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Critical Reading: Scottish Set Texts

4 dot points across 4 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

How do you analyse an extract from a Scottish set text drama and link it to the wider play?

Analysing a Scottish set text drama: reading a printed extract for dramatic technique (dialogue, stage directions, conflict, characterisation) and answering the final question that links the extract to the whole play.
How to analyse a Scottish set text drama in SQA Higher English Question Paper 2: reading the printed extract for dialogue, stage directions, conflict and characterisation, answering the analysis questions, and tackling the final commonality question that links the extract to the rest of the play.
11 min answer →

How do you analyse a Scottish set text poem and link it to others in the prescribed selection?

Analysing a Scottish set text poem: reading the printed poem for poetic technique (imagery, sound, form, structure, tone) and answering the final question that links it to other poems by the same poet in the selection.
How to analyse a Scottish set text poem in SQA Higher English Question Paper 2: reading the printed poem for imagery, sound, form, structure and tone, answering the analysis questions, and tackling the final question that links the poem to others in the poet's prescribed selection.
11 min answer →

How do you analyse a prose set text extract and link it to the rest of the novel, short stories or non-fiction?

Analysing a Scottish set text prose: reading a printed extract for prose technique (narrative voice, characterisation, setting, structure) and answering the final question that links the extract to the wider text or the writer's other work.
How to analyse a Scottish set text prose work in SQA Higher English Question Paper 2: reading the printed extract for narrative voice, characterisation, setting and structure, answering the analysis questions, and tackling the final question that links the extract to the wider novel, short stories or non-fiction.
11 min answer →

How are the set text analysis questions structured, and how do you allocate your time and references across them?

Working through the set text analysis questions: recognising how the lower-tariff analysis questions and the final commonality question are marked, and managing references, quotation and timing across the 20 mark section.
How the SQA Higher English Scottish set text questions are structured and marked: how the lower-tariff analysis questions reward reference plus comment, how the final commonality question is marked across the whole text, and how to manage quotation and timing across the 20 mark section.
10 min answer →