Text Analysis and Language Use
Two skills, one section
This domain covers the text-analysis essay (a close-reading response to a literary passage) and language-use multiple choice (revising and editing sentences and paragraphs).
Text analysis
You are asked to explain how an author uses a technique to develop a central idea or purpose. Name the technique precisely - imagery, metaphor, repetition, dialogue, juxtaposition, shift in tone, sentence length, pacing - and then show the effect. Strong analysis moves from device to meaning: "The repeated image of the locked gate returns each time the narrator mentions her brother, linking confinement to family loyalty." Weak analysis merely labels: "The author uses imagery." Always quote briefly and then interpret.
Language use
The revising questions test conventions (subject-verb agreement, pronoun reference, verb tense, comma splices, fragments), sentence combining (choosing the version that is clearest and most logical), transitions (however, therefore, for example), word choice and tone, eliminating redundancy ("return back," "the reason is because"), and parallel structure in lists.
Traps to expect
- "No change" is a real option and is correct more often than nervous test-takers believe. Fix only what is broken.
- Longer is not better. The best revision is usually the most concise version that keeps the meaning.
- Pronoun ambiguity: "she told her sister that she..." - ask who she is.
- Comma splices disguised as long sentences, and semicolons used without an independent clause on each side.
- Transition traps: "however" for a cause-effect relationship, or "therefore" where a contrast belongs.
- Device naming without effect in the essay.
Rule of thumb
For multiple choice, read the sentence before and after the underlined portion, then test each option aloud. For the essay, use the frame: The author uses ___ in order to ___, which reveals ___. This forces you past labeling into interpretation.