Text: an original contemporary personal-commentary-style practice extract.
At 6.10 on Tuesday morning, I wrote “dry” in my weather diary and packed no waterproof coat. The page looked reassuring: neat columns, small symbols, a confident word at the top. I had been recording the weather for weeks and had begun to treat each entry as a promise.
Halfway along the ridge, rain swept across the path. My friend, who had been watching the clouds instead of my notebook, had brought a coat. “Your forecast has missed this bit,” she said, pointing towards the wet hillside behind us and the bright strip of sky ahead. I wanted to defend the diary, but its little square for “weather” suddenly seemed too small for a day that could change from one side of a hill to the other.
That evening, I did not throw the notebook away. I added two columns: “what I expected” and “what happened”. The next morning, the page looked less tidy, but more honest. I still write down the weather. I just leave a little space beside each word now, in case the sky has something to add.
Analyse how the writer uses language and structure to interest and engage the reader.
In your answer, consider:
Support your views with detailed reference to the extract.