Form, Structure, Language
Form
- Form regards the text type and genre
- short story, sonnet, haiku, epic poem, diary, letter, email, editorial, review, advertisement,
brochure, leaflet, podcast, newstory, investigative journalism, autobiography, blog, scripted
speech, narrative writing, article, etc.
- Whole-text aspects
- It sets expectations for the reader (either challenges or adheres to the audience's expectations)
- Diction (word choice & style) & Syntax (sentence construction & organization)
- Tone: The author’s attitude towards a subject
- Mood: The audience's emotions and reaction
- Register: The level of formality of words (formal/informal/colloquial)
- You can comment on how conventions reflect the genre
- You can discuss how the text appears on the page (anaphora, single line sentences, dialogue,
subheadings, bullet points, lists, etc.)
- Form regards how a text appeals to an audience and how the purpose affects the content and
style of a text through the use of genre conventions
- What kind of examples, hypothetical situations, anecdotes do they use to appeal to a specific
audiences (age, income level, culture)
Structure
- Structure regards how information is organized
- Graphology: the visual appearance of language
- Bolded words, italicized words, capitalized words, subheadings, white spacing,
paragraph length
- When discussing structure, one can comment on how the structure aids the audience's comprehension
and digestibility of a text
- Text Structures: Chronological Order; Order of Importance; Problem and Solution; Cause and
Effect; Past, Present, Future; Compare and Contrast; Point-by-point
- It regards the order in which an author reveals information
- General → specific
- Less serious → severe
- Simple → Complex
- Human- global scale
- Lenses
- Narrator Perspective:
- 1st (I, my, mine)
- informal, conversational
- 2nd (you/your)
- persuasive
- 3rd (he, she, they, Joe)
- 3rd person omniscient, third person objective, third person limited
- Analyze the hook and the release (the beginning and the end)
- Hook: Engagement tactics
- Ending: Conclusive/ Non conclusive, rhetoric, cliff hanger, persuasive, cyclical, open-ended
question, call to action
- Contrast (juxtaposition)
- Juxtaposition: the placement of two opposites for the purpose of highlighting their difference
- Shifts
-
From full paragraphs to single-line paragraphs, shifts in emotions or subject matter
-
Development in tone: Is it slightly melancholy in the beginning and then openly depressive in the
end?
- Pace (sentence structure, action, punctuation)
- Subheadings, lists, bullet points
- Headings (in the middle) subheadings (to the left)
Language
- Word choice
- Lexis: word connotations, diction, repeated words
- Repetition (anaphora, epistrophe, sibilance, fricative alliteration, alliteration, epizeuxis)
- Anecdote (a personal experience)
- Ethos, Pathos, Logos, Kairos
- Figurative Language
- Imagery, Personification, Onomatopoeia, Alliteration, Metaphor, Simile, Analogy, Hyperbole
- Persuasive Techniques (rhetoric)
- Rhetorical Questions, Hypophora, Eutrepismus (first, second, third), enumeratio (listing
problems, causes, numbers)
- Grammar, syntax, punctuation
- Colons, semi-colons, em dashes, question marks, exclamation points
- Emotion, rhythm, pace
- Semantic field of _____________ (synonyms of words)
- Jargon (field specific language)
- Colloquial language
- Hyperbolic language
- Dialogue
Techniques that can often be analyzed in tandem:
- Diction, Register
- Tone & Mood
- Syntax & Diction
- Ethos, Pathos, Logos, Kiros
- Pathos, Imagery, Mood
- Mood, Word Connotations, Diction
- Repetition (alliteration, epizeuxis, anaphora, epistrophe, sibilance, fricative alliteration)
- Title, Topic Sentences
- Title & Hook
- Title & subheadings
- Genre & Expectations of the reader
- Pace, Punctuation, Syntax
- Text Structure & Paragraph length
- Parallelism & Syntax
- Bolded Words & Sub headings (graphology)
- Italicized & bolded words (graphology)
Question 2 & 1b:
Introduction:
- Overview SOAPSTONE
1b ONLY:
- Describe the audience of both works
- Describe the differences (and similarities) between the form (text type) of each work
- Overview the style of both works