Analyse that!

Language and structural devices

Objectives This simile creates an

unpleasant image that
 To be able to identify the linguistic, grammatical and suggests the place being
structural devices that allow us to access the highest describes is not well-liked by
marks in our original writing. the narrator or character.
Also, the simile is well
 To be able to analyse their effects.
chosen, as it relates to the
 To be able to use these devices in our own original
moist tablecloths of the
writing. cafés described later.

Task 1 The use of an isolated

sentence as a complete
 Read the short story below. paragraph creates impact.
 Complete the analysis in the comment boxes, where
you are encouraged to explore the effect of the The characterization of the
devices used. person suggests he’s ‘too
 In the comment boxes, language devices are green, big for the place’, bigger
structural devices are yellow, and grammatical and better than his
devices are blue. surroundings. The final
subordinate clause
highlighted here acts as a
The first four have been done for you.
metaphor to show how out
of place he feels in these
Pier surroundings.

Like mould clinging to a moist tablecloth, Teignmouth will always

The use of a semi-colon
linger in his memory. In a way, everything Doug will do after he here links the factual
description of the
leaves home will be a vain attempt to scrub the town from his character’s back with the
opinions of the character’s
thoughts. father. The difference
between the reality of the
Even the Craig David beard he grows later will be an evasion, an son’s desires and he
opinions and assumptions of
aesthetic departure from his past. the father are a major
theme in this short story, and
He sits in the living room with his parents. Seventeen and already
this sentence reflects this.
his limbs jut out into the room, knock awkwardly against the coffee
table. His shoulders are broad and waist narrow, his back a perfect The metaphor suggests …

isosceles triangle; his dad says it’s a rower’s back, or a swimmer’s, but
he has no interest in rowing and he can’t swim. The air is damp.
Evening is drawing in and, through the French windows, Doug The imagery suggests …
watches the sunset caught on the sea, a trail of gold.
Everything in the room is grey: his father’s stubble, his mother’s
apron, even the air itself is swathed in gloom. His father says,
The word choice here is
“Thought about where you’re gonna go then son?” important because …
For minutes he ignores his father’s question, picturing his town in
the summer: the fountain in the centre spitting onto sodden
© www.teachit.co.uk 2009 12024 Page 1 of 3
Analyse that! Language and structural devices
flagstones, the moisture caught in the wind sweeping towards Alliteration here suggests …

crammed cafés, the pier jutting out into the sea on unsteady legs.
Everywhere, he sees pot-bellied women with peeling backs, men in
football shirts, children throwing tantrums: the rehearsed monotony The personification here
suggests that Teignmouth is
of tourism. …

Waiting, his father walks to the window, gazes on his car, the vast
bonnet of a jet black Cadillac deflecting fiery sunlight and he smiles.
This direct speech finally
He picks up the two letters from the window sill and sits back down. reveals what the characters
have been discussing. This
He slowly re-reads them, “Oxford and Cambridge. Well I never.” structuring information has
the effect of …
The son recalls how the hideous iconography of pier-side
amusements alarmed him as a child: manic clowns and mutilated
angels. He remembers meeting around the two p machine to smoke, The response to the father’s
question is delayed because
later watching his friends leaping from the end of the pier into the …

black water. And he remembers having his first teenage romances

beneath the uneven planks, to the throb and clang of the arcade
Another isolated sentence,
above and the lapping of the waves against scoured columns. His and also the technique of
understatement, is used here
childhood was spent by the water. to suggest …

The answer bubbles to the surface, “Maybe neither.”

His father lifts his eyes from the letters.
This verb choice is significant
Winter always leaves the town dormant. The shops are closed. because …

The cafés are shut up for next season, everything inside abandoned –
the tables left set, the counters still cluttered, yellowing August
newspapers stiffening in the sunlight; they look like reconstructions, Assonance here has the
effect of …
exhibits in a museum. The notice board becomes crowded with
things for sale, personal advertisements, job requests. As the days
shorten and grow dim, the only activity on the street is the nightly
Personification of the town
rave of the public houses, pockets of light and sound amid drizzle, here suggests …

the lethargic pulse of the town persisting. On the air: the waitresses’
half-forgotten flings with tourists, fantasies of escape, and the sense
that the visitors are missed. Correct use of the
apostrophe here will allow
access to the highest marks.

© www.teachit.co.uk 2009 12024 Page 2 of 3

Analyse that! Language and structural devices
The son remembers the summer and winter, season and off season. Here there is a summary of
what’s been described,
The images line up and stretch out infinitely into the past and into which helps to …

the future.
His father says, “Never has an Idris gone to University, not for as
long as we can remember. And now … Oxford and Cambridge.
Characternym (where the
You’ve done really well son. You should be proud of yourself.” character’s name reflects
their personality) is used
His father hugging him on GCSE results day, his mother weeping here; ‘Idris’ (a Welsh name!)
means ‘impulsive’, and this is
when he won the Entrepreneur of the Year award, he’d always stood relevant here because …

quietly in the predictability of these moments.

“Your mother and I, we can’t wait to drive you up to whichever
place you choose, settle you in.” His father’s voice suddenly deepens, Dramatic irony is used. The
father thinks his son will
“It’ll be strange without you here.” definitely go, but the reader
knows …
Drunken nights, afternoons dozing over splayed text books,
tacking posters on grey brick: this is supposed to be his adventure,
his escape.
This final image could be
He looks at the letters grasped like parchment in his father’s hands, taken as a metaphor for …
turns away.
because …
Outside, the sun is finally extinguished by the sea.

Task 2
Now re-read the short story, looking for other linguistic, structural and grammatical
techniques used. Highlight them and comment on their effect.

Extension
Look at the grade descriptor and decide what GCSE coursework grade this piece would
get.

Or
Replace all of the highlighted techniques in this text with an alternative of your own.

Or
Experiment with some techniques that could be inserted into your own piece of original
writing later.

© www.teachit.co.uk 2009 12024 Page 3 of 3