Which writing techniques are used in these two sentences?

[SweetMarmalade]

Just looking at some past review papers of Ds, he didn’t answer these correctly. Can anyone help?

Q1. Which writing technique is used here: “His fingers shook slightly”?
Out of all the techniques I can find I can only think of descriptive?

Q2. Which two writing techniques are used here: “McInturf coughed, once, twice; a hideous, gurgling, strangling sound”?

Any help greatly appreciated.

With Q2, I assume that the examiner is looking for tricolon in reference to "hideous, gurgling, strangling..."

As for "McInturf coughed once, twice. ..", the answer might be ellipsis as there is no use of the word "then" to connect the adverbs.

I would say sibilance in the first sentence.

The second has a triple but it could also be hyperbole?

Oh gosh I’m not good at this!

This was on Ds first Y8 English review, his next review is due in a few wks so just going through his past paper. I’m still not sure he’d get this right.

And thanks for taking the time to reply.

But differing views on the answers.

What on earth is this exam??

I'd say sibilance for the first question.

Second question, I would agree with a triple. Also, onomatopoeia with "gurgling".

I'd want my class to analyse 'slightly' in the first one which is an adverb

Jeezo, I don't know and I'm a professional writer!

Onomatopoeia for the second one.

The first is probably a fronted adverb but I only know of the existence of this phrase from MN and have no idea of its meaning!

Fronted adverbials are a nonsense KS2 SATS coinage... as are noun phrases.

Students being taught fronted adverbials has led to years worth of students writing the most mangled (non) sentences you could ever imagine.

Sibilance is alliteration with sounds which give a hissing type sounds, like the selling seashells rhyme.

PIggy and horror of horrors, expanded noun phrases.

Don't lost : I'm hyperventilating!

I think the semicolon should be a colon, because it’s followed by an explanation or qualification of what went before.

It doesn't come from the most jolly of texts. The next sentence is 'Then he died.'

There was a debate raging on Twitter last week about whether the incessant desire to label grammatical techniques and parts of speech was stifling creativity. Yup.

The last one could be the rule of three - you have three thing (descriptions, phrases) working together.

First is alliteration/sibilance.

First one is sibilance.

Second one is onomatopoeia.

1. Alliteration of the sssssss sounds

1. onomatopoeia - words that sound like the sound they represent when you say them out loud.

You didn't ask but did say he might struggle to spot these

Good way is to get him to read text out loud )or in his head) to see what noises he makes.

That sounds mental now I've written it! Hopefully you/he'll get what I mean.

He may want to do it in his head but still mouth the words in an exam as hissing may be frowned upon

Other way is to have a list of all the standard littlest techniques they are likely to ask him to spot and het him to write some examples of them out himself.

And I'll be off buying a new autocorrect 😂

@Piggywaspushed it was part of a Y8 English review 1 exam taken last term.

Thank you everyone. I’m going to show your answers to Ds when he gets home.

@Shannith Very interesting, thank you. I’ll look into this and ask Ds if he’s heard of this technique. Never heard of using it before but will absolutely take everything we can to help.

I teach secondary English and have never seen an exam like that... don't worry : GCSEs are not like this...

What’s the difference between alliteration and sibilance?

alliteration is the repetition of any consonant (at the start of words usually) ; sibilance is the name for the ssss sound.

@Piggywaspushed it was part of a reading and writing exam. I’ve only just found it tucked away inside his English book. No corrections just a 0/1 to indicate his answer was incorrect.

I’m pleased that this doesn’t represent exams further up the years.