O/L Literature
Literary Techniques
Naming the technique earns one mark. Explaining what it does earns the rest. This page is mostly about the rest.
The three-part rule
Whenever you write about a technique, write three things: name it, quote it, explain its effect.
Most students do the first two. The mark is in the third. The poet uses a metaphor is not analysis; the metaphor turns the gate's noise into a cry of pain, so the homecoming feels unwelcoming before anything has happened is.
Comparison and image
- Simile
- A comparison using like or as.
- Example: Ask what the comparison brings with it. Comparing a crowd to a river suggests movement and force; comparing it to a herd suggests something else entirely.
- Metaphor
- A comparison that speaks of one thing as though it were another, without like or as.
- Example: Stronger than a simile because it does not admit that it is a comparison. Ask why the writer wanted the identification to be complete.
- Personification
- Giving human qualities or actions to something not human.
- Example: Ask why the writer wanted that thing to seem alive — usually to make it threatening, sympathetic, or watchful.
- Imagery
- Language appealing to the senses.
- Example: Never write only "the writer uses imagery". Say what kind — visual, of sound, of touch — and what the images have in common.
- Symbol
- An object or action standing for a larger idea.
- Example: Argue for your reading rather than assuming it. A symbol usually gathers meaning through repetition, so trace where it appears.
- Contrast and juxtaposition
- Two things placed side by side so that each shows up the other.
- Example: A celebration described immediately after a funeral is not decoration; it is an argument being made by arrangement.
Sound and structure
- Alliteration
- Repetition of the same consonant sound at the start of nearby words.
- Example: Say what the sound does: hard consonants can suggest force or anger, soft ones calm or secrecy.
- Assonance
- Repetition of vowel sounds within nearby words.
- Example: Long vowels slow a line down; short ones quicken it.
- Onomatopoeia
- A word whose sound imitates its meaning — crash, hiss, murmur.
- Example: Ask whether the sounds are pleasant or harsh, and what that suggests about the scene.
- Repetition
- A word, phrase or structure used again deliberately.
- Example: It may suggest obsession, insistence, ritual or monotony. Say which — the word "emphasises" alone is too vague to score.
- Enjambment
- A sentence continuing past the end of a line without a pause.
- Example: It can create speed or breathlessness, or spring a small surprise where the meaning turns at the line break.
- Caesura
- A strong pause within a line.
- Example: It stops the reader mid-line, often at a moment of hesitation or shock.
- Structure
- How the whole text is arranged — stanzas, chapters, acts, time order.
- Example: Structural comments are highly valued and rarely made. Ask why this text is in this order.
Meaning, voice and drama
- Irony
- A contrast between what is said or expected and what is actually the case.
- Example: Distinguish verbal irony (saying the opposite of what is meant) from situational irony (an outcome opposite to what was expected).
- Dramatic irony
- The audience knows something a character does not.
- Example: Say what it makes the audience feel — dread, pity, discomfort. That feeling is the effect you are being asked about.
- Tone
- The attitude the writing takes to its subject.
- Example: Be precise. Not "sad", but wistful, bitter, resigned or defiant.
- Mood or atmosphere
- The feeling created in the reader.
- Example: Tone belongs to the writer; mood belongs to the reader. Examination questions sometimes ask for one and receive the other.
- Foreshadowing
- An early hint of something that comes later.
- Example: Once you know the ending, reread the opening. Foreshadowing is almost always there, and noticing it makes an answer look attentive.
- Soliloquy and aside
- A character alone speaking their thoughts; a short remark heard only by the audience.
- Example: Both create intimacy between a character and the audience that other characters do not share.
- Hyperbole
- Deliberate exaggeration.
- Example: Ask whether it is comic, desperate or self-deceiving — exaggeration usually tells you something about the speaker.
- Understatement
- Deliberately saying less than is meant.
- Example: Often more powerful than exaggeration, especially about grief or fear, because the reader supplies what is left out.
Practise naming and matching
Naming the technique correctly is the first step. These two activities practise exactly that.
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