Section A - Reading
Question 2: Presentational Features
Approaching and answering
Question 2
Question 2: Presentational Features
•8 marks
•15 minutes, including active reading time
•You need to briskly analyse the language of presentational
features such as headlines, sub-headlines or captions
•You need to briskly analyse the image
•You need to explain how presentational features are
effective, and how they link to the text itself
Match the headline to the picture!
1. Government bans
calculators from primary
maths tests
2. NHS Direct to close most call
centres, cutting hundreds of
jobs, says union
3. Britain to stop aid to India
4. Most UK ash trees will be
diseased within 10 years,
ministers told
5. Top five regrets of the dying
6. Anger over ‘harsh’ GCSE
English grades
Match the headline to the picture!
1. Cost of university
accommodation ‘doubles in
10 years’
2. Is the Six-Million-Dollar Man
possible?
3. The consequences of having
a ‘foreign’ name
4. The women living in
Chernobyl's toxic wasteland
5. Coffee threatened by
climate change
6. Don't like the licence fee?
Simple. Don't pay it
Headlines with puns…
•Burning questions on tunnel safety unanswered (About the possibility of fires in the
Channel tunnel)
•Science friction (About an argument between scientists and the British government on the
topic of BSE or mad cow disease)
•Between a Bok and a hard place (About the remote chances of the Welsh rugby team
beating the South African team)
•Waugh cry as Aussies blast off (Waugh is an Australian cricket player)
•Return to gender (About a reoccurrence of sexual harassment in London post offices)
•A shot in the dark (About the murder of a Russian politician)
•Dutch take courage and prepare for the Euro (About the introduction of the Euro into
the Netherlands)
•Silent blight (On the incidence of sore throats among teachers)
•No flies on this heart-stopper (A review of the play of The Lord of the Flies)
•Why the Clyde offer is not so bonny (About a take-over offer by a Scottish engineering
company)
•Resurgent Welsh dragon too fired up to lose its puff (About a game of rugby
involving the Welsh team)
•On a whinge and a prayer (On the resignation of a minister of the British government)
•Officials say atoll do nicely (About the fraudulent sale of small Pacific islands)
…often contain an idiom (well known phrase / saying) or a cultural
reference. Which of these do? Which don’t you understand?
Headlines with other devices…
•Merseyside derby: It's the hope that kills you
•Starbucks wakes up and smells the stench of tax avoidance
controversy
•Bargain Hunter: Pretty planters and rattan rocking chairs
•Up, up and away in Bristol’s beautiful balloons
•The Philippines: The world's budget English teacher
•Metropolitan Police declare war on anti-social behaviour
•We've been on the back foot with the EU ever since we
joined
•The end of a dream for Camelot?
•Versatile venison recipes from Daylesford Organic
•Sick as a parrot: Disease hits Hampshire pet stores
Which use alliteration? The ‘rule of three’? Repetition?
Personification? Cliché? Exaggeration? Rhetorical questions?
Figurative language?
What can we always say about headlines (before we’ve even
read the article)?
Government bans
calculators from
primary maths tests
Most UK ash trees will be diseased
within 10 years, ministers told
NHS Direct to close most call centres,
cutting hundreds of jobs, says union
Britain to stop aid to India
1.
2.
3.
Don't like the licence fee?
Simple. Don't pay it
Anger over ‘harsh’ GCSE
English grades
What can we always say about pictures?
1.
2.
3.
Analysing the effectiveness of presentational features…
Powerful words such as ‘war’, ‘huge’ and
‘ruining’ emphasise / exaggerate the
seriousness of the issue
Statistic puts
story into
perspective
and, again,
emphasises
seriousness
Pun / play
on words.
‘Hate
Waste crime: Britain's war on illegal dumping
crime’ is a
There are more than 1,000 illegal waste sites in Britain, causing
serious
crime
huge pollution and ruining people's lives. Are the authorities
based on
doing enough about the problem?
prejudice.
Rhetorical
Referring /
question leads into
alluding to
the article; it
this makes
makes the reader
waste
curious
dumping
seem more
Image is bright,
serious.
colourful and
Colon adds
vivid, giving a
impact to
clear illustration
The
image
depicts
what
of the issue
illegal
dumping;
this
comes
picture is
after it
unpleasant and
messy and, again,
gives the reader a
clearer picture of
the issue
Link to article at The Guardian Online
Analysing the effectiveness of presentational features. Your turn…
The Philippines: The world's budget
English teacher
Elizaveta is a Russian student taking courses taught in English
in the Philippines - she says fees are a quarter of courses in
Australia or Canada
Link to article on BBC Online News
Analysing the effectiveness of presentational features. Your turn…
Starbucks wakes up and smells the stench of tax
avoidance controversy
Cafe chain executive to face questions from MPs, while protesters plan to turn
branches into creches and refuges
Police protect a Starbucks branch during an anti-cuts march
last month after the company's low tax bill was revealed
Link to article at The Guardian Online
1.
•Highlight the key words in the question. This question asks you to
do to two things, and is always very similar:
•It asks you to analyse the presentational features, noticing how
they are effective.
•It asks you to link the presentational features to the content of
the text.
Explain how the headline and picture are effective,
and how they link to the text.
Explain how the headline, sub-headline and picture
are effective, and how they link to the text.
Explain how the headline, picture and caption are
effective, and how they link to the text.
2.
Text 17: Explain how the headline and picture are
effective, and how they link to the text.
•Actively read the text: First, look at / read the things you’ve
been asked to analyse (in this case, the headline and picture).
•Next, go through the text, highlighting
the short quotes
that most strongly link to the presentational features.
•Then, knowing what’s in the article, go back to the presentational
features and highlight
effectiveness.
/ annotate them in terms of their
IN GROUPS
3.
Writing up ideas
•Now you’re ready to write up your ideas, you
need a clear introductory sentence introducing your response (see next
slide for a reminder).
•You then need to talk about each feature in turn. You’ll
need to say more than one thing about each feature (making about 4-5
points about presentational features overall).
•Pepper your points with short quotes, linking the
presentational features to the text with perceptive comments.
IN GROUPS
3.
Purpose and Audience
Remember! Keep it simple!
Text 2 aims to inform ‘Guardian’ readers about the serious tax avoidance
allegations made against the coffee shop chain Starbucks.
Text 2 explains to ‘BBC Online News’ readers that growing numbers of
people are visiting The Philippines to learn English at a cut-price rate.
This article makes readers of ‘The Guardian’ aware of the widespread
problem of illegal waste sites in Britain. Its headline, sub-headline and
image help convey how serious this issue is.
Why are these good openings?
WHAT TO WRITE
3.
Connective
How they link to
the text…
The reader…
(or ‘we’…)
Firstly
Amuses
Refers to
Alludes to
Secondly
Attracts
Reflects
Demonstrates
Thirdly
Connotes
Reveals
Echoes
As well as this
Delights
Signifies
Illustrates
Furthermore Describes
Suggests
Links
Moreover
Depicts
Summarises
Portrays
Finally
Emphasises
Shocks
Reinforces
Lastly
Fascinates
Shows
Reiterates
Highlights
Tells
Reflects
Likewise
Informs
Similarly
Interests
Intrigues
Raises
Is made
aware
Is informed
Is told
The headline / image
etc…
Learns
Discovers
Realises
USEFUL WORDS & PHRASES
Text 20: Explain how the headline
and pictures are effective, and how
they link to the text.
IN PAIRS
Question 2: Presentational Devices – Sample Mark Scheme
Text 12: Explain how the headline,
sub-headline (or lead) and picture are
effective, and how they link to the
text.
ON YOUR OWN