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Structure can refer to the order of words and ideas within:

• a sentence
• a paragraph
• an extract
• a whole text

Think about the effect the structure creates; remember to focus on how the reader responds to the structure of the text. Consider how the writer is using structure to manipulate the reader’s response.

Questions to consider:

• Where does this extract fit into the longer text – is it an opening or ending?
• Why are the paragraphs ordered in the way they are?
• How does the focus of each paragraph change?
• Is it important for the reader to know certain bits of information before they get to the next part of the text?
• Are there any links between the beginning and the end of the text?
• Are there any repeated images?
• Is there a significant change in an attitude, character or setting?
• Is there a change of perspective?

Some structural devices within prose fiction

Repetition – of words, phrases or whole sentences.

Connectives – eg meanwhile, finally, although. These could be used to shift the reader’s focus.

Sentence types – eg multi-clause or single clause. For example, a multi-clause sentence could be used to build up layers of description to create a vivid setting.

Sentence length – eg short to show tension.

Paragraph length – eg single line paragraphs to focus the reader.

Change of tense – eg from present to past.

Narrative structure

Fictional narratives may also follow an overall structure, which may fit broadly into typical stages.

Exposition – the setting of the scene for the reader, this could be a description of setting or the backstory of a character.

Crisis point or climax – an exciting or tense part of the text.

Resolution – the conclusion of the narrative, where conflicts are resolved or meaning is revealed.

In a short extract, only one or two of these of these stages might be evident. For example, if the extract is from the opening of a short story there may only be an exposition stage.

These stages are not always in this order; a writer may choose to begin with a climax or crisis point.

Example

This extract is taken from a short story called Through the Tunnel by Doris Lessing. In this section the character of Jerry, an 11-year-old boy, attempts to swim through a long underwater tunnel.

How has the writer structured this text to increase the sense of tension?

A hundred, a hundred and one…The water paled. Victory filled him. His lungs were beginning to hurt. A few more strokes and he would be out. He was counting wildly; he said a hundred and fifteen, and then a long time later, a hundred and fifteen again. The water was a clear jewel-green all around him. Then he saw, above his head, a crack running up through the rock. Sunlight was falling through it, showing the clean, dark rock of the tunnel, a single mussel shell, and darkness ahead.

He was at the end of what he could do. He looked up at the crack as if it were filled with air and not water, as if he could put his mouth to it to draw in air. A hundred and fifteen, he heard himself say inside his head---but he had said that long ago. He must go on into the blackness ahead, or he would drown. His head was swelling, his lungs cracking. A hundred and fifteen, a hundred and fifteen pounded through his head, and he feebly clutched at rocks in the dark, pulling himself forward, leaving the brief space of sunlit water behind. He felt he was dying. He was no longer conscious. He struggled on in the darkness between lapses into unconsciousness. An immense, swelling pain filled his head, and then darkness cracked with an explosion of green light. His hands, groping forward, met nothing; and his feet, kicking back, propelled him out into the open sea. He drifted to the surface, his face turned up to the air. He was gasping like a fish. He felt he would sink now and drown; he could not swim the few feet back to the rock. Then he was clutching it and pulling himself up on to it. He lay face down, gasping.

Through the Tunnel, Doris Lessing

Analysis

• The structure of the text allows the reader to share the boy’s journey through the tunnel and follow his physical and emotional conflict.
• In the first paragraph the boy thinks that he has made it to the end of the tunnel: “Victory filled him.” This short, single clause sentence has a dramatic effect and shows the reader his excitement.
• When the reader realises that he has not reached the end, the tension is increased and the reader reaches the crisis point in the text.
• The boy seems to have run out of strength: “He was at the end of what he could do.”
• The writer includes the character’s counting to increase the tension at different points in the text.
• The counting shows the boy’s different states of mind, at first the number goes up to show his control.
• Then he is "counting wildly" when he thinks he is at the end of the tunnel.
• The counting stops to show the reader that he is starting to lose focus and strength: “A hundred and fifteen, a hundred and fifteen…” The repetition of a hundred and fifteen shows the boy’s confusion and increases the tension.
• Dramatic single clause sentences in the last paragraph add to the suspense: “He felt he was dying. He was no longer conscious.”
• The repetition of “…darkness ahead…blackness ahead…darkness cracked…” makes the reader feel like the dark represents death and the light symbolises life.
• The whole extract is structured around the physical effects of not having enough air: “…swelling…cracking…gasping.”
• The position of the verb "gasping" at the end of the final sentence has the effect of releasing the tension as the reader realises the boy will survive.