Focus on language

Mode of address = how are you going to ‘talk’ to your target audience? 

REMEMBER RESEARCH INFORMS PRODUCTION 

You need to refer back to your research and remind yourself how the magazines that you’ve researched communicate to / with their target audience. 

You should have made some comments on this in your analysis of front covers, contents pages and double page spreads. 

Areas to consider: Level of formality  /  Language register 

• Techniques Colloquial language = Ordinary, everyday speech and language 

• Direct Address  = Addressing the audience directly 

• Semantic specific language =  Jargon / technical language associated with music 

• Sentence type:

1. Minor Sentences (these are not full sentences and are economical and immediate) 
2. Declarative (these are simple statements)
3. Imperatives (these start with verbs to act like commands or instructions) 
4. Interrogatives (these are formed as questions to stimulate an immediate response from the reader) 
5. Exclamations (these are exaggerated statements using exclamation marks for emphasis) 

• Punctuation:

Ellipsis =  these miss out vital information from the sentence to create an immediate impact 
Punctuation marks for effect 

• Metaphor = Figure of speech in which a person or thing is describes as being the thing it resembles 

• Simile  =  Figure of speech in which a person or thing is describes as being like another, usually preceded by ‘as’ or ‘like’ 

• Adjectives =  Words to describe 

• Superlatives = Adjective to compare to the highest degree possible 

• Monosyllabic = Words that have only one syllable 

• Personification = The attribution of human qualities or feelings to inanimate objects; a kind of metaphor where human qualities are given to things or abstract ideas 

• Slang Informal language = More common in speech than written lanaguge. Frequently linked to particular groups of people e.g. teen slang 

• Onomatopoeia = When a word sounds like the noise it describes 

• Neologism = New Words 

• Rhetorical Question = Questions asked for effect rather than an answer 

• Pun =  A play on words for humorous effect 

• Hyperbole  = An extravagant exaggeration 

• Intertextuality = Making links to another media text  

This week:
Focus on use of language 

Demonstrate that you understand how magazines use language to communicate to their readers and persuade them to buy the magazine.