Lesson video

Welcome to today's English lesson, I'm Mrs Crompton.

Our focus today is analysing the writer's use of language, and we will be working with an extract from "The Time Machine" by HG Wells.

You will need a pen and paper.

Take a moment to make sure you have cleared any distractions away and have everything you need to hand.

To begin with, let's just have a look at my basic toolkit in terms of subject terminology for approaching fiction texts.

On my list, I have noun, verb, adjective, adverb, simile, metaphor, personification and imagery.

And for me, subject terminology helps us to be more precise in our observations.

It helps us pinpoint the detail.

It helps us really zoom in on the effects of words.

However, the main thing is to select the appropriate evidence and to make sure that we're thinking about how the writer is designing the passage, is putting together specific words, specific sentence types in order to create the impact on us as readers.

So what I want to really do is to put your mind at ease and make sure that you have got this basic toolkit in place.

And then we're ready to go.

So pause at this point, if you want to get that terminology down and then we will have a look at our passage together.

A question to get us started then.

So how does the writer use language to present the speed and dangers of time travel? So what we're going to do is to read the passage once together.

And what I want you to do is to concentrate on the focus of the question.

There is always a focus to the language analysis and in this case, it is the speed and dangers.

And as we do so, I want you to identify the relevant evidence that you might use and start to think about what word class, what subject terminology you can attach to your quotations, okay? And by doing so what we're going to do is to start to eliminate which evidence is rich and useful for analysis, and which evidence is actually more of a supporting quotation.

It answers the question, but it doesn't really allow us to examine how the writer is creating emotional impact or feelings through the language.

First time through, I'll read it with you.

What I want you to do is just to start focusing on the question, speed and danger and seeing what evidence you can find.

The night came like the turning out of a lamp.

And in another moment came tomorrow, the laboratory grew faint and hazy, then fainter and ever fainter.

Tomorrow night came black, then day again, night again, day again, faster and faster still.

An eddying murmur filled my ears and a strange, dumb confusedness descended on my mind.

I'm afraid I cannot convey the peculiar sensations of time travelling.

They are excessively unpleasant.

There is a feeling exactly like that.

One has upon a switch back of a helpless headlong motion.

I felt the same horrible anticipation too, of an imminent smash.

As I put on pace, night followed day, like the flapping of a black wing.

The dim suggestion of the laboratory seemed presently to fall from me.

And I saw the sun hopping swiftly across the sky, leaping it every minute and every minute marking a day.

I suppose the laboratory had been destroyed and I had come into open air.

I had a dim impression of scaffolding, but I was already going too fast to be conscious of any moving things.

The slowest snail that ever crawled dashed by too fast for me.

The twinkling succession of darkness and light was excessively painful to the eye.

Then in the intimate darkness, I saw the moon spinning swiftly through her quarters from new to full and had a faint glimpse of the circling stars.

Okay, so I've read that with you.

What I am going to do is to track back and hand over control to you so that you can now really think about the question.

And all I want you to do is to gather the quotations that are rich, that allow you to comment on the language that has been used.

And we are looking at questions that answer our focus of the speed and danger.

I want you to cover those two aspects.

So control is over to you so that you can pause and gather those quotations on your piece of paper.

I'll be waiting for you to carry on with the next step.

So here we are again, and this time we're really going to shape our evidence.

So on this second reading, the selection is now going to become refined.

And we're going to end up with three quotations and what I've called here an anchor quotation.

So the anchor quotation is the quotation that best answers the question.

It's the quotation that is richest in terms of me being able to see the connotations of the language and being able to zoom in and talk about how the effect is really created of speed and danger.

I am then going to think about the other two quotations, out of my three, being able to link back to it.

So a really good way of building analysis is to think about the fact that a language piece, it's not like the writer sat and thought, oh, I think I'll put a simile in on line two.

They created a piece of writing and all of the different elements are working together.

So what I want you to do is to be able to pick three quotations that are working together to create the effect of speed and danger.

So let's just look at that in terms of criteria.

You're being asked to look at a really small portion of the text, but it's important to think about the whole extract.

The language here is part of a much bigger picture of our interpretation.

So really good thing to do is to say, what does Wells do in terms of creating a sense of speed and danger? Yes, it does accelerate the speed in the text, but he also wants to create that feeling that something's not quite right, that sense of foreboding.

So make sure that we get that within our selection of two to three key quotations.

We're going to work with three today.

When we're looking at those three quotations, you need to make sure that you can do something with them, that you can work with them, and that your focus is always on how those words are working in relation to the context of the passage.

And then finally, if you look at the link evidence column, I've put link one selection to the other.

The question doesn't say, pick a few language features, it asks you to think about how the language works to make meaning.

And that was the key point in all of this.

If possible, at that point, you might be able to extend your ideas further and talk about how it teaches us something about human beings, mankind, society.

Thinking about the big picture ideas we have discussed in our sequence of learning.

So that's the aim as you read through the passage, the second time.

Three quotations that you're going to select.

Let me explain a little bit further about how those are going to look on your page.

I would like you to draw three clouds.

Like this, okay? And you can see here that in the middle, I have got one that is coloured in, that's my anchor quotation.

That's where it's going to sit.

And then I've got two more clouds.

And in those I'm going to pop my other quotations.

And what I'm then going to concentrate on is thinking about the lines between them.

How I'm going to link one quotation to another, and I'm going to use the language of, this is contrasted by, or this is reinforced by.

So we're looking at how we're building our analysis.

Once you've got your evidence in the middle of your clouds, you can then zoom in, unpick, label what word class you've got in there.

Think about the connotations.

Some of you might call that exploding a quotation.

Some of you might call that analysing.

That's absolutely fine.

But then you've got the opportunity on your page to elaborate and think about how you're going to be able to zoom in and comment on the specific effects of words.

But as a process, anchor quotation in the middle, two additional quotations and contrast is important too.

If there's a change in the passage, we want to capture that within our selection.

And we can comment on contrast or how a feeling sensation idea is reinforced.

So back to the instruction page, draw three clouds, in the middle cloud, place your anchor, add in two further quotations but check, you can link back by using the vocabulary, this is reinforced by, or this is contrasted by.

I'm going to hand over control to you now.

You're going to see this screen, then you'll get the clouds again.

So you can draw those up on a piece of paper.

I'd recommend landscape.

It gives you lots of space then to explode and unpick your quotations further, then you'll see the passage.

So you've got everything set up as a task and then into the actual, looking at the passage, one more time for a second reading.

Over to you.

And welcome back.

So now what we're going to do is to actually write up our ideas and you're going to experiment with this, it might be the first time you're doing any analysis, not to worry.

What I'm going to do is to give you a framework to help you set that up.

And we're going to do it step by step.

What I'm going to also do is to share with you my quotations.

So as an instruction, we're going to use our rich quotation plan.

That's your cloud plan to write up our response to the question, how does the writer use language to present the speed and dangers of time travel? So let's make sure we've got that at the top of our piece of paper.

And we're going to start with the anchor quotation and we're going to work our way through.

At this point, just to help you out, let's look at Mrs Crompton's list of quotations.

These are the three quotations I have picked.

In the middle is my anchor quotation.

"Helpless headlong motion, "I felt the same horrible anticipation too, "of an imminent smash." Remember the focus of the question was danger and speed.

So that's what I selected as my anchor rich quotation that I can analyse, helpless headlong, I've got some alliteration there.

Imminent smash as an automatic pick nature there.

So I feel like I've got lots that I can work with within that anchor quotation.

Then I've got my two additional quotations.

"Tomorrow night came black then day again, night again, "day again, faster and faster still." I've got this colour imagery coming through.

And then my final quotation that I picked was, "As I put on pace, night followed day, "like the flapping of a black wing." And I've got a simile in there and I also wanted to connect the colours from quotation two and three.

We had the black previously and I've got a black wing now.

So I wanted to make a connection there.

Now you can use my quotations if you want, if you've found it tricky and you weren't sure you might now be thinking, oh, I wish I'd chosen that, switch, not a problem.

So once we have started this, what we're going to do is to work with the anchor quotation first.

Got my quotations there.

So you can have a look at that screen.

And then we're going to start with an overview statement.

So what we've got is an overview statement that I'm sharing, we can all use.

The writer uses language to present the speed, and also the dangers of time travel.

So split them up, the speed and also the dangers of time travel.

Then I'm going to put in my anchor quotation, my best quotation.

And then my phrasing is going to go, the effect of the alliteration on the reader is to highlight or create a feeling of something.

I've given you a sentence starter.

You will notice that in that sentence, I've deliberately positioned it so that we are talking about a language device.

Now that's not, because I think it's the most important thing that we label everything, but it is because it will make sure, that I don't drift off and start interpreting ideas, which is often something that students do when it comes to language analysis.

They write beautiful interpretations, but forget to tell me about specific selections of words and phrases, which is our focus.

So that sentence construction forces me to write about the right thing.

Then you're going to zoom in on a specific word.

We don't just leave it with the quotation dangling in the air.

We're going to zoom in the word and then zoom in and explain what it's doing.

And I've put the use of range and don't just unpick one word.

If you can, unpick another word, go back and have another look.

So that's your first start at the analysis with your anchor quotation.

Control is going to go over to you.

You have the opportunity to switch around some of the quotations if you will, and to work at your own pace.

Take your time, make sure that you are trying to use the sentence starters to support your writing.

And I'll be waiting for you to go on with the next step.

And welcome back.

So now we're going to repeat those steps.

It's the same thing.

We say what we want to say, we make a statement, we think about the quotation, we then analyse the quotation by zooming in on specific words and effects, but always remembering the focus of our question.

So the next part looks like this.

This is reinforced by and you can work through your second point or it could be, this is contrasted by, and then I want you to build into the third point.

So you're now doing the middle part of your response and you are working with clouds two and three.

So over to you.

Repeat the steps, work through, off you go.

And now we're ready to come to a conclusion.

Now we don't have to do a big fancy conclusion, but I do think it is worthwhile just pausing at the end.

And as we had an overview statement at the beginning of our analysis to frame what we were writing about, we're just going to take a moment at the end of our analysis to broaden the scope too.

So the final comment will allow us to just step back and talk about the overall effect.

What is it that Wells does overall in terms of the language, in terms of what they are doing with the idea of speed and danger? What is his main focus there? Remember we had that word foreboding, the idea of him perhaps treading over a boundary that he shouldn't have done.

So I'll link back to the start, think about those big picture ideas.

See if you can frame a conclusion now that takes on board some of the thinking that we have been doing.

Pause, over to you and resume when you're ready.

And welcome back.

So now we've got to the point where we can have a look at how you've done against a piece of writing.

And this is the first one perhaps that we're doing together.

So that's absolutely fine, not a problem.

So I will go through what you're about to see.

What you're going to see is that I have selected evidence and picked that out in pink.

So I've all of the evidence picked out in pink, I picked out all my subject terminology in purple and then I've picked out in green, all the bits where the phrasing is particularly worded to help the flow and the connection of the piece of writing.

So we can talk about that as cohesion, making sure that everything is linking together nicely, that's quite important.

We want to make sure that our response brings everything together.

When I go through this, I will read through it with you.

And then I'm going to give you an opportunity to look at it at your own pace.

What I would like you to do is to assess yourself against our three criteria.

Have you included relevant evidence that's answered the question? If you have, give us a big tick.

Have you put in your subject terminology? Again, big tick.

And then have you started to do that cohesive stuff? The linking of the ideas.

How well is that going? And out of that, this is also going to tell you where your next step might be.

So that next time you come to do some analysis work, you know where you need to think a little bit harder and you will also have this as a model.

So first reading through, you're assessing your own work.

And then what I will do is give you control of the screen, and then you can add in extra details to your piece of writing and make it the best possible response you could have to that question.

So it becomes a model that you can work with and that you own.

Let's begin.

The writer use language to present the speed, but also the dangers of time travel.

Then the sensation of time travel is described as a helpless headlong motion with the exclamatory sentence construction, creating a sense of lack of control.

The alliterative adjectives, helpless and headlong individually suggest a lack of control with the detail of headlong, further adding in a note of recklessness.

So that zooming in on the word headlong suggest it's got that connotation of not really thinking things through.

The dangerous nature of time travel is reiterated in the continuation sentence, which states, "I felt the same horrible anticipation too, "of an imminent smash." The noun phrase, imminent smash adds to the sense of foreboding and ends with the onomatopoeic word smash, which makes the reader hear the sound, even though it hasn't actually happened.

So if you think about what's actually going on in the passage, there isn't a crash, but he feels it coming or we hear in our heads.

The idea of speed is created through the use of repetition and listing in the phrase, "Tomorrow night came black, then day again, night again, "day again, faster and faster still." An ominous turn is again suggested, notice the green phrasing and constantly linking bits together.

I'm imagining those lines of the clouds, and I'm trying to draw those connections in my writing by the sentence ordering where the initial detail of the tomorrow night came black.

Places emphasis on the adjective black.

So the altering, the wording focuses on black at the end and that's what's left in our heads.

Which holds connotations of surrounding the time traveller.

The colour becomes a symbol of danger.

This idea is reinforced in the simile, am on to quotation three, "As I put on pace, night followed day "like the flapping of a black wing." Here, the present participle verb flapping, present participle sounds really fancy.

All it means is that it's in the present tense.

And we know that because it's I-N-G at the end, if it was E-D, it would be a past participle verb.

So it's just a very quick way of making it sound far more precise, but I'm noticing that present feeling is happening, it's surrounding me all the time.

So back to that sentence.

Here the present participle verb flapping, makes the bird's wing appear as a present and continuous threat.

And you can see it's the effect that's important.

If you had put the I-N-G verb ending makes it feel like it's a present and continuous threat that is just as good.

So be confident with these ideas.

The sound of a bird's wing should not be so dominant.

So the incongruity of the situation adds to the sense of disruption and threats.

Normally, I mean, if you imagine it, it's time travel, you would hear lots of things, not the flapping of a bird's wing.

That makes it really ominous.

This has been generated by the speed at which the time machine is travelling and leaves the reader with a feeling of disequilibrium.

So what does time travel do? It makes all us feel unsettled just as it is doing the time traveller himself.

So that's my model answer for you to look at, I have made sure that I've gone for it.

I've tried to put in lots of detail and I've tried to make it as thorough as possible so that you have got something really nice now to work with as a model.

And what I would like you to do is to take that control, pause as you go through and really start to think about how you can add extra bits to your response.

Over to you and I will be waiting for you when you're ready.

And welcome back.

So really thorough analysis achieved there, well done.

Thank you for your focus today.

All that remains for me to say is don't forget to do your exit quiz and enjoy the rest of your learning today.