Analysis of Language

Analysis of Language Unit 1 English: Outcome 3 Using Language to Persuade-analysis of language use in the media

Why do we analyse language use in the media? • What are some of the ‘real world’ benefits of understanding how language and visuals are used to persuade? • Understanding of the role and primacy of language and visuals in our lives • Awareness of how we are positioned, influenced, manipulated, by peers, by authority figures and by the media • Development of our own capacity to intentionally use language/visuals to influence or impact others, to achieve our intended outcomes • To be able to develop informed opinions • Development of critical thinking skills • To be able to recognise biasand subjectivity

Activity: rewrite the following arguments, changing the language choices • I request that the school install new air conditioning systems for the use of both students and staff, as it is difficult to focus during the summer months. • (Requested by School Captain; target audience is school council members) • In order for students to work productively and receive better marks, the school should install air conditioners for the benefit of both students and teachers, as it is impossible to concentrate when the heat is too severe.

Focus/Purpose of Language analysis • The focus of language analysis is to discuss how language and visuals have been used to intentionally position the reader in particular ways.

What we analyse • How the text is constructed • Language choices made by the writer • Persuasive techniques used • Visuals accompanying the text

How the text is constructed • A writer intentionally chooses how a text is put together. • Purpose, form, audience • The audience will change the language • The purpose controls how the reader will perceive the information and how the information is presented • The form dictates how the readers will take in the information or opinion. • Order of ideas, including sentence structure • Writers can choose to hide certain ideas, opinions or facts through the sentence order or structure. Sometimes the more challenging or confronting information will appear late in an article once the reader is already on board. • Information is often presented in an engaging way to begin with, or with upfront attacks, pleas etc. to coerce the reader into the article • Images/Cartoons • Used to attract attention or create a preconceived understanding of the article.

Language Choices • Writers make specific language choices for a number of reasons • To ostracise/engage particular readerships (technical/everyday/etc.) • To achieve a particular response in the reader. e.g. sympathy, anger, humour etc. • To connect to a particular connotation/denotation • Writers use various types of language that you can discuss in a language analysis • Emotive language • Loaded language • Figurative language • Modal verb/adverbs or relating verbs • Titles, formal names, nick names, acronyms, abbreviations • Inclusive language • Idioms and colloquial language

Modal verbs • can • could • may • might • must • ought • shall • should • will • would Modal verb is a verb that combines with another verb to indicate mood or tense. A modal (also known as a modal auxiliary) expresses necessity, uncertainty, ability, or permission. We use modal verbs to show if we believe something is certain, probable or possible (or not). We also use modals to do things like talking about ability, asking permission making requests and offers, and so on.

Persuasive Techniques • Writers of persuasive articles will use a variety of persuasive techniques • Look at page 22-25 to familiarise yourself • Subtle or blatant • You must focus on analysing the effect of a persuasive technique. How does it position the reader? • You should consider how different readers might be positioned to think/feel about the topic, debate, issue, contention, arguments; how they might be positioned to feel about certain individuals and groups; how they might be positioned in relation to other members of the community

Visuals that accompany the text • Visual language is any non-verbal language that makes use of images, symbols, colours or design. This includes a huge range of text types, such as photographs, cartoons and illustrations, film footage and graphs, but it can also include aspects of design such as font selection and background colours. • Sometimes visual language can have a nuanced or subtle (almost subliminal) impact on an audience and its significance can be easily overlooked. At other times, the impact may be obvious. • Either way, writers of persuasive texts and editors of media texts make careful visual language choices, just as they choose their words carefully, to appeal to their audience.

Visuals that accompany the text • Visuals are included in articles to • Engage the reader • Connect the reader with prior knowledge and understanding of the issue or topic • Influence what the reader is thinking before they start reading • Consolidate or extend the impact of the content in the written text • Create an emotional response to certain ideas • It is important that you address any visuals that accompany the text. • How does the visual work in conjunction with the heading/title of the text or the caption? • Discuss exactly what the visual shows (denoted meaning) as well as the connotations it holds in relation to the presenting issue. • Who/what is the visual directed at? A person? An institution? A concept? • Consider how the visual positions the reader (both prior to and after reading the text). • Also consider the positioning of the visual. How does this change the readers’ understanding?

In print media sometimes visuals are incorporated from surrounding articles to change the readers’ understanding of the text. • Consider the placement of visuals and text on the following slide.

Truck Accident Friday morning a truck driver fell to what should have been his death after a serious accident on City Link. The driver, rushed to hospital in a serious state fell from his vehicle after it hit a barrier and hung precariously over the edge. The accident has caused major disruption to peak hour throughout the area and will continue to disrupt traffic throughout the day. Vic Roads is hoping to have the accident cleared before the afternoon rush hour begins. The driver, name yet to be released, remains in surgery throughout the day. Budget tipped to fail Government. The Government, after releasing their latest budget has taken a dive in the polls once again. Many people claim the budget reflects that of a party not expecting to be in power shortly. The budget, though emotionally delivered by Gillard earlier this week, meets some expected ideas includes many cuts designed to get the budget back into the black. The truck remains hanging after the driver fell to the ground below.

How to annotate • Annotation is not simply identifying the techniques used by the writer. • You need to annotate why the writer used this technique and how it positions the reader, to think, feel and respond to the opinion, arguments, issue, problem, event, or people involved. • It can help to colour code your annotations once you finish. Choose three colours for three different ways the writer positions the reader – these could form the basis of your paragraphs (depending on how you choose to structure the analysis).

Structuring a Language Analysis • The focus of a language analysis is how the reader is positioned-NOT the techniques used by the writer. • Introduction • Body paragraphs • Conclusion

Introduction The introduction to a language analysis MUST include • Title of the publication • ‘Title’ of the article, date • Writer’s name • Writer’s contention • Context of the article (background, what had lead to this response) • Purpose, audience, form, style • Tone (this may include some recognition of shifts in tone) • Your own overarching statement about how the writer positions readers – this will form the basis of your essay • The points you will be making about the intended effect on readers (not a list of the persuasive techniques).

Sample introduction Identification of issue and context Pinpointing of tone and style In 2011 London was shaken by violent protests and riots, which in turn sparked commentary about the possible reasons for such ‘social and economic disintegration’. In an opinion piece, “The case for decency” published in The Age newspaper in August, sociologists Don and Patricia Edgar offered up a scathing, didactic argument for a ‘return to self-discipline and morality’. Their rather depressing assessment of our western democracy as a ‘bad society [where] self-interest rules’ speaks most clearly to parents and community leaders, and incorporates a number of guilt-inducing attacks and doomsday scenarios designed to enlist support for their vision of a world driven by ‘ethical, humane’ behaviour. Title of article Overall purpose, focus of analysis Title of publication Date Identification of target audience Writers Writers’ contention/purpose

Sample body paragraph Topic sentence outlining the main idea and purpose of the section of text. Grouping use of words with a similar impact on the reader. Zooming in on the implications of specific word choices, discussing connotations without saying the author uses connotations. Initially the Edgars seek to paint a bleak vision of a ‘fractured society’ under threat from an erosion of moral behaviour. They open by claiming that the West is experiencing ‘social and economic disintegration’, with this last word conveying a sense of profound loss or decay. The implication is that the problem is fundamental and extreme, making an assumption from the outset that positions the audience to accept a rather extreme premise. This fairly hyperbolic line is furthered by confronting, negative words in the opening paragraph which all imply dishonesty – ‘corrupt’, ‘lie’, ‘rort’- which together establish a vision of the West as in dire need of what the authors later refer to as ‘an ethical base for intelligent behaviour’. Here readers are asked to question the very ‘cornerstones’ of Western life, and are encouraged to feel uncertain and anxious about their world. The destabilising impact of this emotive opening is exploited in subsequent sentences, with a number of didactic commands such as ‘What the world needs now’ and ‘Children need to learn’ conveying in forceful terms a moralistic argument in favour of the ‘more emotional intelligence’. Furthermore, by supporting this argument with a voice of assumed authority in ‘Harvard University’s professor of cognition and education, Howard Gardner’, the authors imply that theirs is a view condoned by the west’s academic elite and therefore should be accepted as an informed and widely held stance. Clear focus on how the audience is positioned Phrases that connect various elements to show their collective impact on the reader. Shows ‘expert opinion’ without blatantly stating the technique

Sample Conclusion All of these elements combine to emotionally confront an audience of community leaders and disturbed citizens, those most likely to push to ‘stamp out rebellion and deter others’-i.e. the young and the irresponsible-from engaging in such anti-social behaviour.

Conclusion • One way to consider a conclusion is that it sums up your linking sentences. • The conclusion must show how the writer positions readers overall, as well as in sections of the text. • It must show what you have illustrated throughout your analysis, not what you set out to achieve. • The writer convinces readers to (insert writer’s contention) by…

General Advice Do Do not • remember that writers make deliberate choices-language; structure; tone; persuasive strategies • consider the background of the writer; the issue or topic; the publication and the target audience • consider how the text/visual works to position readers (effects) • use sophisticated and varying language as well as appropriate metalanguage • give your own opinion • make value judgements about the arguments provided • merely summarise the content of the original article or recount the arguments provided • merely identify the persuasive techniques used • provide generic (memorised) explanations of the intended effect of various persuasive devices

How to construct an effective language analysis • Avoid random unrelated paragraphs that may focus on individual techniques. • Focus on the ‘how’ and ‘why’, using the ‘what’ to support your analysis • USE EVIDENCE (over and over again, for every single technique you mention and for how the writer is positioned) • Use a variety of language choices to describe what the writer is doing and how the text is working – don’t use the same sentences/phrases over and over again (e.g. no more than one ‘says that’

Vocabulary: The writer… • contends • purports • proposes • condones • demands • suggests • alludes to • argues • refutes • asserts • attacks • admits • justifies • criticises • outlines • condemns • elicits • evokes • instils • incites • invokes • appeals to • encourages • challenges • advocates • alienates • distances • divides • negates • accentuates • acknowledges • explains

Analysis of Language