m s. mcjennett’s last minute revision guide...

National 5 Prelim Revision Version

Ms. McJennett’s Last

Minute Revision Guide

2015/6


General Advice for RUAE

Do:

Answer every question

Use your own words even if you feel like they’re a bit clumsy

Check how many marks a question is worth

Write a detailed answer if a question is worth several marks

Quote examples in language questions, especially word choice questions

Be precise! Deal with each quoted example separately.

Don’t:

Panic

Leave blank questions

‘Lift’ whole phrases from the text unless you are asked to quote

Simply copy out sections of the text

Write a whole sentence when asked for an expression – one or two words up to a maximum of six

Waste time repeating the words of the question

Give vague answers – be specific

Approaching the passage

1. Read the italics section at the beginning and the title for clues about what the passage is about:

Who wrote it?

Where did it come from?

What is it about?

What clues are you given by the title?

2. Read the whole passage before tackling the questions. You may misunderstand a question or write

down an incomplete or wrong answer because you do not have an overall context for it.

3. The Questions

Read the whole question underlining key words

Check the number of marks and ensure you write enough

Number each question accurately


Ensure you answer from the correct lines


Close Reading Question Types

There are three types of questions: U = Understanding

A = Analysis

E = Evaluation

Understanding questions

These questions are concerned with the meaning of the passage. The answer is right there in the text and there are generally four types:

1. VOCABULARY: these ask the meaning of words and are also called ‘context’ questions. Context just

means the part of the text where the word or phrase is used.

2. FACT: These ask you to pick out a fact from the text and express it in your own words.

3. ARGUMENT: Questions in which the understanding of the ‘argument’ of a sentence or paragraph is

required.

4. SUMMARY: Questions which require a summary of the main points mentioned throughout the passage

or in part of the passage. (Often rewriting topic sentences in your own words provides an adequate

answer.)

Analysis questions

Questions generally encompass a number (but not necessarily all) of the following types:

1. WORD CHOICE: Connotations of particular word or phrases - generally signalled by the use of ‘word

choice’ in the question.

2. IMAGERY: Analysis of imagery - e.g. metaphor/simile/personification - generally signalled by a question

on the function or effectiveness of examples.

3. STRUCTURE: Structure questions - often sentence structure, but could be smaller in scope as in word

order of a phrase, or larger as in the structure of the passage as a whole. (This would encompass ‘link’

questions.)

4. TONE: Identification of tone/mood, generally with a requirement to justify the tone/mood chosen by

reference and comment.

5. FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE: As well as imagery, you may also be asked about other types of figurative

language, e.g.: alliteration, assonance and onomatopoeia.

Evaluation questions

The answer is something you work out from reading the text. These questions might ask you to identify the bigger, un-stated purpose behind the writing or how

effective the writing is.


Close Reading – How to answer questions

Own Words

1. Find the correct lines

2. Check the number of marks

3. Re-write in your own words, doubling checking you haven’t just copied key words from the

passage.

Remember: Locate and translate

Imagery

1. Identify the image – what is being compared with what?

2. Give the literal meaning of the image.

3. Explain the connection between the two. (This suggests that…This creates a good image/picture

because…)

Context

1. Give the meaning of the word

2. Quote a word or phrase from the context.

3. Explain how this word/phrase helps you understand the meaning of the original word.

It is a good idea to repeat steps 2 & 3 again for a different word/phrase especially if the question

is worth more than 2 marks.

Link

1. Quote a word/phrase that links back to the previous paragraph

2. Explain what the topic/argument of that paragraph is

3. Quote the word/phrase that link to the next part of the passage

4. Explain what the author is now talking about

Continuing an idea

And, also, additionally, in addition, furthermore

Changing an idea:

But however, on the other hand


Word Choice

1. Quote a word/phrase

2. Explain the connotations of the word/phrase (What if makes you think of/what we associate with

that word.)

3. Explain what this suggests about what the writer is describing

You may be required to do this for two or three words/phrases depending on how many marks

the question is worth.

Sentence Structure

1. What type of sentence(s) is/are being used?

a. Statement

b. Question/rhetorical question

c. Exclamation

d. Command

e. Minor sentence

2. How is the punctuation used to divide up the sentence?

a. Colons

b. Semi-colons

c. Parenthesis

3. Is there anything usual about the structure of the sentence?

a. Inversion

b. Repetition

c. Climax or anti-climax

4. Do the sentences form a pattern?

a. Repetitive or balanced structure

b. Contrast between complex (long) and short sentences


Language question

1. Identify the feature that you will be dealing with. (Imagery, word choice, punctuation, sentence

structure)

2. Quote

3. Follow the formula for that type of feature to explain its effect.

Other techniques- Alliteration, Assonance, Onomatopoeia, Pun

1. Quote the example

2. Explain the effect of the technique

3. Explain how it makes that part of the passage more effective – why has the writer used it there?

Effective as a Conclusion

1. Does it sum up the main points? Quote and explain what they are and quote or summarise where

they were made earlier on in the passage.

2. Does it restate the writer’s point of view? Quote and explain what it is, then quote from earlier in

passage and explain the link.

3. Does it link back to the introduction? How? Quote and explain.

4. Does it use word choice/imagery use in the introduction or throughout the passage? Quote and

explain from both the conclusion and from earlier in the passage.

Tone

1. Identify the tone

2. Quote words or phrases that show this

Short sentence – can create tension or show anger. Can be blunt or to the point. Might be used to show

how quickly something is happening.

Long sentence – Builds up to something (climax), shows a lot of detail, might reflect how long/boring

something is, might show someone’s confusion/thought process)

Question – Check whether rhetorical. Involves the reader. The writer may answer it later in the passage.

List – Emphasise the volume or something/emphasises the variety of something/ emphasises how long

something took

Repetition – Doesn’t just have to be words, might be sentences or ideas. Adds emphasis – remember to

explain why.


3. Explain how they show this

Writer’s attitude

1. State what the attitude is in one or two words

2. Look at the number of marks available

3. Write down an explanation of how you knew the attitude

4. Quote to support your ideas

Types of Attitude

Approval/disapproval disgust amused critical admiring fascinated

Formal – Uses mature vocabulary/jargon/does not use slang or abbreviations

Informal – colloquial or chatty vocab/abbreviations/slang

Positive –upbeat excited hopeful funny approval

Negative – sad upset angry critical nervous unpleasant


Critical Essays

Introductions

T – Title of text -always in inverted commas

A – Author of text -, never just refer to them by their first name. They are not your friend. You do not know

them. Don’t be a weirdo.

T- Task - make sure you link to first part of essay question

T- Techniques – link to second part of essay question

S – Summary of text – brief, to the point, relevant to question

Main Body of Essay

P – Point (Topic sentence and a statement that is linked to the question)

E – Evidence (Quotation from text. Make sure you provide context. DO NOT QUOTATION BOMB)

E – Explanation (Analysis and Evaluation)

L- Link (Make sure your Explanation is relevant to answer the question.)

Conclusion

S – Summarise the main points of your essay (Your essay, not the text)

T – Task – make sure you link your conclusion back to the task

O – Opinion – give your opinion of the text

P- Positive – make sure you say something positive. You have just written a whole essay about how well an

author does something. Do not undermine your own points.

Things to remember:

Formal language – This is a critical essay; make sure your language reflects that.

Agnes Owens or Owens. Angelica Gibbs or Gibbs. Never Angelica or Agnes. I know I’ve

already said it but don’t do it.

Check over your spelling and grammar. It’s important.

Do not just list connotations of quotations.

Notes for texts

Prose-Fiction ‘The Lighthouse’ Agnes Owens

Summary

Megan and her brother Bobby are left alone on a deserted beach. Megan desperately wants to go to the lighthouse,

but Bobby is reluctant. She manages to make him go. They meet a lady walking her dog who enquires after their

safety. They reach sand dunes and a golf course, where they meet a man in grey tracksuit. Megan is wary of him, so

she makes them leave. Bobby has a tantrum because he left his pail and spade. Megan refuses to go back for them

and leaves Bobby to go to the lighthouse. When she reaches the lighthouse, she finds it very boring and a waste of

her time. She sees something that looks like a body and panics for Bobby’s safety. When she runs back, she sees the

man in the grey tracksuit behind him. She tries to reach Bobby before he does, but slips and hits her head. The man

in the grey tracksuit suffocates her and takes Bobby.


Structure

The structure of the story parallels the journey to the lighthouse. Beginning- Megan wants to go to the lighthouse and Bobby does not. Middle – they attempt to take a shortcut and stumble across the stranger Turning Point – “I don’t ever want to see you again.” – Megan leaves Bobby. Ending – Megan reaches as close to the lighthouse as she can. She then realises how pointless it was, the reality of the situation and their helplessness. She is killed and Bobby is abducted. Setting

They begin by “playing on the beach”. And Megan wants to go “to the lighthouse”. “The day was warm but with a bit of wind.” The beach was “deserted, except for a woman walking her dog in the distance.” She calls it a “lonely place”. The children stop at a rock pool and look at “tiny fish darting about a pool of water within a crevice in the rock”. They spent time “tramping over dry sand”. Megan suggests they climb over the sand dunes to find a better way to the lighthouse. They then “found they were on a golf course stretching for miles”. Bobby says “I want to go back to that other beach where Mummy left us.” Megan finds that the lighthouse is “surrounded by water” and “the sea was stormy”. Towards the end of the story, Megan “slipped on a stone covered with seaweed” and hit her head. At the end, the setting almost absorbs Megan: … Seagulls came down to stand on her… imperceptibly and gradually her body sank into the sand…”

The setting stimulates the disagreement between Megan and Bobby.

The children are in danger from the start – unsupervised on a beach.

The golf course was stumbled upon, as was the stranger.

Megan’s accident is slipping on a stone – this leads to her murder being straightforward.

The setting consumes Megan at the end.

Characters Megan is the older sibling and likes to take charge. She is persuasive. She has mixed feelings about her brother. She thinks Bobby has “a strong determination to have things his own way.” She has scared Bobby with talk of “monsters”. She is also “friendly” with him. She has a short temper. She is worried that the woman will report their parents to the police. She tempts Bobby with the promise of ice-cream in her persuasion. She is grumpy and short tempered with him. She thinks he tries to “spoil everything”. Megan is right to wonder if the man is a “stranger they’d been warned not to speak to.” She does care for her brother and is concerned when she starts to think of bad things that might have happened to him. Her instincts about the man are right and she does her best to rescue her brother, but is killed in the process. Bobby is three and a half and has “the face of an angel”, according to Megan. He is scared of monsters. He is physically rough with his sister, but she is bigger so this has no effect. He is innocent and naïve. He is easily upset. He threatens to tell on Megan for swearing. He enjoys the beach – collecting shells and looking in the rock pool and throwing a stone in it. He becomes stubborn and does not want to follow her any further. Bobby is innocent, young, vulnerable and alone. He has a sense of right and wrong. Bobby and Megan just stumble across the man: “…they found they were on a golf course stretching for miles with nobody on it but a man in a grey tracksuit. He saw them, came over and said, “Better watch out you don’t get hit with a golf ball. It’s not safe up here.” He is introduced in an entirely non-threatening way. He is just there – he is not following them. He is bland and innocuous wearing grey, a dull and unremarkable colour. He approaches with a realistic warning about golf courses. It enters Megan’s head that “he might be one of those strangers they’d been warned not to speak to”. She is right – but she does not realise the seriousness of their situation or his intent. There is “a woman walking her dog in the distance…”. She is concerned for Bobby as Megan is about to hit him. She wonders where their parents are. On a second reading, the reader wishes she had taken some action. This character also leads the reader into thinking the man in the tracksuit is another unremarkable passer-by.


The writer uses foreshadowing. On a second reading the reader can see that the writer left clues that foreshadow the events at the end of the story. During the first reading, these clues serve to increase the tension in the story. The reader can sense that something bad will happen.

“I hope a monster doesn’t get you” “…she was forced to put her hand over his mouth” “She felt like strangling him” “Suddenly her attention was riveted to what looked like a body in the water.”

Essay Questions

- focus on a key/family/changing relationship (Megan and Bobby)

- sympathy for a character

- creation of tension

- surprising / shocking ending

- turning point that affects the rest of the story.

Prose Fiction – ‘The Test’ Angelica Gibbs

Summary

Summary of the Story – This short story is about a black lady called Marian who is going to take her 2nd

driving test. Mrs Ericson, her white employer, goes with her to the test centre. Marian takes the test

alone with the driving inspector. The inspector is progressively more and more racially abusive throughout

the whole test. He feigns a joking manner but he becomes furious when Marian reacts to his comments.

He has no qualms about failing Marian on things she has not even done. The story ends with Marian

accepting the injustice of the situation as she “slid over to the right-hand side of the car”.

Structure – Whole story is set in one afternoon.

Start = Conversation between Marian and Mrs Ericson on way to test centre – made clear Marian is a good

driver and an excellent worker who is highly thought of by her employer.

Middle = The actual test – we are made to see things from Marian’s point of view – imagine how annoying,

humiliating and upset Marian would feel. Also worse the fact society at time allowed this sort of behaviour

and Marian just has to accept it. When she reacts, the inspector gets revenge by failing her.

End = “Oh, Marian, again?” Mrs Ericson says – the use of this question and the fact the word “again” is

highlighted in italics in the story shows Mrs Ericson’s disappointment, sympathy for Marian etc. Marian’s

response is one of someone who has been downtrodden and resigned unhappily to an unfair treatment in

life. “Marian nodded. “In a sort of different way” she said and slid over to the right-hand side of the car”.

– We are left feeling sorry for Marian and furious with the inspector.


Exam Essay Phrasebank

Introduction

A ________ which ________________ is

A ______________ IN which THERE is ____________________ is ________________

‘_______’ by _______________ makes me feel/creates feelings of…/effectively explores…

The short story/play/poem is about/tells the story of…

______________ effectively uses a range of techniques such as (imagery and word choice [use for

poems]) (characterisation and a shocking ending [use for ‘The Lighthouse’]) (conflict and

characterisation [‘The Test’]

Main Body of Essay

Topic sentences

Throughout the poem/play/story, ________ effectively uses __________ in order to _____________.

______________ also uses ________________ to explore the theme of _______________________.

_____________________ skilfully uses ________________ to make her reader feel _____________.

____________ is also used by ______________to_____________________________________.

Introduction quotations

An example of this is…Another example of this…A further example of this…

This can be seen when ___________ says/replies…

At the beginning/end of the story/play/poem, it says …

When ___________ says, _______________ replies…

This can be seen when…

When talking about ________ AUTHOR uses [name technique]……

When describing ____________ AUTHOR employs a [name technique]

In lines ______ AUTHOR uses [name technique] when describing _______________

The use of [name technique] helps give the reader an impression of ____________

Using [name technique] in lines ________ helps give the reader a picture of _________

The poet describes ____________________ in line ________ using [name technique]

Analysis

This shows/demonstrates/suggests/evokes feelings of/demonstrates/illustrates/makes

clear/portrays/conveys/depicts/creates/develops/stresses…

Evaluation

This skilfully/cleverly/effectively/clearly/successfully/subtly shows that…

This is apt/appropriate/thought-provoking/moving/emotional/compelling/touching/captivating

because…


Conclusion

Overall/in conclusion/ to conclude,

___________ successfully _______________ through their use of ___________________________.

____________ is an interesting/thought-provoking text that forces the reader to…

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