4-step Guide To Language Analysis

4-Step Guide to Language Analysis

Question Example: How does Shakespeare effectively portray Juliet s love for Romeo?

Step 1: Make a point/observation that directly engages the terms of the question, without just repeating the question. Your point must provide additional detail/content that you can support with a quote from the text. Ideally, your point will explain how the quote that you will go on to reference functions in relation to the question that you are answering. Don t just paraphrase your quote your opening point must be analytical

e.g. Shakespeare uses creative and artful dialogue to convey Juliet s love for Romeo

Step 2: Introduce a quote/evidence that exemplifies the point you have made. Do not immediately begin your sentence with your quote. Embed the quote into your sentence with introductory words e.g. this is revealed/demonstrated/exhibited/indicated when the writer notes . . When you first introduce your quote, make sure to label it with any relevant literary devices e.g. metaphor, simile, hyperbole, personification

e.g. An example of such dialogue can be found in Act 2, when Juliet professes alliteratively My bounty is as boundless as the sea, / My love as deep

This is illustrated powerfully when Juliet cries My bounty is as boundless as the sea, / My love as deep

Juliet s dialogue strongly conforms to this descri ption when she breaks into simile: My bounty is as boundless as the sea, / My love as deep

Step 3: Extract the key, expressive words/features from your quote one by one. First define the literal meaning of the word, then highlight the connotations/associations how they work to create a more profound meaning.

e.g. In these lines of dialogue, Juliet constructs similes to emphasise the magnitude of her devotion to Romeo. The word bounty draws our attention to the satisfaction and reward that Juliet derives from her attachment to Romeo. Likewise, the hyperbolic descri ption of this bounty as boundless , which means completely unrestricted, informs us that she perceives her desire as absolute and limitless. The alliteration and assonance of these two words stitches them together even more tightly in our imagination and renders them more evocative, explosive, and memorable.

Step 4: Link your language analysis back to any points that you have already made identify any interesting similarities/differences. Round off your paragraph with a final summary of how your quote serves to prove/disprove the statement/proposition contained within the question that you are answering.

e.g. Juliet s poetic expressions, in which she likens the scale of her affinity for Romeo to vast natural geographies, form a dramatic vehicle through which Shakespeare communicates the extent of her love for Romeo.