Understanding Writer’s Effect Questions

• Locating specific words or phrases in a text

• Understanding how particular words and
phrases suggest ideas and emotions.
• Explaining what they mean in your own words
– Understand the context
– Explain using synonyms and word associations
Now, fifty expectant students stared wide-eyed at me.

• ‘expectant’
• ‘wide-eyed’
When you have been plucked from a beautiful big
bungalow and dumped in a crumbling house…

• ‘plucked’
– Taken away suddenly without your consent
– Hints that you are vulnerable and helpless
• ‘dumped’
– Abandoned
– Hints that you are unwanted
– Feeling of let down
It is cramped, noisy and dirty. Rats scurry through its hallways and kitchen. It has a classroom with ramshackle
desks and a cracked blackboard.

• ‘cramped’
– Congested, claustrophobic
• Ramshackle
– Dilapidated
– In ruins

• Cracked
– Showing lines on the surface
– Damaged
– Ill-maintained, shabby
– Repulsive atmosphere
I found myself on Kare Kare beach many times that
winter staring at the cliffs on either side, as the
westerlies whipped the waves up and hurled them
onto the land. Like the sea, my mind raged. I had lost
everything – my home, my wife, my children. Could I
start all over again?

• Simile - Stormy sea reflective of writer’s mind –

may be angry that life has been unfair to him.
• Coping with loss – self-pity
• Rhetoric question ‘whipped the waves up’ –
alliteration to emphasise the force of tempest -
imagery
• It was not silence I heard: my feet trod steadily
on the stony road; I heard the hooting of an
owl, the screech of some unseen creature in
the verge, the faintest rustle of grasses sighing
against each other. It was on a high, open
road, curving over the swell of hillside that I
saw as the flanks of some prehistoric animal,
deep in slumber. I could see quite clearly my
road curving ahead, and the clump of trees,
inky black, that marked my turning point.
• ‘It was not silence I heard’
– Litote to emphasise that there were sounds which
echoed through the silence
• Asyndeton
• ‘faintest rustle of grasses’
– Creating a sense of mystery
• ‘hooting of an owl
– A sense of foreboding
• Swell of hillside
– Simile creating imagery
• Potter doesn’t wait for his partner to reach the safety of the permanent
metal peg at the top of the first stage, but instead starts climbing straight
away. This is a risky procedure, but it’s the fastest way to climb. Five
minutes later, the two are already 200 feet up, and my neck is sore just
from watching them. As I back away from the Nose to get a better view, I
hear it – a horrible scrabbling of hands and feet on rock, followed by a
desperate yell: “Falling!” Looking up, I see O’Neill dropping through
space, arms flailing, legs splaying like a manic puppet out of control.
Suddenly, he jerks to a stop. This puppet now looks as though someone,
out of pity, has cut all of his strings except one, and he hangs there,
stunned, after plunging more than 25 feet. I can’t believe he hasn’t hit the
bottom.
• ‘horrible scrabbling of hands and feet’
– Onomatopoeic – an uncontrollable descent –
forceful
• ‘Dropping through space’
– Image of an astronaut
• ‘arms flailing, legs splaying’
– Helpless / Contrasting the gentle drop of a
paraglider
• ‘like a manic puppet’
– Simile - Connotations of being controlled
• ‘plunging’
– Rapid descent
The intensity is startling. Potter is normally a very calm person,
slow talking and sometimes painfully shy. One man who knows him
well, his promotions manager, calls him ‘a gentle giant’. In
Patagonia, he has a different nickname: Tarzan. Potter says that’s
because of the monosyllabic way he speaks Spanish when he’s on
an expedition in Argentina. Maybe, but the name seems to capture
a lot of Potter’s other qualities too. With his wide-set brown eyes,
prominent and slightly battered-looking nose, tumbling mane and
barrel chest, he could be the original Tarzan come back to life: a
brooding inhabitant of the wild who is occasionally roused to
fantastic bouts of action and daring stunts.
• ‘a gentle giant’
– Alliteration to emphasise the contrast in looks and character
• ‘tumbling mane’
– Imagery of ‘king of jungle’ implying he is a king in this sport
• ‘barrel chest’ and battered looking nose’
– Strong, resilient
• ‘original Tarzan come back to life’
– Metaphor provides vivid imagery

• ‘brooding inhabitant of the wild’

– Implying he is reflective and adventurous
• ‘roused’
– Implication of a wild animal, can get crazy when provoked
• The kite would mostly swirl once or twice and
arrow straight towards the stony ground. But
sometimes, sometimes, it would lift, and the spool
would whirl and tumble in her hands, the purple
kite lifting higher and higher, and Mandy would
begin to smile, and Cathy’s green box kite would
lift and she would shriek, her head thrown back
and her mouth wide open, and their father would
stand and watch his children falling in love with the
high space above that small town, with the
possibilities of flight.
Explanation
• The overall effect of the passage is…
• The verb ‘swirl’ and then ‘arrow’ suggest the
unpredictability of the kites, through their rapidly
changing movement which is a metaphor of life
itself. ‘Stony ground’ is a very powerful imagery as
it creates the effect of dreams breaking in hard
everyday reality. But dreams do succeed
sometimes and the ‘possibilities of flight’ seems to
be a metaphor for the future – the potential for
happiness.
Afterwards she walks up the garden, her arms and
legs pleasantly jittery from the last long stretch of
effort.
When she slides open the glass door, Mathew is
reading the paper at the table.
‘I said I was going to come with you,’ he says crossly.
‘But you didn’t wake me up.’
The room feels small and airless after the wide gusty
space of the lake, the red star of the kite stamped on
the sky.
‘Oh sorry,’ she says, as she passes his chair. ‘I forgot.’
Explanation
Her return to the lake house emphasises the gap
between hopes and reality.
The phrase ‘pleasantly jittery’ suggests shaky or
giddy from the task which she enjoyed. The ‘small
and airless’ room is juxtaposed with the ‘gusty space
of the lake’ to bring a contrast which could be
claustrophobic. The metaphor ‘red star’ for the kite
could be to suggest that her experience was
ethereal. The phrase ‘stamped on the sky’ implies
that the impression is branded in her memory and
may be there for her to cherish for a long time.
The moment I arrived in Rataia, I knew I could
transform this place into a world-class tourist
resort. It was a ramshackle, run-down town with a
handful of shops selling essential commodities. The
biggest of these boasted the imposing title,
‘Emporium’. There was an apology for a hotel
where I was to stay in a cramped little room with a
window too high for me to enjoy the sea view. The
town square, with its sad droopy trees, had an
atmosphere of yesterday. In one corner, hiding
behind a riot of bushes, stood a tiny church, sadly
in need of restoration.
So what had made me see the potential of Rataia? The day
before, when I had reached the top of the hill behind the town,
I was stunned by the natural beauty that lay below. There was
the bay with its magnificent stretch of golden sand and the sea
glistening in the sun, reflecting the brightness like a sheet of
glass. On either side, the mountains fused into a purple haze.
Silence was omnipresent, broken only by bursts of magical
birdsong around me. I descended to the tiny, forgotten town. I
stood transfixed. Even here the sand was really pure and the
water in the rock pools translucent. I gazed at myriads of fish
with their dazzling colours darting, cruising or just lazing
between the crevices.
(a) The writer gives the reader a clear image of an unpleasant location for a
holiday.
The town is described as a “ramshackle, run-down town”. The word
“ramshackle” not only implies poor quality but the sound of the word suggests
chaos. The word “run-down” informs the reader that the town is in a state of
disrepair. The alliteration exaggerates or highlights this effect.
The town is said to be lacking in shops. Its largest shop is said to “boast[ ] an
imposing title”. The verb “boasted” is employed ironically here, giving the
impression that if this is the best that the town can be said to offer, it can’t
possibly be an impressive place. The word “imposing” adds to the sarcastic
effect. Accommodation in the town leaves a lot to be desired: “There was an
apology for a hotel”. This gives the reader the sense that the hotel is so bad that
it is worthless. The word “apology” suggests that the hotel itself is saying sorry
for how bad it is. Its rooms are “cramped” and its windows are “too high for [the
writer] to enjoy the sea view”. The hotel’s layout has, therefore, been poorly
planned – it doesn’t even make the most of its best feature: the beautiful views.
The town square is described as having “sad, droopy trees, an atmosphere of
yesterday”. This gives the reader a wistful, melancholic feeling: the town’s best
days are clearly in the past. The word “droopy” captures the idea that the town
is a listless place that has little impact on those that visit. Even the church is in a
state of disrepair (“sadly in need of restoration”). The atmosphere remains
downbeat. The writer conveys very vividly the idea of a town so mired in decline
(b) When the writer explores the area we are given an image of the “more
attractive side of Rataia. He writes that he “was stunned by the natural beauty”
of the place. The word “stunned” conveys a sense of his surprise at the
picturesque nature of the town. The forceful nature of the experience is
suggested to the reader by the verb “stun”. The place has clearly made a huge
impact on the writer. The writer describes the bay as “magnificent”, with “golden
sand” and sea that “glistens in the sun”. The alliterative “golden” and “glistening”
implies the area’s beauty; the adjective “magnificent” is emphatic, suggesting
that Rataia is an exceptionally beautiful place. The simile “the sea…reflect[s] the
brightness like a sheet of glass” provides the reader with a sense of the sea’s
purity. We are given an image of the ocean as clear and sparkling. The fact that
the sun is beginning to set is implied in the description of “the mountains fused
into a purple haze.”
The only sounds that can be heard in the town are “magical birdsong”. The
phrase conveys the idea that the town is a kind of enchanted place, a kind of
earthly paradise.
Generally, the writer gives the reader the sense that Rataia is silent, calm and
beautiful - so much so that the reader wishes to see the place for themselves.
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