Why did the writer do that?

Word	What it means
Choice	Anything the writer decided that could have been different: a word, the narrator, the order of events, the length of a sentence, the form.
Effect	What the choice does to the reader: what it makes them feel, notice, expect or understand.
Evidence	The exact words that show the choice and its effect.
Device	A named technique, such as a simile or personification (giving human actions to something that is not human).
Word choice	The particular words a writer picks.
Connotation	The feeling a word carries beyond its dictionary meaning.
Point of view	Who tells the story, and how much they can know.
Structure	The order and shape of a text: where it starts, what comes when, how long each part is.
Form	The kind of text: a poem, a diary entry, a letter, a list, a news story.
Swap test	Imagining a choice made differently — another word, narrator or order — to see what the original does.

The Nguyens' house had been empty since spring. By October its porch sagged, its windows were blind with dust, and the whole house seemed to hunch lower every week, as if it were trying to disappear before anyone noticed it was gone.

The question: why does the writer describe the house as if it were a person?

• “To make it more interesting.” — true of every sentence ever written. No choice named, no effect, no evidence.
• “It uses personification.” — names the choice and stops. Naming a device is half an answer.
• “The writer gives the house human actions and feelings — its windows are blind, it hunches, it seems to be trying to disappear — so an empty house feels lonely and ashamed, like a person nobody visits any more. The reader ends up feeling sorry for a building.” — the choice, the evidence and the effect. The full answer.

The swap test. Say it plainly: “The house was run-down and dusty.” The facts survive; the loneliness does not. Whatever disappeared in the swap is the effect, and that is what the question was asking for.

A frame that keeps all three parts: The writer [does what, exactly] — [the words] — so the reader [feels, notices or expects what].

Coach didn't walk into the dressing room after the loss. He trudged. He dropped his clipboard on the bench, looked at each of us, and said only, “Well.”

The question: what does the word trudged suggest about Coach?

Swap in	What it would suggest
walked	Nothing: a neutral word
stormed	Angry, about to yell
strolled	Relaxed and untroubled, which would be strange after a loss
trudged	Slow and heavy, every step an effort: worn down and let down

A model answer. Trudged shows that Coach is not furious but tired and disappointed, and the details after it agree: he drops the clipboard instead of throwing it, and says one word instead of many. The writer even points at the choice — didn't walk … He trudged — so the reader cannot miss it.

Check the word against the rest of the passage. An answer that calls Coach angry has to explain the quiet Well, and it cannot. A word's effect always fits the details around it.

My brother says he's fine with me having his old bike. He said it twice at dinner, and he smiled when he said it. He's been in his room with the door shut since then, but that's normal for him. Probably.

The question: why might the writer tell this in the first person?

A model answer. The narrator reports the facts honestly — said it twice, smiled, the door shut — but reads them the way they want to. The reader sees what the narrator will not: someone who is truly fine does not need to say so twice. The last word, Probably, shows the narrator half-knows it. First person lets the reader see past the narrator, and that gap is the whole story.

The swap test. An omniscient narrator could simply say the brother was hurt. The reader would know at once, and the gap would close.

If it is told in	The usual reason
First person	One mind, its voice and its blind spots: the reader may see more than the narrator
Third-person limited	One character's thoughts, with a little distance from their voice
Third-person omniscient	A wide view: several minds, and events the main character never sees

The cast came off in March. To explain how I got it, I have to start with the sled.

A model answer. The story opens with its ending, a broken bone, and then goes back. The reader rides the whole sledding scene knowing it ends badly, so every ordinary detail feels tense, and the question becomes not what will happen? but how? The swap test: told in order, the same events would build to a surprise instead of dread.

Choice	The usual effect	Ask
Starting at the end, then going back	Dread instead of surprise	What does the reader know too early, and why?
A flashback	Explains the present with the past	Why does it come exactly here?
A one-sentence paragraph	Stops the reader and gives one moment weight	What is being weighed?
A story told in texts or diary entries	Only what people choose to write down	What is nobody saying?
A line break in a poem	A pause, and a word left alone at the end of a line	Which word is left hanging?

Form is a choice too. A story told as the list of things a boy packs before moving away never has to say he is sad. The reader notices what he packs first, and what he leaves behind.

• “To make it more interesting” or “to keep the reader engaged” as the whole answer.
• Naming the device and stopping.
• An effect with no words from the passage behind it.
• Retelling what the passage says instead of how it says it.
• An effect the rest of the passage contradicts, such as calling a word angry when every other detail is sad.