time it is just cold, and expensive, and far.' Compare the writers' viewpoints on travel and getting lost, and how each writer uses tone and technique to persuade the reader to share that viewpoint.
Support your comparison with quotation from both texts.
Show plan, model opening & checklist
Plan: Identify the two viewpoints first: A celebrates being lost as freedom; B punctures that idea as naive. Then compare persuasive method. A uses paradox and confident short statements ('I travel to be lost').
B uses a knowing, deflating tone and concrete discomfort ('cold, and expensive, and far'). Weigh which techniques you find more persuasive, and why.
Model opening: The two writers take directly opposed views: for the first, getting lost is the whole point of travel, whereas the second dismisses that idea as a comfortable myth told after the event.
Checklist:
- I stated each writer's viewpoint before comparing method
- I compared the persuasive techniques, not just the opinions
- Quotations from both texts support every comparison
- I commented on the effect on the reader
5Read this passage we wrote. 'The lift stopped between floors with a sound like a swallowed word. For a moment the light held; then it, too, gave up.
Dev pressed the button marked with a bell and heard, far off, the bell ring: in an empty corridor, to nobody. He counted his own breaths to keep them slow. Somewhere above, a cable ticked as it cooled, or as it stretched.' A student said: 'This passage makes the reader feel trapped and uneasy right up to the last word.' To what extent do you agree?
Evaluate how successfully the writer creates tension, using the text to support your view.
Show plan, model opening & checklist
Plan: Evaluation asks for a judgement backed by analysis. Agree in the main, then prove it. The simile 'like a swallowed word' and the failing light build claustrophobia.
The bell ringing 'to nobody' removes hope of help. The final ambiguity 'as it cooled, or as it stretched' leaves the danger unresolved on the last word. Show where the writer is most and least successful.
Model opening: I largely agree that the passage keeps the reader uneasy to the end, and the writer earns this above all through what is left uncertain.
Checklist:
- I made a clear overall judgement in response to the statement
- I supported my view with analysis of specific choices
- I judged how successful each effect is, not just that it exists
- I stayed anchored to the idea of tension throughout
See the method and an annotated model on the analysing & comparing texts page for OxfordAQA 9270, or the technique in our analysing & comparing texts skills guide.