Answering Extract Questions

When answering an extract/reading question you should:

1. Read the question through once and then pause, before underlining the key elements of the question. Then read it through again.
2. Now read the extract/article/poems you have been given with a pen in your hand and holding the question in your head.
3. Every time you react to (or feel like you should be reacting to) something - underline it and note the reaction - even if it's just a smiley face or a sad face.
4. Hopefully by the end of this you have noticed about six-seven things - each of these things are a paragraph you can write about and you now have a plan.
5. For each thing you noticed - start each paragraph by saying what it is or what the writer does:
- Ballard uses graphic description ...
- Miller has Willy speak about ...
- The author of the article then uses ...
- Herbertson appears to say ...
- Owen uses the flowers to ...
- Jim also starts to ...
(if you notice - some of these points don't actually mention a specific technique - you can use the topic instead)
6. The give evidence of that technique
7. You then comment on it (where you explain it's relation to the question

Useful Comment and Analysis Phrases
• This is effective because …
• The use of the word …
• This shows [theme] because …
• The use of [technique] is effective …
• However, unlike in the [story] this is used because …
• The author has used this to …
• Describing [thing] in this way make …
• This makes [thing] sound …
• We sympathise with [character] because …
• The reason for this is …
• From this, we can note that …
• The reader can see from this that …
• The author writes … because …
• Therefore …
• Significantly …
• We can see from this that …
• The writer then moves on to …
• This shows that …
• Following this …
• Then …
• This then means that …