A Level English Language: Reading and Analysis — Revision Notes

Condensed for the final weeks. For the full explanation, use the English Language Paper 1: Reading study guide.

The frameworks

Analysis must be systematic, not impressionistic. Work through the levels:

Framework	What to examine
Phonology	Alliteration, assonance, sibilance, rhythm — most relevant in speech and advertising
Lexis	Word choice: formal/informal, monosyllabic/polysyllabic, semantic fields, jargon, connotation
Semantics	Meaning: metaphor, simile, personification, hyperbole, euphemism, irony
Grammar	Sentence types and length, active/passive voice, modality, tense, pronouns
Pragmatics	Implied meaning, presupposition, politeness, face
Discourse	Structure, cohesion, openings and endings, paragraphing
Graphology	Layout, typeface, images, colour, headings

Naming a feature scores nothing. The mark is for the effect in this specific text, tied to its audience and purpose.

Weak: “The writer uses an imperative.” Strong: “The imperative ‘Choose’ positions the reader as someone already in control, flattering their autonomy while in fact narrowing the options to those the advertiser offers.”

Grammar features that repay attention

• Modality — must, should, might, could. High modality asserts certainty and authority; low modality hedges, softens, and lowers the risk of contradiction.
• Voice — the passive conceals the agent. “Mistakes were made” omits who made them; it is the standard institutional evasion and always worth commenting on.
• Pronouns — first-person plural we builds solidarity or implies collective responsibility; second-person you creates direct address and synthetic personalisation.
• Sentence length — a short sentence among long ones is emphatic. Comment on variation, not just length.

Register and context

Register is the variety of language appropriate to a situation. Analyse it through:

• Field — the subject matter.
• Tenor — the relationship between writer and reader.
• Mode — spoken, written, or somewhere between.

Register mismatch is usually deliberate. Informality in a serious context creates intimacy or humour; formality in a casual context creates distance, authority or irony. If a text’s register seems wrong, that is the finding, not an oversight.

Spoken language features

Fillers (er, um), false starts, repetition, non-fluency, overlaps and interruptions, adjacency pairs, turn-taking, discourse markers (so, right, anyway), deixis (this, here, now).

These are normal features of speech, not errors. Marking them as mistakes is the standard misreading. Comment instead on what they achieve — planning time, floor-holding, signalling a topic shift, or managing the relationship between speakers.

Directed writing

The task tests whether you can transform a text, not summarise it.

Before writing, fix: form, audience, purpose.

• Change the register appropriately for the new audience.
• Select relevant material — you are not obliged to use all of it.
• Rephrase; lifting from the original caps the mark.
• Follow the conventions of the target form.

The commentary that follows must analyse your own choices using the frameworks, and must explain why each choice suits the audience and purpose. A commentary that describes what you wrote without justifying it scores in the lower bands.

Structuring an analysis answer

1. Overview — genre, audience, purpose, in one or two sentences.
2. Body — organised by framework or by effect. Quote briefly, analyse precisely, link to purpose.
3. Conclusion — the overall effect and how the language achieves it.

Quote short. Embedding a two-word quotation in your own sentence shows more control than copying a full line.

Comparing two texts

Where two texts are set, compare how they achieve their effects, not merely what they say. Structure by point of comparison, not text by text, so the comparison is genuinely integrated rather than two separate mini-essays placed side by side.

Worked example. Analysing: “The factory stood silent, its chimneys cold, its gates chained.”

tricolon              three parallel clauses build a cumulative sense
                      of finality
personification       "stood silent" gives the factory human stillness,
                      suggesting death rather than mere closure
lexical field of cold "silent", "cold", "chained" - absence of heat,
                      sound and movement, all markers of industrial life
asyndetic listing     no conjunctions; the clauses accumulate flatly,
                      mirroring resignation
past tense, third person   detached observation, no consolation offered

Effect: the closure is presented as irreversible, and the reader’s sympathy is directed at the loss rather than at any named cause.

A reflective commentary, where required, should explain your own writing choices in terms of audience and purpose — why this structure, this register, this opening — rather than simply narrating what you wrote.

Exam traps

• Feature-spotting without analysing effect.
• Treating spoken-language features as errors.
• Long quotations that pad rather than support.
• Ignoring audience and purpose.
• Retelling the content instead of analysing the language.
• Lifting from the source in directed writing.
• A commentary that describes rather than justifies.

Self-test

1. Why does naming a technique score no marks?
2. What does high modality signal, and what does low modality signal?
3. What is the effect of the passive voice, and why does it matter?
4. Name the three components of register.
5. What must a directed-writing commentary do beyond describing your choices?

Answers: 1. The mark is awarded for the effect of the feature on the reader in that specific text, in relation to its audience and purpose — not for identification. 2. High modality asserts certainty and authority; low modality hedges and softens, reducing commitment to the claim. 3. It conceals or removes the agent, so responsibility is obscured — which is why it recurs in institutional and political language. 4. Field, tenor and mode. 5. It must justify each choice by explaining why it suits the target form, audience and purpose, using the language frameworks.