GCSE English Language Explicit and Implicit Meanings

foreign hello and welcome to your favorite teacher this paper is all about reading and showing that you understand what the writer is trying to say and do so what's the difference explicit is clear or straightforward it's what the text actually says you can identify an explicit meaning by finding the keywords or phrase in an article and extracting it lifting it out implicit is bit harder here you aren't looking for what it says but you're looking for what it really means let's look at an example Maria's sweaty hands shook she folded the edges of her notes into tiny tight triangles she tiptoed towards the stage heart beating rapidly let's extract something explicit for example what did Maria do with her notes good way to approach question like this is to scan it's basically like doing Google search for keyword to find the right section in this question is asked you to scan for the word notes Here our text is only one sentence but it will help when you're looking at the whole extract so now can see the word notes all have to do is lift out what she did with the notes the extract says she folded the edges of her notes so can say she folded them up she folded them over or she folded them into triangles I'm going to use the words from the extract and use the whole sentence to make sure give enough detail for the examiner okay now let's look for something implicit how was Maria feeling the extract doesn't tell you explicitly you're going to have to look for hints so if your hands are sweaty and shaking how are you feeling this is the bit where students get bit mixed up because one part of the story isn't always enough her hands might be sweaty because it's hot day or because she was exercising however in this case that's probably not right because it doesn't match the other Clues when looking for implicit meanings it's good to look for two or three clues that all line up so in this example her hands were sweaty and shaking she was folding up her notes she was tiptoeing not jogging or skipping to the stage her heart was beating rapidly think the best implicit meaning here is that she was nervous or scared that makes sense with all of the clues that we have so it's the best analysis sometimes for question like this you might be asked about one specific word and what it implies implies just means implicit so hinted information so let's look at that kind of question the writer uses the word tiptoeing what does this imply about Maria would start by re-reading the sentence again would then switch it out with synonym another word to mean the same thing and see how it changes the meaning for example she skipped towards the stage this sounds to me like she was happy or excited to be on stage it's very different tiptoeing that's normally something you do when you're scared trying to hide or go unnoticed so that's my answer the writer describes Maria as tiptoeing to make it seem as if she's scared or doesn't want to go onto the stage in your reading exam you'll also be asked to find explicit information and decide if it's positive or negative the information will be explicit but you've got to decide if it's positive or negative using your own judgment now I'm going to give you some exam style questions from your reading paper read Source the one about careers in the building industry and then tackle the quiz to complete this lesson good luck I'm Miss Meeks and you've been learning about explicit and implicit meanings with your favorite teacher thank you