Paper 1 Non-Fiction General Notes:
Non-Fiction texts are based on facts or real events.
→ biographies, news articles, travellogues,…
→ written to inform, but also to entertain the reader using a range of literary techniques
→ allmost always written in first-person, creating a closer connection to the reader hence engaging them
Language and Structure
Tone:
= The general feeling/mood created by the text, shows the writer’s attitude
e.g. happy or sad, optimistic or pessimistic, sombre or light-hearted, serious or humorous, emotional and passionate or rational and logical, supportive or concerned/worried, friendly/chatty or angry
To find the tone:
look at the language - e.g. informal language = familiar or personal tone, formal language = serious, distant tone
punctuation - e-.g. exclamation marks used = emotional and passionate tone
language choice & other techniques - e.g. adjectives such as “abandoned”, “eerie"; personification of the wind = creates heavily foreboding tone
Style and Register
Words and Phrases
Zooming in on specific words and phrases and explore their connotations is particularly important in order to thrive in the exam.
It is also vital to identify the different word types:
→ Noun, Pronouns, Possessive pronouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs, Possessive determiners,…
Example: Pedro shut the door vs Pedro slammed the door.
→The verb shut is fairly neutral, where as the verb “slammed” connotes that Pedro is angry and shows his frustration.
Phrases that use possessive determiners ‘my’, ‘your’ and ‘our’ establish familiarity between the writer and the reader and make the text more persuasive.
Phrases that use intensifiers such as “very” “really” “extremely” make the text seem more emotive or powerful. They are often used alongside strong adjectives to provide emphasis.
Cumulative effect of words and phrases
A semantic field contains words associated with a particular theme or topic. They convey an idea to the reader or establish a particular mood/atmosphere.
e.g. “Divine”, “Cloud-like”, “Angel’s wing” → semantic field of heaven makes it sound appealing.
Keep an eye out for situations where particular types of words are repeated, e.g. sentences with lots of adjectives or paragraphs with lots of verbs.
Commenting on the cumulative effect of particular types of words and showing how the words work together to create tone or affect the reader in some way is a good idea.
e.g. Adjectives like “electrifying”, “thrilling”, “tense”, and “intriguing” create a cumulative effect of excitement.