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Writing about the effects of language in an IGCSE English Literature exam essay

Read the following three examples of comments on language taken from IGCSE literature essays and reread the assessment criteria. The poem referred to is The Storyteller by Liz Lochhead.

1)    The writer uses interesting language to describe the setting, “as thin grey washed over flat fields”.

This refers to language but not “the way language works”. This type of comment would not achieve a C grade as it only describes the poem.

    2)   The writer uses language to create a dismal atmosphere, “as thin grey washed over flat fields”.

This begins to consider “the way language works” but in a limited way, it needs to go further to consider effects and the writer’s intentions. Why does the writer want to create a dismal atmosphere at this point in the poem? This type of comment is moving towards the C/D borderline.

3)   The writer uses language to create a dismal impression of daytime, “thin grey washed over flat fields”. The words ”thin”, “grey”, “flat” all suggest that a dreary lack of substance belongs to the day, which is a contrast to the magic of the storyteller’s night. Lochhead uses this contrast to emphasise just how important stories are as a means of bringing colour and sustenance into lives which would otherwise be bleak.

 This is much better, the candidate is now responding “sensitively and in detail to the way language works in the text”. This candidate is on the way to achieving an A. The analysis could be even more detailed, considering the emotional impact on the reader of the single syllables, “thin”, “grey” and “flat” and the alliteration of “flat fields”. As we read we feel the dismay evoked by the sounds of the language.