How to structure an exam answer

First you must allocate time to feature spot the text after the reading time set, this can be about 5 minutes. Look for where ambitious terminology can be used, for example, if amelioration (language change over time), mitigation, and rhetoric have been used. Always pick out tone, mood, language usage (for example 'beautiful sky' would be the 'positive pre-modifier' beautiful instead of simply the 'adjective'), notice language change over time, context, the intention of the text/writer and always remember to answer the question being asked to form your paragraphs. Then move onto the effect of the feature you have picked, which is the important part for higher marks so that you are not just feature spotting but highlighting the effects on the reader because of the features used. For example, an advert with the intention to persuade may use the direct personal second person pronoun 'you' littered in the text in order to make the reader feel as though they are directly being spoken to which is in turn more likely to persuade them to buy the product/watch the show, etc.