1. Analysing Texts
Close reading

2. Close reading
Close reading is the skill of analysing and interpreting texts.

3. Text Types Biography Opinion column Feature article Cartoon Poster
Letter of complaint
Review
Report
Advertisement
Speech
Diary
Essay
Letter to the editor
Song lyrics
Brochure
Guide
Press Release
Autobiography
Instructions
Novel
Drama script

4. Close reading
Close reading is the skill of analysing and interpreting texts.
The tools you need to be proficient in close reading are:
Audience and purpose
Content and theme
Tone and mood
Stylistic devices
Structure

5. Audience and purpose
Who wrote the text? Who was it written for? Why was it written?

6. Audience and Purpose Ask yourself questions!!
Saying the author’s purpose is to persuade is not enough
- who does he want to persuade?
- why does he want to persuade them?
- what kind of reaction does the language I
instigate from the reader?
- what does the language tell us about the
context in which the text was written?

7. Content and theme
What is the text about? Content: what happens in the text (action, events, people and places) Theme: the deeper message or main idea of a text

8. Tone and mood
What is the writer’s tone? How does the text make the reader feel? Tone: the language used to instigate an emotional reaction on the listener (e.g. the language can be described as hopeful, passionate, hyperbolic, confident …) Mood: the atmosphere that is created through the tone of the text (e.g. the mood can be disappointed, frustrated, uplifted, sentimental …)

9. Stylistic devices
What stylistic devices does the writer use? Examples of stylistic devices are irony, sarcasm, rhetorical questions, metaphors

10. Structure What kind of text is it?
What structural conventions are used?
Example: personal letter
Greeting – Date – Purpose – Anecdote – Conclusion
Example: formal letter to an editor
Greeting – Date – Reference – Point – Call to answer - Signature

11. Close reading
Close reading is the skill of analysing and interpreting texts.
The tools you need to be proficient in close reading are:
Audience and purpose
Content and theme
Tone and mood
Stylistic devices
Structure

12. Audience and Purpose
Who wrote the text? Who was it written for? Why was it written?
Ask yourself questions!!
Saying the author’s purpose is to persuade is not enough
- who does he want to persuade?
- why does he want to persuade them?
- what kind of reaction does the language I
instigate from the reader?
- what does the language tell us about the
context in which the text was written?