Starter quiz
- A comparison between two things is ...
- when you just look at the similarities.
- when you just look at the differences.
- when you look at both similarities and differences. ✓
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- What word beginning with 'P' is being described here: 'the way someone thinks or feels about a particular thing'?
- 'Perspective' ✓
- What does it mean to evaluate two texts?
- weigh up the effectiveness of the themes, styles, and creative choices ✓
- to summarise the main ideas of both texts without comparing
- o describe the authors' backgrounds and how they influence their writing
- to identify which text has fewer grammatical errors
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- Who has written a text, when it was written and what form it is would all be are examples of ______ information.
- 'contextual' ✓
- Which of the following words is a synonym for 'nuanced'?
- obvious
- subtle ✓
- confusing
- vague
- evident
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- When writing inferences, which of the options below could be useful synonyms for 'this suggests'?
- this implies ✓
- this illustrates ✓
- this confirms
- this concludes
- this hints at ✓
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Exit quiz
- What is being described here: 'Words that make value judgements about two or more things (e.g. 'most' or 'east').'?
- 'superlatives' ✓
- Which of the following are comparative adjectives?
- better ✓
- tallest
- more interesting ✓
- small
- least dramatic
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- What does it mean if a writer conveys a shift in their attitude?
- As the text progresses, their initial attitude remains the same.
- As the text progresses, their initial attitude changes. ✓
- As the text progresses, their initial attitude is shown to be untrue.
- As the text progresses, their initial attitude becomes more confusing.
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- Which of these sentences does not use a superlative?
- This is the most exciting book I have ever read.
- She is the smarter student in the class. ✓
- Of all the movies, that one was the best.
- He gave the most detailed explanation of all the presentations.
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- Andeep was given a target to 'identify the writer's overarching idea in your introduction'. What does overarching mean here?
- a main idea - affecting all others ✓
- a secondary idea - not as important as the main idea
- the most important idea of several
- the idea the writer has supported most effectively with evidence
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- Why is it effective to explore both similarities and differences in your comparative analysis?
- it isn't - you should only focus on either similarities or differences
- identifying differences is an effective way to show off your analysis skills
- identifying an initial similarity enables you to explore nuanced differences ✓
- identifying similarities shows that you understand what both texts are about
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Worksheet
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Presentation
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Video
Lesson Details
Key learning points
- A great comparison analyses how the writers convey their ideas and perspectives of the events they are describing.
- It may use comparatives and superlatives to evaluate the texts against one another.
- Comparatives use either a 'more' prefix or '-er' suffix to directly compare two texts or ideas.
- Superlatives use a 'most' prefix or 'est' suffix to form conclusions about a text in comparison to others.
- Comparatives and superlatives let us explore the relationship between the texts instead of analysing each in isolation.
Common misconception
Effective analysis writing explores the attitudes in the first text and then, in another paragraph, explores the attitudes in the second text.
The most effective comparative analysis writing will weave comparisons of both texts together. The response will ideally move between examples from each text, weighing up and evaluating the writer's choices in each.
Keywords
Overarching - something so important it affects all other areas - in English, we refer to a writer’s overarching idea
Shift - when applied to perspective, this refers to a change in the writer’s perspective
Superlative adjectives - words that make value judgements about two or more things (e.g. 'most' or 'least')
Comparative adjectives - words that compare two or more thing, show how one is different from the other (e.g. 'more' or 'less')
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