Prose: Comprehension and Critical Analysis of Prescribed Texts
Prose in ALTE tests whether you can read a prescribed piece closely and then write about how it works, not merely what happens. Questions arrive as reference-to-context, short answer and longer critical analysis, so every answer needs a textual anchor plus a comment on method.
Working with an extract
- Read twice: once for sense, once for signals such as repeated words, tense shifts and punctuated pauses.
- Name the speaker, the listener and the situation before you interpret.
- Separate fact from inference. 'She left' is fact; 'She was relieved' needs evidence.
- Comment on technique: first- or third-person narration, free indirect speech, irony, symbol, pacing.
Building a critical answer
- State your point in one sentence.
- Support it with a short quotation of three to eight words.
- Explain the effect on the reader and link it to theme.
Worked example: an extract ends with a character refusing to answer a question. A weak answer says 'he was sad'. A strong answer notes the broken dialogue, the narrator's neutral reporting, and argues that the silence shifts judgement onto the reader. Evidence, technique and effect are all present.
Traps that cost marks
- Retelling the plot instead of analysing it.
- Quoting a whole sentence and never explaining it.
- Confusing the author with the narrator.
- Ignoring the context half of a reference question.
- Using adjectives about a character without citing an action or line.