non-fiction notes
support your answers with examples from the text
- identify key words [shaded here] before you start, plan!
- find examples for hte points you write about before you start
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- Created by: emily
- Created on: 25-04-11 13:27
Mongolian wedding
Tone: light, sarcastic, ironic, humour used
Purpose: to entertain his readers, Interested in other cultures & experiences, a travel writer,
Audience: adults mainly, who are interested in travel writing
Language used:
• Exaggeration “fell headfirst”
• Amusing anecdotes [stories] e.g. bride hiding
• Detail “great fatty tail” contrast of cultures – the feast seems unappetising
• Short paragraphs, emphasises a lot going on
• Active verbs “flattened” “pulled” emphasises comedy
• This contrasts to the inactivity of bride and groom
• Foreign words included to give a real feel of the country “arkhi”
• Varied sentences give impact, short sentences emphasise speed of event
other side of the dale
Tone: Friendly, interested, rather impersonal, not an official document
Purpose: to entertain, a school Inspector reporting on his visit, an extract from Phinn’s memoirs
Audience: the local community, readers who enjoy reading about the lives of others,
Language used: : • vivid adjectives used to describe dirt and squalor of Miss S,s surroundings, e.g half eaten food, grimy raincoat, lank grey hair
• simile where she is compared to a “chimpanzee” ”animal” emphasises this
• ghostly description makes her seem witch like“effigy” also she brews up her own petrol
• vivid, strong personality shown in the way she talks, educated “pipe down” “Tunbridge Wells”
• a certain elegance about her: she listens to Radio 4, author calls her “Miss”
• some sophisticated words emphasise this “sojourn” “retired””evening stroll”
• dated slang “done in” “spree”gives a vivid impression of her character
• she can be loud and boisterous “flung open…hurled”
• varied structure uses diary form at time to emphasise passage of time, also scripted conversation, a vivid real sense of their relationship
• she is ungrateful and cantankerous “green doesn’t suit me”
Don’t leave me here to die
Tone: serious, sad, emotional, negative
Purpose: a newspaper article, taken from an extract from memoirs, to inform readers
Audience: newspaper readers, serious, educated, interested in current affairs
Language used:
• emotive, makes reader feel sympathy for the victim, and for the dilemma Cathy O’Dowd faced
• grotesque images “puppet”
• several similes “porcelain” makes victim seem fragile, delicate
• lists reasons for leaving victim – so many, emphasises uselessness of rescue
• rhetorical questions to make the reader think about the problems and issues
• repetition for emphasis, e.g. “we had no..” also “try” shows desperation
• structure –brief paragraphs emphasises speed and urgency of situation
• “I” and “we” used frequently – this is a very personal account, people are very involved/ first person narrative
• includes sub heading as introduction and a tragic postscript
Sport for all Save our children
Tone: Sarcastic, ironic, scornful
Purpose: to give his views on the stupidity of compulsory school games, newspaper article
Audience: adult, parents, educated
Language used:
• melodramatic headline “horror” makes the fate of school children seem terrible
• tense language creeping,victim, sweat, ogre like
• personal experience, uses “I” but involves parents “our children”
• scorn expressed “waffled””nonsense”
• bitterness of his experiences shown “humiliated””misery”
• shows opinions dressed up as facts with words like “allegedly””we were told”
School sports culture …. Violence
Tone: Serious, argues dangers
Purpose: to give his point of view, warn reader, newspaper article
Audience: adults, parents,
Language use:
• sums up argument in headline summary [known as resume] – contrasts “god like” with “nerds”
• gives a positive view of the athletes with vivid adjectives “huge, extraordinary”
• structured to give positive impression in first few [7] paragraphs
• change in tone introduced by rhetorical question to make the reader think about the issue “what does it make ..”
• tries to make it impersonal by using 3rd person but at the end, his own opinion is clear “there is a price” we see he disagrees with the idea of the “godlike status”
sports in schools
Tone: Uses humour to appeal to the reader, personal, ironic
Purpose: Newspaper report, argues case that, in the past, children got exercise in their ordinary lives, PE is necessary now because they don’t getany exercise
Audience: adults, parents, specific to Scotland
Language use:
• exaggeration to amuse and get message across “icebergs”
• structure – paragraph 3only 1 sentence long– emphasises serious point, starts with “But”
• structure – then repeats humorous attitude – memories which adults would identify with “Joe 90”
• then changes tense to present – how children are nowadays
• argues his case but presents little evidence quite conversational in tone with some colloquialisms to keep audience interested “****”
parents......say no
Tone:Impersonal, serious, reasoned argument
Purpose: to give a reasoned argument for greater discipline
Audience: parents, concerned adults
Language use:
• fear of children described, e.g. “retreated, escape, struggling”
• language formal, readers educated, eg “gurus”
• uses comments from experts to reinforce argument, gives evidence from organisations, gives statistics
• negative adjectives describe children “brats, overbearing, whingeing”
• impersonal – uses 3rd person,uses the opinion of others to illustrate argument
• structure – introduces problem, then provides evidence
pay your children
Tone: impersonal, serious, butbiased towards one viewpoint
Purpose: To argue and inform
Audience: adults, parents
Language use:
• formal language “chief executive, dedicated, controversy, detriment, stimulate, stimuli” all reinforce the formality and impersonal tone
• uses experts to reinforce arguments
• however these experts give opinions rather than facts
• parents are viewed in a negative light – language reflects this and the pressure they use to wards children “anxious, limited, bombard,push”
• some exaggeration – “future criminals”
• heavily biased – children will be damaged it is claimed – vocabulary emphasises bias “long term detriment,lower curiosity”
use persuasion, not coercion
Tone: personal at first but then becomes impersonal, advises
Purpose: to argue and inform, a newspaper article
Audience: the general public, parents, adults
Language used:
• structure – immediately states heropinion on the matter, produces
• criticises the behaviour of parents – uses strong language “lousy, cajole”
• mimics “oooh sweetie” young people ”
• forthright and forceful language, e.g. “the point is,..
• uses rhetorical question to emphasise point “sounds innocuous”
• shows some sympathy with parents “exhausted mother, tantrum, wailing”
smacking not the answer
Tone: informative, takes a variety of views
Purpose: puts the viewpoints of children as well as adults, informs and persuades
Audience: children [see where it comes from]
Language use:
• starts with reaal life situation then argument, then concludes by repeating goes to comments from a number of the idea that persuasion is the answer
• refers to “young adults” which lends authority to what they say, contrast to “kids”
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