Practise writing about an unfamiliar prose passage under time. Try each before revealing; every passage below is our own original writing.
1Read our original passage: 'Martha counted the coins twice, then a third time, as if the total might improve with attention. The shopkeeper waited, tapping the counter with one patient, ringed finger.' Write the opening of a commentary on how tension is created.
Show plan, model opening & checklist
Plan: Comment on the repeated counting, the shopkeeper's gesture, and the gap in status between the two figures.
Model opening: The writer builds quiet tension through repetition: Martha counts 'twice, then a third time', a compulsive action that betrays her anxiety about money.
Checklist:
- Addresses how tension is created
- Analyses a specific detail
- Embeds short quotation
- Considers characterisation or contrast
2Read our original passage: 'The new house was everything the brochure promised, which was precisely the problem. Every room waited, freshly painted, for a family that had not yet decided to be happy.' Write the opening of a commentary on how the writer presents the family's mood.
Show plan, model opening & checklist
Plan: Explore the irony and the personification ('every room waited'). Link the setting to the family's emotional state.
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Model opening: The writer uses irony to unsettle: the house being 'everything the brochure promised' is framed as 'precisely the problem', hinting that satisfaction has not brought happiness.
Checklist:
- Focuses on mood as asked
- Analyses irony or personification
- Uses short embedded quotation
- Links setting to feeling
3Read our original passage: 'Grandad told the same story every Sunday, and every Sunday we let him, because the ending changed a little each time, and we wanted to know which grandfather we would get.' Write the opening of a commentary on how the narrator's attitude is presented.
Show plan, model opening & checklist
Plan: Comment on the affectionate tone and what the changing ending reveals. Note the first-person voice.
Model opening: The narrator's affection emerges through patient repetition: the family 'let him' retell the story, an act of love disguised as habit.
Checklist:
- Addresses the narrator's attitude
- Comments on tone and voice
- Embeds a brief quotation
- Explores implication, not just plot
See the worked annotated model response for unseen prose commentary, or the method in our unseen prose commentary skills guide.