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Writer’s effect

In the IGCSE exam, one of the criteria is about writer’s effect, which I’m finding a little difficult to write about.

Do you have any tips for writing about writer’s effect?

Reply 1

Parker Tracy

Yes I do - this will vary according to whether you are looking at a playwright, a poet or a novelist.

So: let's take these in turn:

(a) a playwright.
How does the writer create the characters? How do they set up the opposition (because conflict is the nature of drama) between the characters/a character and himself/a character and her relationship to the world/society/G_d/Religion etc. How does the drama build to a crisis point (the climax)? And how is this resolved? How does the dramatist get us, as an audience to root for the hero/heroine?

(b) a poet
We need to be more technical here - what effect is the poet trying to produce in terms of our emotions? How does s/he do this through language, word choice, rhythm, connotation?

(c) a novelist.
what are the main themes of the novel? How are these realised? How do we feel in relation to the characters? Do we empathise with them? Hate them? Root for them?

This question is much easier to answer if you tell me the texts you are looking at, I can give you specific help. I'm happy to do this, so narrow it down for me...

Reply 2

absolutelysprout

context is always useful for this- the writer may have wanted to get the audience to react in a certain way depending on the attitudes at the time etc.
also consider key quotes/lines that characters say- do they change or develop in the novel/play? what causes them to? do, we as a reader, perhaps feel any emotion towards them at any point?

poetry, you can look at certain semantic fields and how they contribute to the overall tone or theme of a poem. consider things that are emphasised or repeated- why did the poet do this? do certain words or phrases perhaps make you, as a reader, feel a certain way? how so? how are the emotions of the speaker expressed?