The silence in the market tape

Text: an original contemporary archive-feature-style practice extract.

The recording began with too much life for a single speaker: stallholders calling prices, wheels rattling over paving and coins clicking into open palms. Beneath it all, someone was laughing. Then, at noon, every sound vanished.

The archivist played the passage again without explaining it. We sat facing the speaker, counting the seconds as carefully as if the silence might reveal its cause. A chair scraped near the end. Nothing else moved through the tape. Only after the replay did she show us the note attached to the box: the market had paused for two minutes in memory of people from the town who had died in the war.

I had come looking for old voices and the ordinary arguments of a busy morning. Instead, the most carefully preserved moment was one in which nobody spoke. The recording did more than collect the market's noise. It kept the instant when a crowd chose to become quiet together.

Analyse how the writer uses language and structure to interest and engage the reader.

In your answer, consider:

• language features and techniques
• structural techniques
• the effect on the reader.

Support your views with detailed reference to the extract.