THE BIG 5

The Big 5 Questions

Audience and purpose Who wrote the text?
Who was it written for?
Why did the writer write it?
Content and theme What is the text about?
Tone and mood What is the writer's tone?
How does the text make the reader feel?
Stylistic devices What stylistic devices does the writer use?
Structure What kind of text is it?
What structural conventions are used?

AUDIENCE Who was the text written for?

How are you part of or different from the target audience?
Context of interpretation
Has your interpretation of a text ever been different from someone else's?
How are we influenced by the contexts in which we read?
Are we affected by our particular circumstances and environment, and our
personal history?
Keep in mind that you can interpret a text differently from the way the author
intended it to be interpreted.
PURPOSE What is the writers intention?
Why did the writer write the text?
Context of composition
This refers to the factors that influence a writer when creating a text, such as:
time, race, gender, nationality , family history and personal experience.
You have to be like a detective when you read texts, looking for pieces of
evidence that reflect the context of composition. These pieces of evidence are
called contextual clues.
CONTENT & Content refers to what happens in a text, in terms of the action, events,
THEME people and places. Theme contains the deeper message or main idea of a text.
Who are the people involved in the text and what are their roles?
Does the text make reference to a particular time or event?
What happens in the text? What kind of action takes place?
What is the authors message?
What is the significance of the text to its audience?
What is the text actually saying?
Deductive reasoning refers to an argument that comes to a specific conclusion
by drawing on general rules.
Inductive reasoning refers to an argument that comes to a general conclusion
by drawing on specific cases.
Activity 2.4 on p. 43
TONE It refers to the language used by a speaker or writer to instigate an emotional
effect on the listener or reader.
How does the author sound?
What is the writers tone?
What kind of diction does the writer use?
Diction is the choice of vocabulary that a writer uses in order to create a tone.
Tone words
adventuresome anxious celebratory confident determined dignified
disappointed encouraging euphoric fatalistic hopeful hopeless
 hyperbolic ominous passionate reassuring resigned severe
solemn tragic wise zealous
MOOD How does the text make the reader feel?
How does the writer use diction to put the reader in a certain mood?
Activity 2.5 on p.45
Mood words
apprehensive desolate disappointed disheartened empathic empowered
engaged fascinated frustrated intrigued mournful optimistic
sentimental solemn suspicious tough uplifting
STYLISTIC DEVICES These are techniques that writers and speakers employ to instigate a response
from their audiences.
Verbal irony is a stylistic device in which the surface meaning and underlying
meaning are not the same. In other words: we say one thing but mean
something else.
Three kinds of verbal irony are:
Sarcasm: includes humour and criticism
Rhetorical question: does not require an answer because the situation already
implies an obvious answer.
Double entendre: relies on the secondary meaning of a phrase or word
Why did the tomato blush? Because he saw the salad dressing.
A joke like this one, also called a pun, relies on ambiguous language that has
secondary meaning
Figurative speech
Analogy: is the process of comparing one thing or idea to another.
Shes got her head in the clouds. In this sentence there is analogy to absent-
mindedness and air. In other words, absent-mindedness is compared to air.
Metaphor: is the use of language to make a comparison between two things
or ideas by applying a word or phrase to something that does not literally
mean that.
He attacked every weak point in my argument.
STRUCTURE What structural conventions are used in the text? (Read p. 51)
Why did the writer choose to write that particular type of text?
How does the type of text suit the purpose of the writer?
Course book p. 56, Activity 2.8
Text types
advertisement autobiography biography brochure cartoon diary
diary drama script editorial feature article guide instructions
letter of application letter of complaint letter to the editor manifesto
news article novel op-ed opinion column poster
press release report review short story song lyrics
speech transcribed interview travel writing

SPECIFIC STYLISTIC/LINGUISTIC DEVICES USED BY JOURNALISTS

BIAS a skewed (= distorted, misrepresented) presentation of ideas from a
particular ideological position
Course book p. 69, 70
MANUFACTURED a term coined by the political scientist and linguist Noam Chomsky. It
CONSENT describes the phenomenon that a small ruling elite can shape public opinion
in their favour by controlling the media.
SENSATIONALISM Course book, p. 71
RELEVANCE Course book, p. 71
EXTRAORDINARINESS Course book, p. 71, 72
EMOTIVE LANGUAGE Course book, p. 72
EUPHEMISMS Course book, p. 72, 73
VAGUE LANGUAGE Course book, p. 73