NEWSPAPER ANALYSIS HOMEWORK
It is vitally important as a student of English that you are doing as much as you can at home to improve
your Close Reading and Analysis skills. One way that you can do this is to read and analyse broadsheet
newspapers.
TASK
1.
Choose a broadsheet newspaper from the following titles: The Herald; The Scotsman; Scotland
on Sunday; The Observer; The Guardian; The Independent, The Times, The Sunday Times etc.
If you do not usually buy one of these papers, you can access articles through the Internet.
2.
Choose an article from the newspaper that interests you.
3.
In your jotter, you should write the following (using bullet points if appropriate):
a)
The date
b)
The newspaper’s name
c)
The headline of the article
d)
One sentence summary of what the article is about.
e)
Three bullet points summarising three key points made in the article.
f)
The purpose of the article. [to inform, entertain, persuade, criticise, promote,
instruct…] and an explanation of how you know this.
g)
Analyse three techniques the writer has used:

Descriptive word-choice (explain the connotations)

Interesting sentence structure:
o
Question (rhetorical)
o
Short or minor sentences (no verb)
o
One-word sentences or paragraphs
o
Repetition
o
Lists
o
Interesting punctuation (! ? - “” : ; )

Imagery (Simile, Metaphor, Personification)

Pun / Word-play / Humour

Tone (critical, tongue-in-cheek, light-hearted, ironic, sentimental…)

Statistics/Facts/Anecdotes
**[Remember to identify the feature AND analyse the effect (e.g. why it is used)]**
h)
The definition of 3 new vocabulary words you didn’t know before.
EXAMPLE
Date & Title
19/01/2011
The Independent : ‘Eat and Run: The
Fine-Dining Crimewave’
Summary
o More and more people are
leaving posh restaurants without
paying for their meal to save
money.
3 Key Points
o Statistics show that record
numbers of people are
committing the crime.
o Very few people are ever
arrested.
o Two people who have been
arrested (Janis Nords and John
Williams) were fined in court.
Purpose
o To inform
Techniques
o Alliteration: creates a humorous
tone.
“dash for the door” & “dine and dash”
o Parenthesis (two dashes) to emphasise how big the bill was.
“His crime spree – which amounted to £5880 in unpaid bills – resulted in him being banned…”
o Statistics: to inform the reader how serious the crime has become.
“300 compared to 249 in 2009”; “33 per cent increase” & “£7000”
New Vocabulary
o “prominence” – the state of being noticeable or standing out
o “jeroboam” – a large wine bottle size which holds 4 standard bottles.
o “Latvian” – coming from the country Latvia. A person from Latvia.