Cambridge International AS & A Level English Language Coursebook

English Language for Cambridge International AS & A Level COURSEBOOK Mike Gould & Marilyn Rankin

Second edition Original material Š Cambridge University Press 2019

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Section 4 Reading skills – text analysis

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Unit 4.1 What is text analysis?

Learning objectives In this unit, you will: ■

learn the core skills and approaches for analysing a given text (AO3) learn how detailed analysis can lead to an overview of tone and effect (AO3).

Before you start

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■

What things might you look for when reading a text closely? Think about the following, and give some examples of each: 1 features related to form or text type 2 structural features 3 language features

What is effective analysis?

When you analyse a text, you focus closely on specific aspects of it to examine how they work, both on their own, but also in terms of how they link to the overall effect of the text.

Thus, if you were reading about a storm, you might explore a powerful phrase such as ‘army of clouds’, but also explore whether this phrase contributed to a more general way in which a writer might want to describe a storm as a battle.

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In text analysis, you will need to:

1 identify distinctive features of the text and link them to the purpose and context of

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the writing

2 comment on aspects such as vocabulary, figurative language, word ordering, sentence

structure and formality/informality of tone

3 explore how particular attitudes, bias or prejudice are conveyed by the writer 4 provide both an overview of the text as a whole, and specific commentary on

individual elements.

Here is the opening paragraph from a student’s analysis of a text.

STUDENT RESPONSE

KEY TERM

elegiac: expressing sorrow, often for something or someone in the past

The overall tone of the text is mournful and elegiac – a man remembering the death of a loved one some time ago. The opening two sentences are short simple ones in the present tense which express the finality of death. The first – ‘She’s gone’ – could be about any departure, but later in the text the reader learns that the past tense g‘one’ refers to her passing away. Then, the text shifts in time with the phrase ‘It was on a morning…’ so that the reader begins to realise this is as much about memory as anything else.

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Unit 4.1: What is text analysis?

ACTIVITY 1

Which of the skills of text analysis listed has the student demonstrated in this opening paragraph? For now, you do not need to have read the text the student is commenting on.

Exploring text Now read the passage that the student was commenting on in the sample analysis and some of the notes they made.

[1] adjectives convey sense of winter, emptiness

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She’s gone. She won’t ever come back. It was on a morning, just before Christmas, when everything felt exposed because of the leafless trees. Black lines were etched against the blue and green; sky and field.

The hedgerows were threadbare, but jittery with the chirp and wiggle of small birds. There was a choir of calls. There was a tinkle of running water, like many tiny bells in an underground stream. Small life, I thought.

Further away, a copse was a jagged outcrop. A row of trees was a line of camels climbing a hill. Then higher up, on Mitchel’s Fold, there was a cairn. Once, on a long walk stopping there, I had added a stone to the mound for her. I was far from home and that cairn was far from her grave in Lapeyrouse cemetery behind the blue stone wall between Ariapita Avenue and Tragarete Road in Port of Spain where the sun would be beating down and the palms would be caught by the breeze off the sea in the gulf.

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From That Touch of Blue, by Lawrence Scott

ACTIVITY 2

Now that you have read the text and the student’s analysis of it, discuss the following questions with a partner: 1 To what extent do you agree that the tone of the whole text is ‘mournful and elegiac’? Are there any words or phrases in the second paragraph of Scott’s text that support this idea?

Does anything contradict it or make this piece less mournful?

2 What further uses of figurative language can you identify? Are there any repeated words or phrases? Look back to Unit 1.3 to remind yourself about figurative language.

3 In what way does the description of weather and landscape at the end of the second paragraph contrast with the opening of the first paragraph?

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[2] figurative language refers to trees, then the church/religious sounds

KEY TERM

cairn: a pile of stones or rocks which can be a memorial or a landmark

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Cambridge International AS & A Level English Language

Meaning and style Feelings and attitudes may be conveyed when they are not directly expressed.

For example, read these three student responses discussing the writer’s attitude.

The analysis you have completed is a good example of the level of detail you will need to apply to a given text. However, this is only effective if it allows you to: •

explain the shifting tones in a text (e.g. how a perspective or mood might change according to the language used) trace the text’s chronology – the order in which things happen, such as shift s in time from present to past and back again.

•

STUDENT RESPONSE A Well, the reader finds out the woman is buried f‘ar away’ from the cairn where the writer a‘ dded a stone’. Where she is buried is clearly a sunny place.

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KEY CONCEPT

STUDENT RESPONSE B

Yes, but this makes it sound all a bit unclear, like he’s struggling with the memory. Was she dead when he laid the stone? The opening makes it sound like he’s describing a specific time –‘It was on a morning’ but then he says ‘Once….’ as if that’s a different time.

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Yeah, and then you get the bit at the end where he’s far away – it sounds like another country because of the descriptions of the weather – the ‘leafless trees’ to begin with and then the sun ‘beating down.’ Perhaps Christmas is a time of year when you remember family and loved ones, so that’s why he’s writing this?

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Which of the student responses seems to be making inferences from the form, language and structure of the text? What ideas do they suggest (which aren’t stated explicitly)? Look back to Unit 1.4 for more about inference.

What inferences would you make about the writer and his attitude or perspective on things?

Remember, an inference is not guesswork; ideas must be supported by evidence from the text. For example, you cannot say ‘She must have died in a plane crash because they might have travelled a long way from one place to another’. There is no mention of a ‘plane’, and even if there was, you would need to have a further reference to an accident or tragic event to surmise that this was the reason for the person’s death.

Summary of key points for an effective analysis From this introduction to text analysis you should remember the following key points. Try to develop these skills as you work through the remaining units in this section.

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Get the overview of the given text • What overall view or sense of the text do you get from reading it?

• Is there a specific message or core theme?

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Unit 4.1: What is text analysis?

2 Identify the distinctive features of form, structure and language • What do you notice about the language used (e.g. voice and vocabulary)?

• What do you notice about the form, structure, patterns and chronology?

3 Focus on effects • What specific effects do these choices of form, structure and language have?

• Why have these specific words, phrases or structures been chosen?

• Are they positive, negative, or neutral in their effect?

4 Explain, explore and evaluate

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• What is the reader told explicitly?

• What is revealed or what can be inferred? (What do we have to guess about?)

• What valid interpretations can be made?

5 Check for changes or contrasts

• Is the text consistent in its message, or in the mood or tone conveyed?

• Are there shifts in tone or focus?

• If it does change, where does it happen structurally?

• Are there elements in the text that are ambiguous, or contrast or contradict each other?

THINK LIKE… A LITERARY REVIEWER

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ACTIVITY 3

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Write a short review of a book or story you have read, focusing on the writer’s style and the effects they create (rather than the plot or action). Consider how he or she has created voice or mood, or conveyed time and the sequence of events. You might try and use some of the key points for an effective analysis listed here.

Choose any text (whether one you are studying or not) and practise applying the five key points for an effective analysis. Make a note of those which you find the most difficult or most challenging to apply to your text, and track how you improve as you work through this section.

Self-evaluation checklist

Reflect on what you’ve learnt in this unit. Indicate your confidence level between 1 (low) and 5 (high). If you score below 3, revisit that section. Come back to this list later in your course. Has your confidence grown?

Confidence level I understand what features of a text to look for when undertaking a close analysis I can use a range of different ways to analyse texts, and ensure that inference is supported by evidence

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Revisited?

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