LANGUAGE ANALYSIS

• Make sure you pick up the tone of the passage. Try and listen as you read – hear the quotation marks which might indicate irony or satire. Does the tone change in the course of the article?
• In two or three clear and brief sentences, identify the purpose, audience and genre. Try and be specific about each. Give evidence to support your view if you think it is necessary, e.g. for type of audience, the relevant evidence might be vocabulary, sentence length and type, subject matter; for genre, look to see if the source is identified.
• Start working your way through the passage, identifying, quoting and commenting on the elements of style.
• For each element you discuss, follow this procedure:

• Identify the language feature e.g. simile, imagery, balanced sentence, irony, onomatopaeia,
• Quote to show that you have clearly identified it,
• Comment on the particular effect that this language feature has within the passage,
• Develop your comment – perhaps by showing how this language feature leads in to the next to enhance the overall effectiveness of the passage.

• Don’t forget to convey your own personal response to the passage, in a lively and interesting way. This is the best way for you to show that you have really understood the purpose and tone.
• Don’t waste time on a lengthy conclusion. A single sentence will do – return to the purpose and audience and restate the main positive features of the style.
• You need to comment on about 7 or 8 different features of the language, and write between 750-1000 words. (This is easily achievable in about 40 minutes of writing.
• If you are going to make negative comments about the passage, these need to be very well supported and clearly argued in terms of audience and purpose.