Paper 1
Paper-specific notes
The reasons for doing the same thing might be different for different groups of people (no phone → more time for kids = adults with kids; no phone → more productive and efficient in doing homework = students)
Hardly ever things are meaningless. So, talking about something must be very important to the analysis. If it is not, forget it as if it does not exist.
The guiding question commonly tells the purpose.
People who read for entertainment usually read topics they are familiar with. Same with opinions we agree with.
The status of the publisher might affect the tone and audience (US government = adults, school news = students)
Ideally, every point should build on top of each other. Some day I will understand how to do it because it also had to be split into paragraphs, which is impossible in my mind now.\
My common language mistakes
Talking about full-screen, width, and so on, it's better to refer to the “screen” but not the “device.”
“Simplest”
“Left-centre” not “centre-left”
“Split” into two parts Separated by a large whitespace
“Process” or “understand” information, not “receive.”
“Hover” is just a state when you hover over something. “Hover understanding”, and everything else is just design slang.
“Create an allusion” or any other authorial choice, but not “make.”
“Intended audience”, not “reading audience.”
“Very likely to understand her”, not “most likely.”
Text “conveys” ideas.
To “evoke” is to make someone think of it (atmosphere)
“Tone” is how the audience perceives the information. “Setting” is the environment where the event takes place
Who vs whom. “Who” when it is the subject of the sentence. “Whom” if it is the object of the sentence.
“I” vs “me”. I write something, but the paper is about me. I am the subject, and “me” is the object. To check it, remove one of the subjects
“Effect” vs “affect”. The effect is what something causes. “Affect” is a psychological term for emotion. The effect of this metaphor… Seasonal affective disorder (effective is one something is done well) This affects my grade (it affects my grade. To change or to influence) The effect is to make something happen. Shorthand. The effect is a noun, and the "affect" is a verb.
Speech notes:
Persuasive speeches (usually all of them are persuasive) finish with a call to action
Speeches commonly address the potential counterarguments to strengthen their argument
The tone depends on the audience or occasion.
The only one that is delivered orally to a room full of people
Constantly addressing the audience
“I”, ‘we’, ‘you’ will be used and abused to appeal to the audience and persuade them to do something.
Sentences are relatively short.
Speeches have strong transitions between the ideas and paragraphs. They more or less say what they are going to do.
All speeches start with a hook: anecdote, joke, greeting, random statistic fact, rhetorical question, etc. It grabs the audience's attention. In the case of the rhetorical question, it is commonly provocative.
Buzzwords (a better way to say it is repeated terminology or key terms) that go through the entire speech. When writing speeches, they want to refer to the same idea with the same term or word so that it is easy to follow.
Linear idea development.
For infographics
Usually, the purpose is to persuade the audience to do something
Pictograms are common since it communicates information quickly. The level of details also changes the speed of communication and generalisation(simple pictograms are universal, apply to everyone, and communicate information fast. More details would have the opposite effect.
A possible structure that is more or less universal for infographics is to follow the visual hierarchy. What is the first thing that the reader will see? What it is, why it is there and its purpose. The second thing that the reader sees (why it is the second or how the previous thing leads to it, how the purpose ties in with what was shown before).
Common text types and their features
Advertisement
Purpose
Convinces the audience of a product's worth to entice the audience to purchase, and typically tries to prove the product's superiority over others.
Features
Multimodal, more focus on visuals than writing as time passes.
Biography
Purpose
To inform about another's life story factually.
Features
Written in the third person, it can be multimodal but mostly based on writing.
Blog
Purpose
To share a person's opinions and experiences as they happen.
Features
The informal, first person.
Brochure
Purpose
To inform briefly & persuasively.
Features
Folded over, multimodal.
Cartoon
Purpose
To convey a point entertainingly.
Features
Highly visual, typically caricature-ensue.
Diary
Purpose
To emotionally express without the expectations of an audience.
Features
Sometimes a greeting, first person, may not be grammatically correct or well-written, personal anecdotes & feelings.
Electronic text
Purpose
It can have a wide array of purposes but is mainly focused on either informing or artistic expression.
Features
It can only be created & published on computers.
Infographic
Purpose
To inform through engaging visuals.
Features
Multimodal, engaging, typically colourful, blends visuals & writing, typically contains cartoonish illustrations or icons if any full-on images are present at all.
Interview
Purpose
To obtain a specific person's point of view because of their expertise.
Features
Question & answer format, typically in magazines.
Formal letter
Purpose
To convey personal information professionally to another person.
Features
Often computer-written, the form of address, date, and location.
Informal letter
Purpose
To communicate with somebody through a distance.
Features
Form of address, location, personal opinions & feelings.
Magazine article
Purpose
To entertain while informing, sometimes subjectively.
Features
Paragraphs, engaging tone, try to form a link with the reader, speaks to a wide audience.
Memoir
Purpose
To surmise a person's recollections on their life, often on a specific part of it, in an anecdotal and emotional way.
Features
Sometimes niche target audiences, written in the first person, may be divided into chapters to represent parts of life.
Speech
Purpose
To address an audience on a certain topic, typically to inform while persuading about a certain opinion on the topic being informed about.
Features
An address of the audience cannot be multimodal, its presentation may include paralanguage.
How to write
Introduction
Write the introduction last. While you are writing, there are a lot of new ideas incoming, as well as a rethinking of initial ideas. As a result, you adjust minor details that would not work with the initial thesis.\
Always state text type, author, medium or publisher, subject, purpose and the intended audience.
As mentioned above, you must finish the introduction with the thesis. It must state general authorial features used to accomplish the purpose for the intended audience.
Example:
Text 1 is a food article written by Julie Sahni and published in New York Times Magazine. In it, she attempts to familiarise an American adult audience with Indian culture and food. Julie Sahni does it through informal or poetic language and enticing factual information leading to a "call to action" in the form of a cooking tutorial, which all together creates a positive impression of Indian Culture.
Body paragraphs
Aim to have 3 or 4 paragraphs.
Start the paragraph with the topic sentence that generalises what you will discuss.
In each paragraph, you must discuss a specific authorial choice with an implicit meaning or effect on the reader. Hence, you have to comment on how this effect contributes towards the purpose of the text for the specific audience.
Each authorial choice must be quoted directly from the text. Even if it is the general style or tone: try to find a vivid example of what creates such a tone. The only exceptions are visuals and structure, but even there, you must explicitly state it.
The overall structure should be grouped somehow. Visual, structure, and language always work, but grouping by the effects is better. An even better solution would be having a chronological analysis, where your further points are based on what you have said.
Conclusion
A restatement of the introduction.
#Controversial-tip: Do not talk about the structure if you have other things to say about the language. It commonly does not refer to the specific audience but contributes towards general readability and digestibility, which can be said about any text. More or less, the same applies to visuals. Saying, "the pretty image is there to attract readers' attention and increase RR on the page", is better than nothing but far from ideal.
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