P1 Genres Overview

Paper 1 Text Types and Their Features/Conventions

What are features and/or conventions?

• the familiar and predictable forms and techniques used in a specific text type to communicate certain ideas/impressions to the reader.
• structural components that construct meaning and achieve purpose.
• makes the genre recognizable.
• some claim conventions are necessary to meet certain standards while features are optional (punctuation vs imagery) → but in a p1 it really does not matter as they imply the same

Advertisements

• What are advertisements?
  • A notice or announcement in a public medium promoting a product, service or event
• Aim of advertisements:
  • Convince the reader to buy their product
  • Make the product and/or company memorable
• General conventions:
  • Advertisements are composite texts (verbal text and visual elements)
  • Complex interplay between text, image and visual- and literary devices that together convince together
  • Advertising technique
  • Appeal to fear
  • Bandwagon effect
  • Shock advertising
  • Conflict in advertising
  • Testimonial
  • Problem/solution technique
  • Anti-advertising
  • Tone depends on the type of advertisement and advertisement technique → may be light and humorous or dark and scary, etc.
• Technical conventions
  • Visual narrative, camera angles, lighting, color, juxtaposition
• Symbolic conventions
  • Objects, setting, body language, clothing, characters
• Written conventions
  • Tagline, copy, slogan, signature
  • Literary and rhetorical devices within any written text

Biographies & autobiographies

• What are biographies and autobiographies?
  • The historical story of a person’s life
  • Autobiographies:
  • are written by the person whose story is being told (though sometimes in collaboration with another writer)
  • Biographies:
  • are not written by the person whose story is being told, but rather someone else
• General conventions:
  • Usually have a chronological structure from birth to death/present
  • Often employ a formal tone → to seem more reliable
  • Similar to a history book
  • Concerned with facts and documentation
  • Little to no emotion

Blogs

• What is a blog?
  • Each post/individual text is called a “blog entry”
  • This text type is often part of a “staging” of oneself
  • This can explain traits such as jargon and individualized expressions
  • A certain voice is created → a personal style that readers recognize
• Aims of blog entries:
  • Imparts a personal response
  • Focuses on topical issues
  • Expresses particular opinion on a subject → tries to persuade
• Stylistic/linguistic/rhetorical devices in blog entries:
  • Subjective tone
  • May begin and/or end with a hook
  • Anecdotes
  • Blogs can be like public diaries
  • Real life examples
  • The writer is often “present” in the text
  • Sometimes direct address to the reader
  • Informal language
  • Though this may depend on the target group
    • E.g. political blogs are more formal than cooking blogs
  • Often uses techniques of rhetoric and literary features
  • Humor can be used to entertain readers and keep them coming back
  • Less often in academic blogs
• Typical content of blogs:
  • References you have made to previous posts
  • Comments on the frequency of postings
• Visual elements of the blog post:
  • Layout and design
  • Dated entries that include the name of the blogger
  • Top banner with the blog’s name
  • A catch heading for the post
  • Blogroll
  • Sidebar with profile information and links to other blogs
  • These links are called trackbacks
  • Archive of older postings
  • Customized interface of for instance Blogger or Wordpress
  • Widgets

Cartoon

• What is a cartoon?
  • Sequential frame narrative communicating a message with humor
  • Often posted in a section of a newspaper/magazine/similar publication
• Aim:
  • Overall and primary aim is to entertain the reader
  • Sometimes imparts a message with deeper meaning
• General conventions:
  • Humor → through funny elements, physical humor, drawing style, punchline, etc.
• Visual devices as features
  • Panels/frames
  • Border
  • Closure
  • Gutters
  • Speech/thought bubbles
  • Caption
  • Emanata
  • Varying degrees of abstraction
  • Camera angle
• Literary devices can also be utilized in the captions and bubbles

Editorial

• What is an editorial?
  • Editorials are like brief written speeches
  • Relatively short texts that state a case, make a few points and then summarize by pointing out a need or calling for some sort of action
  • Opinion pieces printed in the same section of a newspaper each day and represent the opinion of the editorial board on some current issue
  • Editorial board’s opinion = the newspaper’s opinion
  • The page opposite the editorial is called the op-ed page and frequently contains opinion pieces written by writers who are not directly affiliated with the newspapers
    • The op-eds share the same conventions and features as the editorial (short, call for action, etc.)
• Aims of the editorial genre:
  • Persuade the reader
  • Express particular opinions on a subject
• Linguistic conventions:
  • Quite formal language
  • Though the exact level depends on the type of medium (what newspaper) and the intended audience
  • Relatively high lexical density (information-carrying words)
  • Tone of authority (and similar) is common
  • Use of adverbs (quickly, largely, etc.) and auxiliary verbs (should, must, etc.)
  • Signals the writer’s attitude towards the topic and the audience
• Often includes passages with more focus on relaying facts and information, before judging it with a clear opinion and/or call to action
• Uses techniques of rhetoric and literary features
  • Essentially can contain any rhetorical, stylistic and literary devices suitable for the writer and their purpose/message

Encyclopedia & textbooks

• An expository text
  • All expository texts aim to inform, describe and/or instruct
  • Other expository texts: news articles, police reports, insurance claims
• What are encyclopedias & textbooks?
  • Essentially all purely factual texts
• Aims:
  • Imparts information
  • Does not try to entertain
  • Does not express opinion
• General conventions:
  • Is precise
  • Objective and neutral tone
  • Builds credibility
• Language:
  • Can contain jargon
  • No use of first person pronouns
  • We cannot see the writer in the text or get a sense of their writing style, personality or opinions

Feature article

• What is a feature article?
  • A longer article that analyzes and evaluates information that is known/not breaking news
• Aim:
  • Persuade readers of the writer’s view on the issue
  • Inform, analyze and entertain
• General conventions:
  • May use headings and subheadings
  • The author is usually present in the text through anecdotes, personal pronouns and personal style
  • Establishes a closer relationship to the reader
  • Includes subjective opinions
  • Facts and statistics are often used to support the views expressed by the writer to create reliability
  • Often direct quotes and interviews
  • A person is presented to illustrate the issue, almost like a character in literature
  • Tells narratives as a way of digging deeper into the overall problem and giving the reader the big picture
  • Often ends emphatically
• Linguistic and literary features:
  • Language can be more informal, but not necessarily
  • Uses literary devices e.g. figurative language, visual imagery, etc.
  • Tone depends on the subject and the writer’s attitude towards it
  • Usually personal though
  • Usually switches between factual paragraphs (more objective and impersonal) and more literary ones (more subjective)
  • The literary paragraphs have narrative elements like anecdotes and scenes described dramatically
  • This can create a sense of immediacy
• News article vs feature article

Infographic/image

• What is an infographic?
  • A visual representation of information or data such as a chart or diagram
  • We may get any similar image on Paper 1
• Aim:
  • Convey information and/or a message to the reader
• General conventions:
  • Utilizes all the same conventions as a cartoon and advertisements, depending on its purpose
  • Sometimes a composite text if there are text boxes or similar present
  • Layout → stacking and flow of images and photographs, sizing and styling
  • Including spacing and negative space
  • Color, scheme, light and shade
  • Perspective and focus (camera angles)
  • Sometimes a visual narrative
• May also use rhetorical and literary devices in the text

Letter to the editor

• What is a letter to the editor?
  • An argumentative text meant to be published in a specific publication (magazine or newspaper)
  • Although it is called a letter to the editor, it is meant to be read by the readership of the publication as well
• Aim:
  • Usually responds to a text in the publication or a current event
  • Share an opinion about something specific
  • Takes a clear stance
  • Persuade the readers
  • Sometimes a call to action at the end
• General features:
  • Includes a greeting at the beginning and at the end → mimics a letter
  • At the beginning: Dear Sir, Dear Editors, To the Editor, etc.
  • At the end: A list of information about the writer (name, sometimes address/city, title if relevant, etc.)
  • Does not alienate readers
  • What this means depends on the target audience
  • Argumentation and persuasion, not whining or antagonizing
• Language conventions:
  • The language style depends on the publication
  • Often somewhat formal language, but clear and down to earth
  • A middle style
  • Often emotive language, modifying adverbs (extremely, slightly, etc.), inclusive language
  • To entertain there is sometimes inventive or playful expressions and figurative speech
  • Concise, brief, succinct, etc.
  • Editors have a limited space to print letters

Magazine cover

• What is a magazine cover?
  • A magazine is a periodical publication containing articles and illustrations, often on a particular subject or aimed at a particular readership, e.g. sports magazine or women’s magazine
  • A magazine cover is the front page of a magazine, which is the first thing the reader sees
  • Functions as an advertisement for the magazine
  • To some extent overlap with tabloids, except tabloids are more informal and colloquial
  • Informal language, nicknames used, innuendos and puns, exaggeration for effect, slang, short and snappy sentences, brand names, etc.
• Aim of a magazine cover:
  • Make the reader purchase the magazine and/or read it
  • Give the reader an impression of what the magazine is about and entails
• General features:
  • Conventionalized → each edition of the magazine is similar in both content and style
  • Layout which includes the name of the magazine, a title, a picture (relevant to the magazine’s content), ears and teasers, headlines and captions
  • A composite text which includes both written language and a picture/illustration which includes a visual narrative
• Visual conventions:
  • Visual narrative
  • Framing and perspective (camera angle)
  • Posing, body language, facial expressions, eye contact
  • Lighting, shade and color
  • Placement, size, color and otherwise styling of letters and headlines
• Linguistic and literary conventions:
  • Often use of literary and rhetorical devices to draw the reader in
  • Emotive diction, parallelism, metaphors, etc.
  • Direct address and established relationship with the reader
  • Typically short sentences and imperative verbs

Memoir

• What are memoirs?
  • Tells the story of a phase/event/time period of a real person’s life
  • Can be seen as a mix of an autobiography and a personal essay as it is a longer piece of text that discusses emotion related to specific events in a person’s life
  • The lines between literature and a memoir are blurry → when thoughts and dialogue is relayed in detail, how much is made up by the writer for effect?
• Aim:
  • Reflect and impart information about a person’s life while entertaining
• General conventions:
  • Focuses on lessons learned from the events described in the memoir rather than the factual information regarding these events
  • Personal tone
  • More informal than (auto)biographies
• Language features:
  • Memoirs will often use dialogue and other literary techniques to make the scenes come alive to the reader
  • Showing instead of telling

News article

• An expository text
  • All expository texts aim to inform, describe and/or instruct
  • Other expository texts: encyclopedia articles, factual texts in textbooks, police reports, insurance claims
• Aim:
  • Inform readers about a news event
  • Impart information
  • Not aimed at entertaining
  • Answer the questions: who, what, when, where, why, how
  • No attempt to judge or affix blame, only report the facts as they stand at the time of writing
• General features
  • The most important information comes early in the text without build up
  • Hyperlinks
  • Often quotes sources directly from experts or others involved in the case
  • Selection of quotes will impact how the reader thinks about the case
  • Often uses headlines and subheadings → easy to get an overview
  • Lead and copy
• Linguistic features
  • Not many literary devices, flowery language or emotions present in the text → focused on facts and objectivity instead
  • Neutral and objective tone → builds credibility
  • Less impartial than an encyclopedia or textbook
  • Selection of photos and biased language can still affect how the reader interprets the case, despite overall objective tone
  • No use of first person pronoun → the writer is not present in the text through voice, style or direct address
  • High lexical density
• News article vs feature article

Opinion column

• What is an opinion column?
  • A specific part of a publication where columnists can write articles, either within a specific field (sports, health, etc.) or about whatever they want
  • The columnists are regular contributors to the publication
  • This can be organized in multiple different ways, e.g. a daily/weekly column in the paper or a group of columnists taking turns writing
  • The column reflects the author’s opinion about a specific topic
• General conventions:
  • Employs a personal style or voice that is recognizable and separates the writer from other columnists
  • This means the other conventions of the column often depend on the columnist’s personal style as they may utilize different techniques, formality levels, etc.
  • Uses techniques of rhetoric and literary features
  • Essentially can contain any rhetorical, stylistic and literary devices suitable for the writer and their purpose/message
    • Typically anecdotes, figurative language and parallelism
  • This is what creates the writer’s personal style

Petitions and appeals

• What is a petition and/or appeal?
  • A persuasive text which appeals to the reader to become involved with a concrete issues through signing the petition or similar steps
  • Often from a known organization such as Amnesty International
• Aim:
  • To encourage people to take some sort of action
  • E.g. donate money to a specific cause or sign their name in support of a particular view
• General conventions:
  • Includes facts and background information for the issue
  • Often strong claims to take a clear stance
  • Frequent synthetic personalization → addresses the mass audience as if they were individuals
  • Achieved through direct address and inclusive pronouns
  • Many petitions and appeals are composite texts → include verbal text and visual elements
  • The writer uses illustrations, pictures, colors, font styles and layout to help achieve the purpose of the text
    • Eg. Amnesty International’s use of uppercase letters in the SIGN THE PETITION button → increases sense of urgency
  • Occasionally first-hand statements from affected individuals
• Linguistic features:
  • The facts are often described with an objective tone → to create a feeling of objectivity and reliability
  • Emphatic tone is usually used after presenting the facts to interpret them and underline the urgency/severity/etc of the issue
  • Persuasive literary and rhetorical devices are typical of this text type → appeals to the reader’s emotions
  • Emotionally loaded diction
  • Often negative to describe the issue and positive to describe solutions
  • Adjectives, adverbs and imperative verbs are used for effect
  • Adjective: creates emphatic tone
  • Adverb: Makes it stronger
  • Imperative form: calls for action, commanding, speaks directly to the reader

Speech

• What is a speech?
  • A formal address or discourse delivered to an audience
• Aim:
  • Depends on the setting and nature of the speech
  • Often aims at convincing the reader of the speaker’s opinion
  • Sometimes imparts information, though usually subjective
• General conventions:
  • Salutations at the beginning and end of the speech
  • Establishes a relationship between the speaker and the audience
  • Clearly established purpose
  • Clear introduction, main part and conclusion
  • Often reiterates facts, figures and statistics
  • Tone depends on the purpose of the speech and is created from the devices utilized
  • Either a call to action or concludes message with finality at the end
• Linguistic conventions:
  • Aristotelian appeal of logos, ethos and pathos → but do not focus primarily/just on this
  • May include personal appeal through anecdotes, engagement, inclusive language, etc.
  • Direct address to the audience
  • Any rhetorical or literary devices may be utilized by the speaker, depending on context and purpose