Close-Reading Punctuation questions

Questions testing your knowledge of punctuation are almost always found in the General paper. Usually all the exam paper will want to know is why specific punctuation marks are being used in a passage. The easiest way of answering these questions is to learn what each of the main punctuation marks are used for. To help you I've created a punctuation glossary that you can download:

http://www.box.net/shared/bn3ge6tiv9

Learn what these common punctuation marks are used for and punctuation questions will be no problem at all.

Want to be e-mailed/texted your exam results early?

If you want to know what grades you received a day before the official SQA exam certificates arrive then go to the following website and register with the SQA to receive your results early.

https://www.mysqa.org.uk/cs8/content/secure/my_homepage.jsp

This way you can celebrate even earlier...or it will give you time to come up with a good excuse to give your parents for your bad results when the actual exam certificate arrives! Here are some suggestions for excuses:

1. During the exam a mutated seagull pecked its way through the exam-hall ceiling and shredded my exam paper.
2. Immediately before my exam I was hypnotised by a disgruntled dwarf angry at the injustice of being short in a world full of tall-people.
3. Moo?
4. The questions were too easy so I rewrote them and the examiners must have been jealous of my intelligence.
5. Some unknown villain swapped my pen for one filled with invisible ink.

Alternatively you could tell them the truth and admit that you just didn't revise enough!

Past Papers

If you want to look at some past papers to help you prepare for your exam then you can buy a past paper booklet from a good bookshop - or you can look at the free examples that the SQA has on it's website at:

http://www.sqa.org.uk/pastpapers/findpastpaper.htm?message=blank


Here you can find past papers for all of your subjects, not just English!

Close Reading Skills 2 - Writer's Technique continued

Aside from alliteration and onomatopoeia the other two techniques you are likely to be asked about are metaphor and simile - the backbone of imagery.

Simile

Simile is the technique used when you compare two things by saying that one is like the other. Examples: as brave as a lion, fat like a walrus, you are as dumb as a doorpost...

As with the previous writer's techniques in order to gain full marks in the credit exam you must not only name the technique but also say why it is effective. The easiest way of doing this is to use the (Just as…. is ….. so too is ……….) system. So 'bent double like old beggars' you would say this is a simile. just as an old beggar is hunched over so too are the soldiers. This gives us an image of the physical condition of the soldiers and shows us that the rigours of war have aged them.
The easiest way to find out if the technique is simile is to look out for AS or LIKE.

Metaphor

Metaphors are similar to similes but whereas a simile is coimparing something to something else by saying it's like the other thing a metaphor describes something by saying it IS the other thing.

A good way of explaining this is to look at some classic 80's cartoons!

In Bravestarr the main character is decribed as having: "eyes of a hawk, ears of a wolf, strength of a bear, speed of a puma". This is a metaphor as it is saying that his eyes are those of a hawk, they're not like a hawk's.

In Thundercats the metaphor is more visual - liono is a lion of a man, he's not like a lion he actually IS a lion.

BTW Thundercats rocks!

Close Reading Skill 1 - Writer's Technique/Figurative Language

One type of question that will most likely arise in your close reading exam paper is one that gives you a brief quote from the text and then asks you to identify the technique that the writer is using in the quote. These questions will likely be focusing on figurative language or imagery. Below you will find a list of the most commonly used techniques - learn how to identify these techniques and these types of questions will be a breeze!

Alliteration

Alliteration is easy to spot - it's where consonant sounds are repeated at the beginning of two or more words that are close together (in the same sentence).

A good real-life (ahem) example of alliteration can be seen in the film 'V for Vendetta' where the main character V uses alliteration of the letter V:

"Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is it vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished, as the once vital voice of the verisimilitude now venerates what they once vilified. ..etc."

Identifying the technique should be enough to get you full marks in the general paper - but if you want full marks in the credit paper you may have to explain why the technique is being used. This is a simple enough thing to do, just have a think about the sound of the consonant that is being repeated and the effect that it has. For example: 'Bill the Bomber' here the alliteration is on the letter 'B' and it is being used because the 'b' sound imitates the sound of falling bombs. Similarly 'the snake slithered slowly' the alliteration is on the 's' (although if you want to show that you're really smart then you'll point of that alliteration on the s sound is technically known as sibilance...) which is used to imitate the sound of the snake.

Onomatopoeia

This technique is when words sound like the word they describe, for example: snap, crackle, pop, hiss, bang, crash, shatter etc.

This is a technique used often in comic books - Batman is an especially big fan of the technique...

As with alliteration in order to get full marks you may have to explain why the onomatopoeiac word has been used - generally this will have something to do with the atmosphere of the text. If the onomtopoeiac word is a LOUD noise then it may indicate a scray/frightening/angry atmosphere wheras in contrast a quiet noise may indicate a hushed/eerie/sad atmosphere.

Close Reading Paper

You should already know all of this - but in case you don't (sleeping in class, kidnapped by leprachauns, selective amnesia brought on by wacthing the smurfs and eating a dodgy hotdog...) here is a brief guide to what to expect from the close-reading exam:

First of all - Close Reading does not mean putting your face right next to the paper to read it...

It means reading the text closely in order to fully:

Understand what the passage is about.
Analyse how the passage is written.
Evaluate what you think of the passage and how it is written.


You will sit two 50 minute papers - Foundation & General OR General & Credit.

You will be given a short extract of text to read (2 A4 sides long) and then asked 25 questions on this extract - each question being worth 2 marks.

To help you the SQA will have told you in bold lettering before the question which paragraphs you will find the answer in. So the sensible thing to do is read the passage as a whole once and then reread the paragraphs that are relevant to the question you are answering. The SQA isn't trying to trick you - you will find the answer in the paragraphs that they say you will find it in.

The basics of tackling your reading exam...

How do you get a good grade in the your Standard Grade English reading exam? Well a good start would be to READ!

One of the best methods of revising for your exam is to read good literature (so chuck the Stephen King in the bin - a good storyteller does not a good writer make!). It is also vitally important to read the questions in the exam paper - and when I say read I mean READ, not skim or glance at, or peruse, or "get the gist of" but READ fully, completely, 100%.




Do not fear reading - if you read your brain will not explode (trust me). In fact, if you read enough, then maybe someday you will know as many random pieces of information as me...

Standard Grade Revision

One of the greatest myths to make its way around exam candidates in schools is:

"You can't revise for English exams!"

WRONG! You can revise for English exams. As with anything in life "Proper preparation prevents poor performance".

Unless you're in the habit of creating Standard Grade level exam papers in your spare-time then you need to revise to make sure you're 100% certain on the types of questions that you can be asked and the ways in which you should answer these questions.

Below you will find links to some websites that will help you prepare for your exams:

http://www.mediamatters.co.uk/SouthLanEnglish/
http://www.kilmarnockacademy.co.uk/pupilenglish1of10.htm
https://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/learning/bitesize/standard/english/

I'll be going over some of the information in class as well as going over some example questions with you - so pay attention! Another easy way of improving your close-reading and writing skills is to READ books at home.

Descriptive Writing Revision Sheet

Below you will find a link to a short revision sheet that I've created for descriptive writing.

http://www.box.net/shared/eh1mf6no1a


Remember to avoid the "Joey Trap" - a thesaurus can be more of a hindrance than a help!

Descriptive Writing 2

In the second part of the descriptive writing revision session we learned a few more techniques that could be used to raise your descriptive writing to a higher level.

Structure
A good structure provides shape to your writing. There are several ways in which you can structure your descriptive piece:

• location by location
• from inside to outside (or vice-versa)
• from then to now
• from the general to the particular

Theme
The reader of your descriptive piece needs to want to read your piece, they need to: be interested, engaged, and be able to relate to what you've written.

In order to ensure this you must write about something that they would enjoy reading about and make sure that your piece isn't just describing a scene - it must have an underlying theme. Professional writers never just write for the sake of describing and neither should you.

Download the lesson's powerpoint presentation for ideas on how to give your piece an underlying theme:

http://www.box.net/shared/u5y0ezuy50

Descriptive Writing

In this lesson we learned a few effective techniques to use when writing a descriptive essay:


Senses














Imagery

Vivid language

Below you will find a link to the Powerpoint presentation that I used in class.

http://www.box.net/shared/5kuc1qgvsq

WARNING!: Interesting wordchoice is essential for a good mark, but don't fall into the Joey trap!