Textual Analysis Exemplar

The Great Debate

• Text A is an article from the popular women’s magazine “Vogue”. It present two opposing arguments about a topical fashion garment or issue.

• Text B is also an article from the popular women’s magazine “Vogue”. It is the companion article.

Today’s question:

• Analyse the use of language in these texts.• In your answer you should:• • consider carefully the audience and purpose

for each text;• • explore how the writers use language to

present their arguments• • include some consideration of similarities

and/or differences.

Magazine article: debate style (tells reader what to expect)Consider the straplines:

Triple phrasing= strong impact on audienceEmotive language choices=strength of opinionUse of pun=to engage audienceArgues=combative tone

Stylish opening sentence=balanced and built on in the rest of the article.“all woman underneath” gives a sense of knowing sexuality-if you don’t like the blouse you might be less than a woman. “celebrates”=positive connotationsUnderstatement of “subtle charms”

Both writers share a similar attitude to their audience: they assume a shared knowledge of fashion e.g. “a piece of style irony perpetuated by the fashion elite” (Oliver) or “the blouse that bore the label Yves St Laurent” (Quick).This is designed to flatter the reader-they feel part of the fashion world and involved in the debate.

than a belly laugh, but it has the same effect on the reader: they are entertained.

Oliver makes extensive use of rhetorical devices in her writing, through questions, triple phrasing “frumpy, ageing and horribly fussy” and parallel phrasing “what other…/ what else… there’s lady like and old-ladylike”. The persuasion is barefaced; in the same way she believes the blouse is a blatant fashion mistake. The audience is invited to join in, laugh and share the joke. The use of alliteration is also part of the humour and persuasion e.g. “sags so sadly”.

Things to note:• Overview.

• Focus on audience and purpose.

• Steadily work through both texts and all bullet points.

• Timing –use it wisely: annotation, planning, answer and checking.

• Every point should be relevant, evidenced and explored.

• Don’t tell them what you don’t know.

Things to note:• Quote helpfully

You should be using quotations from the texts you're analysing in your answers, but make sure they're helpful quotations. What's the difference between 1 and 2 below?

The writer uses the noun phrase "the foul degradation of our language continues apace" to support his prescriptive view of language change.

• The writer uses the noun phrase "the foul degradation of our language continues apace" to support his prescriptive view of language change.

• In short, 1 is wrong and 2 is right. That's because the quote used in 1 isn't actually a noun phrase, but a whole simple sentence/independent clause, while the quote in 2 actually specifies which bit is the noun phrase. I don't doubt that the person answering in the first one knows what they mean, but they're not making it easy for the examiner to give them marks