Why the writer did it for 11 plus English

Questions about the writer ask why, not what. Why this word, this sentence, these dots? Writers choose them to build a feeling in the reader. A short sentence slows you down and adds tension. A question makes you wonder. Pauses in speech, the three dots, show someone unsure. Say what it does to the reader.

Too silent. Two words, on their own. It makes you stop, and it makes the silence feel wrong. Then the stopped clock: even time seems to have stopped. The effect is tension. The reader expects something bad to happen.

The trap is saying what the sentence says, instead of what it does. It tells us the house was quiet. True, and it is not the effect. An effect answer is about the reader: it makes us feel, or wonder, or expect.

• 1.1Finding the answer in the textFind it, then check it
• 1.2Reading between the linesNo clue, no answer
• 1.3Characters and why they actWhat they do, and why they do it
• 1.4What a word means in the passageSwap it in, read it back
• 1.6Similes, metaphors and moreSay it in plain words
• 1.7Order and structureFind the event, then look either side
• 1.8Reading an older textFind the main sentence, then put old words into today's words

Every 11 plus English topic