Question 3 - Language Features

Question 3 always asks you about the LANGUAGE FEATURES that an author has used in one of the texts.

In order to do this well, I taught you a little trick to help you remember what to look out for.

Whatever the text is that you've been told to read, remember to use SWIPES. If you remember SWIPES, then you will know exactly what to highlight with your highlighter.

So, read the text, and look out for any of the following:


S - Sentences (Does the author use a mixture of sentence lengths? Long for adding information, short to grab people's attention)

W - Words (Does the author use and long or interesting words? What do these words make you think? Does the author REPEAT any important words?)

I - Imagery (Does the author use any similes/metaphors/personifications/alliteration/onomatopoeia to have an effect on the reader?)

P - Personal Pronouns (Does the author use you/your, or rhetorical questions to make you feel like the text is talking directly to you?)

E - Emotive Language (Does any part of the text make you feel angry, happy, excited, sad?)

S - Statistics (Does the author use facts and figures, surveys or quotes to back up what they are saying?)

Once you have remembered this, then answering the question is easy.


Highlight at least 5 of these things in the text, then turn them into PEE paragraphs.

So, imagine you have found interesting WORDS, STATISTICS, EMOTIVE LANGUAGE, SIMILES and SHORT SENTENCES in your text...

Paragraph 1 would look like this...

The first language feature that the author uses is INTERESTING WORDS. We see this where it says, 'Johnny Depp was ecstatic to make the visit.' This is a big word which draws our attention to this part of the article, and shows us how happy the actor was to be there.

Paragraph 2 might say...

The second thing the author does is to use STATISTICS. The text says that '60% of people on the island do not speak any English.' Using statistics makes the article sound more believable. It is also a very shocking statistic that so many people can not speak English.


If you write about 5-6 paragraphs like this, your answer will be GREAT!

NW