Useful Techniques Flashcards
What is a Multipurpose text?
A text with more than one purpose (often two)
E.g. Primary purpose: To entertain
Secondary purpose: To inform
What is the primary purpose of a text?
The main focus of the text e.g. To inform
What is the secondary purpose of a text?
A side purpose to the text. E.g. A newspaper article is written to inform but in cases also to entertain
What is the function of a text?
How the text will be used e.g. Referential
What is the implied reader of a text?
A constructed image of a reader who best fits the central views, message and beliefs of the piece e.g. The implied reader for an economics article would be someone most likely an intellectual, possibly of a certain age
What is the actual reader of a text?
These readers may chose to resist the identity and ideology theatre projected and constructed for them by a text producer
Discourse community
A group which shares beliefs and drawn to reading the same material
Audience positioning
The assumptions the text makes of the reader e.g. Whether they’re educated about the subject of the text or not
Synthetic personalisation
Defined by Norman Fairclough in 1995 the simulation of a private, face to face person to person discourse in public mass audience discourse- print, radio, TV
E.g. In a horoscope
Hybrid text
A blend of one or two elements e.g. Written and spoken language
Rhetoric
Persuasive language, lists of three, paired contrasts, rhetorical questions
Modifiers
Evaluate adjectives to nouns to pre-modify them in order to express opinions. Some are more subtle in evoking an attitude or perspective e.g. Suspected terrorism
Disjuncts
A sentence modifying adverb that expresses the text producers views e.g. ‘Without a doubt….’
Text producer
The author in essence
The text receiver
The reader
