The cardboard city

Text: an original contemporary exhibition-review-style practice extract.

The model city contained no traffic jams. Tiny cars waited at sensible distances, and each tree occupied a neat circle of green. I leaned over it enjoying the rare pleasure of a town that had apparently solved the problem of being a town.

Then I noticed the labels. One building was marked possible, another subject to discussion. The tidy surfaces carried a less tidy future. A planner asked visitors where a pedestrian might want to cross. People pointed to different places, and she added small paper markers beside their suggestions. The model began acquiring interruptions that its original arrangement had not anticipated.

By the time I left, it looked less complete and more useful. A miniature car still waited politely at the junction, but the paper markers recorded disagreements that could not be scaled away. The city’s smallness helped us see the plan together. It did not make the decisions inside it small.

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.