Writer’s Methods & Techniques (AQA GCSE English Literature)

Examiners want students to analyse a wide range of poetic methods (AO2), not just the language. Remember, analysing methods means evaluating all of a poet’s choices, which includes a lot more than just the words they have chosen. It includes perspective, structure, form, and the meanings behind certain characters and symbols. On this page you will find guides on:

• Analysing the meaning of a poem

• How to quote from the poem in your essay

• Analysing the poet’s methods

Analysing the meaning of a poem

Much more important than knowing a long list of poetic techniques, or analysing a poem’s language, form and structure separately, is to try to understand the meaning of the unseen poem, and the ideas the poet explores in their poem. This section will detail how to begin your analysis with a poet’s meaning and ideas, rather than the methods they have used, and include the following:

• Ideas and themes, not methods

• Tone

• Perspective

Ideas and themes, not methods

• Examiners warn against structuring your analysis based on the poet’s methods

  • This means that they don’t like when students identify a poet’s method first, and then analyse what it means

    • For example, spotting that a poem includes sibilance, or caesura, and then attempting to say something relevant about that method

    • Often, this won’t work because students will fail to identify a convincing link between the method, and the theme of the question

  • Instead, examiners suggest students focus their essays “on meaning and ideas, and use methods as a means of illustrating meaning rather than the methods driving the focus of the response”

    • So your argument should start with the poet’s overarching ideas in terms of the question, and then find evidence from the poem that illustrate these ideas

    • This can mean that you will include fewer poetic techniques, and use simpler language in your response, but the exam board encourages this

    • For example, if the question was about how the poet presented ideas about marriage, we wouldn’t want to structure our analysis like this:

      • “The poet uses caesura in line 13. This caesura could show how…”❌

    • But instead, like this:

      • “The poet presents marriage as something challenging, which requires mutual respect. The poet shows this when…”✅

Tone

• Another way to understand the meaning and ideas of a poem is to consider its tone

  • In poetry, tone is the ‘mood’ of a poem

  • This could be the mood that:

    • A speaker expresses in a poem

    • A poet has towards their speaker

    • The poet creates in terms of the setting of the poem

    • The poet creates in terms of the poem’s subject matter

• The tone of a poem reflects its ideas and meaning

  • It is therefore something you should consider when thinking about how a poet expresses their ideas and meaning

• Because a poem’s mood is created by the poet’s language, pace and rhythm, symbolism and grammar, it works perfectly as evidence in your essay

  • So think: what is the tone the poet is trying to convey in their poem?

    • And how - via their choices - do they create this effect?

• Another sophisticated way to explore ideas and meanings presented by a poet is to consider whether the tone of a poem changes:

  • Think: why has the poet created this tonal shift?

    • And how - via their poetic choices - do they create this shift?

  • This also enables you to say something relevant about structure

• So think first about why a poet has created a certain tone, and what its effect is, before thinking about what methods they have used to create it:

  • For example, you wouldn’t want to structure your analysis like this:

    • “The poet uses imagery in line 1. This creates a tone of …”❌

  • But instead:

    • “Macrae explores ideas about being contented within your own self through her use of metaphor, “while inside his heart was fat with sun” which suggests Harry’s life is one which is filled to the brim with joy and pleasure which…”✅

How to quote from the poem in your essay

• The ability to select ‘textual references’ can mean selecting an apt quotation from the poem

• However, it is the skill of precisely unpicking and selecting textual references, rather than using quotations, that’s important

• Therefore, references don’t need to be direct quotations

  • They can be references to things that happen in the poem 

  • They can be references to the choices and methods the poet uses (“this idea is expressed when the poet uses first-person narration/a tonal shift/symbolism relating to X in order to…”)

• Examiners repeatedly stress that textual references are just as valuable as direct quotations

  •  “You don’t get extra marks for more quotations, but you do get more marks for making plenty of interesting comments about the references you have selected.”

  • The most important thing is that these references are directly related to the ideas and themes you are exploring in your essay, and provide evidence to prove your thesis

Analysing the poet’s methods

In order to achieve the highest AO2 marks, think about methods as a poet’s choices, not just the language they are using. What overall decisions have they made in relation to language, tone, perspective, structure and form? For what reasons have they made these choices? What overarching message do they help to convey?

What not to do when analysing a poet’s methods

• Don’t “spot techniques”

  • Examiners dislike when students use overly sophisticated terminology unnecessarily (“polysyndeton”; “epanalepsis”)

  • Knowing the names of sophisticated techniques will not gain you any more marks, especially if these techniques are only “spotted” and a poet’s intentions are not explained

  • Instead of technique spotting, focus your analysis on the reasons why a poet is presenting their poem the way they do

• Don’t unnecessarily label word types

  • Similar to technique spotting, this is when students use “the noun X” or “the verb Y”

  • This doesn’t add anything to your analysis

  • Instead, examiners suggest you focus on ideas, or images, instead of words, or word types

  • Instead of “The poet uses the noun “X” to show…” use “The poet uses the image “X” to show… “

• Don’t limit your analysis to a close reading of a poet’s language

  • You gain marks for explaining all of a poet’s choices, not just their language

  • Only focusing on language therefore limits the mark you will be given

  • Instead, take a whole-text approach and think about a poet’s decisions about:

    • Form

    • Structure

    • Tone

    • Perspective

    • You do not need to include quotations to analyse the above, but you will still be rewarded well by the examiner

• However, do not feel the need to include analysis of form, or structure, if it is not relevant to the question

• Never retell the story of a poem

What to do when analysing a poet’s methods

• Take a whole-text approach to the poem

  • This could involve commenting on structure: “ ‘at the start / this changes when / in contrast…’ “

  • This could involve commenting on a poet’s choice of form

    • How have they conformed to, or subverted the form of sonnet/dramatic monologue etc.?

    • What deliberate choices has the poet made with their verse form? Are there reasons there is a regular, or irregular rhyme structure?

  • Think about how tone is presented and develops: why has the poet chosen to present this tone? Why have they included a tonal shift?

  • Are characters in the poem presented differently from each other? Why? What does each represent?

  • Do characters’ relationships with each other change? Why might a poet have chosen to do this?

• Remember that personas, and characters in a poem, are constructs, not real people

  • Think about what each character’s function is in the poem

  • What does the poet use their persona, or characters, to say about the theme?

  • Why has the poet chosen to write their poem in first, or third person?

  • Is the first-person narrator reliable or unreliable?

• Always frame your essay with the poet in mind

  • As the examiners say: “writers use methods, including language and structure, to form and express their ideas – the choices the writer makes are conscious and deliberate”

  • Therefore, write that a poet “highlights X”, “suggests Y”, “challenges Z”

  • And always use the poet’s (last) name in your essay

  • Use the words “so” and “because” to push you to explain your own ideas further

• Zoom out to big ideas in your analysis

  • Go from analysing language, or other writer’s choices, to a poet’s overall intention, or message

  • This should also link to your thesis, and argument throughout

  • You can begin these “zoom out” sentences with “The poet could be suggesting that because X, then Y” or “The poet could be using the character of X to challenge contemporary ideas about Y”

  • Use modal language to present sophisticated ideas

    • Using words like “could”, “may” or “perhaps” shows that you are thinking conceptually