Paper 1 Text Types and Their Features/Conventions

What are features and/or conventions?

• the familiar and predictable forms and techniques used in a specific text type to communicate certain ideas/impressions to the reader.

• structural components that construct meaning and achieve purpose.

• makes the genre recognizable.

• some claim conventions are necessary to meet certain standards while features are optional (punctuation vs imagery) → but in a p1 it really does not matter as they imply the same

Advertisements

• What are advertisements?

  • A notice or announcement in a public medium promoting a product, service or event

• Aim of advertisements:

  • Convince the reader to buy their product

  • Make the product and/or company memorable

• General conventions:

  • Advertisements are composite texts (verbal text and visual elements)

  • Complex interplay between text, image and visual- and literary devices that together convince together

  • Advertising technique

    • Appeal to fear

    • Bandwagon effect

    • Shock advertising

    • Conflict in advertising

    • Testimonial

    • Problem/solution technique

    • Anti-advertising

  • Tone depends on the type of advertisement and advertisement technique → may be light and humorous or dark and scary, etc.

• Technical conventions

  • Visual narrative, camera angles, lighting, color, juxtaposition

• Symbolic conventions

  • Objects, setting, body language, clothing, characters

• Written conventions

  • Tagline, copy, slogan, signature

  • Literary and rhetorical devices within any written text

Biographies & autobiographies

• What are biographies and autobiographies?

  • The historical story of a person’s life

  • Autobiographies:

    • are written by the person whose story is being told (though sometimes in collaboration with another writer)

  • Biographies:

    • are not written by the person whose story is being told, but rather someone else

• General conventions:

  • Usually have a chronological structure from birth to death/present

  • Often employ a formal tone → to seem more reliable

  • Similar to a history book

    • Concerned with facts and documentation

    • Little to no emotion

Blogs

• What is a blog?

  • Each post/individual text is called a “blog entry”

  • This text type is often part of a “staging” of oneself

    • This can explain traits such as jargon and individualized expressions

    • A certain voice is created → a personal style that readers recognize

• Aims of blog entries:

  • Imparts a personal response

  • Focuses on topical issues

  • Expresses particular opinion on a subject → tries to persuade

• Stylistic/linguistic/rhetorical devices in blog entries:

  • Subjective tone

  • May begin and/or end with a hook

  • Anecdotes

    • Blogs can be like public diaries

    • Real life examples

  • The writer is often “present” in the text

    • Sometimes direct address to the reader

  • Informal language

    • Though this may depend on the target group

      • E.g. political blogs are more formal than cooking blogs

  • Often uses techniques of rhetoric and literary features

  • Humor can be used to entertain readers and keep them coming back

    • Less often in academic blogs

• Typical content of blogs:

  • References you have made to previous posts

  • Comments on the frequency of postings

• Visual elements of the blog post:

  • Layout and design

  • Dated entries that include the name of the blogger

  • Top banner with the blog’s name

  • A catch heading for the post

  • Blogroll

  • Sidebar with profile information and links to other blogs

    • These links are called trackbacks

  • Archive of older postings

  • Customized interface of for instance Blogger or Wordpress

  • Widgets

Cartoon

• What is a cartoon?

  • Sequential frame narrative communicating a message with humor

  • Often posted in a section of a newspaper/magazine/similar publication

• Aim:

  • Overall and primary aim is to entertain the reader

  • Sometimes imparts a message with deeper meaning

• General conventions:

  • Humor → through funny elements, physical humor, drawing style, punchline, etc.

• Visual devices as features

  • Panels/frames

  • Border

  • Closure

  • Gutters

  • Speech/thought bubbles

  • Caption

  • Emanata

  • Varying degrees of abstraction

  • Camera angle

• Literary devices can also be utilized in the captions and bubbles

Editorial

• What is an editorial?

  • Editorials are like brief written speeches

  • Relatively short texts that state a case, make a few points and then summarize by pointing out a need or calling for some sort of action

  • Opinion pieces printed in the same section of a newspaper each day and represent the opinion of the editorial board on some current issue

    • Editorial board’s opinion = the newspaper’s opinion

    • The page opposite the editorial is called the op-ed page and frequently contains opinion pieces written by writers who are not directly affiliated with the newspapers

      • The op-eds share the same conventions and features as the editorial (short, call for action, etc.)

• Aims of the editorial genre:

  • Persuade the reader

  • Express particular opinions on a subject

• Linguistic conventions:

  • Quite formal language

    • Though the exact level depends on the type of medium (what newspaper) and the intended audience

  • Relatively high lexical density (information-carrying words)

  • Tone of authority (and similar) is common

  • Use of adverbs (quickly, largely, etc.) and auxiliary verbs (should, must, etc.)

    • Signals the writer’s attitude towards the topic and the audience

• Often includes passages with more focus on relaying facts and information, before judging it with a clear opinion and/or call to action

• Uses techniques of rhetoric and literary features

  • Essentially can contain any rhetorical, stylistic and literary devices suitable for the writer and their purpose/message

Encyclopedia & textbooks

• An expository text

  • All expository texts aim to inform, describe and/or instruct

  • Other expository texts: news articles, police reports, insurance claims

• What are encyclopedias & textbooks?

  • Essentially all purely factual texts

• Aims:

  • Imparts information

  • Does not try to entertain

  • Does not express opinion

• General conventions:

  • Is precise

  • Objective and neutral tone

    • Builds credibility

• Language:

  • Can contain jargon

  • No use of first person pronouns

    • We cannot see the writer in the text or get a sense of their writing style, personality or opinions

Feature article

• What is a feature article?

  • A longer article that analyzes and evaluates information that is known/not breaking news

• Aim:

  • Persuade readers of the writer’s view on the issue

  • Inform, analyze and entertain

• General conventions:

  • May use headings and subheadings

  • The author is usually present in the text through anecdotes, personal pronouns and personal style

    • Establishes a closer relationship to the reader

  • Includes subjective opinions

  • Facts and statistics are often used to support the views expressed by the writer to create reliability

  • Often direct quotes and interviews

    • A person is presented to illustrate the issue, almost like a character in literature

    • Tells narratives as a way of digging deeper into the overall problem and giving the reader the big picture

  • Often ends emphatically

• Linguistic and literary features:

  • Language can be more informal, but not necessarily

  • Uses literary devices e.g. figurative language, visual imagery, etc.

  • Tone depends on the subject and the writer’s attitude towards it

    • Usually personal though

  • Usually switches between factual paragraphs (more objective and impersonal) and more literary ones (more subjective)

  • The literary paragraphs have narrative elements like anecdotes and scenes described dramatically

    • This can create a sense of immediacy

• News article vs feature article

Infographic/image

• What is an infographic?

  • A visual representation of information or data such as a chart or diagram

  • We may get any similar image on Paper 1

• Aim:

  • Convey information and/or a message to the reader

• General conventions:

  • Utilizes all the same conventions as a cartoon and advertisements, depending on its purpose

  • Sometimes a composite text if there are text boxes or similar present

  • Layout → stacking and flow of images and photographs, sizing and styling

    • Including spacing and negative space

  • Color, scheme, light and shade

  • Perspective and focus (camera angles)

  • Sometimes a visual narrative

• May also use rhetorical and literary devices in the text

Letter to the editor

• What is a letter to the editor?

  • An argumentative text meant to be published in a specific publication (magazine or newspaper)

  • Although it is called a letter to the editor, it is meant to be read by the readership of the publication as well

• Aim:

  • Usually responds to a text in the publication or a current event

  • Share an opinion about something specific

    • Takes a clear stance

  • Persuade the readers

  • Sometimes a call to action at the end

• General features:

  • Includes a greeting at the beginning and at the end → mimics a letter

    • At the beginning: Dear Sir, Dear Editors, To the Editor, etc.

    • At the end: A list of information about the writer (name, sometimes address/city, title if relevant, etc.)

  • Does not alienate readers

    • What this means depends on the target audience

  • Argumentation and persuasion, not whining or antagonizing

• Language conventions:

  • The language style depends on the publication

  • Often somewhat formal language, but clear and down to earth

    • A middle style

  • Often emotive language, modifying adverbs (extremely, slightly, etc.), inclusive language

  • To entertain there is sometimes inventive or playful expressions and figurative speech

  • Concise, brief, succinct, etc.

    • Editors have a limited space to print letters

Magazine cover

• What is a magazine cover?

  • A magazine is a periodical publication containing articles and illustrations, often on a particular subject or aimed at a particular readership, e.g. sports magazine or women’s magazine

  • A magazine cover is the front page of a magazine, which is the first thing the reader sees

    • Functions as an advertisement for the magazine

  • To some extent overlap with tabloids, except tabloids are more informal and colloquial

    • Informal language, nicknames used, innuendos and puns, exaggeration for effect, slang, short and snappy sentences, brand names, etc.

• Aim of a magazine cover:

  • Make the reader purchase the magazine and/or read it

  • Give the reader an impression of what the magazine is about and entails

• General features:

  • Conventionalized → each edition of the magazine is similar in both content and style

  • Layout which includes the name of the magazine, a title, a picture (relevant to the magazine’s content), ears and teasers, headlines and captions

  • A composite text which includes both written language and a picture/illustration which includes a visual narrative

• Visual conventions:

  • Visual narrative

  • Framing and perspective (camera angle)

  • Posing, body language, facial expressions, eye contact

  • Lighting, shade and color

  • Placement, size, color and otherwise styling of letters and headlines

• Linguistic and literary conventions:

  • Often use of literary and rhetorical devices to draw the reader in

    • Emotive diction, parallelism, metaphors, etc.

  • Direct address and established relationship with the reader

  • Typically short sentences and imperative verbs

Memoir

• What are memoirs?

  • Tells the story of a phase/event/time period of a real person’s life

  • Can be seen as a mix of an autobiography and a personal essay as it is a longer piece of text that discusses emotion related to specific events in a person’s life

  • The lines between literature and a memoir are blurry → when thoughts and dialogue is relayed in detail, how much is made up by the writer for effect?

• Aim:

  • Reflect and impart information about a person’s life while entertaining

• General conventions:

  • Focuses on lessons learned from the events described in the memoir rather than the factual information regarding these events

  • Personal tone

    • More informal than (auto)biographies

• Language features:

  • Memoirs will often use dialogue and other literary techniques to make the scenes come alive to the reader

    • Showing instead of telling

News article

• An expository text

  • All expository texts aim to inform, describe and/or instruct

  • Other expository texts: encyclopedia articles, factual texts in textbooks, police reports, insurance claims

• Aim:

  • Inform readers about a news event

  • Impart information

  • Not aimed at entertaining

  • Answer the questions: who, what, when, where, why, how

  • No attempt to judge or affix blame, only report the facts as they stand at the time of writing

• General features

  • The most important information comes early in the text without build up

  • Hyperlinks

  • Often quotes sources directly from experts or others involved in the case

    • Selection of quotes will impact how the reader thinks about the case

  • Often uses headlines and subheadings → easy to get an overview

  • Lead and copy

• Linguistic features

  • Not many literary devices, flowery language or emotions present in the text → focused on facts and objectivity instead

  • Neutral and objective tone → builds credibility

    • Less impartial than an encyclopedia or textbook

    • Selection of photos and biased language can still affect how the reader interprets the case, despite overall objective tone

  • No use of first person pronoun → the writer is not present in the text through voice, style or direct address

  • High lexical density

• News article vs feature article

Opinion column

• What is an opinion column?

  • A specific part of a publication where columnists can write articles, either within a specific field (sports, health, etc.) or about whatever they want

    • The columnists are regular contributors to the publication

    • This can be organized in multiple different ways, e.g. a daily/weekly column in the paper or a group of columnists taking turns writing

  • The column reflects the author’s opinion about a specific topic

• General conventions:

  • Employs a personal style or voice that is recognizable and separates the writer from other columnists

    • This means the other conventions of the column often depend on the columnist’s personal style as they may utilize different techniques, formality levels, etc.

  • Uses techniques of rhetoric and literary features

    • Essentially can contain any rhetorical, stylistic and literary devices suitable for the writer and their purpose/message

      • Typically anecdotes, figurative language and parallelism

    • This is what creates the writer’s personal style

Petitions and appeals

• What is a petition and/or appeal?

  • A persuasive text which appeals to the reader to become involved with a concrete issues through signing the petition or similar steps

  • Often from a known organization such as Amnesty International

• Aim:

  • To encourage people to take some sort of action

    • E.g. donate money to a specific cause or sign their name in support of a particular view

• General conventions:

  • Includes facts and background information for the issue

  • Often strong claims to take a clear stance

  • Frequent synthetic personalization → addresses the mass audience as if they were individuals

    • Achieved through direct address and inclusive pronouns

  • Many petitions and appeals are composite texts → include verbal text and visual elements

    • The writer uses illustrations, pictures, colors, font styles and layout to help achieve the purpose of the text

      • Eg. Amnesty International’s use of uppercase letters in the SIGN THE PETITION button → increases sense of urgency

  • Occasionally first-hand statements from affected individuals

• Linguistic features:

  • The facts are often described with an objective tone → to create a feeling of objectivity and reliability

  • Emphatic tone is usually used after presenting the facts to interpret them and underline the urgency/severity/etc of the issue

  • Persuasive literary and rhetorical devices are typical of this text type → appeals to the reader’s emotions

  • Emotionally loaded diction

    • Often negative to describe the issue and positive to describe solutions

  • Adjectives, adverbs and imperative verbs are used for effect

    • Adjective: creates emphatic tone

    • Adverb: Makes it stronger

    • Imperative form: calls for action, commanding, speaks directly to the reader

Speech

• What is a speech?

  • A formal address or discourse delivered to an audience

• Aim:

  • Depends on the setting and nature of the speech

  • Often aims at convincing the reader of the speaker’s opinion

  • Sometimes imparts information, though usually subjective

• General conventions:

  • Salutations at the beginning and end of the speech

    • Establishes a relationship between the speaker and the audience

  • Clearly established purpose

  • Clear introduction, main part and conclusion

  • Often reiterates facts, figures and statistics

  • Tone depends on the purpose of the speech and is created from the devices utilized

  • Either a call to action or concludes message with finality at the end

• Linguistic conventions:

  • Aristotelian appeal of logos, ethos and pathos → but do not focus primarily/just on this

  • May include personal appeal through anecdotes, engagement, inclusive language, etc.

  • Direct address to the audience

  • Any rhetorical or literary devices may be utilized by the speaker, depending on context and purpose