How do I analyse the way a text is organised?
Track how openings, shifts, pace, focus and endings guide the reader's response.
How to approach it
- Identify a structural choice, such as a shift, delay or contrast.
- Explain where it happens in the text.
- Describe how it changes the reader's focus or response.
- Link the structural choice to the writer's purpose.
What to look for
- How the text begins and what it makes the reader expect.
- Shifts in time, place, viewpoint, topic or pace.
- Information that is delayed, repeated or revealed suddenly.
- How the ending changes or confirms the reader's understanding.
Worked example
Question
How does the writer use structure to build curiosity?
Short extract
At first, the letter is mentioned only briefly. Later, after the argument, the narrator finally opens it and the whole story changes.
Model response
The writer delays the opening of the letter, which builds curiosity because the reader knows it matters before learning what it contains. Placing the reveal after the argument makes the discovery feel more dramatic and changes how we understand the earlier tension.
Study tip
Structure is about order and movement. Ask why the writer gives information in this sequence.