TEXT TYPES:
Text Production
& Critical Reading Revision
Ms Paine
11 English Studies
Why is a knowledge of text types
important?
• Whether you are creating your own
text in a text production task;
• Or critically reading a set text(s)
• A knowledge of different texts and
the features associated with them
are essential.
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Interpretation
Flowchart
Steps 1 to 4
1. Subject/ Key Ideas
What is the subject or central
idea(s) of this text?
3. Context
In what context is the text found?
Does it rely on any previous
knowledge or shared understandings?
2. Text Type
What text type has the author chosen?
How does this affect the overall style of
the text?
4. Purpose
Considering the previous
steps, what is the author’s
purpose in this text?
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1. Subject/ Key Ideas
• What is the subject and/or central
idea(s) of this text?
• Sometimes, the subject and central
ideas can be the same; or they can
differ.
• The choice of subject and key ideas is
intrinsically connected to the type of
text, context, purpose, techniques
chosen and meaning created.
Subject/ Key Ideas (cont.)
E.g
In our recent study of The Road, the
subject and central ideas clearly
differ.
Subject – is the anonymous man
and his son’s journey through a
post-apocalyptic landscape.
Key Ideas – include:
a) parental love
b) Morailty vs. the need to survive
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2. Text Types
• What text type has the author
chosen?
• How does this affect the overall
style of the text?
Text Types (cont.)
E.g:
1. Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is a five act play
and tragedy, in which the characters speak in a
range of poetic forms including iambic pentameter
(blank verse), prose and rhyming tragedy.
Iambic pentameter
Romeo:
The character speaking
is clearly indicated.
and symbolism is
…Oh here
employed.
Will I set up my everlasting rest
Shake the yoke of inauspicious stars
From this world-wearied flesh…
(5.3.109-112)
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Text Types (cont.)
2. An excerpt from Dylan Thomas’s
“Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night”:
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Reoccurring repetition
Do not go gentle into that good night.
and regular 3 line
stanzas are a sign of
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright a villanelle.
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Text Types (cont.)
• Despite both texts having features
associated with poetry, only one is
considered a poem – “Do Not Go Gentle
Into That Good Night” by Dylan Thomas.
• This is because it has five stanzas, adopts
the format of a villanelle and is not part of
a larger work.
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3. Context
• In what context is the text found?
• Does it rely on any previous
knowledge or shared
understandings?
Context (cont.)
Menu links to other part of website
Advertising
Video link
Online poll
•This recent story
from the online
edition of The
Advertiser, requires
an understanding of
recent news about
the problems with
federal government’s
home insulation
scheme.
•The presentation of
the text also reflects
the online context in
which it is found,
with links to videos,
advertising and other
parts of the Adelaide
Now website.
Source: < http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/peter-garrett-loses-home-insulationresponsibility/story-e6frea6u-1225834855835> accessed on 27/02/2010
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4. Purpose
• Considering the previous three
steps, what is the author’s
purpose in this text?
Purpose (cont.)
E.g.
• In the The Road, McCarthy explores
how a man and his son survive in a
post-apocalyptic world and the choices
that they are forced to make, and how
this affects their morality.
• However, McCarthy would also be
interested in selling books and
sustaining his career as a writer.
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Purpose (cont.)
E.g.
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet adopted
the popular drama form of tragedy in
Elizabethan England to explore the
consequences of young love and
extreme hate.
Purpose (cont.)
E.g.
Dylan Thomas’s poem “Do Not Go Gentle
Into That Good Night” was written to
his dying father, but has since become
a well-known text about grief in popular
culture..
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Purpose (cont.)
E.g.
The online story about Peter Garrett is an
informative newspaper style of report
about current news, although it might
subtly attempt to persuade the reader
to a particular point of view about this
issue.
5. Techniques
A) Form
What point of view is adopted?
How does the text type and purpose influence the form?
B) Structure
How significant is the title?
How is the text constructed as a whole?
How do sentence/ paragraph length affect the meaning?
C) Appeals to the reader (PERSUASION)
Does it appeal to emotion, reason, or creates suspense?
How does the text persuade you read on?
(sensory detail, connotation, adjectives, cliff-hangers etc)
How does it involve the reader?
(rhetorical questions, pronouns)
d) Imagery
5. Techniques
What visuals are there?
Does the text employ figurative language?
(metaphors, similes, paradoxes, symbolisms)
Are there any deliberate contrasts?
Does the text make any allusions?
(biblical, popular culture, Shakespeare, recent events)
e) Sound Devices
Does it employ repetition, alliteration, onomatopoeia or
assonance to influence the reader?
Does it use dialogue or quotations?
Is the punctuation used for a specific effect?
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a) Form
• What point of view is adopted?
E.g. First person, third person, point of reference
character, unreliable narration.
• How does the text type and purpose
influence the form?
E.g. Plays are written in a series of acts,
whereas novels usually have chapters.
b) Structure
• How significant is the title?
E.g. Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice was originally
planned to be titled First Impressions.
• How is the text constructed as a
whole?
E.g. A poet could write a sonnet, villanelle or
alternatively use free verse all of which have a very
different structure.
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Structure (cont.)
• How do sentence/ paragraph length
affect the meaning?
E.g: Henning Mankell uses a variety of sentence and
paragraph lengths in Secrets in the Fire to create
emphasis.
She thinks about her dream. Now that she’s woken up,
she’s both relieved and happy, but she’s also sad.
She thinks about her dream – and about what
happened that morning one year ago.
She thinks about Maria, whose breathing she can no
longer hear in the darkness.
Maria, who is gone.
(Secrets in the Fire, p. 13)
c) Appeals to the Reader (Persuasion)
• Does it appeal to emotion, reason, or
creates suspense?
• How does the text persuade you to
read on?
E.g. Sensory detail, connotation, adjectives, cliffhangers etc
• How does it involve the reader?
E.g. Rhetorical questions, pronouns
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Appeals to the Reader (Persuasion)
E.g: The opening sentence of Iain Banks,
The Crow Road, is considered one of
the most striking in literature.
“It was the day my grandmother exploded. I sat in
the crematorium, listening to my Uncle Hamish quietly
snoring harmony to Bach’s Mass in B Minor, and I
reflected that always seem to be death that drew me back to
Gallanch.”
(The Crow Road, p. 3)
d) Imagery
• What visuals are there?
E.g: The visuals created for a reader through
an author’s choice of description.
In time he beats a discrete track through the remnant belt
of rainforest to the beach, where he chips oysters and casts lures
for fish. One end of the white cove ends in boulders and rocky
scree. The other is thinly belted with mangroves through which
he passes a low tide to the stony edge beyond that gives onto a
sandpit. From the spit you can the mainland not half a mile
away. Even in the monsoon season it looks dry over there. The
ranges inland look rough and treeless.
Tim Winton, Dirt Music
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Imagery (cont.)
• Or alternatively the choice of image that
accompanies a text.
Source: <http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/>
accessed on 27/02/2010
The picture of a Crows player about to fall
over is appropriate for the caption.
Imagery (cont.)
• Does the text employ figurative language?
E.g. metaphors, similes, paradoxes, symbolisms
• Are there any deliberate contrasts?
E.g.
Hamlet:
Shakespeare a range
of metaphoric images
to describe Hamlet’s
position.
Hamlet’s dilemma of whether to live or die by his
own hand is seen as a contrast (anti-thesis).
To be or not to be – that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And, by opposing, end them.
(3.1.1-5)
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Imagery (cont.)
• Does the text make any allusions?
E.g. biblical, popular culture, Shakespeare, recent
events
“Alas, dear Yorick, I knew him
well!”
Bart as Hamlet addressing
the skull of Yorick.
Source: <http://media.comicvine.com/uploads/3/33118/662761simpsons_bart_hamlet_4_thumb.jpg> accessed on 27/02/20
e) Sound Devices
• Does it employ repetition, alliteration,
onomatopoeia or assonance to influence
the reader?
And the highwayman came riding-Riding--riding--
Repetition
The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn door.
Alfred Noyes “The Highwayman”
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Sound Devices (cont.)
• Does it use dialogue or quotations?
Australian PM unsatisfied with Israel's answers over
forged passports linked to Hamas murder
February 27, 2010 2:39PM
AUSTRALIA stepped up pressure on Israel today over fake passports
linked to the murder of a top Hamas commander, saying it was yet to
receive a satisfactory explanation.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said his centre-left government had an
“absolutely hard line” on defending the integrity of its passport system
and took seriously allegations that suspected Mossad assassins had
stolen Australian identities.
A direct quotation from the PM
Source: <http://www.theaustralian.com.au/politics/australian-pm-unsatisfied-with-israels-answers-over-forged-passports-linked-tohamas-murder/story-e6frgczf-1225835052027> sourced 27/02/2010
Sound Devices (cont.)
• Is the punctuation used for a specific
effect?
A one word sentence
punctuated by a full
stop for emphasis.
Forgotten, she thought. Rejected. The needed my
bed at the hospital. Lydia will never find me again. The
wheelchair will sink into the ground.
Secrets in the Fire, p. 84
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6. Meaning
•
How is this text constructed to convey a
range of key ideas to a reader?
Remember you must consider all of the
following to answer this question:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Subject/ Key Ideas
Text Type
Context
Purpose
Techniques
Meaning
a.
•
•
•
•
Form
Structure
Appeals to the Reader
Imagery
Sound Devices
Interpretation
Flowchart
Remember to use this
guide to help you in
both text production
and critical reading
tasks.
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