How to Revise for Paper ONE Section A:
10 easy steps
1. pick up/read a range of non-fiction texts: newspapers, magazines, websites, autobiography, travel writing, biography, political cartoons, press advertisements etc
2. ALWAYS consider PURPOSE and AUDIENCE for everything you read- why is he/she writing this piece, who and what is it for, how does the writer achieve this?
3. identify as many LANGUAGE FEATURES/METHODS/DEVICES as you can.
4. for each of them, try to explain their intended effect on the audience
5. Look out for PRESENTATIONAL DEVICES (layout, pictures, font)
6. For each device, work out WHAT effect it has on you, the reader.
7. make sure you can COMPARE texts. Ask yourself, do the writers have similar views, how do they contrast or differ, do they make you feel differently about an issue, how and why do they make you feel differently?
8. USE spider diagrams to explore features of different text types e.g. consumer magazine, information leaflet
9. pick a text (e.g. newspaper article, leaflet, press advertisement) , use one highlighter pen to pick out key language features, and another colour to pick out presentational features
