Techniques
GLOSSARY OF TECHNIQUES USED TO CREATE MEANING
Active voice/passive voice
Writing that uses the forms of verbs which create a direct relationship between the subject and the object. Active voice is lively and more direct.
Eg. ‘We had fun’ is written in the active voice; ‘Fun was had’ is written in the passive voice.
Alliteration
The repetition of the consonant sounds at the beginnings of words. It is used to produce sound that adds to the atmosphere or mood of the words, or perhaps even echoes their meaning.
Eg. ‘The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,
The furrow followed free’
(from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samual Taylor Coleridge.)
Allusion
A reference to another text. This is usually used to clarify an idea or enhance meaning.
Eg. The playful advertisement for a brand of bathers showed pictures of their new products with the voice- over warning us: ‘just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water ….’ Most people in the
TV audience understood the allusion to the promotional line to the film Jaws 2 and laughed (or at least smiled). Ambiguity
A word or phrase that invites at least two interpretations.
Eg. In act 2, scene 2 of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the prince deliberately misinterprets Polonius’s words (not taking ‘matter’ to mean ‘printed matter’ but ‘problem’):
Polonius: What do you read my lord?
Hamlet: Words, words, words!
Polonius: What is the matter, my lord?
Hamlet: Between who?
Polonius: I mean the matter that you read, my lord.
Analogy
A comparison made between two things that share something in common.
Eg. Seamus Heaney, in his poem Digging, compares his pen to a spade and makes us think again about the way his poetry works by concluding: ‘Ill dig with it’.
Anecdote/anecdotal evidence
A small story, usually based on an individual case that illustrates a point. Often used to introduce feature articles and essays and thought of as a poor substitute for ‘real evidence’.
Active voice/passive voice
Writing that uses the forms of verbs which create a direct relationship between the subject and the object. Active voice is lively and more direct.
Eg. ‘We had fun’ is written in the active voice; ‘Fun was had’ is written in the passive voice.
Alliteration
The repetition of the consonant sounds at the beginnings of words. It is used to produce sound that adds to the atmosphere or mood of the words, or perhaps even echoes their meaning.
Eg. ‘The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew,
The furrow followed free’
(from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samual Taylor Coleridge.)
Allusion
A reference to another text. This is usually used to clarify an idea or enhance meaning.
Eg. The playful advertisement for a brand of bathers showed pictures of their new products with the voice- over warning us: ‘just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water ….’ Most people in the
TV audience understood the allusion to the promotional line to the film Jaws 2 and laughed (or at least smiled). Ambiguity
A word or phrase that invites at least two interpretations.
Eg. In act 2, scene 2 of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the prince deliberately misinterprets Polonius’s words (not taking ‘matter’ to mean ‘printed matter’ but ‘problem’):
Polonius: What do you read my lord?
Hamlet: Words, words, words!
Polonius: What is the matter, my lord?
Hamlet: Between who?
Polonius: I mean the matter that you read, my lord.
Analogy
A comparison made between two things that share something in common.
Eg. Seamus Heaney, in his poem Digging, compares his pen to a spade and makes us think again about the way his poetry works by concluding: ‘Ill dig with it’.
Anecdote/anecdotal evidence
A small story, usually based on an individual case that illustrates a point. Often used to introduce feature articles and essays and thought of as a poor substitute for ‘real evidence’.