Writing analytically about form and structure

It is important to rst identify the different elements of form and structure in a text, before
providing a coherent analysis. Read this sample commentary on The Flowers. Consider how the
commentary moves from identifying elements of the structure to analysis. How is this achieved

The extract from the story is divided into two paragraphs which roughly address the time the girl
spends before midday, and where she nds herself at the moment midday arrives. The very rst
short, simple sentence tells us that the narrator has done this walk ‘many times’ previously, and the
second, supporting sentence tells us more about those walks with her mother ‘to gather nuts’. So, in
fact, the opening two sentences with the use of the past perfect ‘had’ send us back in time before
returning the reader to the present. The idea of familiarity is established so that the initial tone is
unthreatening: as readers we follow with interest rather than unease. The rst paragraph then goes
on to trace the girl’s steps as she creates ‘her own path’, and provides details on what she nds, such
as the ‘strange blue owers.’ This last detail, introduced at this point, alters the tone somewhat – the
familiar becoming noteworthy. The second paragraph suddenly locates the reader in a speci c time
– ‘by twelve o’clock’, and she is no longer on the move. She is in a ‘little 1 2 cove’. The sentences
shorten and the nal one has an ominous tone in the monosyllabic adjectives: ‘ damp’, close’ and
‘deep

Structure Elements discussed in the commentary

[1] overall structure of text

[2] speci c focus of the sentences (in order)

[3] the structural effect: we are taken back in time as readers

[4] speci c comment on where the writer takes us now

[5] the function of the second paragraph

[6] comment on the ending of the second paragraph and its effect
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