Ana­ly­sing Non-​Fictional Texts

Text Struc­tu­re

• What is the pur­po­se of each pa­ra­graph? (e.g. in­form, ex­plain, con­vin­ce)



In­form:

• What does the author in­form about?

• Why does he do this at that point in the text?



Ex­plain:

• What does he ex­plain?

• Why does it need ex­plai­ning at that point in the text?



Con­vin­ce:

• What ar­gu­ment(s) does he give?

• In what order?

• How is the ba­lan­ce bet­ween pro- and con-​arguments?

• How does the order of ar­gu­ments help in con­vin­cing the rea­der?

Lan­guage



Style and vo­ca­bu­la­ry:

• What is the over­all tone (dark/light/op­ti­mi­stic/pes­si­mi­stic/happy/angry/funny/ iro­nic...)

• Which words in the text sup­port this tone?

• Is the lan­guage very for­mal, or ra­ther in­for­mal?

• Where in the text can you see that (ex­amp­les!)

• Is the style ty­pi­cal for the genre? (e.g. news­pa­per articles often tend to be more for­mal; blog ent­ries are ty­pi­cal­ly more in­for­mal)

• If the style is not ty­pi­cal for the genre, why does the author choo­se it what ef­fect does it have on the rea­der?

• How do style and vo­ca­bu­la­ry sup­port the author's main idea.



Rhe­to­ri­cal De­vices:

• Are there any rhe­to­ri­cal de­vices that the author uses parti­cu­lar­ly often?

• What ef­fect do they have on the rea­der in that con­text? (e.g. em­pha­sise cer­tain aspects/ evoke cer­tain fee­lings/ crea­te a cer­tain tone/ etc.)

• Are there other sin­gle rhe­to­ri­cal de­vices that stand out?

• What ef­fect to they have on the rea­der in that con­text?

Ana­lysis draft



I In­tro­duc­tion

genre, title, au­thor, date/year, main topic



II Short sum­mary of the text

(If that hasn't been done be­fore!)



III (- IV) Struc­ture

Give 1-2 state­ments on the struc­ture that are im­port­ant for your task/ to sup­port the au­thor's in­ten­tion.

For each state­ment, give an ex­ample and the ef­fect on the reader.

Each state­ment has its own para­graph fol­low­ing the SEE-​Structure (state­ment, example, effect).



IV/V (-VI) Lan­guage

Give 1-2 state­ments on lan­guage that are im­port­ant for your task/ to sup­port the au­thor's in­ten­tion.

For each state­ment, give an ex­ample and the ef­fect on the reader.

Each state­ment has its own para­graph fol­low­ing the SEE-​Structure (state­ment, example, effect).



V/VI/VII Con­clu­sion

Sum up the main points of your ana­lysis.

The art­icle/ com­ment/ essay/ etc. ... writ­ten by ... on Janu­ary 3rd, 2020 / in (the year) 2020 and pub­lished on ...

The pur­pose of this text is to...

In this piece, the au­thor ex­plores...

The art­icle/ com­ment/ essay/ etc. ... writ­ten by ... on .../ in (the year) ..., pub­lished on ... dis­cusses/ in­forms about/ ex­plains/ ar­gues that/ per­suades ...



The struc­ture of the text is de­signed to...

The au­thor or­gan­izes the ar­gu­ment(s) by...

The au­thor ar­gues that...

The au­thor sup­ports this claim with evid­ence such as...

The au­thor provides evid­ence in the form of...



The tone of the text is... be­cause...

The au­thor uses words like ... to cre­ate [tone, mood, im­agery, etc.]

Through the use of [rhet­or­ical device], the au­thor em­phas­izes...