What I Need Is Someone Who Can Look Me in the Eye and Tell Me the Truth
The Close Reading Paper
Why do they make us do a close reading paper?
It is the quickest and simplest way they have come up with to check certain reading skills:
a) an ability to understand the general content of a text even when the student does not understand every word or concept in it. (UNDERSTANDING)
b) an ability to spot techniques that writers use to get their ideas and feelings across and explain how they work. (ANALYSIS)
c) an ability to judge whether techniques the writer has used succeed or fail and an ability to compare and contrast the successes and failures of different writers’ techniques. (EVALUATION)
Though few of us will go off and read close reading passages for a living, no matter what we do, it is very important we understand what people are saying, how language works and how to judge the worth of what people are saying.
Where do they get these passages for close reading and why do they have to be so boring?
Mostly broadsheet newspapers and magazines, sometimes passages out of textbooks, autobiographies and even novels. They have to contain a certain level of difficulty. If you are going to be measured on your ability to understand the meaning and mechanics of complex vocabulary, techniques and ideas there is no point studying the TV page of the Daily Record. Also, the passages are chosen by a bunch of old chuffers who don’t get out much.
EXERCISE
Find a newspaper story you like, or is of some interest to you, and read it.
1 What is the purpose of this piece? (to inform, to entertain, to persuade, to highlight an issue or to put a personal point of view?)
2 Give evidence from the text for you answer to number 1.
3 Find a fact in the text and write it down.
4 Find an image in the text and write it down.
5 How does the image work?
6 Why did you choose this story?
The Close Reading Paper
Understanding Questions
1 Use your own words
Some close reading questions are designed to test whether you understand the basic meaning of the text.
For example (from the higher exam 2002, question 2a))
“At our end of the corridor there is a musical cacophony, at theirs a profound and disheartening silence.” (lines 13-15)
Using your own words as far as possible, explain the meaning of the sentence. (2) U
Answer
In modern society music can be heard in almost all places at all times (1 mark) and in the Dark Ages access to music was extremely limited (2 marks)
Don’t fall into the trap of using the writer’s difficult words (in this case words like cacophony, profound and disheartening) because you are not quite sure what they mean. You will lose marks if you use the writer’s words, even if it is obvious you know what the writer means.
This is the easiest sort of question you will get in an exam, so don’t throw marks away. Use your own words.
2 Context questions
As well as showing you understand the writer’s general meaning, you will also be asked more specific questions.
For instance,
Show how the opening paragraphs provide a context which enables you to understand the meaning of the word “cacophony.”
Answer
Cacophony seems to mean ‘a lot of noise all at once’ (1). I was able to work this out from the next sentence which talks of all the “different voices waiting to be heard.” (1)
You don’t have to give a dictionary definition to get a mark, but you MUST give some sort of definition or you’ll drop a mark. You need to pinpoint what words or sentence helped you work out the meaning as well.
The Close Reading Paper
Understanding Questions
3 Big Scoring Understanding Questions
There are often quite big scoring understanding questions and it is important to do these, even if you are running out of time, as it is a good way to pick up easy marks.
For instance (2002, question 5)
Consider lines 65-92.
Using your own words as far as possible, identify five benefits the gramophone has brought to the world of music (5) U
Answer
· The amount of music available to people increased
· All different types of music easily available
· Same piece of music could be heard repeatedly
· Mistakes by musicians could be corrected
· Live performance can be recorded
Answers don’t have to be in sentences. You are getting marked on your understanding not your grammar. If you are not sure if you have five different things write down six. You won’t get marks off for things you get wrong in these questions.
REMEMBER – with most understanding questions you don’t need to quote, so avoid using the writer’s words as it could cost you marks.
As with all Analysis and Evaluation questions, check how many marks the examiner is looking for and check what lines you are supposed to be looking at. Understanding questions usually offer the easiest way to get marks in a close reading exam so don’t throw marks away on silly mistakes that can be avoided.
The Close Reading Paper
Analysis Questions
You are going to be asked several analysis questions in the exam. These are not difficult once you understand what the questions are asking you to do.
1 Tackling structure questions
Basically structure questions ask you to look at punctuation and how it helps the writer to get her/his meaning across.
Does the writer use long sentences (often used to get across complex ideas) or short sentences (often used to make a clear simple point)?
What about punctuation marks? For instance, does a paragraph or sentence use lots of commas (trying to list all the important details)?
Are words or structures repeated (this can help emphasise a point)?
For instance (2002, question 2a)) - Show how the writer’s sentence structure and imagery emphasise the contrasting musical environments of people in the Dark Ages and people today. You should refer to lines 13-27 in your answer. (4) A
Some aspects you could mention –
• Uses a list (lines 20-21) to show us how many different situations where we listen to music.
• Balanced structure of looking “At our end” of the corridor and “at theirs” makes the contrast easier to understand.
• Repetition of this structure helps to emphasise both sides of the contrast of past and present in music.
• The short sentences in the middle of the paragraph (lines 21-23) emphasise the extent to which music affects our lives and focuses on the points they make.
You don’t have to use all of these. If you point out one technique and explain how it works clearly you will get 2 marks. Look out for elements mentioned above, but also think about the points below when answering structure questions.
• Look out for strange order of words (brings attention to words near the beginning or end of a sentence – this is true in poetry as well).
• Look out for use of more complex punctuation like – semi-colons (used to contrast or balance two closely connected sentences) or colons (introduces a list or the explanation of a previous statement))
• Look out for rhetorical questions (where no answer is really expected) and question marks in general (these might be trying to get us to think about lots of complex ideas)
• Look out for lots of full stops (several short sentences can build tension).
• Good writers will use a variety of sentence lengths.
2 Imagery and use of Language
In an imagery question you need to find words that stand out to you, that you maybe expect to see somewhere else. You need to focus on specific words that remind you of other things or words that seem very positive or negative.
Let’s take the same question we used in the last example - Show how the writer’s sentence structure and imagery emphasise the contrasting musical environments of people in the Dark Ages and people today. You should refer to lines 13-27 in your answer. (4) A
Here are some of the words we could discuss:
• Using the word “corridor” suggests length and distance.
• “Blaring” suggests loud and annoying and “soundtrack” suggests something going on constantly through a film.
• “trickle” suggests water in a very low and limited amount.
• The overall contrast is between the “cacophony” (very loud set of noises interfering with each other) and the near “silence” (a very clever word to use when we are talking about music) at the other end of the “corridor.
A good quote plus an explanation of why this is a good word for the writer to use will get two marks. Remember, for this question you need to mention something about imagery AND structure. To recap, a good answer (for all four marks) might be –
Contrast is emphasised between the noise and ever presence of music today and the sad, relative silence of what people were likely to hear in the Middle Ages. The writer uses commas to list all the different times we listen to things now (lines 21-23). The words “blaring soundtrack” emphasise the deafening sound of music and its constant presence (like the music in a film). The word “trickle” is good. We usually associate this word with water moving very slowly. It emphasises what a tiny amount of Middle Ages’ music has come to our attention over the last thousand years.
In analysis questions remember to quote and explain why you have quoted. Look for examples you see and understand – there are no extra marks for choosing difficult examples.
3 Tone
Tone does not relate directly to meaning, but rather the way in which something is said – what a part of the text would sound like if it was spoken. Basically, try to think if the text is happy or sad, serious or humorous, informal (chatty like a postcard) or formal (‘posh’ or professional sounding like a letter from the bank or a dictionary definition). Then think if there is anything more you could say. For instance, if its humorous is it funny because it is ironic (saying one thing but meaning the opposite).
For instance (2002, 9b) – Identify the tone of lines 57-60. (1) A
Answer – Humorous, tongue-in-cheek, ironic.
Don’t go into masses of detail if you do not need to. If you were asked to justify your answer you might refer to the writer’s use of “much calmer” when the writer meant “less mad” or notice the contrast of the writer’s commanding performance with his eventual fate (the sack).
4 Link Questions
In these questions you will be asked to show how one sentence or word provides a “link” in the argument or progression of ideas in a passage.
“William Shakespeare is easily the best known of our English writers. Virtually anyone can name some of his plays and his characters, and many people can recite lines of his poetry by heart. However, despite our familiarity with his work, we know relatively little of the man himself. We do not know when or why he became an actor, we know nothing of his life in London, and almost nothing of his personal concerns.”
Question – Show how the third sentence acts as a link in the argument. (A) 2
Answer – The phrase “our familiarity with his work” looks back at the topic of how widely known Shakespeare is. The conjunction “however,” which begins the sentence, suggests a contrasting idea to follow. The second part of the sentence, “we know relatively little of the man himself,” introduces the new topic, namely the things that are not known about Shakespeare, and a list of these follows this link sentence.
Try to quote part of the link sentence which refers back to the earlier topic, saying what the topic is, and then quoting the part of the link sentence which looks forward to the next topic, explaining what this is. The sentence may begin with a linking word or phrase such as “but” or “however,” which points to a change of direction, and you should comment on this also
The Close Reading Paper
Evaluation Questions
Evaluation questions are like analysis questions but they demand you to go a bit further. You will need to quote you will need to explain how the quote works, but you also need to judge if the quote works well or badly (so you need to use lots of descriptive adjectives).
Towards the end of the exam questions you usually get a big one.
For instance – Which passage did you find the most stimulating.
In your answer you should refer to the styles and ideas of both passages.
You may make reference to material you have used in previous answers.(6)E
A possible answer – The second passage is a humorous, personal account of seeing a band for the first time, but I’ve seen a lot of stuff like this so it didn’t stimulate me much. I liked the first passage more which set up a contrast between music now and music a thousand years ago. It uses the interesting image of a “corridor” between these two times which gives us a picture of the length (of time) and darkness (lack of knowledge) between the two times. I had never heard of the monk Guido Monaco who is the earliest recorder of music on paper. The writer moves forward to not only contrast now and a thousand years ago, but also now and 150 years ago. The sentence structure, using “now” repeatedly and several different words for “before” makes clear the two sides of the contrast. Finally, the piece finishes with 3 questions to ponder, asking if we have lost something through the mass recording of music. The writer thinks it has “spoilt and numbed us.” I don’t know, but the piece informed me and made me think.