← Unfamiliar written texts: close reading
Reading the passages in the exam
The first read decides how good the writing can be.A workable first pass
- Read both texts once straight through for sense. Do not annotate yet.
- Read the three questions — they tell you which ideas to look for.
- Second pass on Text A: mark the beginning, the ending, any shift, and three or four words doing unusual work.
- Same on Text B, plus anything that echoes or contradicts Text A — that is your Q3 material.
- Write Q1 and Q2, then give Q3 the time it is worth.
You cannot prepare the content, only the method
The themes have included storytelling, emotion, belonging, naming, change, and people and animals — there is no way to predict them. What is entirely predictable is the instruction: two specific aspects, then one for the comparison. Drill the method on any passage you can find and the paper holds no surprises. ✓If the text type surprises you
Do not spend exam time deciding whether a passage counts as memoir, essay, or fiction. The four-aspect method runs on any prose or poetry text — genre only matters if the question itself names it.What to annotate on the first careful read
- The opening and closing lines of each text, so a cyclical or shifting structure is visible before you start writing.
- Any pronoun that changes partway through (I to we, he/she to you).
- One or two words that feel deliberately chosen rather than plain — these are usually diction points.
- Anywhere Text B seems to answer, echo, or contradict Text A, ready for Q3.