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.
| Term | What it names | Question it opens |
|---|---|---|
| Simile | Comparison using ‘like’ or ‘as’ | What associations does the comparison vehicle carry, and why did the writer choose this specific vehicle? |
| Metaphor | Direct identification—X is Y | What entire world of associations has the writer imported by making this identification? What does the tenor inherit from the vehicle? |
| Personification | Non-human given human qualities | What human feeling or behaviour is being projected onto this object? What does giving the non-human this quality imply about the world of the text? |
| Sibilance | Repeated ‘s’ or ‘sh’ sounds | What does the sound create in this context—softness? menace? a hiss? How does the sonic texture reinforce the meaning? |
| Plosive | Repeated ‘p’, ‘b’, ‘d’, ‘t’, ‘k’, ‘g’ sounds | What does the blunt, percussive sound create—aggression? urgency? a staccato rhythm that drives forward? |
| Semantic field | A cluster of words drawn from the same area of meaning | What consistent world does this cluster construct across the passage? What does the writer's insistence on returning to this vocabulary imply? |
| Juxtaposition | Two contrasting things placed side by side | What tension or irony does the contrast produce? What does the writer reveal by forcing these two things to sit together? |
| Repetition | A word, phrase, or structure used more than once deliberately | What does the returning element accumulate each time it appears? Is the writer building, insisting, or contrasting? |
Quick Check: A student writes “the writer uses sibilance to create a soft sound.” What is missing from this analysis?
The label is correctly applied, but the analysis stops there. Missing: what does the soft sound achieve in this specific context? Sibilance in a lullaby creates calm; sibilance in a description of a snake creates menace; sibilance in a seduction scene creates an unsettling intimacy. The question the label opens—what does this sound texture do here?—has not been asked. A full L4 response names the technique, traces what the sound effect activates in this context, and links it to the writer’s construction.
This deep dive covers 🔎 GCSE Technique Terminology: What Each Label Unlocks within Subject Terminology Bank for GCSE English Language. Revise Subject Terminology Bank in Zoom-In Analysis for GCSE English Language with 10 exam-style questions and 5 flashcards. This topic shows up very often in GCSE exams, so students should be able to explain it clearly, not just recognise the term. It is section 2 of 4 in this topic. Use this deep dive to connect the idea to the wider topic before moving on to questions and flashcards.
Practice questions for Subject Terminology Bank
Which sentence contains a simile?
A food writer describes: 'The sourdough loaf sulked on the cooling rack, refusing to rise properly.' Which technique is this an example of?