Textual Reference-to-Context and Short-Answer Questions
Reference-to-context (RTC) is the backbone of the ALTE literature paper. You are given a short extract and asked to identify its place in the text and explain its significance. Short-answer questions test the same skill in miniature.
The RTC formula
- Identify: speaker, listener, situation, and roughly where the extract occurs.
- Context: what has just happened and what the extract leads to.
- Explain: the literal meaning in one sentence.
- Analyse: technique and significance, meaning why this line matters to theme or character.
Short answers
- Answer the question asked, in two or three sentences.
- Begin with the point, then the evidence.
- Use the text's key words but do not copy a whole line.
- If asked 'why', give a cause, not a description.
Worked example: extract, 'I have no answer for you.' Asked to identify and explain, a strong answer names the speaker, the person addressed and the moment of confrontation, then notes that the refusal is itself an answer: the character's silence reveals guilt and transfers judgement to the listener.
Traps that cost marks
- Guessing the speaker and drifting.
- Writing the whole story of the extract.
- Ignoring the 'significance' instruction.
- Over-long short answers that bury the point.
- Answering a different question from the one printed.