The Big 5

1. Audience and Purpose

Context of composition

• Describe the time and place that this text was produced in.
• Who wrote the text?
• Why was the text produced? (purpose) What makes you say this?

Intended audience

• Who was this text aimed at? How can you tell?

Context of interpretation / reception

• What are your circumstances? (time and place)
• How do these factors influence your reading of the text?

2. Content and Theme

Content is what is in a text. Themes are more what a text is about (big ideas).

• Describe what is going on in the text (key features).
• What is this text about?
• What is the author’s message?
• What is the significance of the text to its audience?
• What is the text actually saying?

3. Tone and Mood

Tone refers to the implied attitude of the author of a text and the ‘voice’ which shows this attitude. Mood refers more to the emotional atmosphere that is produced for a reader when experiencing a text.

• What is the writer’s tone?
• How does the author sound?
• What kind of diction does the author use to create this tone?
• How does the text make the reader feel? (mood)
• How does the diction contribute to this effect?

4. Stylistic Devices

Style refers to the ‘how’ of a text - how do the writers say whatever it is that they say? (e.g. rhetorical devices, diction, figurative language, syntax etc…)

• What stylistic devices does the writer use? What effects do these devices have on a reader?

5. Structure / Layout

Structure refers to the form of a text.

• What kind of text is it? What features let you know this?
• What structural conventions for that text type are used?
• Does this text conform to, or deviate from, the standard conventions for that particular text type?