Presentational Features

In your exam you will be asked to write about presentational features. If you are doing English language and literature this will be for Q2 and will ask you to link headline and photo to the text. If you are sitting English only (and you didn't sit any literature exams) you will compare presentational features in two texts.

The very worst answer as to why that feature is used is always 'to attract the reader's attention'. Well, of course it is. This is so obvious that it needs explaining to show you understand the feature: 'to bring the reader's attention to the important theme in the headline regarding X which is the main focus of the story, as shown by the quote "x..." is far better for Q2 on Lang/Lit. If you are going to write about the reader's attention be specific and explain in detail.

Headlines.
These are important and in Q2 they need to be linked to the text. Headlines are not just there 'to tell the reader what the article is about'. In fact, most headlines don't do that: they may startle the reader ('Horror Crash') or amuse the reader ('Slimezilla!').

Headlines tend to use set formulae, use this as a mental checklist -

Puns? Is there a play on words like 'Slimezilla!' in January's exam which was appropriate as the article was about monster jellyfish in Japan and Godzilla was a Japanese monster. Oh, and jellyfish are slimy.

Alliteration - there is often an alliterative aspect to a headline which highlights the key words or concepts. Think about the sounds alliteration makes - S sounds (sibilance) can be sinister and suspicious (see?): f sounds angry as are plosives such as 'b' or 'p' - or plosives can also be excitable.

Important Colons: leading to more detail. Many headlines have two words, then a colon, then subsidiary detail about the story. The central message of the article is summarised in the first two words and then developed further after the colon. Check your article and find quotes that prove this.

Pictures: the picture is not there 'to show the reader more about the story', this is not an analytical answer. Picture editors at newspapers choose and photoshop images to give certain messages. You need to read the article and work out what that message is.

Colour: what are the connotations of the colours in that image? Blue can be linked with depression or sadness, but also professionalism, or hope (blue skies). Think about the tone of the article and how the colour choice supports it.

Facial expression / shot type: one of the most obvious things to write about, but also the hardest, is facial expression. As a human you are brilliant at reading the message that other people's facial expressions are giving you. Transfer this skill to the article. What emotion or thought is that face having? How can you link it to the article? Is there eye contact between the person in the picture and the reader to create a sense of relationship or empathy?

What about the background? The setting is vital. How is it shot? What can we see and what messages are there? Link this to the text clearly.

For A/A* - could we see the picture as metaphorical? Is there something there that could be far more symbolic of the entire tone or message of the article?

For English only: what about slogans or logos? Text boxes? Fonts?

For English Language and Literature only: you are linking the headline to the text and the picture to the text. DO NOT LINK THE HEADLINE TO THE PICTURE UNLESS ASKED TO. To do this you need to find quotes in the text and ask yourself how the central message or argument in that text is reflected in the picture or headline. In 12 minutes.
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