Writing an Analytical Paragraph (PEEL/TEEL) — Answers
Answer sheet with model answers and success criteria for the Year 10 text analysis & essays worksheet.
Year 10 · English · Text Analysis & Essays
Writing an Analytical Paragraph (PEEL/TEEL) — Answers
Part A — How the paragraph works
Read the explanation, the extract and the model paragraph, then circle the best answer.
What is a PEEL / TEEL paragraph? Analytical paragraphs follow a predictable shape so the reader can follow your thinking. P/T — Point or Topic sentence: the claim this paragraph will prove. E — Evidence: a short, embedded quotation. E — Explain: how the language in the quotation creates meaning or effect. L — Link: return to the question or the main argument.
Extract (original): My grandmother's hands were maps. Every scar was a road she'd travelled: the burn from the kettle in 1962, the white seam across her thumb from a fishing line in Eden. When she held my face, I could feel the whole country in her palms.
Model paragraph: In this extract, the author uses an extended metaphor to present the grandmother's body as a record of lived history. The opening statement, 'My grandmother's hands were maps', establishes the comparison directly, and it is then developed through the image of each scar as 'a road she'd travelled'. By linking physical marks to specific places and dates, 'the kettle in 1962' and 'a fishing line in Eden', the writer suggests that experience is written on the body and can be read by those who love her. The final sentence, in which the narrator feels 'the whole country in her palms', extends the metaphor to its largest scale, positioning the grandmother as the embodiment of place and belonging. Through this sustained metaphor, the author invites readers to see ageing not as decline but as the accumulation of a life's journeys.
- Asummarise the plot
- Bmake a claim that the paragraph will prove
- Cintroduce a quotation
- Dlist the techniques used
Answer: make a claim that the paragraph will prove
A topic sentence is an arguable statement about how or why the text works. Everything that follows should support it.
- AThe author uses lots of techniques in this extract.
- BThis paragraph will be about metaphor.
- CThe writer's extended metaphor of hands as maps presents the grandmother as a living record of place and history.
- DThere is a metaphor in the first line.
Answer: The writer's extended metaphor of hands as maps presents the grandmother as a living record of place and history.
Option C names the technique, the subject and the effect, and it can be argued and proven. The others merely announce or describe.
- A'In this extract'
- B'The opening statement'
- C'By linking physical marks to specific places and dates'
- D'Through this sustained metaphor'
Answer: 'By linking physical marks to specific places and dates'
'By linking ...' moves from reporting what the text says to explaining how it creates meaning. 'Through this sustained metaphor' begins the Link.
- AQuoting only the three or four words that matter
- BCopying out the whole extract as a quotation
- CIntroducing the quotation with context
- DUsing quotation marks accurately
Answer: Copying out the whole extract as a quotation
Long quotations hide the point. Select the key words so the reader can see exactly which language choice you are analysing.
- Aintroduce a new technique
- Brepeat the topic sentence word for word
- Cconnect the paragraph's findings back to the question or overall argument
- Dend with a rhetorical question
Answer: connect the paragraph's findings back to the question or overall argument
The Link shows why the analysis matters for the question being answered; it is not a copy of the opening sentence.
- AThe narrator says 'My grandmother's hands were maps' and this is a metaphor.
- BBy describing the grandmother's hands as 'maps', the narrator presents her body as something to be read.
- C'My grandmother's hands were maps.' This shows she is old.
- DThere is a quote: 'hands were maps'.
Answer: By describing the grandmother's hands as 'maps', the narrator presents her body as something to be read.
Option B integrates the quotation into the grammar of the sentence and moves straight into effect. The others quote and stop.
Part B — Build each part
Write your answers in full sentences. Aim for precision rather than length.
Answer: B, D, A, C
- B is the Topic sentence (a claim about the writer's method).
- D is the Evidence (the embedded quotation).
- A is the Explain (what the detail implies).
- C is the Link (the wider significance).
Answer: Model: The author's metaphor of hands as maps transforms the grandmother's scars from signs of damage into evidence of a richly travelled life.
Answer: 'white seam' (or 'seam ... from a fishing line'). 'Seam' suggests sewing and repair rather than injury, which fits the idea that scars are part of a crafted, whole life. Quoting the whole phrase would bury this word choice.
Answer: Model: By turning each scar into 'a road she'd travelled', the writer reframes injury as journey, so that the grandmother's marked skin becomes proof of experience rather than of harm.
Answer: Model: Ultimately, the metaphor suggests that belonging is carried in the body itself: the grandmother does not merely remember the country, she holds it.
Answer: Model: The metaphor positions the grandmother as a living archive, so that her age becomes a measure of experience rather than frailty. (Other precise verbs: suggests, constructs, frames, invites, reveals, foregrounds.)
Part C — The parts and their purpose
- Topic sentence
- Evidence
- Explain
- Link
- Analytical verb
- connects the analysis back to the question or thesis
- a precise word (positions, suggests, constructs) that describes what the text does
- analyses how the language in the quotation creates meaning
- states the claim the paragraph will prove
- a short, embedded quotation that supports the claim
Answer: Topic sentence → states the claim the paragraph will prove; Evidence → a short, embedded quotation that supports the claim; Explain → analyses how the language in the quotation creates meaning; Link → connects the analysis back to the question or thesis; Analytical verb → a precise word (positions, suggests, constructs) that describes what the text does
Part D — Write your own paragraph
Model answer: The writer uses an extended metaphor of the city as a predator to present the night-time city as threatening and alive. The opening metaphor, 'The city at night was a mouth', immediately transforms an urban setting into something that can consume the narrator. This image is developed through the lights that are 'teeth' and the traffic that becomes 'a low, hungry growl', so that ordinary features of a city are reimagined as parts of an animal preparing to attack. The adjective 'hungry' is particularly significant, as it attributes intention to the city and positions the narrator as prey. The narrator's response, walking 'with my collar up and my keys between my fingers', confirms this reading: the defensive posture and improvised weapon show that the threat is felt as real rather than imagined. Through this sustained metaphor, the writer presents the city not as a place but as a creature, inviting readers to share the narrator's vulnerability and unease.
Success criteria:
- Topic sentence names the technique (extended metaphor) and makes a claim about effect
- At least three short, embedded quotations
- Each quotation is explained in terms of meaning or effect, not just identified
- Precise analytical verbs used (positions, transforms, presents, suggests)
- Link sentence returns to the question
- Formal register, present tense, no retelling
Marking tips
- Give credit for correct method even when the final answer slips — the working shows where the thinking went right.
- For open-ended tasks, use the success criteria as a checklist rather than looking for one "right" answer.
- Celebrate what went well first, then pick one thing to work on next.
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