NZ NCEA Level 3 English

A critical response is an argument about a text, not a retelling of it. The question gives you a specified aspect of the text to argue about, and the first job is to work out exactly what that aspect is and what you are going to say about it. Most weak essays fail here: they answer a nearby question, usually "what happens in this text" or "what techniques does the writer use", rather than the one set. ## The aspects a question can name Questions on written, visual and oral texts draw on four families of aspect. Knowing the family tells you what kind of evidence to gather. | Family | What it covers | Typical evidence | |---|---|---| | Purposes and audiences | Why the text exists, who it addresses, what response it wants | Tone, assumed knowledge, direct address, where and when it was published or released | | Ideas | Character, theme, setting, attitudes, beliefs, experiences | Actions, dialogue, imagery that recurs, how a situation changes | | Language features | Diction, figurative language, syntax, symbolism, sound devices; for visual and oral texts, cinematography, mise-en-scène, editing, sound, performance, rhetorical devices | Specific words, images, shots, sounds, and what each makes the audience feel or think | | Structures | Narrative sequence, beginnings and endings, shape of an argument or scene | Order of events, shifts, what is withheld, how the opening and ending relate | A question often combines two families, for example how a writer's use of setting (an idea)…