Key Idea: This topic is about how a text is built, not just the words in it. Four things to spot: narrative perspective (who tells the story and how much they let you see), characterisation & dialogue (how a person is built, and how their speech gives them away), structure & sequencing (the order — where it starts, jumps, speeds up or ends), and sound devices (how the sound of the words creates feeling). Most students only analyse individual words, so naming these build-choices — and what they do — is a strong Paper 1 move.
🗝️ The techniques to know
| Technique | What it means | Quick example |
|---|---|---|
| First person | The narrator is inside the story (‘I’) — close, but only their view | ‘I smiled, but I knew he was lying’ — we're locked inside one head |
| Third person | The narrator stands outside (‘she / he / they’) | ‘She locked the door, telling herself she wasn't afraid’ — seen from outside |
| Unreliable narrator | A teller we doubt — they misread or hide things | ‘He was only being friendly, I'm sure of it’ — the ‘I'm sure’ makes us doubt them |
| Characterisation | Building a person through looks, actions and choices | ‘She paid in exact coins, counted twice’ shows a careful, anxious person |
| Dialogue | What a character says — and how — reveals them | ‘Fine. Great. Perfect,’ said through gritted teeth reveals hidden anger |
| Structure / sequencing | The order: opening, time shifts, pacing, ending | Starting on the funeral, then jumping back to the year before |
| Sound devices | The sound of words — repeated letters, vowels, rhythm, rhyme | ‘Soft silk slipped’ — the repeated soft ‘s’ hisses gently |
🔍 The one move that scores
Every point uses the same move: name the choice (the perspective, a line of dialogue, a time shift, a repeated sound), say its effect, then the so what — what it makes the reader feel, whose side it puts them on, or what it hides. Don't just label ‘first person’ or ‘it uses a flashback’ — say what that choice does to the reader.
✍️ IB-style worked examples
IB-style question — perspective and dialogue
Analyse: “‘I'm honestly so happy for you,’ I said, and I meant it, mostly. I looked at her ring and remembered whose idea the whole thing had been.”
Step by step:
Name the perspective: first person — ‘I said’, ‘I looked’ — so we only get this one person's version.
Spot the gap: the warm dialogue ‘so happy for you’ sits right next to ‘mostly’ and the bitter memory about ‘whose idea’ it was.
So what: the clash makes us doubt the narrator's warm words and read past them to the jealousy they're hiding.
The first-person voice draws us in close, but the cheerful words clash with ‘mostly’ and the resentful memory, so we stop taking the narrator at face value and read past them — the gap between what she says and what she feels is the whole effect.
IB-style question — structure and sequencing
Analyse the structure: “The empty flat echoed when I called out. To understand why nobody answered, you have to go back to the phone call I ignored last month. I keep going back to it.”
Step by step:
The opening drops us on the aftermath — ‘The empty flat echoed’ — so we feel something has already gone wrong.
Then it jumps back in time: ‘go back to the phone call I ignored last month’ — an out-of-order structure.
So what: because we already sense the loss, that ignored phone call feels heavy with regret; ‘I keep going back to it’ shows he can't move past it.
Opening on the empty flat and then jumping back to the ignored call makes the reader read that earlier moment already knowing it mattered — the out-of-order structure loads an ordinary missed call with regret, and ‘I keep going back to it’ shows a narrator trapped by it.
IB-style question — sound devices
Analyse the sound: “The engine coughed and clanked, kicked and cracked, then died with a final metal clang.”
Step by step:
Alliteration: the repeated hard ‘c’ and ‘k’ — ‘coughed and clanked, kicked and cracked’ — sound sharp and jarring, like metal knocking.
The heavy ‘clang’ at the end lands like a real bang, so you almost hear the engine give up.
So what: the harsh, banging sounds make the line feel violent and broken — the opposite of smooth.
The repeated hard ‘c’ and ‘k’ sounds are sharp and jarring, imitating metal knocking, and the final ‘clang’ lands like a bang — so the line feels violent and broken, and the sound itself, not just the meaning, makes the engine's failure feel harsh.
Important: Don't stop at the label (‘first person’, ‘it uses a flashback’, ‘alliteration’). Always add what the choice does: what the perspective lets you see or hides, what a line of dialogue shows about the character (the reveal, not ‘he is controlling’), what the order makes the reader feel, and what a repeated sound feels like — soft, harsh, slow.
Tap each card to check yourself.
How do you analyse perspective? Name first or third person, then say what it lets us see or hides — and whether the teller can be trusted.
How does dialogue build character? Quote a line and say what it shows about the speaker — watch for a gap between what they say and what they do.
Why analyse structure? Where a text starts, jumps, races or ends is a choice — say what that order makes the reader feel.
A story ending on its opening scene — what is it? Circular structure — an ending that echoes the opening is almost always deliberate; say what's changed.
How do you analyse a sound device? Name it, quote where you hear it, then match the sound to a feeling — soft soothes, hard hits, long vowels slow.
Exam Tips
- Name the perspective (first or third) and say how much it lets you see — one head, or everyone's.
- Look past looks — a small action or a line of dialogue reveals a character best.
- Read for the order: does it start at the beginning, jump in time, or echo its opening at the end?
- Read a line in your head — name the sound device, then match the sound to a feeling.
- Never stop at a label — every point needs the effect and the ‘so what’.