Reading fiction flashcards
12 cards on Reading fiction: the key points, worked examples and the slips to watch. Swipe through them, or print them.
Card 1 of 12
Reading fiction
Explicit and implicit information
What is the difference between explicit and implicit information in a fiction extract?
Answer it in your head, then turn the card over.
Explicit and implicit information
Key points
- Explicit information is stated on the surface: you can find it and copy it.
- Implicit information is suggested: you work it out from clues, which is called inference.
- The first question asks for simple retrieval; later questions expect inference.
- On AQA, the first question asks for four things from named lines: keep each point short and accurate.
Example
Explicit: ‘The cottage had a red door.’ It has a red door.
Implicit: ‘He left his dinner untouched.’ He may be worried or upset.
Watch out
Evidence from outside the lines a question names can’t earn marks there: box the lines first.
Reading fiction
Making an inference
How do you make an inference about a character, and how do you back it up?
Answer it in your head, then turn the card over.
Making an inference
Key points
- Name the detail, then say what it suggests about the character or the situation.
- Small actions carry implicit meaning: what a character does, avoids or keeps doing.
- Use words such as ‘suggests’, ‘implies’ or ‘perhaps’: an inference is a reading, not a fact.
- Tie every inference to the exact words that prove it.
Detail, then inference
‘He folded and refolded his napkin while he waited.’
This suggests he is nervous, perhaps dreading the person he is waiting for.
Watch out
An inference with no detail behind it is only a guess: quote the words that suggest it.
Reading fiction
The language question
How do you answer a question on how a writer uses language?
Answer it in your head, then turn the card over.
The language question
Key points
- Quote briefly, name the technique or the word class, then explain the effect on the reader.
- The effect is where the marks are: ask ‘why did the writer choose this?’ every time you quote.
- Cover words and phrases, language techniques and sentence forms.
- Retelling what happens earns nothing: the examiner already knows the story.
Quote, name, explain
The wind ‘clawed’ at the windows.
The verb makes the wind a wild animal trying to get in, so the house feels under attack.
Watch out
‘The writer uses a simile’ earns very little on its own: say what it suggests and what it does.
Reading fiction
Zooming in on one word
Why zoom in on a single word in a quotation, and what should you say about it?
Answer it in your head, then turn the card over.
Zooming in on one word
Key points
- Connotations are the ideas and feelings a word carries beyond its plain meaning.
- One word’s connotations show exactly how the writer shapes the reader’s view.
- Name the word class (verb, adjective, adverb) when it adds to your point.
- Compare it with a plainer word the writer could have used: what does this one add?
Example
‘The old man shuffled to the door.’
‘Shuffled’ suggests slow, unsteady steps, so he seems frail; ‘walked’ would tell us nothing.
Watch out
An effect that fits any text, like ‘it makes you want to read on’, earns little: tie it to this word.
Reading fiction
Simile, metaphor and personification
What are simile, metaphor and personification, and what should you say about each?
Answer it in your head, then turn the card over.
Simile, metaphor and personification
Key points
- Simile: compares one thing to another using ‘like’ or ‘as’.
- Metaphor: says one thing is another, with no ‘like’ or ‘as’.
- Personification: gives human actions or feelings to something that isn’t human.
- For each one, say what the comparison adds: what does it make the reader picture or feel?
Example
Simile: the crowd moved like a slow river.
Metaphor: the classroom was a furnace.
Personification: the floorboards complained under his weight.
Watch out
If a comparison uses ‘like’ or ‘as’, it is a simile, not a metaphor.
Reading fiction
Pathetic fallacy and semantic fields
What are pathetic fallacy and semantic fields, and how do they build a mood?
Answer it in your head, then turn the card over.
Pathetic fallacy and semantic fields
Key points
- Pathetic fallacy: the weather or surroundings reflect a character’s feelings or the mood of a scene.
- Semantic field: a group of words linked by one subject, such as war or illness.
- A field in an unexpected place, like war words for a storm, colours the whole scene.
- Name the field, quote two or three of its words, then say what they add together.
Example
Pathetic fallacy: as he read the news, the sky darkened and rain lashed the glass.
Semantic field of war: the storm attacked the coast, bombarding the cliffs.
Watch out
Not all weather is pathetic fallacy: it has to match a feeling or the mood of the scene.
Reading fiction
Sentence forms for effect
How can sentence forms create effects in a fiction extract?
Answer it in your head, then turn the card over.
Sentence forms for effect
Key points
- A short sentence after long ones can create shock, tension or a sense of finality.
- A long sentence piled with clauses or a list can show panic, chaos or a racing mind.
- A minor sentence, with no main verb, jolts the reader and makes a moment hang.
- Questions and exclamations can show a character’s confusion, fear or excitement.
Example
‘He ran past the gate, past the church, past the last of the houses, until his chest burned. Then he stopped.’
The list hurries him on; the short sentence halts him, and the reader, at once.
Watch out
‘The short sentence creates tension’ is only a start: say what tension, and why at this moment.
Reading fiction
The structure question
What should you write about in a question on how a fiction extract is structured?
Answer it in your head, then turn the card over.
The structure question
Key points
- Structure is the shape of the whole text: how it opens, where the focus shifts and how it ends.
- Track the shifts in order and ask ‘why show me this now?’ at each one.
- Cover the beginning, the middle and the end, not just one paragraph.
- Word choices and similes belong in the language question, not this one.
Structural analysis in one sentence
The writer opens on an empty beach before anyone appears, so the reader senses something is missing.
Then the focus narrows to a single footprint: the mystery begins.
Watch out
Analysing similes and single words in the structure question earns no marks for structure.
Reading fiction
Structural techniques
Which structural techniques do writers of fiction use, and what can each one do?
Answer it in your head, then turn the card over.
Structural techniques
Key points
- Zooming in: the focus narrows from a wide scene to one detail, showing what matters.
- Shift in focus: a move to a new character, place or time, often a turning point.
- Flashback: a jump back in time that explains the present, or holds up the action.
- Foreshadowing: an early hint at what is to come, which builds unease.
Example
Opening line: ‘The ice looked thick enough to hold anyone.’
‘Looked’ makes the reader suspect it won’t: foreshadowing, so tension builds from the start.
Watch out
Naming a shift is not enough: say why the writer moves the focus at that point.
Reading fiction
The evaluation question
What does the evaluation question ask you to do, and how should you begin your answer?
Answer it in your head, then turn the card over.
The evaluation question
Key points
- It gives you a statement about part of the text and asks how far you agree.
- Begin with your judgement: how far you agree, and why.
- Prove it with evidence and analysis of the writer’s methods.
- On AQA it carries the most marks in the reading section (20), so give it the most time.
An opening judgement
I strongly agree that the ending is full of tension, because the writer slows time down just as the danger peaks.
Watch out
Treating it as another language question, with no view on the statement, misses what it asks.
Reading fiction
Writing evaluatively
How do you judge how well a writer achieves an effect, rather than just describing it?
Answer it in your head, then turn the card over.
Writing evaluatively
Key points
- Link your view to a method: what the writer does, and how well it creates the effect.
- Use evaluative words such as ‘effectively’, ‘convincingly’ and ‘most powerfully’.
- Give your own response as a reader: how the method makes you feel at that moment.
- Come back to the statement at the end of each paragraph.
Example
The writer builds dread effectively: she cuts from the knock at the door straight to the boy’s silent waiting.
It leaves the reader as helpless as he is.
Watch out
A tour of techniques with no judgement reads as a language answer, not an evaluation.
Reading fiction
Embedding short quotations
What is an embedded quotation, and how do you choose the best one to use?
Answer it in your head, then turn the card over.
Embedding short quotations
Key points
- An embedded quotation is a short quotation woven into your own sentence.
- Choose the quotation with the richest word in it: the one you can say most about.
- Keep it to a word or a phrase: long copied passages take time and earn little.
- Your sentence must still make sense with the quotation inside it.
Example
The stranger’s smile was ‘thin and brief’, as if kindness cost him something.
Watch out
Copying out whole sentences as evidence spends your time without earning marks.
Print these cards
Four cards to an A4 sheet, each the size of a standard A6 revision card.
One-sided
Each card prints on one face: the question at the top, the notes under it.
Two-sided
Questions on the front, notes on the back. Print double-sided and flip on the long edge, then cut along the lines.
Put it into practice
More English Language flashcards
- Creative writingThe writing task and its marksWhat does the creative writing task ask you to do, and what are its 40 marks given for?Creative writing14 cards
- Reading non-fictionFacts and attitudes in non-fictionHow do you find both the explicit facts and the implicit attitudes in a non-fiction text?Reading non-fiction12 cards
- Comparing viewpointsWhat the comparison question asksWhat does the question on comparing two writers’ viewpoints ask you to do?Comparing viewpoints10 cards
- Writing to present a viewpointReading the taskWhat does the viewpoint writing task ask for, and what should you check before you plan?Writing to present a viewpoint14 cards