Please keep the queue

Text: an original contemporary speech-style practice extract.

We have all stood behind someone who needed longer at the counter. We have all looked at the clock. Some of us have performed the sigh that we hope sounds private but somehow travels the length of the queue. I am not here to suggest that waiting is delightful. I am asking what happens when the slowest customer is treated as a fault in the system.

Consider the person counting coins carefully, the visitor trying to understand a form, the customer who cannot hear the question through a glass screen. A faster queue might be produced by giving them less time. It would also be produced by explaining the form clearly or providing a place to hear. Those choices look similar on a stopwatch and very different to the person at the counter.

We should ask for enough staff and sensible arrangements. Patience cannot repair every shortage, and people who must catch a bus cannot wait indefinitely. But the queue is a line of people, not a test of who can complete a transaction most efficiently. Before we demand that someone move faster, let us ask whether the service has made it possible for them to move at all.

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.