💡 When the Label Is Not the Analysis
💡 When the Label Is Not the Analysis
Picture this: a student spots a metaphor in a thriller extract, writes “the writer uses a metaphor—this creates a vivid image”, and moves on. Five marks available. Two words of genuine analysis. The trap is not that the student got the label wrong. They got it right. The trap is thinking the label is the analysis. At L2, students name the technique and stop. At L4, the technique label is the starting gun, not the finish line. This pattern builds the vocabulary so the gun fires at the right moment.
English Language glossary
- What is the difference between a simile and a metaphor?
- A simile compares using 'like' or 'as' ('the fog crept in like a thief'). A metaphor makes a direct identification ('the fog was a thief'). Both import the vehicle's connotations onto the subject -- the metaphor does so more forcefully because it states identity, not just resemblance.
- Name the two main sound techniques and what questions they open.
- Sibilance (repeated s/sh sounds): ask what texture this creates in context -- softness, menace, hiss, lulling? Plosive (repeated p, b, d, t, k, g): ask what the blunt percussion creates -- aggression, urgency, a driving rhythm? In both cases, the sound effect must be linked to the meaning it reinforces.
AQA rewards students who can “use subject terminology accurately”—but accurately means deployed to analyse an effect, not listed. Before a term can serve you in an essay, you need to know two things: what it names and what question it opens. The question is the analysis.
Now try it yourself
Quiz · Question 1 of 10
Which sentence contains a simile?
Tap an answer to check it