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The Big 5
- Audience/purpose
- Content/theme
- Tone/mood
- Stylistic devices
- Structure
TB5: Audience/purpose
Who is this text aimed at and how can you tell? Why was the text produced? Context of interpretation; how do certain factors influence your reading of the text?
TB5: Content/theme
Key features, what is the author's message? What is the text actually saying?
TB5: Tone/mood
What is the writer's tone? How does the author sound? How does the text make the reader feel, what is the atmosphere?
TB5: Stylistic devices
What stylistic devices does the writer use? What effects do these devices have on a reader?
TB5: Structure
What kind of text is it, what feature let you know this? What structural conventions for that text type are used? Does this text conform to, or deviate from, the standard conventions of the text type? How is the text layed out and organized?
Allegory
People, objects and events represent abstract qualities. Eg. bird might represent freedom, or child innocence.
Alliteration
Repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words. Poets use it to add musical quality, to create mood and emphasize meaning and particular words.
Allusion
Indirect reference to a person, place, event or literary work with which the author believes the reader will be familiar.
Analogy
Point by point comparison between two things for the purpose of clarifying the less familiar of two subjects. Eg. her hair was dark as the night.
Anaphora
Repetition of a word at the beginning of successive lines or sentences.
Author's purpose
A writes usually writes for one or more of these purposes: to inform, to entertain, to express himself or to persuade the readers to believe something.
Biography
Type of nonfiction in which a writer gives a factual account of someone else's life. Written in third person. (Autobiography telling of own life, first person)
Cliché
Overused expression that has lost its freshness, force and appeal. Eg. "love is pure"
Comedy
Work that is light and often humorous in tone, usually ending in peaceful resolution.
Connotation
Emotional response evoked by a word in contrast to its denotation.
Denotation
A literal meaning of a word.
Contrast
Technique used to clarify something by showing it against its opposite.
Dialect
Distinct form of a language as it is spoken in one geographical area or in particular social or ethnic group. Reflected in eg. pronunciation, vocabulary and grammatical constructions.
Diction
Writer's choice of words, includes vocabulary and syntax (order or arrangement of words).
Dramatic irony
The reader is aware of something that a character isn't.
Metaphor
Comparison between two essentially unlike things that nevertheless have something in common. Does not contain the word "like" or "as".
Figurative language
Language that communicates ideas beyond the literal meaning of words.
Points of view
First person (narrates in own words), second person (writer addresses reader intimately as you), third person (she did this and this... omniscient = all-knowing, limited = not all-knowing)
Foreshadowing
Writer uses hints or clues to indicate events that will occur. Creates suspense.
Form
Physical arrangement of words; length and placement of lines and sentences.
Historical context
Social conditions that influences creation of a work.
Historical narrative
Accounts of real-life historical experiences given either by a person who experiences them or by someone who has studies or observed them.
Hyperbole
Figure of speech in which the truth is exaggerated for emphasis or for humorous effect.
Imagery
Descriptive words or phrases the writer uses to recreate sensory experiences.
Inversion
Inverted order of words in a sentence.
Situational rony
Contrast between what is expected to happen and what actually happens.
Literary letter
Letter that has been published and read by a wider audience, because it was written by a well-known public figure or provides information about the period in which it was written.
Memoir
Form of autobiographical writing in which a person recalls significant events in their life. Structured as narratives, first-person view, true account of events.
Mood
Feeling or atmosphere the writer creates for the reader. Use of connotation, imagery, sound and rhythm contribute.
Narrator
Character or voice that relates the story's events to the reader.
Onomatopoeia
A word that imitates the sound it represents.
Paradox
Statement that seems to contradict itself, but may nevertheless suggest an important truth.
Parallelism
Writer expresses ideas of equal worth with the same grammatical form, eg. repetition.
Parody
Writing that imitates the style or subject matter of a literary work for purpose of criticism or humorous effect.
Personification
Figure of speech in which an object, animal or idea is given human characteristics.
Persuasive writing
Intended to convince a reader o adopt a particular opinion or perform a certain action.
Realism
Refers to any effort to offer an accurate and detailed portrayal of actual life.
Rhyme
Similarity of sound between two words.
Sarcasm
Type of verbal irony refers to a critical remark expressed in a statement in which literal meaning is the opposite of actual meaning.
Satire
Technique in which foolish ideas or customs are ridiculed for the purpose of improving society.
Setting
Time and place in which the action occurs.
Simile
Figure of speech that compares two things that have something in common, using the words "like" or "as".
Stereotype
Oversimplified image or a person, group or institution.
Symbol
Person, place or object that stands for something beyond itself, such as feeling.
Theme
Central ideas the writer intends to share with the reader. May be a lesson about something.
Tone
Writer's attitude toward his subject. Can communicate through diction, choice of details and direct statements of his position.
Open letter
A letter addressed to a specific person but published for a wider readership.
Oxymoron
A figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory terms in a brief phrase. (wise fool)
Suspense
The excitement or tension that the readers feel as they become involved in a story and eagerly await the outcome.
Transcript
A written, printed, or typed copy of words that have been spoken.
Voice
Writer's unique use of language that allows a reader to hear a human personality in the writer's work.
