AS English Language; Analysis of Texts

Genre

What kind of language is it?

Written discourses could be instruction booklets or advertisements and spoken discourse could be formal speeches to an audience or a casual conversation between friends.

Register

A type of language that's appropriate for a particular audience or situation, such as the language used in political systems and justice systems.

Register also includes the formality of the language used in the discouse.

Audience

The listener or the reader.

When you analysising a text think about how the audience is being addressed.

This might be formal or informal, direct or indirect.

For example, in advertising the audience is addressed directly as you.

Subject

What is the discourse about?

This will be reflected in the lexical fields used, such as, a discussion about healthy eating may contain words like 'low fat' or 'skinny'.

Purpose

What the speaker or writer is trying to achieve through language, such as to persuade and to instruct.

Mode

Whether the language is written or spoken.

You can also get mixed modes, such as, text messages, where the language is written, but contains many of the informal features of spoken language.