Textual Analysis

Textual Analysis S5 English

Good Morning S5! • In today’s lesson we will... • Revise textual analysis. • Analyse writers’ techniques. • Look at word choice, structure and imagery.

Textual Analysis • The textual analysis NAB is based on an extract from a short story, novel, play or poem. • You have to read the text carefully and answer questions on HOW it is written – the techniques the writer uses. • Textual analysis skills overlap with Close Reading, as well as your study of literature.

Textual Analysis • You will be asked... • UNDERSTANDING questions – what is being said by the writer. • ANALYSIS questions – how it is being said. • EVALUATION questions – how well it is being done.

Imagery • When a writer creates a picture in language. • SIMILE A figure of speech in which one thing is compared to another using ‘like’ or ‘as’. The man is ‘Like a monstrous animal caught in a tent/in some story.’ ‘hands like wet leaves’ What do these similes suggest about the man?

Imagery • METAPHOR A comparison in which one thing is said to be another thing. Doesn’t always use the word ‘is’! Ask yourself – is what the writer is saying literally true?? ‘That child is a pain.’ ‘Her room is a rubbish dump.’ In pairs create 4 metaphors to describe your partner. Make sure you can explain the images suggested!

Practice! Find the metaphors and similes – what do they tell us? Clownlike, happiest on your hands, Feet to the stars, and moon-skulled, Gilled like a fish... Wrapped up in yourself like a spool. Trawling your dark as owls do. Mute as a turnip from the Fourth Of July to All Fool’s Day, O high-riser, my little loaf... Snug as a bud and at home Like a sprat in a pickle jug A creel of eels, all ripples. Jumpy as a Mexican bean. ‘You’re’ by Sylvia Plath

Imagery • PERSONIFICATION A figure of speech where an inanimate object is written about as if it were a person or living creature. ‘The dismal hump/looming over him forces his head down.’ The hump on the man’s back cannot really be pushing and forcing him – it is not a living thing. The poet is suggesting the hump seems alive because it looks as if it has deliberately pushed the man out of shape.

Sound Devices • ONOMATOPOEIA When a word sounds like what it is describing – thud, bang, splash, yawn, howl. ‘slithering with a dull clatter’ It is used to make the writing sound more vivid. • ALLITERARTION Letters or sounds are repeated at the beginnings of words. ‘A cup capsizes along the formica’ It draws our attention to it.

Revise... • Sentence structure • Word choice • Word order • Grammar • Punctuation (commas, colons, dashes, brackets, ellipsis) • Repetition • Contrast

Endings • You may be asked why the ending of a text is suitable. • It may sum up what the writer has been saying. • It may emphasise a point in the text. • It may be humorous. • It may give the reader something to think about.

Practise! • Language Skills • Pg 96-97 • “Child with Pillar Box and Bin Bags”

Textual Analysis