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ScotlandEnglishQuick questions
Critical Approaches
Quick questions on Literary terminology and concepts: SQA Advanced Higher English critical vocabulary
5short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is always follow a term with effect?Show answer
A term names; it does not analyse. After naming a technique, say what it does: what effect it creates, how it shapes meaning, why the writer used it. "The poem ends on a volta" is incomplete; "the volta reverses the poem's despair into acceptance at the final turn" analyses. Never let a term stand alone as if naming it were the analysis.
What is get the term right?Show answer
An inaccurate term is worse than none, because it misleads the analysis. Not every image is a metaphor (a simile is not; a symbol is not); not every tense shift is significant; not every poem with a turn has a classical volta. Know what each term actually means before you use it, so your precision is real precision and not confident error.
What is q1?Show answer
What must always follow a critical term in your analysis? [2 marks]
What is q2?Show answer
Define free indirect discourse and say what it lets you analyse. [2 marks]
What is q3?Show answer
Why is an inaccurate term worse than no term? [1 mark]
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