English GCSE NORA THE FRIENDLY ZEBRA MAKES STRUCTURE REALLY EASY PEASY
Motifs and metaphors
"But nothing moves out there in no-man's land but the crows. It is a dead-mans land."
Sentence forms
Call me Ishmael. 'Moby-Dick' Herman Melville
Focus change
If Italy were a brand it would be up there with the likes of Apple, Google and Virgin. Of course, it's not all perfect. The football, as glamorous, exciting and technical as it can be, is prone to being defiantly dull.
Narrative Voice
It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. Winston Smith, his chin nuzzled into his breast in an effort to escape the vile wind, slipped quickly through the glass doors.
Punctuation
Oh! but he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. 'A Christmas Carol' Charles Dickens
Zoom
Slowly, I allow my eyes to leave the tatty leather shoes and they drift past the battered briefcase to the far wall. All four walls are bare, apart from missing chunks of plaster here and there - a terrifying map of previous inhabitants' attempts at communication, escape or descent into madness.
Topic Sentences
The bunk house was a long, rectangular building. Inside, the walls were whitewashed and the floor unpainted. In three walls there were small, square windows, and in the fourth, a solid door with a wooden latch. 'Of Mice and Men' John Steinbeck.
Endings and beginnings
The deep green pool of the Salinas River was still in the late afternoon. Already the sun had left the valley to go climbing up the slopes of the Gabilan mountains, and the hilltops were rosy in the sun. But by the pool among the mottled sycamores, a pleasant shade had fallen. A water snake glided smoothly up the pool, twisting its periscope head from side to side; and swam the length of the pool and came to the legs of a motionless heron that stood in the shadows. Extract from the final chapter of 'Of Mice and Men'
Links between and across
The melody takes me back, unlocking treasures in my mind. It was this tune that brought my wife, Jeanie, and I together. I miss my brother too. Nothing will ever soothe my anguished soul. Our battalion was fighting close to the western front, heading towards the trenches, when I lost him.
Motifs and metaphors
The robin was watching me from Father's rose bush, her black and beady eyes unblinking, begging me.
Sentence forms
The schoolmaster was leaving the village, and everybody seemed sorry. 'Jude the Obscure' Thomas Hardy
Repetition
We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills;
