How to write text analysis
Video: Text Analysis 2024, July
Text analysis is a very difficult matter. Someone is given “with a bang”, someone complains that this requires special abilities. But in fact, everyone can analyze the text, you just need to follow a certain pattern.
Instruction manual
one
Firstly, you can analyze the text from one point of view, for example, find rhetorical figures in the text and explain what function they perform in the text. If you are given such a "narrow" task, then all you need is knowledge of the subject and attention. No special abilities are required. Find what you need by carefully looking at the text, and you can determine the functions based on the information that you went through in the lessons or lectures.
2
But there are other cases when you need to make a complete analysis of the text. Here, too, you need to pay attention to the requirements of the teacher, since a full analysis is a whole dissertation. You can parse the text from a linguistic point of view and from the philological. In the first case, look for exactly the linguistic means of expressing a meaning in the text. For example, verb forms in combination with temporary adverbs create a special effect in the text that is associated with the category of time.
3
Never forget a feature. If you find in the text everything-everything that can be characterized by the word “linguistic”, this does not mean that the analysis is done. It remains for you to explain what intermediate functions one or another means performs and what the achievement of these small goals ultimately leads to. Suppose that in the text the heroine is described as a fairy-tale character, and this is served by simple syntax and lexical means; in the end, this feature in combination with others will allow you to say that the text has allusions to the genre of a fairy tale.
4
When performing the analysis, adhere to a strict plan: means, functions, conclusion. Or vice versa: the thesis and evidence for it. You can first sketch out individual answers to some points of the plan asked by the teacher, and then process your philosophies in the form of a coherent text. It’s difficult to take all this into account if you need to fit into one composition. Therefore, you need to be brief. Here we must remember: brevity is the sister of talent.