Analysing sentence structure in Critical ReadingRepetition and lists

What is repetition?

Repetition is when a single word, or a group of words, is repeated for effect.

Repeating a word or phrase in a sentence can emphasise a point, or help to make sure it is fully understood.

• Without repetition:The soup was stirred until thickened.
• With repetition:The soup was stirred and stirred until thickened.

Repeating the word stirred suggests that a lot of time and effort has gone into making the soup.

Examples of repetition

• Time after time he lets me down. The repetition of time emphasises how many times he has let the speaker down.
• Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. The repetition of let it snow highlights how much they want it to snow.

What are lists?

• Lists are a series of words, phrases or names that are grouped together for a reason.
• A list connects words, items or names together in a meaningful way.
• Look at the order in which the points are listed. If they lead up to the most important item at the end, there is a build-up to a climax.

Example from poetry

Lists often emphasise a point. In Jackie Kay's poem Old Tongue she lists the words the speaker had to stop using when they moved to England as a child: eedyit, dreich, wabbit, crabbit, stummer, teuchter, heidbanger

This list draws attention to all the different Scots words the speaker once used. If Jackie Kay had only mentioned one or two words, do you think it would have had the same effect as a longer list? Probably not. The longer list emphasises the scale of the speaker's loss.

Example from fiction

In Charles Dickens’ story A Christmas Carol, four ghosts visits the main character, the miserly Ebeneezer Scrooge. The last of these, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, shows Scrooge a nightmare-like vision of the future that will come about unless Scrooge mends his ways.

At one point Dickens describes the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come taking Scrooge to a city slum and a pawn shop where iron, old rags, bottles, bones and greasy offal were brought. Upon the floor within were piled heaps of rusty nails, chains, hinges, files, scales, weights and refuse of all kind.

Charles Dickens was fond of using lists in his writing. He uses a list to build atmosphere and describe the pawn shop as a place of dirt, decay and despair.