Literature: Prescribed Prose and Poetry
Prose and poetry questions reward close reading of a short extract far more than general summaries. Examiners look for three things: accurate identification of the device or idea, a quoted word or phrase as evidence, and a sentence explaining its effect.
Reading prose
- Fix narrator, setting, conflict and turning point before writing anything.
- Write a theme as an abstract noun plus a claim: 'Horegallu argues that listening is a form of service, not a passive act.'
- Use characters as evidence, not as plot summary. In Christine Lagarde's 'The 3Ls of Empowerment', the three Ls are Learning, Labour and Leadership, and each is presented as a condition for women's economic participation.
- In Sudha Murty's 'Horegallu', the stone bench by the road works as a symbol: the grandfather and Ratna both offer rest by listening to burdens.
Reading poetry
- The speaker is not the poet; name the speaker.
- Locate the turn - the line where the argument shifts.
- Name the figure, then state its effect in one sentence; naming alone earns only part marks.
Worked example
In Katharine Tynan's 'Any Woman' the speaker calls herself 'the pillars of the house' and 'the keystone of the arch'. Question: 'What do these images together suggest about her role? (3)' Reasoning: mark one for the literal basis of the metaphor (pillars and a keystone bear the load), mark two for linking that to the household's dependence on the mother, mark three for noting that removal means collapse - the poem's own rhyme of 'wall' and 'fall to ruin' makes the point. Model: 'Pillar and keystone are load-bearing parts, so the mother is not decoration but structure; take her away and the house falls to ruin.'
Traps that cost marks
- Retelling the story instead of answering the question.
- Quoting a whole stanza with no explanation.
- Confusing poet with speaker, or naming a metaphor without its effect.