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Categories for Textual Analysis: Revision

Categories for Textual Analysis
Last updated December 15, 2013 - 8:56pm by Mark A. McCutcheon

[Downloadable PDF version]

General Categories Special Categories        
  Non-fiction prose Fiction Poetry Drama Film and TV

Subject

What is the work about?

What issue, idea, event, or person is the article, essay, review, biography, et. about?

 What is the story or novel about? What is the poem or sequence of poems about? What is the play about? What is the film or program about?

Structure

How is the work put together?

 How is the argument and/or narrative and/or description selected and arranged? What is the principle behind the selection and arrangement of events ("plot")? What is the principle behind the selection and arrangement of details in the poem? What is the principle behind the selection and arrangement of events ("action")? What is the principle behind the selection and arrangement of events ("action")?

Development

What are the particular details that give the work substance?

 Evidence and detail: What kind of evidence does the author give to support the argument? What kind of detail to develop narrative or descriptive writing?

A. Setting: What is the place, time, and social environment in which events take place?

B. Characterization: What are the characters like? What techniques are used to portray them?

A. Setting: What is the place, time, and social environment in which the development of the poem takes place?

B. Characterization: What are the characters like? What techniques are used to portray them?

 A. Setting: What is the place, time, and social environment in which events take place? What do costuming, music, lighting, sets, etc. indicate about the setting?

B. Characterization:What are the characters like? How are various techniques, including dialogue and acting, used to portray them?

A. Setting: What is the place, time, and social environment in which events take place?

B. Characterization: What are the characters like? How are various techniques, including dialogue and acting, used to portray them?

Style

How does the author or director use the "language" of the medium?

A. Diction: What do usage level and word choice tell me?

B. Images and Symbols: Are these used to comment on the subject? How?

C. Sentence structure: What do sentence patterns tell me?

A. Diction: What do usage level and word choice tell me?

B. Images and Symbols: Do these create patterns of meaning? How?

C. Sentence structure: What do sentence patterns tell me?

A. Diction: What do usage level and word choice tell me?

B. Images and Symbols: Do these create patterns of meaning? How?

C. Prosody: How are sound and rhythm used in the poem?

A. Diction: What do usage level and word choice in individual characters and in the play as a whole tell me?

B. Images and Symbols: Do these create patterns of meaning? How?

C. Pacing: What is the rhythm of dialogue and action?

A. Shooting techniques: What do camera angles, shot lengths, etc., convey about setting or characters?

B. Images and Symbols: Do these create patterns of meaning? How?

C. Editing techniques: What movement of action does the editing create?

Tone

What is the author's or director's attitude towards the subject and audience, as conveyed by the work?

 What is the author's attitude to subject and reader, as conveyed by the work? 

A. Point of view: Who is the narrator? How does this affect the way the story is told?

B. Tone: What attitude does the narrator (and/or the author) adopt towards the story and the reader? 

A. Point of view: Who is the speaker ("persona") in this poem? How does this affect the way the story is told?

B. Tone: What is the tone and how does it reflect the speaker's attitude? 

Tone

a. Playwright: What attitude to subject and audience is evident?

b. Director: What attitude to subject and audience is evident? 

 What is the director's attitude to the subject and audience, as conveyed by the film or program? 

Theme or thesis

What is the central idea of the work?

 What is the main point or argument of the work? What is the central idea or theme of the story or novel? What is the central idea or theme of the poem? What is the central idea or theme of the play? What is the central idea or theme of the film or program?

Attribution notice: This table is adapted from a print copy of one I received as an undergraduate, decades ago. Every effort has been made to locate the original source, but without success. The table is not my work and will be credited appropriately if and when the original source is located.

Mark A. McCutcheon

Mark A. McCutcheon

Professor of Literary Studies & Chair of Centre for Humanities, Athabasca U

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