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How to analyse texts
S ubject / Theme
- answers the question “What is the MEANING of this piece of writing?”
1. Determine the purpose: descriptive/expressive, expository/informative,
narrative, or argumentative/persuasive.
2. Determine the effect: the work is. entertaining, disturbing, interesting.
3. Determine the literal MEANING:
a. State the subject in a word or PHRASE.
b. State the theme/thesis or hook in one sentence.
c. Paraphrase each logical division (paragraph, subsection, stanza).
4. Determine any other possible levels of MEANING: allegorical, symbolic,
figurative.
P urpose / Thesis
- First on a literal level, then on other levels, and the effect of the work on
a reader
E motion
NARRATIVE VOICE includes the identities of the speaker, the author and
the main CHARACTER, and the attitudes or perspectives of each.
-1. Determine the point of view of the narrator: first person, third person limited,
third person unlimited.
a. Determine if the third person narrator is intrusive or unintrusive.
b. Determine if the fIrst person narrator is credible.
2. Determine the relationship of the narrator/ speaker, the writer, and the
main CHARACTER.
3. Determine the narrator's/speaker's attitude.
-4. Determine the writer's attitude.
5. Determine the main CHARACTER'S attitude.
TONE (of VOICE) is how the speaker and CHARACTERS “sound”
(‘playful”, “angry”); the “atmosphere” projected by the subject, the setting, and
the author’s style; and how these elements combine to project a “feeling” from
the entire work that produces an effect on the reader.
1. Determine the speaker's TONE (of VOICE): formal, informal, playful,
sincere.
2. Determine the TONE of the work:
a. Describe the TONE of the subject.
b. Describe the TONE of the subject's treatment.
c. Describe the TONE of the setting.
d. Determine the TONE(S) projected by the CHARACTERS.
C raft - S ounds
L anguage (Vocab)
I magery
M etaphor
S tructure
- the genre, organization, sequence, and structure of a work
1. Determine if the work is prose, poetry, or drama.
2. Determine the method(s) of organization used: analogy, cause-and-effect,
comparison/contrast, definition, description, analysis and classification, example,
induction, deduction" narration, process analysis, (or other).
3. Determine the sequence used: chronological, climactic, deductive, inductive,
problem-solving, spatial, topical, mixed, (or,other). ‘
4. Determine the nonfiction prose genre: essay (formal, informal),
(auto)biography, criticism, informational, (or other).
5. Determine the prose narrative by length: novel, novelette, short story,
anecdote, (or other).
6. Determine the prose structure:
a. Outline nonfiction prose.
b. Plotline prose narrative.
7. Determine the prose narrative effects: tragedy, comedy, satire, romance,
realism, (or other).
8. Determine the prose narrative genre: picaresque, stream of consciousness,
bildungsroman, regional, social, detective, novel of CHARACTER (incident,
manners, sensibility, the soil), psychological, problem, propaganda, western,
gothic, epistolary, science fiction, suspense, utopia, tale, tall tale, fable, folktale,
parable, legend, myth (or other).
9. Determine the structure of the poem:
a. Scan for rhythm.
b. Determine rhyme scheme.
c. Look at physical FORM: prose poetry, free verse, blank verse