• The Close Reading and Textual Analysis NABs are

testing your ability to understand the meaning and

language of a passage. This means that you must
show that you understand not only what the writer
says but how it is said.
• Questions are split into three categories:

 Understanding: WHAT the writer has said.

 Analysis: HOW the writer has put this meaning
across.
 Evaluation: HOW WELL the writer has conveyed
this meaning.
• Read the passage through before attempting
to answer the questions.
• Look at the number of marks available for the
question.
• Do not waste time repeating the question in
your answer – you do not have to write an
essay!
• Unless specifically stated in the question, you
must USE YOUR OWN WORDS when
answering.
• “Quote” means lift the answer from the
passage.
• “Refer to” means that you must quote and
then explain.
• “Use your own words” means that if you lift
the answer from the passage you will fail! It
means that you must rephrase the writer’s
words.
• There are several different aspects of
sentence structure which you must be able to
identify and explain:

Punctuation
Length of sentence
Sentence type
Patterns
• Dash ( - ) Introduces an explanation or more information; can be
used in place of brackets.
The book was great – a really good read.
John – who was the oldest in the class – finished last.
• Colon ( : ) Introduces a list or quotation; introduces a summary.
I needed three ingredients: flour, sugar and eggs.
Churchill said: “ We will fight them on the beaches”.
It was an eventful day: we arrived, set up camp, fished for our
dinner then fought off a bear attack.
• Semi-colon ( ; ) Links two closely related ideas together; can be
used to separate items in a list.
The children returned from their holiday; they had been gone for
more than a week.
The house was surrounded by giant creepy crawlies; enormous
weeping willows; a colony of bats and a mysterious swamp.
• Inverted commas (“ “) Used for quotations; direct speech; to
show a non-literal meaning; “so-called”.
Mohammed Ali said, “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”
Joe shouted across the room, “Stop! I need help!”
Jenny’s mum called her the “golden” girl.
Everyone thought that the school was one of the “good” schools in
the area.
• Exclamation mark ( ! ) Indicates urgency or excitement.
Stop fighting now!
It is only seven weeks to Christmas!
• Capital letters are used for proper nouns; acronyms and to show
importance.
Celtic Football Club; Odeon Cinema; Ben Nevis; Livingston – Proper
nouns
BBC, DNA, MTV, DVD – Acronyms are words formed from the
initials of the name of something ie BBC is British Broadcasting
Corporation
James thought that he was the Big Chief round these parts.
• Parenthesis means brackets (which are used to add
extra information into a sentence). This can be in the
form of brackets, commas or dashes. The
information inside the parenthesis is always extra –
the sentence still makes sense without it.
The class were enjoying a poem (much to the teacher’s
disgust) which was about boxing.
• Ellipsis ( …) Shows that there is something more to
come or that there has been an interruption.
Perhaps there really is life beyond this planet…
I was walking down the road when suddenly…
• Short sentences are used for emphasis. They
are often used in contrast to longer sentences
for stronger impact, to make the idea stand
out from the passage.
It had been a long, hot day, which seemed to go
on forever. Then the rain came.
• The short sentence underlined above is in
contrast to the longer sentence. It stands
out and shows how important it was that the
rain comes on this long, hot day.
• There are several types of sentence which
you must learn. You must be able to identify
them and explain why they are important.

Statement
Command
Rhetorical question
Exclamation
• Statements are used to put across facts; to
make the reader accept the writer’s point of
view or to state an opinion.
It has always been true that more boys go into
engineering than girls.
It is clear that engineering is still a man’s game.
Unless we encourage more girls to do science at
school, we will never bridge this gap.
• Commands are instructions, which give the
impression of authority.
Go and read up on the subject.
Sit down and listen.
• Rhetorical questions are questions which do not
expect or require an answer. A writer will use a
rhetorical question for effect. The answer is
perhaps provided later in the passage, or the
writer is wanting the reader to think about the
topic.
Would you expect your children to suffer this?
How many times do we have to tell the government
that we need a change?
• Exclamations are used to indicate urgency or
excitement.
What a goal!
It was fabulous!
• Lists are used to build up an impression of
something; to convey lots of information; to
make something seem long.
John was one of these people who always
seemed to be ill; his face was always pale, skin
spotty, eyes blood-shot and nose dripping.
The yellow-spotted lizard is a very dangerous
animal – small, spotty, venomous and lethal.
This journey was going on forever, with trees,
houses, people, more trees, more houses,
more people passing by each hour.
• Repetition is used for emphasis. It is used to
make certain ideas stand out. Repetition can
be repeating words, sentence type or any
other feature that you notice being used
more than once.
How much can one man take? How many times
had he sat here? How long was this going to
last?
The dog sat. The dog waited. The dog spotted
something. The dog shot up excitedly.
 • Imagery is literally pictures created with
words.
• Many techniques come under the umbrella
of imagery, but there are three main ones.

IMAGERY

SIMILE METAPHOR PERSONIFICATION

• Similes are comparisons using like or as.
• You are expected to comment on both sides of the
comparison.
The cat was prowling round the garden like the lord of the
manor.
This shows the cat thinks that it owns the place, as it is
moving round the garden like the person who is in charge.
• Remember that similes are a form of
imagery!
• Think about the simile as a picture and
describe the picture.
• Metaphors are also a comparison but they are less
obvious than similes.
• Metaphors describe something or someone as if it
actually is something else.
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. (Shakespeare)
Juliet is being compared to the sun – this shows the
high opinion the speaker has of Juliet. The sun is
what keeps us alive, it shines very brightly and is a
symbol of light and life; therefore Juliet is a
wonderful person who the speaker obviously
worships.
• Personification is a type of metaphor where
an inanimate object is described as if it has
human qualities.
• You must comment on the effect of the
personification.
The straw breathed as the lion slept beneath.
This means that the straw is moving up and
down as the animal underneath is breathing –
transferring the breathing to the straw is
effective because it creates an interesting
picture of the straw moving up and down.
• Other techniques which come under the
umbrella of imagery are:
Onomatopoeia
Alliteration
Assonance
Euphemism
Hyperbole
Oxymoron
Litotes
Metonymy
• Writers use several techniques in order to give the
reader a fuller understanding of their meaning.
• Adding in sound effects is an effective way of
emphasising the writer’s point.
• Onomatopoeia are words which describe sounds, for
example, bang, crash, squeak, yelp.
• You might be asked what techniques a writer has used
to describe a situation vividly.
The glass door fell to the ground with an almighty crash.
The onomatopoeia with the word “crash” emphasises the
ferocity of this event and creates a vivid image of
the door shattering into pieces; along with the
dreadful noise this must have made.
• Alliteration is the repetition of consonant
sounds close together for effect.
• The effect is to emphasise the words.
“Men marched asleep”
The alliteration of the “m” sound highlights the
metaphor, which emphasises how exhausted
the men are. The sound is a long one, which
adds to the impression of men so tired, they
are practically sleeping on their feet as they
walk.
• Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds close
together in order to emphasise words.
“we cursed through sludge”
The repetition of the “uh” sound in “cursed” and
“sludge” emphasises the difficulty of moving through
the mud.
• Remember, you are not just looking for words that
are spelled with the same vowels. The important
thing is the sound of the vowels. For example,
tractor and trace are both spelled with an “a” but the
sound is different.
• A euphemism is when you replace an
unpleasant phrase or idea with a more
pleasant one.
• For example, there are lots of euphemisms
for dead, fat and drunk.
Dead: deceased, departed, passed on, passed
away
Fat: big-boned, plump, chubby
Drunk: hammered, half-cut, four sheets to the
wind
• Euphemisms are used to be polite or to avoid
saying something that could be offensive.
• Hyperbole (hy-per-boley) is exaggeration for
effect.
• It is a figure of speech which is not supposed
to be taken literally.
There were thousands of them swarming
towards me!
I’ve heard that a million times.
There are not actually thousands or millions - it
is exaggeration to emphasise the idea.

“It was giant!”

• This means understatement for effect,
or the opposite of hyperbole.
• For example:
• She wasn’t exactly the brightest crayon
in the set.
• He’s a few sandwiches short of a picnic.
• These would be used instead of saying,
she’s a bit stupid, or he’s a bit mad.
• An oxymoron is a contradiction in terms.
• It is a figure of speech which is often used
for humorous effect or simply to emphasise
an idea.
bitter sweet
deafening silence
same difference
All of these phrases are contradictory – they
are opposites and therefore should cancel
each other out.
• A metonym is a type of metaphor, where the name of
something or someone is substituted by the name of
something associated with them.
• For example, the “suits” who make decisions means
the people in charge. They are called “suits” because
people in charge are usually in a suit.
• Similarly, “the crown” is a metonym for the Royal
Family, because they are associated with the wearing
of a crown.
• Other common metonyms are “the Whitehouse” for
the American government; “Whitehall” for the British
government; Hollywood for the American film
industry; plastic for credit cards (ie I paid with
plastic).
• Tone means the same as
mood or feeling.
• If you are asked about
tone, you are supposed to
think about the writer’s
attitude.
• For example, in this
cartoon, the tone is
sarcastic. The writer is
using this for humorous
effect.
• When you get a question on tone, look at the
choice of words in the
sentence/paragraph/passage.
• Is there an attitude that seems to be coming
through?
• How does the writer feel about the subject?
• Tone might be described as:
Sarcastic: Yeah right!
Friendly: I would like you to join me.
Angry: I absolutely detest this situation.
Enthusiastic: What an exciting event!
Sad: It’s been too long now for things to
change.
 Formal/informal: Me and my pals/My
friends and I.
• When you are asked about the writer’s word
choice, you are being asked to explain
meaning.
• Words have different kinds of meaning.
• The denotation of a word is its literal meaning
(dictionary definition).
• The connotation(s) of a word are associations
– anything which comes to mind when you see
a particular word.
 HOOLIGAN

DENOTATION
(actual meaning) Tough and
Aggressive youth.
CONNOTATIONS (associations)

Football Crime Fighting Violence Casuals

• You may be asked a context question.
• This is when you have to explain how you can
figure out the meaning of a word by looking at
the other words around it.
• There is a formula you can use to answer these
questions – learn it!
I know that “____” means _____. I
can work this out because the passage also
says “_____”. Therefore, “______”
means _____.
• In a context question, there will always be
obvious examples of other words/phrases which
mean the same as the word you are being asked
about. If in doubt, guess!
• Another common type of question is a linking
question.
• This is when you are asked to explain how the
writer has linked their ideas together.
• You should look for linking words or phrases,
for example:
 However
REMEMBER!
 Furthermore
 In addition When you are asked about a link,
 Consequently you must always discuss both sides
of the link – what comes before
 As a result AND what comes after.
 But
 Then
 Yet