How writers achieve effects

English Language · Reading: understanding a text. The idea in plain words, the rules to remember, the mistake to avoid and a worked example, written and checked by Mega Lecture.

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The idea

These questions are not about what a text says but about how it is written and what that does to the reader. Naming a technique is not enough. You must choose the effect it has in this passage.

Look at three things. First, words and imagery: what picture or feeling does the comparison give? Second, sentences and punctuation: a short sentence, a pause or a detail kept until the end changes the pace. Third, tone and mood: the writer’s attitude and the feeling the passage leaves in you.

To explain an image, ask what the two things have in common.

Rules to remember

Simile: a comparison using ‘like’ or ‘as’ (‘the hall was like an oven’).
Metaphor: says one thing is another (‘the hall was an oven’).
Personification: gives human actions or feelings to a thing (‘the wind whispered’).
Sound: alliteration repeats first consonant sounds; onomatopoeia imitates a sound (‘crash’, ‘hiss’).
A short sentence after long ones gives shock, tension or emphasis. Long sentences slow the pace or build up detail.
Tone = the writer’s attitude heard in the writing (humorous, sarcastic, nostalgic).
Mood = the feeling created in the reader (tense, peaceful, eerie).

Common mistake

Stopping at the name of the technique (‘it is a simile’) or picking a vague effect such as ‘it makes the reader want to read on’. Choose the option that says what this image or sentence makes you see or feel.

Worked example

‘The old bus coughed twice, shuddered, and crawled up the hill.’ What does the writer suggest by saying that the bus ‘coughed’?

Coughing is something a person does, so this is personification.
A person who coughs is unwell or weak. The engine is making rough noises and is not working well.
‘Shuddered’ and ‘crawled’ support this: the bus shakes and moves very slowly.

Answer: The bus is old and in poor condition, and it struggles up the hill like a sick person.

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