Close reading skills word choice

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Close reading skillsword choice

• Learning Intention
• I can demonstrate my analysis of specific words a
  writer uses

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word choice

• When considering the language used by a writer,
  you can think of another word or expression the
  writer could have used. This will then allow you
  to compare the word used against an alternative
  and consider what the advantage was of using the
  word selected for the text.
• Think about the connotations of the word in
  other words, what do you associate it with?
• For example, slender, slim, thin, lean
  and skinny may all have similar meanings but
  their connotations can be either negative or
  positive. If asked to comment on the writer's use
  of one of these words, thinking about the
  connotations will help you come up with a
  suitable comment.

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How to answer word choice

• Step 1 Quote the word (or sometimes phrase)
• Step2 Discuss the words connotations
• Step 3 Relate back to the question
•  

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Example

• One day, a grey rat squirted out of a bag of
  potatoes and Henry had leapt with fright, his
  heart exploding in his chest. He was afraid of a
  lot of things - the closet door that never stayed
  closed in his bedroom, spooky movies about
  vampires - but most of all, the rats.
•  What is unusual about the writers use of
  squirted in this sentence

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Example
Steps Example
Step 1 Quote the word (or sometimes phrase) Squirted
Step2 Discuss the words connotations he word 'squirted' is usually associated with liquids and the rat's movement is being compared to liquid being forced out of a tube or a bottle.
Step 3 Relate back to the question It reveals the speed and liquid movement of the rats. Shows the rats are a solid mass
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Question One

• As I bent, buckled and squeezed myself into the
  drysuit, the threat of a dose of marine
  indigestion seemed a poor defence against the
  flat-eyed terrors of the deep.
•  Show how the writers use of word choice reveals
  that the writer struggled to get into the
  drysuit.

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Question two

• Childhood memories of underwater programmes on TV
  flooded in, mixing with books and magazines on
  sharks.
•  Show how the writers word choice conveys the
  way his memories returned.

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Question three

• The session is drawing to a close and the teacher
  opens a bag of teddy bears and passes them round.
  Were going to sing
• Rock-a-Bye Baby to help our teddies get to
  sleep.
• Millie, 3, suddenly pipes up. I dont like
  Rock-a-Bye Baby, she says firmly.
•  Show how the writers word choice conveys one
  aspect of the girls personality.

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Question four

• So why not tackle the bagpipes? I think, as I
  eye a YouTube performance by the Red Hot Chilli
  Pipers, the closest thing the piping world has to
  pin-ups. They have teamed the bagpipe with
  electric guitars and keyboard, punching out
  dazzling arrangements of rock anthems, attracting
  new audiences and players in the process.
•  Explain why any example of the writers word
  choice in the sentence in
• lines 1921 effectively conveys how impressive
  the band are

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Question five

• I thrust the giant gearstick into first and ease
  my foot tentatively off the clutch. In principle
  it is just like in a car, but in practice the
  difficulty of everything requiredeffort,
  concentration, even aimhas been multiplied many
  times. I start moving and, for the first time in
  20 years, remember why I never go on
  rollercoasters. The excitement is tremendous but
  so is the fear of something so powerful. I am not
  only in the grip of a monster but, supposedly, in
  control of it.
•  Look at lines 5560. Identify and explain one
  example of contrast in the writers word choice

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Question six

• Within 30 minutes I am soaring around the
  training ground, doing nifty turns and even
  managing to reverse into a tight parking space.
• Look at lines 6162, and then show how one
  example of the writers
• Word choice illustrates a point about how her
  driving improved.

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Question seven

• We sat on for several minutes in an amiable
  silence punctuated by the cries of the killdeer
  and the faulty muffler of the pick-up.
• Show how the writers word choice suggests that
  the two strangers are comfortable in each others
  company.

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Question eight

• So on the afternoon of 16 December, when
  Greenwood, my elementary school, dispatched its
  happy hordes into the snowy streets to begin
  three glorious weeks of yuletide relaxation (and
  school holidays in those days, let me say, were
  of a proper and
• generous duration).
• Look at lines 7 9.
• Explain how any one example of the writers word
  choice in these lines helps emphasise the fact
  that the writer has pleasant memories of
  Christmas time when he was a boy.

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Question nine

• He modified his routes and always remained far
  from the overhang of the roof where the boy
  changing his tactics, trying to be selective
  was perched, rock in hand, directly above the
  bait on the ground, waiting to crush the rats
  back.
• What does the writers use of the word perched
  add to image created that a simpler word like
  sitting would not.

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Question ten

• At length we parked in an enormous parking lot
  that was
• almost comically emptywe were one of half a
  dozen cars, all from out of stateand strode a
  few paces to a grand entrance, where we stood
  with hands in pockets looking up at a fabulous
  display of wrought iron
• Show how the writers word choice shows that
  Disneyland was an impressive place