KS3 · English
Language analysis on a non-fiction extract
'Exams are stressful', or 'a tempest of deadlines, a downpour of worksheets'? Different words, one big picture. Let's find them.
Predict, then check
Here's a model paragraph about technology. All you get is the words that build its comparison. No sentences, just six words.
prisoners, ensnared, inmates, prison complex, bound, chains. What are technology users being compared to, and what does that suggest?
English · Word families
Same meaning, opposite meaning, or same family?
How does each word relate to its key word? Pick a word, then pick where it belongs.
Still to sort
Synonym (0)
A similar meaning to the key word.
Where the line is: A synonym could stand in for the key word. A semantic-field word belongs to the same picture but isn't a swap for it.
Antonym (0)
The opposite meaning to the key word.
Semantic field (0)
Related in meaning to the key word's picture.
Where the line is: A semantic-field word sits in the same group of related ideas, such as feeling trapped. It isn't a swap for 'prisoner'.
Back to the prisoner comparison. Two key words: 'prisoner' and 'trapped'.
English · Why is it effective?
Reason it through
Why do non-fiction writers build an extended analogy?
First link · your turn
What is the writer's starting problem?
WHAT YOU'VE LEARNED
A quick recap of today's lesson.
That's an extended analogy, and finding the words is how you find the writer's idea.
What you need to know
- Non-fiction is informative or factual prose, written to inform, persuade or educate people about something.
- Word choice shapes meaning, and knowing a text's purpose and audience helps you understand it.
- An extended analogy is a comparison between one thing and another that is developed throughout the piece.
Have a goDev reads a text whose first line compares a classroom to a zoo, shouts 'Extended analogy!', and then notices the last line still talks about cages and keepers. Is he right?
Yes. The zoo comparison runs from the first line to the last.
'Extended' means developed throughout the piece. If the zoo had vanished after line one, Dev's shout would have been too early.
- A non-fiction writer might use one to help communicate an idea to the audience.
- It can take an abstract or unfamiliar topic and explain it through a comparison, so the audience gets the message.
- Synonyms are words with similar meanings; an antonym is a word with the opposite meaning.
Have a goHere are two words: 'tiny' and 'huge'. Which is the synonym of 'enormous' and which is its antonym?
'Huge' is the synonym; 'tiny' is the antonym.
Both words are linked to 'enormous', but only one means the same. A synonym is similar in meaning; an antonym is the opposite.
- A semantic field is a group of words or expressions that are related in meaning.
- Writers develop a comparison with synonyms and semantic fields, rather than repeating the same word.
Have a goA writer compares friendship to a garden. Which two of 'bloom', 'engine' and 'weeds' could carry the comparison on without repeating 'garden'?
'Bloom' and 'weeds'.
Both belong to the same semantic field as 'garden', so they widen the picture. 'Engine' belongs to a different picture and would break the comparison.
- To analyse one, identify the analogy, the idea the writer is communicating, and why the comparison is effective.
The big picture
Learn how a writer can keep one comparison running through a whole paragraph using synonyms and a semantic field instead of one repeated word, and how to analyse it: find the analogy, say the idea the writer is communicating, and explain why the comparison is effective.
Key points
Worked example
Problem
Analyse the extended analogy in this short paragraph, written to persuade: "At changeover, the corridor becomes a river. Pupils pour from the stairs, the current sweeps the slow ones along, and anyone who stops dead is a rock the stream has to flow around."
⚠ Watch out
Thinking an extended analogy is just one comparison word said over and over, or that any single comparison in the text counts. It is developed throughout, using different but related words.
Memory hook
Family, picture, idea: find the family of words, name the picture, say the idea it carries.
Check yourself
A paragraph calls a football team a machine, then mentions cogs, fuel and oiled movements. What is the comparison, and which two words develop it?
Flashcards
(11)What is non-fiction writing?
What is an extended analogy?
Why might a non-fiction writer use an extended analogy?
What is a synonym?
What is an antonym?
What is a semantic field?
How does a writer develop a comparison into an extended analogy?
What three things do you identify when analysing an extended analogy?
Which words build the technology-and-prisoners analogy?
What does that analogy communicate, and what sensation does it create?
In that analogy, what does 'inmate' do, and what is the semantic field?
Tap any card to flip it, or use Study as deck to go through them one at a time. In the full lesson these run as a spaced-repetition deck — you rate each card Hard, Good or Easy and the tricky ones keep coming back until they stick.
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