How do I begin to analyse an unseen text? (AQA)

When confronted with an excerpt you have never seen before, especially in exam conditions, it's easy to convince yourself you've gone blank. Take a breath, maybe even close the booklet for a minute. Take your scrap paper, write out the 5 AOs you have to address in your exam answer - as long as you cover every base, you'll be doing what the examiner wants you to do and they can tick those boxes.

AO1 – Language Analysis, Terminology AO2 – Structure and Form AO3 – Context AO4 – Wider Reading AO5 – Debate and Interpretations

Now, here's a breakdown of what to do with each of the AOs:

AO1 - Language analysis, 'using appropriate concepts and terminology'.

This means picking out things like metaphor, simile and diction and explaining how they work within the excerpt. Firstly, identify these things by name in your answer, i.e. 'Angelou uses this metaphor to...'. Secondly, explain how this metaphor works within the text to convey meaning. If you're stuck, think about why the writer may have used this particular metaphor, rather than another one. For example, when writing about a river, why would an author compare its appearance to 'a snake slithering through the hills', when they could compare it to 'a silvery ribbon running through the hills'? It's got to be something to do with wanting to represent nature as a threatening force. The river is not just a pretty landscape feature, it's dangerous. Essentially, sometimes setting the aspect of the text you're looking at against something will help you to see it more clearly.

AO2 - Structure and Form This means looking at the way the words of a text are organised. To analyse structure, consider: Are the sentences short or long? How are they punctuated? Read it aloud, what does the punctuation do to your breathing as you read it? Does it speed you up, slow you down? Does the punctuation mirror the way you would speak if you were running, panicked and scared? Does it sound like the steady beating of a heart? All this contributes to how a text gets its meaning across to the reader. To analyse form, consider the way a text is presented on the page. For example, a poem might be in the form of a sonnet. A sonnet is usually chosen to convey feelings of love. Is the form of a sonnet being used sincerely, or ironically? What does this mean in terms of what the writer is trying to get across?

AO3 – Context Use both the context of the excerpt itself, i.e. how certain choices made by the writer in other parts of the text influence the way other choices come across to the reader, as well as the context in which the text was written. Comment on how the times in which the piece was written may influence meaning.

AO4 – Your Wider Reading Make comparisons between the excerpt you have been given and the wider reading you have completed throughout your studies. Pick out any examples you have given for the previous AOs and examine how they are used similarly, or differently, in any other text you have read for the subject. This shows you can examine a text in an incredibly detailed and thorough way, whilst not losing sight of how it fits into the literary world. All texts speak to each other, nothing is created in a vacuum.

AO5 – Debate and Interpretations The AQA advice itself states that if you address all the previously outlined AOs, you will automatically tick the AO5 box. Basically, you are showing how each of the AOs affects the other, how examining a text is a process in which you must take account of everything that could have a major effect on a text’s meaning.

Now, if you’ve got something for every section, that’s when you can move on to structuring an essay. Please find my ‘I’ve sorted out my AOs, now what do I do with them?’ Q&A.