PIERO CAVALLARI cl.4 A                                                                                                                       A.S.2011/2012

Our lesson on 10th January 2012          

WHAT MAKES A TEXTUAL ANALYSIS GOOD AND EFFECTIVE?

The teacher asks our classmates which is, in their opinion, the basic element to keep in our mind when we have to face a textual analysis. She suggests us to consider the final aim a textual analysis pursues: it's written to make the reader understand the way the poet spreads the MESSAGE of the text between the lines. Indeed there are lots of different devices to analyze how the reader can get the true meaning of text: contents, linguistic choices, figures of speech, text structure, title and paragraphs.

The teacher makes us focus on a contrivance (uh what a strange word, too far from me: i prefer "trick") which will help us to improve our approach and productiveness in our english discipline ("discipline" is not used by chance): DRAFTING AND REDRAFTING are the magic words. The teacher upholds the importance of a continuous and always deeply critical editing on our scripts, becuase from our mistakes we learn new solutions which improve the awareness of writing in English.

Another element which has to be firmly kept in our mind in writing a textual analysis is the receiver. Different kinds of receiver mean different stylistic choices, tones of speech (formal vs informal), sintax and semantics.

TEXTUAL     ANALYSIS

                                                        TO RECOGNIZE + ANALYZE + EXPLAIN THE MESSAGE

SCANNING   MESSAGE 

                  WHAT?  à  contents

                  HOW?  à  the way information has been given

                 TO WHO?  à  the receiver

The culture which stands among each words of a text has to be not forgotten at all: more the reader knows about the civilization, history and culture in general, connected to that text, more his analysis will be complete and gets aware of the true meaning hidden under the surface.

What makes different English from other languages is its combinatorial aspect, indeed the position of a word in a sentence is essential to its function in the economy of the line. English combines easier language units to get a more complicated idea.   

RIVER   è  river- BED, river- FRONT, river- BOAT, river- SIDE

INTERCULTURALISM is developed in the english language more than any others: this is due to the english colonization which began three hundred years ago (XVII century) and has been the vastest empire ever.