PNG Grade 12 English cheat sheet

Skimming locates the topic and main idea; scanning locates specific details such as names, dates, and figures without reading every word.

Main idea = topic + the writer's controlling point about it; it is usually stated in the topic sentence or must be inferred from the whole passage, not one detail.

Supporting details answer who, what, when, where, why, and how; a detail that does not serve the main idea is a distractor.

Inference is a conclusion drawn only from textual evidence plus general knowledge; an inference that needs outside facts the passage never supplies is invalid.

Tone words (critical, nostalgic, ironic, objective, sympathetic) describe the writer's attitude; mood describes the feeling created in the reader.

A fact can be verified; an opinion expresses judgement or feeling. Signal words for opinion include should, best, clearly, unfortunately, and I believe.

Cause-and-effect questions look for signallers such as because, therefore, as a result, consequently, and leads to; sequence questions look for first, then, finally.

When comparing two passages, identify shared topic, differing purpose, differing audience, and points of agreement or contradiction before answering.

Subject-verb agreement: a singular subject takes a singular verb; intervening phrases do not change the number (The box of files is heavy).

Collective nouns (team, committee, family) take a singular verb when acting as one unit and a plural verb when members act individually.

Pronoun case: use the subject form (I, he, she, they, who) for subjects and the object form (me, him, her, them, whom) after prepositions and verbs.

Tense consistency: keep the main narrative tense stable; use past perfect (had + past participle) for an action completed before another past action.

Active voice (The student wrote the essay) is direct; passive voice (The essay was written by the student) is used when the doer is unknown or unimportant.

Modifiers must sit next to the word they describe; a dangling modifier has no logical subject in the sentence (Walking home, the rain began).

Punctuation: a comma splice joins two independent clauses with only a comma; fix it with a full stop, semicolon, or coordinating conjunction.

Apostrophes show possession (the girl's book, the girls' books) or contraction (it's = it is); the possessive its takes no apostrophe.

An essay structure is introduction (hook, background, thesis), body paragraphs (topic sentence, evidence, explanation, link), and conclusion (restated thesis, synthesis, final thought).

A thesis statement makes a debatable claim in one sentence and predicts the essay's structure; a statement of fact is not a thesis.

Paragraph unity means every sentence supports the topic sentence; coherence is achieved with transitions such as however, furthermore, in contrast, and as a result.

The four main rhetorical modes are narration, description, exposition, and persuasion; expository writing may use comparison, cause-effect, definition, or process organisation.

Formal register avoids contractions, slang, and first-person opinion where inappropriate; informal register suits personal letters and dialogue.

Argumentative writing needs a clear claim, credible evidence, acknowledgement of a counterargument, and a rebuttal; assertion without evidence is weak.

Editing checks include sentence variety, parallel structure in lists, consistent point of view, and removal of redundancy such as free gift or repeat again.

Summarising condenses the source in your own words, keeps the main ideas, and omits examples and repetition; paraphrasing restates a passage at similar length.

Plot follows exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution; conflict may be person versus person, self, society, or nature.

Characterisation is direct when the narrator states traits and indirect when traits are revealed through speech, action, thought, and others' reactions.

Setting includes time, place, and social conditions and can establish mood, foreshadow events, or symbolise a theme.

Theme is the central insight about life or human nature; it is expressed as a full statement, not a single word such as love or death.

Point of view: first person uses I; third-person limited stays with one character's perceptions; third-person omniscient knows all characters' thoughts.

Figurative language: simile uses like or as, metaphor states one thing is another, personification gives human qualities to non-human things, hyperbole exaggerates.

In poetry, imagery appeals to the senses, rhythm is the beat pattern, rhyme is end-sound repetition, and a stanza is a grouped set of lines.

Drama conventions include stage directions, dialogue, soliloquy (alone on stage), aside (to the audience), and dramatic irony (audience knows more than characters).