Keep a learner portfolio: notes, annotations, reflections and ideas for your IO and HL essay. It isn't marked, but it is required and it feeds every assessment.
Multimodal texts combine words with images, layout, colour, sound or video: analyse all of these, not just the words.
Worked example
Classify these as literary or non-literary: a sonnet, a charity leaflet, a political speech, a graphic novel.
Literary: the sonnet and the graphic novel (artistic, narrative or poetic purpose).
Non-literary: the charity leaflet and the political speech (practical, persuasive purpose).
Boundaries can blur: a famous speech can have literary qualities. Say why you classify it as you do.
Exam tip: Name the text type precisely in the first sentence of a Paper 1 answer (“This print advertisement…”, “This opinion column…”): it frames your whole analysis.
1.2Audience, purpose and context
Key terms
Audience
The intended readers or viewers: age, interests, beliefs, knowledge.
Purpose
What the text aims to do: inform, persuade, entertain, warn, sell, provoke.
Context of production
When, where, by whom and why the text was made.
Context of reception
Who is reading it now, where, and how that changes the meaning.
Implied reader
The reader the text seems to assume, revealed by its language and references.
Before analysing techniques, answer the GAPS questions: Genre/text type, Audience, Purpose, Style and situation.
Every technique you discuss should link back to the audience and purpose: “The informal second-person address draws young readers in…”.
Context explains choices: a 1950s advertisement for cigarettes uses doctors as authority figures because of the beliefs of its time.
Readers bring their own context: a modern reader may find the same advert shocking or ironic.
Worked example
A gym poster says: “Your excuses won't lift themselves. Join today, first month free.” Identify audience and purpose.
Audience: adults who want to get fit but haven't started; the direct “your” targets them personally.
Purpose: to persuade them to join, using a challenge (excuses) and an incentive (free month).
The humorous personification of “excuses” softens the criticism so it motivates rather than offends.
Exam tip: Don't just state the audience. Prove it with evidence from the text (vocabulary, images, references, platform).
1.3Analysing language: techniques and effects
Key terms
Diction
Word choice: formal/informal, emotive, technical, connotative.
Tone
The writer's attitude, e.g. ironic, urgent, nostalgic, authoritative.
Register
The level of formality of the language.
Connotation
Associations a word carries beyond its literal meaning.
Rhetorical question
A question asked for effect, not for an answer.
Anaphora
Repetition of a word or phrase at the start of successive clauses.
Aristotle's appeals: ethos (credibility), pathos (emotion), logos (logic and evidence).
Always use technique → evidence → effect: name the technique, quote briefly, and explain its effect on the reader in relation to purpose.
Analyse how meaning is made, not just what the text says. Avoid “feature spotting” (listing devices without explaining them).
Use precise verbs for effects: evokes, undermines, reinforces, foregrounds, contrasts, implies, invites.
Worked example
Analyse: “We will rebuild. We will recover. We will rise again.” (a mayor after a flood)
Technique: anaphora (“We will”) and a tricolon of verbs.
Effect: the rhythm builds momentum and certainty; inclusive “we” unites the community.
Purpose link: it turns grief into collective determination, strengthening the mayor's ethos as a leader.
Exam tip: One well-analysed technique beats five named ones. Examiners reward depth of analysis, not the number of devices.
1.4Analysing structure and visual features
Key terms
Structure
How a text is organised: order, sections, shifts, opening and ending.
Layout
The arrangement of text and images on the page or screen.
Typography
Font, size, weight, colour of text.
Salience
What stands out first and draws the eye.
Vector
A line (gaze, gesture, road) that leads the viewer's eye across an image.
Anchorage
Text that fixes the meaning of an image (e.g. a caption).
Structural features: headline, subheadings, lead paragraph, chronological or problem–solution order, shifts in tone, a final call to action, circular endings.
Visual features: camera angle (low angle = power, high angle = vulnerability), framing, colour (connotations), gaze (direct gaze demands a response), composition (rule of thirds), contrast, white space.
Analyse how words and images work together: does the text anchor or contradict the image?
Worked example
A charity poster shows a child looking straight at the camera in black and white, with one red word: “Today?” Analyse the visual choices.
Direct gaze creates a “demand” image: the viewer feels personally addressed and responsible.
Black and white connotes seriousness and hardship; the single red word becomes salient and urgent.
The rhetorical question “Today?” anchors the image and implies the viewer should act now.
Exam tip: Describe where your eye goes first, second and third: it gives you a natural structure for analysing a visual text.
1.5Paper 1: approaching the unseen text
Key terms
Paper 1
Guided textual analysis of unseen non-literary texts.
Guiding question
A question printed with each text to help focus your analysis (you may use it or not).
Thesis
Your central argument about how the text creates meaning for its audience and purpose.
Annotation
Marking the text with notes on techniques and effects while reading.
Format: SL: 1 h 15 min, analyse one of two texts (20 marks, 35% of the grade). HL: 2 h 15 min, analyse both texts in separate answers (40 marks, 35%).
First 15–20 minutes: read twice, annotate, identify GAPS, choose the text (SL), decide your thesis and 3–4 paragraph focuses.
The guiding question is optional, but answering it gives you a ready-made focus.
Thesis formula: “Through [technique A], [B] and [C], the [text type] [verb: persuades/warns/celebrates] [audience] to [purpose].”
Plan paragraphs by ideas or effects, not by device names: “creating urgency”, “building trust”.
Worked example
Write a thesis for an anti-plastic campaign webpage aimed at teenagers.
Identify: text type (campaign webpage), audience (teenagers), purpose (change habits).
Choose three main strategies: shocking imagery, informal direct address, simple statistics.
Thesis: “Through shocking images of marine life, an informal second-person voice and digestible statistics, the webpage urges teenagers to see single-use plastic as a personal responsibility rather than someone else's problem.”
Exam tip: Spend the full planning time. A clear thesis and plan improves Criterion C (focus and organisation) more than writing extra paragraphs.
1.6Paper 1: writing the analysis and the criteria
Key terms
Criterion A: Understanding and interpretation
Shows you understand the text and its implications, supported by references (5 marks).
Criterion B: Analysis and evaluation
Analyses and evaluates how textual features and authorial choices shape meaning (5).
Criterion C: Focus and organisation
A coherent, focused, well-structured analysis (5).
Paragraph structure (PEEL or TEA): topic sentence linked to the thesis → embedded evidence → analysis of technique and effect → link to purpose/audience.
Embed short quotations in your own sentences instead of dropping in long blocks.
Evaluate: comment on how effective a choice is, and for whom (“This may alienate older readers, but…”).
Introduction: text type, context, audience, purpose, thesis. Conclusion: answer the “so what?”: the overall effect, not a summary.
Use the present tense and the writer's name or “the writer/designer”.
Worked example
Improve this sentence: “The writer uses a metaphor ‘a sea of debt’.”
It names a device but gives no effect or link to purpose (feature spotting).
Improved: “The metaphor of ‘a sea of debt’ presents students as drowning in something vast and inescapable, evoking the reader's sympathy and justifying the article's call for free tuition.”
Exam tip: Every paragraph should answer three questions: What technique? What effect on the reader? Why does it matter for the purpose?