A path without a shortcut

Text: an original contemporary personal-account-style practice extract.

The repaired coastal path had gained forty steps. I stood at the bottom regarding them as an insult. Before the landslip, the route had followed a shallow bend above the beach; now it climbed the hillside in a determined zigzag. The new handrail was clean enough to reflect my face, which did not improve my opinion of it.

Halfway up, I met a walker coming down with two poles. She stopped on a wide landing while I caught my breath. From there, we could see the broken edge of the old route: a thin ribbon of soil ending in air. I had been thinking about the inconvenience of the replacement. The missing ground made the word inconvenience seem embarrassingly well-fed. On the next landing, a bench faced the sea. Someone had placed it where even an impatient person had to pause.

I reached the top and looked back at the zigzag. It still had forty steps. I would still complain about them when carrying a picnic. Yet the route had stopped pretending that the hillside was merely an obstacle between me and the view. Its turns showed me the ground that had disappeared, the people using what remained and the effort involved in keeping a line open along an edge that would not stay still.

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.