Language Analysis - recognising language techniques

[cc182]

One of my biggest weaknesses in VCE English is language analysis, and I struggle the most with recognising techniques and appeals in texts. Does anyone have tips for improving in this specific area? Thanks

[vceme]

Remember. language analysis or argument analysis isn't about identifying techniques and appeals. When beginning your analysis, you want to identify the author's main arguments. Remember how when you write an oral presentation, you would usually come up with a plan and 3 main argument. So try to carefully read through the piece, and determine what the authors main contention is and their sub-argument is. To determine their contention, you can try and read the first and last sentences, as authors like to encapsulate their contention in a sentence. HOWEVER, this does not apply in all cases so don't reliantly go off this. Next, you want to identify the target audience. Who do you think will most likely react to whatever the author is addressing. To determine the effect of readers, put yourself inside the readers shoes. How do you feel when you read a piece? What do you start thinking about? Note them down. I suggest reading lots of essays done by students and their complementing article to determine how high-scoring students select and analyse 

[scout]

One of my biggest weaknesses in VCE English is language analysis, and I struggle the most with recognising techniques and appeals in texts. Does anyone have tips for improving in this specific area? Thanks

Totally endorse what vceme said. Don't get too hung up about labelling language techniques - sometimes you can't attach a label to them at all. You'll be better off if you focus on honing your analysis skills rather than your technique identifying skills. For my part, I only flagged specific language techniques when I felt that they were really worth noting. I tended to talk about emotions for the intended effect part (because that's essentially how you get a message across, even the logical ones). So for that reason, I did mention appeals a fair bit. But I did this as the need arose; I never actively went hunting for language techniques.

Nonetheless, if you still want to pursue your Argument Analysis strategy (identifying language techniques), read several opinion pieces, especially VCAA'S, and see if you can find commonly used language techniques that you can then keep a lookout for the next time you analyse an opinion piece. For this, you'll need to figure out what exactly opinion writers do in their pieces - e.g. do they compare two scenarios, do they blame somebody, etc. and think about how this makes you feel.