Literary Features Flashcards
What does voice do?
It conveys the mood of a text.
What can the voice of the text be?
⦁ Formal vs. informal.
⦁ Serious vs lighthearted.
⦁ Comical vs. depressed.
⦁ Persuasive vs. argumentative.
⦁ Objective vs. subjective.
What is the voice of the narrator?
Expresses the attitude of the narrator through which the story is directly being told, which directly affects the way the the reader views the content of the text.
What is the voice of the author?
Expresses the attitude of the author themselves. The authors voice can distinctly shiny through the narrator’s voice.
What is the voice of the character?
The author may choose to give each character their own unique voice to express their personality and take on the events in the story.
What are the types of the voice of the character?
⦁ First person narrator: More directly involved/invested in the events of the story.
⦁ Second person narrator: Directly places reader in the story, as a character of the story.
⦁ Third person narrator: More objective than a first person narrator.
What is tone?
Overall feel/emotion of the text, which is effected by the lexis. This affects how the reader feels about a text.
What can tone be?
⦁ Regretful.
⦁ Joyous.
⦁ Cynical.
⦁ Sarcastic.
⦁ Uneasy.
⦁ Inspirational.
⦁ Facetious.
What is audience?
The readers of a text, determined by voice conveyed in the text.
What are the factors that decide audience?
⦁ Age range.
⦁ Cultural context.
⦁ Individual ideology.
⦁ Education level.
⦁ Prior familiarity of topic.
How do you appeal to the audience
⦁ Formal vs. informal.
⦁ Conversational vs. factual.
⦁ Educative vs. entertaining.
What is genre?
Defines the purpose of the text.
What is purpose?
The reason/s the author wrote a text. One primary, and a few secondary reasons.
How do you determine the purpose?
⦁ Does the text offer factual information? Then the purpose is to inform.
⦁ Does the text tell us how something works? Then the purpose is to explain.
⦁ Does the text contain a list of steps to accomplish a specific task? Then the purpose is to instruct.
⦁ Does the text contain sensory features that create a mental picture? Then the purpose is to describe.
⦁ Does the text contain poetry, a story, or is it a novel? Then the purpose is to entertain.
⦁ Does the text contain reasoning/encouragement for the reader to do something? Then the purpose is to persuade.
What is modality?
The degree of certainty/obligation that is involved in the action.
