Examination of a Specimen Passage

Abstract

In many literature examinations you can be given a long passage from your set book for detailed study. This is not the same as the much shorter context question where you are asked to say where the words come from, who said them, what came before and after, and, perhaps, asked to give the meaning of one or two words or phrases. With the longer passage, you are usually given some guidelines, such as: ‘Write a detailed critical analysi s of the following passage, relating it to the themes, style and characterisation’; or ‘Comment on the meaning, imagery, tone and style of the following passage.’ Whatever the instructions, read them very carefully, and make sure you answer every part of the question. In the first question above, for example, the marks would probably be equally divided between the three aspects - themes, style and characterisation, so if you commented on only one of the three, you would restrict yourself to one third of the marks. This is quite justified, because you have answered only one third of the question.