English Language, analysing non fiction

Remeber to write about these:

GAP: (these just need to be noted)

Genre - What is it? How do you know?

Audience - Who is it aimed at? How do you know?

Purpose - What does it want you to do? How does it make you do it?

LIST: (write about these in detail)

Language - How does the language make you feel?

Information - How much have you learnt from reading this?

Style - How does the document look on the page?

Tone - How would you read this aloud?

Emotive Language

This is often used to persuade readers to think a certain way by appealing to your emotions. It can be subtle or obvious. Ask your yourself why the writer chose to use emotive language.

Emotive language can also be used with facts and opinions.

Describe language by its tone

Think about how language affects the reader which will help you write about its purpose

Texts are usually formed by facts and opinions.

Facts are used to hook the attention of the reader

Photos are neither facts or opinions, and can lie. They are powerful way of stirring emotions.

By mixing fact and opinion they can be used to support each other.

Emotive facts is a mixture of facts and emotive language to affect the way you feel about it

An argument can be:

• balanced and logical (backed up by facts and evidence)
• persuasive (using emotive language, repetition etc)
• open-ended (leaving you to make up your own mind)

Topic sentences gives the main ideas of an arguement and form the basis of one.

Making a good arguement

• Reinforcement - Clarifying and repeating main ideas to get main points across
• Facts - reinforce opinions
• Conclusion

Tips on Following an Arguement

• Find the topic sentences.
• Look for sentences that reinforce.
• Look for sentences that illustrate or give facts.
• Look at the ending conclusion

Style is how the text is presented on the page.

When you are answering a question on style and presentation devices, it is often helpful to think about what attracts your attention most:

• Is it headlines?
• Is it pictures?

Other devices:

• Sub-headings
• Underlinings
• Bold print
• Logos
• Slogans
• Colours
• Font
• Charts/diagrams
• Bullet points

Tone can be defined as the attitude of the writer towards the subject in a text.

assess the languagein which it is written e.g light hearted = humorous tone

Clues for tone

• Source of text - For example, an article from a broadsheet newspaper is likely to be quite serious in tone.
• Punctuation - exclamation marks can suggest disbelief
• Rhetorical questions - likely to be quite thought-provoking in tone.
• Images - cartoons or caricatures could suggest it's not serious

Examples of tone: Challenging, serious, angry, informative, humorous, sad, polite