Understanding Literary Analysis and Journalistic Texts

Objective 2.1: Main Ideas and Supporting Concepts

Main Idea

The main idea is the most important element of a text; without it, the text would be meaningless.

Key Concepts

  • Anticipation: The presentation of a fact or circumstance before its expected occurrence.
  • Paraphrase: A clear and didactic restatement of a text.
  • Inference: Drawing a conclusion or result based on evidence.
  • Conclusion: A final proposition, often found in academic or research work.
  • Generalization: A fundamental element of logic and human reasoning.

Note Cards

Note cards are used to record data according to its nature.

Types of Note Cards

  • Bibliographic Cards: Cards with an international format (75 x 125 mm) used in libraries to store information about books and documents in alphabetical order by author. Information included: 1) Author; 2) Year of publication; 3) Title of the book; 4) Edition number (from the 2nd edition onwards); 5) Place of publication; 6) Publisher; 7) Number of pages.
  • Summary Cards: Used to condense information from printed materials.
  • Textual Cards: Used to collect information verbatim from a source without altering, summarizing, or expanding the original text.

Sub-Scratching

Identifying and highlighting important aspects within a subsection.

Summarizing

A technique to present a synthesis of the ideas in a text, page, or poem.

Outlining

Organizing ideas in a hierarchical order for clear presentation.

Objective 2.2: Newspapers

Definition

A publication issued periodically, at regular intervals.

Newspaper Formats

  • Daily Newspapers: Publications with a focus on current events.

Newspaper Sections

  • Header: Highlights the main news of the day in large letters across the width of the paper.
  • International Politics: Covers political events occurring abroad.
  • National Politics: Covers political events within the country of publication.
  • Economy: Covers national and international economic news.
  • Culture: Covers national and international cultural events.
  • Education: Covers news related to education.
  • Events: Covers accidents, crime, and natural disasters.
  • Local: Covers news specific to the newspaper’s area of influence.
  • Sports: Covers sports news and events.
  • Science: Covers scientific research and discoveries.
  • Religion: Covers news related to different religious communities.
  • Society: Covers social incidents and undocumented events.
  • Opinion: Provides a platform for different viewpoints on current issues.

Journalistic Genres

  • News: Reports on novel or unusual events within a specific community or area.
  • Feature: A narrative of events, which may or may not be current.
  • Editorial: An unsigned text that explains, evaluates, and judges a significant news event.

Structure of News Articles

  • Title: Identifies, advertises, and summarizes the news.
  • Breaks: Small separations between paragraphs to improve readability.
  • Highlights: Used to emphasize key phrases or aspects of the information.
  • Exploded: Contains supplemental information to enhance understanding of the story.

Types of News

  • Summary News: Combines different data related to various subjects into one story.
  • Obituary: Describes the death of a person, often including a biography for well-known figures.
  • Situational News: Addresses a social issue of concern.
  • Additional News: Adds anecdotes or indirect consequences to the main story.

Objective 3.1: Levels of Discourse

Narrator Types

  • Represented Narrator (First-person/Protagonist): Tells the story and participates in the actions.
  • Unrepresented Narrator (Third-person): Tells the story without participating in the actions.
  • Witness Narrator: Recounts events but does not experience them directly.
  • Omniscient Narrator: Knows the entire story and all aspects of the characters.

Environment

  • Physical Environment: A specific location where events take place.
  • Psychological Environment: The inner mind, dream world, memories, or hallucinations.

Narrative Elements

  • Actions: Events that occur in a logical sequence.
  • Narration: The predominant expressive form in narrative texts.
  • Description: Used to depict characters, environments, or objects.
  • Dialogue: Represents conversations between characters.
  • Monologue: A character speaking to themselves.

Literary Devices

  • Alliteration: Repetition of a phoneme or group of phonemes.
  • Onomatopoeia: A type of alliteration that imitates real sounds.
  • Anaphora: Repetition of a word or words at the beginning of phrases or verses.
  • Paronomasia: Association of two words with similar sounds but different meanings.
  • Polysyndeton: Use of numerous conjunctions to coordinate linguistic elements.
  • Epithet: Adding adjectives to characterize a noun, often for praise or criticism.
  • Asyndeton: Omission of conjunctions where they would normally be expected.
  • Ellipsis: Omission of a word or phrase understood from the context.
  • Hyperbaton: Alteration of the usual word order.
  • Parallelism: Similar structure and length in syntactic elements.
  • Simile/Comparison: Relating a real term to an imaginary one with resemblance.
  • Metaphor: Transfer of meaning between two words (real and imaginary).
  • Hyperbole: Exaggeration of reality.
  • Irony: Expressing the opposite of what is meant.
  • Paradox: Combining two seemingly contradictory ideas.
  • Antithesis: Contrasting two antonyms in speech.
  • Personification: Attributing human qualities to inanimate objects or natural phenomena.

Objective 3.2: Lyrical Poetry

A genre originating from Greek and Latin cultures…