1. COMMENTARY WRITING
….the idiot’s guide

2. A Fool-proof way to pass and excel at Commentary writing:
1.   Before you begin your commentary, make sure you have memorized the list below. No, it is not that bad. Make an acronym that will make it easy for you to remember the headings on the list
 2. Before you attempt to write your commentary, write down this list. WARNING: If you don’t list all these aspects before you start writing, your wild brain will be galloping off into the West and forget half of the headings, resulting in an incomplete effort

3. 3. Read the commentary passage through at least three times, interacting with the passage as you go along – this means highlighting, scribbling notes, questions in the margins etc
4.     Look at your list: identify the aspects of the commentary
passage that fit in with the headings
5. Prepare a commentary plan by deciding which elements of
the passage you wish to deal with in detail and in which order

4. As you write, tick off on your list the aspects of commentary writing you have dealt with so you know what still needs to be covered.
In some cases, depending on the nature of the commentary, you may need to spend a full paragraph on one of the headings, in other cases you may be able to link three or four headings that relate to each other and deal with them more quickly.
Style
Setting
Structure
Syntax
Irony
Mood
Impact

5. Close or Detailed Study – you need to provide the detail.
Always provide examples of the techniques employed by the author from the passage for each of the points you make. In brackets, quote the line numbers, which are always provided.
Remember commentary writing is defined as :
Close or Detailed Study – you need to provide the detail. 9.
Your opening paragraph should provide a brief overview of the contents of the passage.
This will give you the starting point you need.

6. 10.  A commentary on a literary passage is not a garage inventory of spare parts. You cannot just list all the techniques in a mechanical way and expect to produce a piece of fluent, sophisticated writing, just as a jumble of car parts does not make a motor car

7. The commentary writer must assemble all the parts that make up the commentary together in the right place to produce a smooth, sophisticated, elegant synthesized piece of prose
11.  Refer to the commentary passage as: “the passage”, “the extract”,” the text” – definitely not as “the story”
12.  Avoid the formulaic response – eg. Starting each paragraph with : “In this passage” or phrases like: “we see in paragraph 3”.
13. A commentary should be a fluent, lively and rigorous analysis of an extract of an author’s work, demonstrating that you understand the techniques available to authors that enable them to produce literary masterpieces.

8. The big implicit question to answer is always HOW:
“the mood is languid” (HOW does the author achieve this)
“the tone is bitter (HOW does the author convey this)
“the character is sly (HOW is this implied by the author)
“the relationship between the characters is intense and strained (HOW is this demonstrated)

9. THE LIST! Point of View (Perspective) Punctuation Pace
Diction Development
Style Syntax Symbols Structure  
Setting Sentence Construction
Imagery Impact Intention of Author
Characterisation Tone Themes
Humour Irony Relationships
Literary devices Mood /Atmosphere