1. IGCSE Cambridge English
Writer’s Effect
IGCSE Cambridge English

2. Author’s Effect
You know when you’re reading something, anything: a private message on Facebook, a text message, a column about a celebrity in a magazine, or even a page out of a novel and it’s as if you’re not even reading it at all? You feel that you are fully surrounded in that moment; the words are triggering suspenseful, optimistic, revolting or enchanting feelings and it is impossible to notice anything in the world around you?

3. What exactly happens in what is written to make you feel this way?
The process of analyzing this is called author’s effect.

4. What is ‘writer’s effect’?
A writer selects words and shapes them in the same way that an artist mixes particular hues of paint and applies them to a canvas using brush strokes.

5. The Exam Task
To select words / phrases from two named paragraphs in a ‘literary’ extract and explain the meaning and effect of those language choices and why therefore the writer might have chosen to use them.

6. The Skills Needed
To recognize, understand and explain the meaning of a range of vocabulary.
To demonstrate an awareness that words have layers of meaning rather than just a literal meaning.
To be able to articulate an understanding of the how language choices can purposefully impact the interpretation of a text.

7. The Onion Model

8. Literal Meaning 1

9. How rich is your vocabulary?

10. Shades of meaning 2

11. All synonyms are created equal?
boiling
searing
hot
scorching
sizzling
scalding
peppery
sweltering

12. Contextual associations3

13. Words don’t operate in isolation – they interact with other words around them.
‘watch the borders’

14. Sensory Associations 4

15. Some words make a direct appeal to the senses such as:
Bright, iridescent, drab,
Melodious, clang, titter
Acrid, pungent, fragrant
Bitter, bland, savoury
Dry, smooth, jagged

16. Emotional Associations5

17. Some words are also selected by writers because they carry emotional weight:
The small child dragged his satchel behind him, his head hung down and his shoulders were slumped.

18. Notice how each of the word choices highlighted here combine – the emotional tone of the sentence emerges out of the collective effect of the language choices made.
The small child dragged his satchel behind him, his head hung down and his shoulders were slumped.

19. Putting it all together
Words carry a literal meaning
Words often also carry shades of meaning and are relational
Words may be modified by their context
Words may carry sensory associations
Words may carry emotional associations