Read the following text, which is an editorial piece from a lifestyle magazine. Analyse the text, focusing on form, structure and language. View from here As her annual spring clean morphs into the mother of all clear-outs, Suzy Smith unearths lifelong treasures that cue some exhausting emotional tussles. Content removed due to copyright restrictions. Perhaps that's a project for the future. In the meantime, a lot of it has to go. I know I shall feel much better when it does.

Mark scheme

Marking points from the official mark scheme (Oct/Nov 2023). The mark or mark type is shown in brackets.

1. [25] Form: the typical text conventions used in an editorial piece
2. [25] Form: the ways in which the purpose affects the content and style of the text
3. [25] Form: the ways in which the speech appeals to its intended audience, e.g. through the tone and register used in the text and the short dialogue included
4. [25] Form: any other relevant aspects of the text's form
5. [25] Structure: the ways in which the heading and short/long paragraphs are used in the text
6. [25] Structure: the way in which the extract is structured and the shifts in narrative focus
7. [25] Structure: the way the passage ends with short, clipped sentences to banish earlier sentimentality
8. [25] Structure: any other relevant structural features in the text
9. [25] Language: the way in which the writer uses lists and verbs to describe setting and how she goes about clearing it out e.g. banishing, to patch it up, lurking, stacked, every last bit eased, boxes and bags, cases and crates; the long paragraph (4) listing the extent and variety of things found
10. [25] Language: the way in which details are used in the text to convey the variations in the narrator's experience e.g. cathartic effect of clearing out cupboards, the man who came to look sucked his teeth, No underfelt. You can see daylight through some of the gaps, the lists of items found in the attic which mean so much to her
11. [25] Language: the way in which memories are conveyed by the lists of items being re-discovered e.g. mesmerised by faded photographs, love letters and programmes, ... from my daughters' festival-going days, ... from my daughters' musical days
12. [25] Language: the choice of imagery (similes, metaphors, personification, pathetic fallacy) used in the text and the effect on the reader e.g. a mammoth task, like Pandora's box
13. [25] Language: the use of hyperbole to exaggerate the amount of junk in the attic e.g. enough pieces of china to fill an entire emporium, looking at the amount of stuff lurking in those darkened depths, you'd never believe we've only lived here 11 years, there are boxes and bags, cases and crate s, backbreaking work – and that's only the start
14. [25] Language: the use of alliteration to highlight a point and draw attention to the vast amount of objects found in the attic e.g. darkened depths, boxes and bags, cases and crates, bits and baubles, packages of pictures the use of idiom, e.g. the mother of all clearouts conveying the enormity of the task
15. [25] Language: the tone of self-mockery and humour in the descriptions of the items found e.g. you'd never believe we've only lived here 11 years; create my own 'exhibit' from all this memorabilia
16. [25] Language: any other relevant language features used in the text