WACE Literature cheat sheet

Close reading moves from device to effect to meaning: name the technique, describe what it does to the reader, then link it to the text's central concern.

Narrative point of view governs available information: first-person narrators are limited and potentially unreliable, omniscient narrators filter events through an implied authorial stance, and free indirect discourse blends character voice with narrator voice.

Characterisation operates through five channels: what a character says, what others say about them, what they do, how the narrator describes them, and how they change across the text.

Setting functions as more than backdrop: it can establish mood, encode social values, foreshadow plot, or operate symbolically when repeatedly linked to a character or theme.

Structural analysis tracks patterns of repetition, contrast, and disruption: shifts in time, chapter breaks, framing devices, and recurring motifs are evidence of authorial design.

Poetic form carries meaning: sonnet volta, ballad refrain, free verse line breaks, enjambment and caesura all shape pace and emphasis independently of the words themselves.

Genre conventions create expectations that texts either satisfy or subvert; identifying the convention makes the subversion legible as interpretation.

Contextual reading distinguishes between the world of the text and the world of the reader: historical, biographical and reception contexts inform meaning but do not determine it.

Evidence hierarchy: a quoted phrase plus a named technique plus a stated effect on meaning outranks plot summary, which earns minimal marks in analytical responses.

An analytical thesis must be arguable and specific: it states a contestable interpretation of the text, not a statement of fact or a restatement of the question.

Paragraph architecture: topic sentence carrying the claim, contextual framing, integrated quotation, technique identification, analysis of effect, then a link that advances the argument rather than repeating it.

Quotation integration rule: embed the shortest fragment that carries the evidence inside your own syntax; a quotation standing alone as a sentence performs no analytical work.

Creative writing in response to a text requires deliberate transformation: choose a specific stylistic feature of the source (voice, register, structure) and make the imitation visible and purposeful.

Creative pieces need a controlling idea: a shift in perspective, an untold scene, or a modern transposition should illuminate something the original leaves implicit.

Register consistency: literary present tense for analysing fiction and drama, past tense for narrating events in your own creative prose, and no tense drift within a paragraph.

Attribution and embedding verbs (asserts, concedes, implies, undercuts, foregrounds) encode interpretation; neutral verbs such as says or states flatten analysis.

Editing pass checklist: remove plot retelling, replace vague evaluative adjectives (powerful, effective) with described effects, verify every quotation against the source, and check that each paragraph links to the thesis.

Comparative responses require an organising principle: structure by idea or theme rather than text-by-text summary, so each paragraph holds both texts in view.