The 3 things you shouldn't forget when analysing language

Analysing the way someone uses language and then writing your own essay about it is kind of a strange thing. Not only do you have to work out what the author is saying and why, but you then need to turn your discussion into a cohesive, well structured essay. Simple right? Most people don't think so.
It is hard to know where to start.

Here are the three things l believe you should focus on in every language analysis essay. Include these 3 things in equal measure and you can't go wrong.

1. What is the author saying?  Identity the key messages in the piece of writing you are analysing. Each of these key messages might form the focus of your paragraphs ie: discuss one of the author's main messages per paragraph.

2. How are they saying it? What evidence and language is the author using to make their point? This becomes the bulk of your discussion in the body of your paragraphs. Here you are discussing the language devices they are using to make their point.

3. Why are they saying what they are saying in this way? This is one of the most important parts of your essay and it is the bit that most people forget. You need to discuss here what the author's intended effect is. Why have they chosen to say what they said in the way that they said it? Why have they chosen paricular words, phrases or evidence? What are they trying to find or imply? How are they trying to influence the reader?

Covering all 3 of the What How Why in your essay will ensure your language analysis essay is thorough and focuses on the right elements. There is no point writing a list of persuasive techniques the author uses because the important thing is to discuss how he/she uses them and why.

The Study Space's guide to oral presentations

As part of AOS 3 - Using Language to Persuade, you will most likely be asked to present a persuasive oral to your class and teachers. Whilst your oral presentation should be persuasive it is not the same as a persuasive essay.  If they are reading, your audience have an opportunity to go back and re-read if they need to.  When they are listening your audience do not have this opportunity so it is even more important that you present your arguments in a clear and logical way so that the audience can follow. 

The best way to do this is to have a clear structure and to take note of the points below.

Key elements of a persuasive oral:

Introduction

Introduce the issue you will be discussing.  What is it? How did it come about? Why are people arguing about it? 

Contention/Main Argument

Clearly define your opinion on the issue - what are you arguing? The contention should be introduced as part of your introduction, as should your supporting arguments.  This way you are signposting to your audience what you think and why you think it and what you are going to talk about so that they can follow what you are saying more easily. 

Supporting Arguments

Your oral presentation should have 2-3 supporting arguments.  To work out what your supporting arguments should be, ask yourself these questions: What do I think about this issue (what is my opinion) and why do I think it (what are the main reasons I think the way I do)?

You should clearly list your 2-3 supporting arguments and each of these should be discussed in detail in your presentation. 

Rebuttal

Your rebuttal is an opportunity to pre-empt what people might say to disagree with your opinion and then explain to your audience why they are wrong if they disagree with you.  For example, if you are arguing for  the death penalty then in your rebuttal you might pick the most common argument against the death penalty and explain to your audience why it is wrong.  For example: People think that the death penalty is not a deterrent, however...

Conclusion

Don't forget to conclude your presentation with something interesting that reinforces your opinion.  A great way to leave a lasting impact on your audience is to get them to feel personally involved in the issue.  You might finish your oral presentation by presenting to your audience what you think needs to be done about the issue and how they can all be involved in the solution. 

Some tips for an engaging presentation:

Use eye contact

This means no reading from your cue cards or from a PowerPoint. 

Only write the main points or a topic sentence on your cue cards and make the font big enough that you can glance at it and still read it.  If you put the whole presentation on there you might be tempted to read it.  You can write it out in full at home to try to remember it and practice, practice, practice - in front of the mirror or to your parents and/or siblings.  This is a good way to help you remember your presentation but also to check out how long it goes for to see if you need to cut it short or make it a bit longer. 

Make your points clear and repeat them often

Remember that your audience will benefit from repetition when they are listening.  If your points are not clear enough they will be confused and tune out. 

Don't over-use PowerPoint

You should never put more than a couple of words on a PowerPoint slide and it is better if you use them for visual prompts - relevant images or small embedded video snippets could be used to help engage your audience and prompt you as to your next point. 

Try to get the audience involved in the subject matter

The best way to do this is to ask your audience some relevant questions, get a show of hands, give them surprising statistics that will make them think or explain to them how they are involved in the issue and what they should do about it. 

You might like to take on a persona

Think about who you could pretend to be in your presentation.  For example, could you be a concerned parent?  Could you be a school principal?  If you take on the persona of a person who is personally involved with the issue somehow then it helps you to argue something that you might not even actually agree with and it might make your presentation stand out a bit from the crowd.  A persona can be interesting because it allows you to think a little bit differently.  Make sure you introduce your persona at the start of the presentation so people know who you are pretending to be.

Why practice essays are the key to English success.

The  best thing you can do is write, write, write!

Most VCE students want to do well in English.  After all,  it is the only subject that counts towards your Atar regardless of your marks.  What most students don't realise though is that English (and every English based subject) is not about learning content. Although you do need to demonstrate a detailed knowledge of and understanding of the texts you are studying, English is predominately about demonstrating a set of skills.  Skills like interpreting and understanding texts, writing coherently and intelligently and being creative when creating your own texts.  The only way you can demonstrate these skills,  in order to have them assessed, is to write and this is why most of your assessment during the year is in the form of writing, culminating in the three hour English exam. 

Regardless of which one of the tasks you are completing in Year 12 English you are being assessed on both your understanding and interpretation of what you have read and how you go about exploring these ideas in your own piece of writing.

So what does this mean for a year 12 student? It means that although knowledge and understanding are important, the most important thing is how you go about expressing that knowledge and
understanding in your own carefully crafted piece of writing. 

More importantly it means the only way you can truly improve your English grade is to write practice essays.  As many as possible, as often as possible, getting as much feedback as possible.

Here are four reasons practice essays are so important:

1. They help you work out where the gaps in your knowledge are when you still have time to do something about it.                                   

Particularly in the Reading and Responding (text response) your knowledge of the text is paramount. Many students only realise they don't have enough to talk about in their essay when they are trying to write under exam or assessment conditions.  If you practise your writing before sitting down to an assessment task then you have time to go back to the text and learn more about the characters and themes to fill in the gaps etc if you need to.

2. The more you practice any skill, the better you become.

Writing a good essay is not some mythical skill that some people possess and others don't.  Anyone can write a good essay, it just requires practise and a knowledge of what to include and how to structure it. I will be writing more on this in future posts. 

3. Practice essays allow you to get feedback and this feedback, when taken on board, can only make your grades get better and better.

Getting feedback on an assessment task that has already been graded is not really that helpful.  Let's be honest, how often do you read the feedback, look at the grade, be happy or sad and then forget all about it by the time the next essay comes around?  Writing practice essays means that you are practising the skills at a time when you can get feedback on them from the teacher who will grade your assessment tasks and ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING ABOUT that feedback in time to improve your grade.  This is a free service, provided by your teachers that you should be taking advantage of.

4. Practising a whole lot of different topics makes you better prepared for the exam?

There are not an infinite number of questions that an examiner could ask you about every text you will study, just like there are not an infinite number of prompts you could be given for Creating and Presenting.  This means the more you write practice essays, the more likely it is that you will have written a practice essay on the very essay topic or prompt that you receive in the exam. Therefore, you can actually be prepared for the exam without cramming in the last 6 weeks. If you write a practice essay every week (which requires just one hour's committment each week) then by the time the exam comes around, you will have written a practice essay for almost every possible essay topic you might be given in the exam.

Okay. 

So I've convinced you that you need to write practice essays but you might not know how to motivate yourself to actually do it.  The best way to get yourself started and to maintain your momentum is to get organised with a study timetable.  I've written more about how to make study timetables work for you here.  My previous post also contains a video and template to help you out.  

When you are planning out your study timetable you need to put aside at least one hour each week of uninterrupted time to write an essay.  Set aside two if you can. I find the weekends are the best time to do some more concentrated study blocks.  Get some practise topics from your teacher and force yourself to write.  Give each essay to your teacher for feedback.  If you don't feel like you are getting enough feedback,  or you feel that it is taking too long then check out our essay feedback service.  Each week, before you start the new essay, look at last week's feedback and try to incorporate it in to this week's essay.  The more you do this, the better your essays will become and the more confident you will feel going in to the exam.