Close Reading: Revision

Tone

• Tone is important in your appreciation of the passages you are given to read. There is nothing worse than taking everything seriously only to discover later it was all tongue-in-cheek. It is important to take an overview before you become involved in the individual questions.

What gets marks?

• Because tone is so subjective, there are often a number of acceptable answers but identification of tone is usually only worth something if you justify your choice of that tone by referring to the passage.

• Don’t put down a list and hope that one of them is right – you won’t get any marks!

• So identify and justify!!!

A Tone Vocabulary

• humorous• tongue-in-cheek• sarcastic• ironic• emotional -name

the emotion eg angry, depressed, elated,moody, indignant,

• conversational

• business-like• curious• chatty/friendly• mocking• disapproving• critical• contemptuous• menacing• dismissive• approving

More tones

• Despairing• Superior• Admiring• Uplifting• Hectoring• Doubtful• Self-deprecating

So . . .

1. Identify the tone

2. Provide the evidence- usually a quote

3. Comment on how the tone creates the effect or impact as required by the question.

Imagery

How to analyse an image

The Method

• Say what is being compared to what

• Say what they have in common

• Say what that adds to the description of the thing that is being described.

• LEARN THIS!

The shark swam by me like a bored fridge.

Analyse this:

Analyse This:

The traders at my stall were like vultures round a carcase.

The Method- Reminder

• Say what is being compared to what

• Say what they have in common

• Say what that adds to the description of the thing that is being described.

Now to take things to Higher level, you have to be able to transfer this method to far more complicated examples.

Imagery…

… What it’s NOT!

What it’s Not!

• Imagery does not mean ‘descriptive writing’ egDown on the level, its pink walls, and straggling roses, and green-painted rain barrel hidden by a thick dusty planting of spruce and larch, was Fin-me-oot Cottage, where house martins flocked to nest in summer, and small birds found plenteous food on the bird tables. . .

What Imagery Is

Technically it is mainly concerned with three ‘figures of speech’

• Simile• Metaphor• Personification

1. Simile

Signified by the use of like or as…as.

For example:• The messenger ran like the wind• The poppies were as red as blood

Easy to recognise –trickier to explain

The messenger ran like the wind

• It is not enough to say ‘the messenger ran very fast’ because this just gives you the meaning (denotation) when you will be asked about its effect

• A better beginning would be:The simile (quote it) gives the impression of speed because the wind is fast

• But this will still not explain why the writer specifically chose ‘wind’ so…

… an even better answer

• The simile (quote it) gives the impression of speed because the wind is seen as a powerful force which reaches great speeds. It might also suggest that the runner was so fast that he was creating turbulence like the wind.

• N.B. it’s denotation plus connotation

Why is this simile effective?

• the poppies were as red as blood• Answer

(This simile is effective) because it tries to communicate the intensity of the red colour of the poppies. The word ‘blood’ suggests not just colour, but the richness of the flower’s tone.

• Now it’s your turn

Metaphor

• The metaphor is probably the most powerful device in the English language

• Metaphor says something is something – the woman is a cat – not literally of course

• The attributes of the cat and the woman are shared. The connotations of a cat reflect the qualities of the woman

• Think about the difference if the woman had been compared to a kitten

Why use a metaphor?

• Good metaphors contain a lot of information that can be transferred economically to the reader

• Think about the connotations of this metaphor and what conveys to you about the umbrellas: As the wind strengthened the men clung on to the big, black birds of their umbrellas. Few words but lots of ideas.

So . . .To work with a metaphor your need to:1. Identify the metaphor – but you get no

marks for that on its own.2. Show how the connotations of the

metaphor help to develop or refine your idea of what is being described

3. Show the link between the connotations which you have chosen and the literal meanings of the words used in the metaphor(2 and 3 can be reversed)

Example 1• Too many tourists are so wedded to to

their camera that they cease to respond directly to the places of beauty they visit. They are content to take home a dozen rolls of exposed film instead, like a bank full of monopoly money.

Show how the metaphor highlights the writer’s disapproval of the tourists

So how do we apply this formula?

1. The metaphor is ‘wedded’ (0 marks)2. The connotations of ‘wedded’ are being

in a permanent relationship as a result of being married, dependency, closeness, exclusivity

3. All of which have the effect of illustrating how completely indispensable and consuming the camera is to the tourist as if they are married.

Summary (metaphor)

1. Identify or quote the metaphor

2. Show how the literal and figurative come together to create an effect

3. Say what the effect is

Personification

• Personification is a sub-set of metaphor

• Some thing or an animal is given human attributes

• Analyse it in the same way as a metaphor

• Consider ‘the sky wept’