Literature Answer Structure Notes
Intro:
1. Poet or Writer
2. Name of the poem or prose
3. One liner summary of the poem or prose (what it is about)
4. Tone (feeling of the extract and author)
5. Structure (mostly in poems)
6. Characters mentioned (if there are a lot of characters then don’t mention their
names)
7. Thesis statement :
● Theme and a one liner explanation of it
● Figurative language (poetic devices)
● Structural devices
● Diction
● Reinstating the question
Figurative Language : all poetic devices found throughout the extract and their effect
Structural devices :
● Narrator voice (1st / 2nd / 3rd)
● Tense
● Foreshadowing
● Climax
● Speech
● Exposition
● Flashback or Flashforward
● Link between the start and the end
● Chronological structure
● Zoom in and zoom out
● Shift in focus/theme
● Link between paragraphs
● Type of sentences
● Is it an in medias res (story starting from in between action) ?
● Soliloquies and dialogues
● Structure of the poem - sonnet, free verse, stanza etc.
Diction :
● Setting
● Characters
● Writer’s effect/response - what is the writer trying to emphasize, achieve ?
● Reader’s response
● Personal response
Conclusion : summary and proving how everything satisfies the main question.
Intro:
1. Poet or Writer
2. Name of the poem or prose
3. One liner summary of the poem or prose (what it is about)
4. Tone (feeling of the extract and author)
5. Structure (mostly in poems)
6. Characters mentioned (if there are a lot of characters then don’t mention their
names)
7. Thesis statement :
● Theme and a one liner explanation of it
● Figurative language (poetic devices)
● Structural devices
● Diction
● Reinstating the question
Figurative Language : all poetic devices found throughout the extract and their effect
Structural devices :
● Narrator voice (1st / 2nd / 3rd)
● Tense
● Foreshadowing
● Climax
● Speech
● Exposition
● Flashback or Flashforward
● Link between the start and the end
● Chronological structure
● Zoom in and zoom out
● Shift in focus/theme
● Link between paragraphs
● Type of sentences
● Is it an in medias res (story starting from in between action) ?
● Soliloquies and dialogues
● Structure of the poem - sonnet, free verse, stanza etc.
Diction :
● Setting
● Characters
● Writer’s effect/response - what is the writer trying to emphasize, achieve ?
● Reader’s response
● Personal response
Conclusion : summary and proving how everything satisfies the main question.
