What Close study of literature asks of you in the 2024 English Standard syllabus

Model answer. Close study means looking carefully at how a text is made, such as its word choices, structure, voice and form, and explaining what these choices do. A general overview only says what happens or what the text is about, while close study explains how and why the text creates its effects.

Marking spine.

• 1 mark: says close study focuses on how a text is made.
• 1 mark: mentions features such as language, structure or form.
• 1 mark: contrasts with summary or overview.

Model answer. The simile compares the house to a 'held breath', suggesting tension and waiting. The position 'at the end of the street' isolates it, so the house seems to be watching or hesitating, which builds suspense about what is inside.

Marking spine.

• 1 mark: names simile (with personification or suspension).
• 2 marks: explains what it suggests (tension, waiting, isolation).
• 1 mark: refers to the wording.

Model answer. Structure is the order and shape of a text, and it controls what we know and when. A circular ending that returns to the opening image can make the reader reconsider the opening in the light of what has happened, suggesting that a character has changed or that nothing has. A flashback can reveal a hidden cause, turning a puzzling action into an understandable one. In each case the arrangement of the text creates meaning that the events alone would not.

Marking spine. 2 marks for a clear definition; 2 for a sound example; 2 for explaining the effect on meaning.

Model paragraph. The poem presents recovery as slow and uncertain. The short lines and broken sentences mimic the speaker's shaken thoughts, so the form itself seems to be catching its breath. The repeated word 'still' works in two ways: it describes the garden's stillness after the storm and also suggests persistence, as in what remains 'still' standing. This double meaning holds fear and hope together, so recovery is not a clean return but a cautious noticing of what survived.

Marking spine. 2 marks for a claim about recovery; 3 for techniques (line length, syntax, repetition and double meaning) with effects; 2 for sustained argument; 1 for expression.

Planning. 'Familiar things as strange' invites you to find places where the text makes everyday things unfamiliar through language, perspective or form. Take a position on whether this is the main source of the text's value or only one among several.

Structure.

• Introduction: a thesis that answers 'to what extent' (for example, that defamiliarisation is central to the text's value but works together with emotional recognition), and a preview of two or three features.
• Body 1: a technique that makes the familiar strange (an unusual point of view, an unexpected image, a shift of form).
• Body 2: a moment where the strange becomes recognisable, so that the reader sees something true about ordinary life.
• Body 3: the form and ending, and what the text leaves us seeing differently.
• Conclusion: a judgement about the text's value.

Model body paragraph (about 160 words, on an invented novel, The Night Tram; use your own text). The text makes the familiar strange mainly through its narrator's point of view. The Night Tram is told by a child who does not know what the adults' whispered words mean, so ordinary events such as a bill arriving or a neighbour leaving are described as mysterious rituals. By withholding the adult explanation, the composer lets the reader see a family's money worries as if for the first time, and the strangeness is what makes the recognition sharp. When the child finally repeats an adult phrase without understanding it, the language becomes uncomfortably familiar. This moment shows the idea working in both directions: the strange makes the ordinary visible, and the ordinary makes the strange true. The statement therefore holds to a large extent, but the novel's value also depends on the warmth with which it treats the family, which defamiliarisation alone cannot explain.

Marking spine. 7 marks for a sustained argument that responds to the statement; 7 for precise evidence and analysis of language and form; 3 for structure and expression; 3 for insight into the text's value. Responses that retell the text or list techniques stay in the lower or middle bands.

Planning. This is the 'How does your prescribed text use...' type, and it can be asked of any prescribed text. Treat 'setting' broadly (place, time, atmosphere, a recurring image or location), pick the two or three key ideas the setting supports, and show how the composer builds that support.

Structure.

• Introduction: a thesis naming the key ideas and the way setting carries them.
• Body 1: how setting is first established and what it signals.
• Body 2: a point where setting changes or is tested, and how that sharpens an idea.
• Body 3: how the ending uses setting to leave the audience with a final impression.
• Conclusion: a short judgement about the text's distinctive qualities.

Marking spine. About 7 marks for understanding of the text's distinctive qualities and how they shape meaning; 7 for precise analysis of how setting engages audiences; 3 for structure; 3 for expression suited to form, audience and purpose.