What to
comment on: Every text is different, and so
are each of you. Remember an original response may be highly desirable.
Start by responding to the text. Don’t comment on features that are
missing unless there is a significant comment to make. Don’t try to
include everything, comment on the most significant aspects of the text.
Read the text carefully, think, brainstorm and decide on the best order
for your points. You are aiming for an essay that is well ordered and
clear. Is there a sense of your own voice, originality or a personal
response? Your essay should not be vague, but firmly rooted in close
textual examination. Always include concise quotations as evidence. Show
your specialist linguistic and literary terms. Don’t be repetititive.
What is it?
Newspaper, article, diary, advertisement,
political manifesto, sermon, short story, poem....Is the word ‘genre’
helpful? Are there recognisable genre conventions, or does the writer
break such conventions? Effect? This might be a significant point to
make early in your analysis.
Content?
What is it about?
Intention/Purpose: To entertain, persuade,
instruct, advise, inform. This might affect the language. For example,
if it seeks to persuade the text may use emotive, connotative language,
and make value judgements. If it is informative, concrete nouns and
factual adjectives might dominate the text. If it is instructive,
imperative verbs are very likely. A story may have intensifiers and the
nouns may be heavily modified. An argumentative text may have tentative
modals (eg, "should," "might," "would," "may").
Remember that a text may have more than one intention.
Audience?
Age, sex, level of education, specialist
market? How does the intended audience affect the language. How much
knowledge is assumed. What other values/attitudes of the reader are
assumed? Register?
Form?
Headlines, fonts, italics, bold, punctuation and
deviations from the orthodox. Don’t spend too long on this, this is
language, not Media.
Structure?
How is the content organised? Is it
chronological? Does it have flashbacks? Is there a logical development
of argument (if, so, therefore, thus, because)? Is there a juxtaposition
of ideas? How is the text introduced and concluded?
Authorial
Voice? How conscious are you of the author?
What is the perspective - first, second or third person? Is the tone
conversational, confessional. Does the writer create a persona? Is s/he
subjective or objective? What does the author foreground?
Style?
Formal, colloquial, use of dialect, standard, nonÄstandard. What
characterises the lexis (Latinate, verbose, taciturn, field specific,
laconic)? What about the syntax, are the sentences simple or complex, or
is there an unusual word order? Is there dialogue, monologue or reported
speech? Are nouns pre/post modified? Is the tone ironic, humorous, sad
angry, patronising? Is the tone consistent or does it shift? Does the
text make use of shocking, taboo language? Are there any rhetorical
devices? Active or passive voice? Metaphors and other literary
techniques?
Internal,
deep structure? Textual cohesion, reiteration,
ellipsis, substitution, collocation or deviant collocation?
Literary
terms? Alliteration, assonance, imagery,
simile, rhyme, pararhyme = double consonance
('near rhyme' with consonants being the same but varying vowels, e.g.
groaned / groined and hall / hell),
personification...
Argument?
Persuasion, political tract, sermon, advertisement. Is there evidence of
bias, or does the writer make concessions to the other side of the
argument? Does the writer anticipate the other side of the argument? Is
there a plea to or sense of camaraderie with the audience? Are there
balanced two part sentences and use of semicolons? Is there a more
sophisticated lexis?
Social
Issues? Class, gender, race, age.
Miscellany
Puns, euphemisms, archaic language, affixation, use of quotations,
ambiguity, idiom, cliches, stream of consciousness, phonological
features, foreign words, nonsense words, rhythm, metre, anecdotes,
didactic, satire, hyperbole, vernacular, coherence, sarcasm, disclaimers
(denial of any connection with or knowledge of ...)
DON'T MERELY
POINT OUT FEATURES. SAY WHY THE WRITER HAS USED THEM AND CONSIDER WHAT
THE WRITER IS TRYING TO DO. WHAT? HOW? WHY? EFFECT? (Oadby
Google map)