1. Language devices are the range of techniques writers use to create an effect. An author uses them to get us to understand the purpose of the writing and to get a point of view across. Language Devices It’s all about words, words, words. And more words.

2. There will be a question about language devices on Paper 1 section A. The assessment objective tested is: Understand and evaluate how writers use linguistic devices to achieve their effects, and comment on ways language varies and changes. The most important word in this is evaluate. This word tells you that the examiner wants you to comment on the effect of the language device and why it has been used. Just identifying it will get you very few marks.

3. Before you begin to think about the devices a writer has used, you need to think about: P urpose: why the text has been written. Is it to inform, persuade, entertain, advise, describe, argue, discuss, explain, analyse, review, comment? A udience: who it has been written for. Think about age (young children, adults, older people); sex (male, female); well educated; less well-educated; people who have an interest in the topic; people who have no knowledge about the topic. F orm: how the text has been written. It could be a newspaper or magazine article, an advert, a leaflet, a web page, a letter. An understanding of these will help you to understand what type of language devices the author might use.

4. So what should you be looking for? Positive language – this might be used to give you a good feeling about something or someone Negative language – this might be used to make you think that something is wrong about what is being said. Formal language – this might be used to make an idea seem very important or to impress you. Informal language (slang or colloquial terms) – this might be used to give a friendly feel to the text or make you feel close to the writer. Emotive language – this might be used to make you feel sad about something, or happy, or angry, or excited. 2 nd person (you, your) – this might be used so that you feel you are being addressed directly; you feel as if the text is aimed at you specifically. Contrast – this might be used to deliberately highlight the differences between two things.

5. Humour – this might be used in lots of ways. It could be just to entertain or make a product or idea stick in your mind. It could be used to criticise something or to encourage you to think in a different way. A special type of humour is irony. In this an idea is shown to be silly by being mocked – the words used suggest the opposite of what they mean. Rhetorical questions – Why use these? (an example!!) They might be used to make you think or imagine something. Listing – these might be used to add greater detail or persuade you about the importance of something. Facts and statistics – these might be used to add support to a writer’s point. They are there to persuade you that what they’ve said is important. Quotations – these might be used to give authority to writing. They are there to persuade you that what they’ve said is true. Similes and metaphors – these might be used to help you understand an idea by comparing it with something similar.

6. Alliteration – this might be used to make a phrase stand out; to show its importance. Repetition – this might be used to emphasise an idea, to make it stand out. Use of three (three ideas, verbs, adjectives, nouns put together) – this might be used to stress an important point. Exaggeration – this might be used to highlight an important idea. Register – this is the posh word for the types of words used (sporting, scientific, technical etc.). You need to think about why the writer has chosen to use these types of words. You also need to look at sentence length. Are there a lot of short sentences or are they all long and complex? Think about why an author has chosen the style of sentences used. Paragraph length also needs thinking about in the same way.

7. Try finding the language devices used in this piece of writing about the famous American President Abraham Lincoln. The miserable log cabin in which Abraham Lincoln was born was a floorless, doorless, windowless shanty, situated in one of the most barren and desolate spots of Hardin County, Kentucky. His father made it his home simply because he was too poor to own a better one. Nor was his an exceptional case of penury and want. For people of that section were generally poor and unlettered, barely able to scrape enough together to keep the wolf of hunger from their abodes. Here Abraham Lincoln was born February 12th, 1809. His father’s name was Thomas Lincoln; his mother’s maiden name was Nancy Hanks... They had been married three years when Abraham was born. Their cabin was in that part of Hardin County which is now embraced in La Rue County, a few miles from Hodgensville – on the south fork of Nolin Creek. A perennial spring of water, gushing in silvery brightness from beneath a rock near by, relieved the barrenness of the location, and won for it the somewhat ambitious name – “Rock Spring Farm.” Negative phrases in the first paragraph suggest a difficult life in poor conditions. Adjectives in the first paragraph help to create an image in the reader’s mind of the poor living conditions Lincoln was born into. Use of rule of three highlights the bad points of Lincoln’s childhood home. Metaphor provides a vivid image of the fear of starvation. The second paragraph becomes more informative giving clear facts about Lincoln’s parents. Phrases in the second paragraph are more positive than in the first, implying a happy life, despite the problems of where the family lived. The metaphor in the second paragraph is also more positive, suggesting some beauty in the “barrenness of the location.”

8. Imagine that you had to answer the question: How is language used to give us an idea about the place where Lincoln was born? This is how part of it could be written: In the first paragraph negative phrases are used to suggest a difficult life in poor conditions. These phrases include “miserable log cabin” and “floorless, doorless, windowless shanty”. The word “miserable” suggests the cabin he lived in was poor and basic and this idea is backed by the use of the word “shanty” which makes you imagine a run-down slum – not the sort of place where you would expect a future President to be born. REMEMBER: WRITE A LOT ABOUT A LITTLE. Point Explanation of Effect Example