SPM Literature in English 2206 cheat sheet

Plot structure: exposition introduces setting and status quo; inciting incident breaks it; rising action escalates complications; climax is the irreversible turning point; falling action shows consequences; resolution restores or refuses a new order.

Characterisation is direct (author tells) or indirect (speech, action, appearance, thought, other characters' reactions); track how a character changes across the arc to identify a dynamic versus static figure.

Setting functions as more than backdrop: it can establish mood, symbolise a theme, reinforce social context, or apply pressure that forces character decisions.

Theme is an abstract idea the whole text explores (e.g. guilt, class, coming of age); it is stated as a full sentence about the text, not a single word.

Narrative point of view controls access to information: first-person narration is limited and possibly unreliable; third-person omniscient sees all; third-person limited restricts to one consciousness.

Foreshadowing, motif and repetition signal where the plot is heading; a recurring image that accumulates meaning across the novel is a motif, not mere decoration.

Conflict types: person versus person, versus society, versus nature, versus self; most novels braid several, and the dominant conflict usually maps onto the central theme.

Quote selection rule: choose short, quotable fragments (2-8 words) that carry weight, then analyse diction, imagery or syntax; paraphrase the rest of the context around them.

Drama is written for performance: stage directions, setting descriptions and casting notes are part of the text's meaning, not optional extras.

Dialogue does the work of narration in drama; subtext (what a character means versus what they say) is revealed through pauses, interruptions, non-sequiturs and shifts in register.

Soliloquy = alone on stage, thinking aloud, truthful access to inner life; aside = short remark to the audience that other characters cannot hear; monologue = extended speech to others present.

Dramatic irony occurs when the audience knows more than a character; it manufactures tension, sympathy or comic effect depending on context.

Structural units (act, scene) mark shifts in time, place or power; a scene break that cuts mid-action often signals accelerating conflict.

Conflict escalates through a pattern of provocation, retaliation and misrecognition; identify the precise moment the conflict becomes irresolvable.

Character is built through what they say, what others say about them, and stage business (props, entrances, exits, physical action) even when words contradict.

Tragic pattern (where applicable): high status, a flaw or error of judgement, reversal of fortune, recognition, and a final restoration of order at cost.

Read a poem at least twice: once for literal sense and sentence flow, once for form and figuration; line breaks are meaning-bearing units, not just layout.

Metre and rhythm: iambic pentameter has five unstressed-stressed feet per line; variations (trochee, spondee, caesura) mark emphasis or disruption.

Rhyme scheme is annotated with letters (ABAB, AABB); free verse has no fixed scheme but may use internal rhyme, assonance or consonance for cohesion.

Forms to recognise: sonnet (14 lines, usually iambic pentameter; Shakespearean ABAB CDCD EFEF GG, Petrarchan octave plus sestet), ode, elegy, ballad, villanelle, dramatic monologue.

Imagery appeals to the senses; figurative devices include simile (like/as), metaphor (direct equation), personification, metonymy (attribute for thing) and synecdoche (part for whole).

Sound devices: alliteration (repeated initial consonants), assonance (repeated vowel sounds), consonance (repeated final consonants), onomatopoeia, sibilance.

Enjambment runs a sentence past the line break; end-stopping closes it. Enjambment creates momentum or breathlessness; end-stopping creates control or finality.

Volta is the turn in argument or mood, often marked by 'but', 'yet', a shift in tense or a stanza break; locating it helps pin down the poem's actual claim.

Short stories compress: every detail is load-bearing; a single object, gesture or repeated phrase usually carries the theme.

Point of view and narrative distance are the primary technical choices; unreliable or naive narrators force the reader to read against the narration.

Time handling: flashback, foreshadowing, ellipsis and in medias res openings shape what the reader knows and when; note where the story withholds information.

Character is often revealed by a single defining moment or epiphany rather than a long development arc, because of the form's brevity.

Setting in short fiction is frequently symbolic and economical: weather, light, interiors and objects do the thematic work of long description.

Irony (verbal, situational, dramatic) is a common organising device; an ending that undercuts expectation is usually the interpretive key.

Theme is inferred from the pattern of the whole story, not from a character's stated opinion; test a theme claim against the ending.

Narrative technique checklist: narrator type, tense, focalisation, pace, dialogue-to-description ratio, and the final image the story leaves the reader with.

Annotation pass: mark speaker or narrator, subject, tone shifts, repeated words, images, and the ending before writing anything.

One-sentence summary first (who, what changes, what is implied); this becomes the thesis of the response and prevents plot retelling.

Tone is identified by diction and syntax, not by subject matter; a poem about death can be wry, and a poem about love can be bitter.

Personal response must be evidence-based: state the reaction, then name the specific word, image or structural choice that produced it.

Use the PEE or PEEL chain: point, evidence (quoted), explanation of effect on the reader, link back to the question.

Answer the question actually set; underline its key terms and check each paragraph addresses them, since unseen-text marks are lost mainly to irrelevance.

Contextual knowledge is optional for unseen texts; use only what the text itself supports, and avoid guessing at biography.

Timing rule: allocate roughly one-quarter of the response time to planning and annotation, the rest to writing with embedded short quotations.

Embed quotations inside your own sentence and analyse them; a long block quotation followed by paraphrase earns little.

Analyse at word level: name the device, then state its effect on meaning, tone or character; 'this shows' is a placeholder, not analysis.

Alternative interpretations can be offered if each is anchored in textual evidence; present the stronger reading last.

Distinguish author, narrator and character; avoid attributing a narrator's views to the author without hedging.

Critical lenses (feminist, Marxist, psychoanalytic, postcolonial) are tools for generating readings, not substitutes for close reading; the text must still support the claim.

Terminology should be used precisely: a metaphor is not a simile, a motif is not a symbol, and a theme is not a moral.

Structure your argument around the question's terms, not the text's chronology; chronological retelling is the most common mark-loser.

Evaluate evidence quality: a repeated image across the whole text outweighs a single isolated phrase when supporting a thematic claim.