ASSESSMENT AND SUPPORT
Analysing language, form and structure
Assessment Criteria and What A Good One Looks Like
Below you will find the Skill Check assessment criteria for this skill, and underneath you will find an example of what a good one looks like, with a brief explanation of how it fits the criteria.
Assessment Criteria for Analysing language, form and structure
minus
any of these things
It’s not the analysis part of the paragraph (e.g. repeats evidence, etc)
Does not mention a method in the analysis
Mentions a method but does not explain how it adds meaning to the text
Gets the effect of the method completely wrong
equals (just) to plus (secure)
all of these things
Mentions a method with (roughly) correct terminology
Attempts to explain what extra meaning the method creates, though not necessarily as clearly or in as much detail as it could
Attempts to explain how it creates that meaning
Links analysis back to the point at least somewhat
star
all of these things
All the + criteria
Explains what the effect of the method is in a thoughtful, interesting or detailed way that connects clearly to the point - it will often do this by zooming in and analysing different parts of the method, though this is not essential
Clearly explains how the method creates the effect(s) described
What a good one looks like
Example task
Read the following paragraph opening and complete the task underneath.
Golding reveals the boys’ destructive power very early in the novel. When they first decide to start a fire, they accidentally set fire to the forest, and though the fire is initially small, a “squirrel leap[ing]” between the branches of the trees, it grows and spreads, creeping through the trees “as a jaguar creeps” until it has destroyed a quarter mile of forest.
Write the analysis to follow on from this point and evidence, with clear discussion of the method(s) used, including the appropriate terminology. Make sure you link your analysis back to the point.
Example response
The fact that the boys are capable of this level of destruction — so much of forest destroyed! — without even meaning to do it reveals their destructive power. Because of their technology and their lack of care, they can cause enormous harm to the natural world. Furthermore, Golding uses figurative language to describe the fire and emphasise this idea. First, he uses the metaphor of a squirrel, which suggests the fire is initially small but agile and fast-moving, like a squirrel, darting playfully and harmlessly through the forest, reflecting how the boys initially see it. However, as the fire spreads Golding changes the imagery with the simile of a jaguar creeping. Suddenly, all sense of harmlessness has gone: the fire is a predator. It is deadly, moving slowly now, almost as if it is stalking its prey, like a jaguar. This shows just how destructive the fire has become — it is killing everything in its path. This all adds to the destructiveness of the boys’ behaviour. They started the fire, and in their carelessness, they created a kind of monster, a predator that destroyed the island and even killed one of the other boys.
Notes on this response
It explains the reasoning first before analysing the methods.
It has lots of terminology for methods in it.
It zooms in separately to two different methods in the evidence — the squirrel metaphor and the jaguar simile.
It explains what the extra meaning is created by the methods — how the fire seems harmless, but then predatory.
It explains how the methods create the extra meaning by linking the fire to squirrels and jaguars, the key imagery in the figurative language.
It links the analysis clearly back to the point about the boys’ behaviour being destructive.