Language Analysis structure?

[fridge]

Hey everyone. I feel reasonably comfortable with the different aspects of language analysis (tone, contention, identifying and analysing techniques), but I'm not sure how I should structure my piece. Should I go through the article in order, or find all the instances of a particular technique and discuss each technique/appeal one at a time? I'll be clarifying with my teacher when we get back to school, but just interested in what you guys like to do. Thanks

[McFleurry]

Depends on the article.
If it's pretty obvious that there are a couple repeating techniques, then  I'll group them.
Other times it's easier and more logical chronologically.

[fridge]

Thanks for the help. So your school hasn't suggested any particular method? I'm not a natural at English so I like to be as methodical as possible in my approach to writing.

[McFleurry]

They've suggested the usual way (chronological) and drummed it into us just in case we blank out during the exam/sac/whatever, but sometimes I do chronological, and lapse into the grouping for 1/2 paragraphs.

I like to be as methodical as possible in my approach to writing.

Maybe try both for the same article and then make your choice?? Or maybe just go with chronological: it does work quite well.

[brenden]

If you want to follow a method, follow
'PEE'. Lol, hard to forget.
Persuasive language (or persuasive language technique)**
Evidence
Effect.

Within your paragraphs, you should have 'PEE' a few times over. Also, don't structure it
P
E
E
P
E
E
P
E
E
Or it will get mega boring. You can mix it up, just change your grammar. EPE. PEE. EEP. EPE. And all of those combined/back to back (PEE-EEP-EPE) etc.


**You will score much higher marks for discussing how language is being used instead of discussing what a rhetorical question does.

[McFleurry]

If you want to follow a method, follow
'PEE'. Lol, hard to forget.

+10000000
We learnt FEE: feature, example, effect. But PEE is way, way better.

[fridge]

Nice acronym...PEE    When separating my analysis into paragraphs, should I divide them in terms of techniques, overall arguments, or ...?

[deleted]

Nice acronym...PEE    When separating my analysis into paragraphs, should I divide them in terms of techniques, overall arguments, or ...?

I tend to separate my paragraphs in terms of articles.
So we receive three articles.

First off, do the intro. I usually just identify the issue and explain it in 3-4 lines, then I say talk about the sides of the issue the people who've written the articles have taken.

1st paragraph, I do it in order, so I start with identifying the author's name, the title, date, etc.
Then I begin analyzing. I always begin with the title.
I just keep working my way through.

If it seems like I've written a lot (20-25 lines for me) and I'm only halfway through analysing that article, I'll start a new paragraph. Then when you're done analysing the article, begin a new paragraph and as before, identify the author, date, title, etc.
Some articles are ridiculously shorter than others, so in some cases, your paragraph for an entire article may be 15 lines.

Be remember to actually compare the articles to each other though! It could be the something like, 'Whereas Smith has used a sarcastic tone to dismiss and ridicule the Premier, Smith has used an aggressive and bitter tone, attacking and mocking the Premier and encouraging others to view him as feeble and easily dismissed.'

And in the conclusion, I usually compare one final thing that the three articles all differ in. E.g. target audience, specific techniques, etc.

But it's all up to you though, some people compare all three articles in all of their paragraphs and separate the paragraphs according to techniques.

[fridge]

Thanks. Just on that note, has it been common for VCAA to give more than one article in the exam? Our school tends to only give us one article (often with an accompanying image).

[siddhartharora]

Seems like people have more advanced methods going on here, although going to a few Language Analysis lectures and our school in-class learning, its been made clear that DON'T FOCUS ON THE LANGUAGE TECHNIQUES. You essentially should structure each paragraph around the argument being made. So if you can find 3 points - arguments supporting the author's contention, there's your 3 paragraphs, and then you can identify techniques that would help voice out the author's opinion and encourage the reader to be persuaded.

Hope I helped!

[deleted]

[brenden]

Get your bullshit off my board.


VCAA has never given three articles to compare under this study design.

[saba.ay]

Get your bullshit off my board.


VCAA has never given three articles to compare under this study design.

But is it possible to have more than one article in an exam situation, and has it happened under the current study design? :/ This is news to me as I always thought that comparative analyses were for the SACs, not exam. :/

[Lasercookie]

But is it possible to have more than one article in an exam situation, and has it happened under the current study design? :/ This is news to me as I always thought that comparative analyses were for the SACs, not exam. :/

Yeah it's possible. From the exam specifications:

http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Documents/exams/english/english-samp-w.pdf

Section C will require students to write an extended piece of prose, analysing the use of written language and visual features in the unseen text(s)

where that (s) implies they can give you more than one text.

[brenden]

They can give comments (2011) and other like things that are additional to the article, but I personally think it is very unlikely for VCAA to give you two articles straight up. They wouldn't get a bell-curve. I guess it wouldn't be so bad if they provided two very short articles and asked to compare.

So, it is important to learn how to write comparatively, which is why some schools elect to have comparative SACs.