How to analyse a text
1) Introduction
The very first sentence (“umbrella sentence”)
- mentions the author
- gives the name / title of the text
- identifies the text type
- gives the source (Where is this article from? Where was it published? When was it published?)
Text type
Basic distinction: Is the text
- fictional? (Examples for fictional texts: poem, novel…)
- or non-fictional? (Examples for non-fictional texts: report, interview, comment, feature story…)
Example structure:
“In his feature story “Bitcoin – the new gold?”, which was published in the New York Times on Jan 20th, 2021, author Henry Miller speaks about / discusses / gives insight into…”
2) Summary / abstract
answers the “Wh”-questions
gives only the important facts; should be rather short (only essential information)
direct speech
no 1st person
formal language; tense: present tense (Only use past tense when you speak about real
events that happened in the past! (Quotes, happenings, etc.))
“Miller claims that… / speaks about the financial industry being uprooted / refers to the
financial crisis which happened in 2009.”
3) The analysis (about 3 paragraphs)
depends on the task / what you are asked to do!