A reference table of more than twenty language techniques, each with a definition, an original example and the effect you can write about, followed by structural and form techniques. The guide then shows how to move from identifying a technique to analysing it in four moves, and how to turn a weak, generic sentence into a precise one. Useful for every senior English task, from unseen texts to essays.
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Completed: Language Techniques Glossary and How to Analyse Them
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Year 11 students (typically ages 16–17) working on text analysis & essays. It is pitched at level 2 · standard.
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Year 11 · English · Text Analysis & Essays
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Naming a technique earns very little on its own. Marks come from explaining what a specific language choice does in this text: what it makes the reader see, feel or question, and how it serves the composer's ideas. Use the glossary below to identify techniques quickly, then use the method in the second half of this guide to analyse them. The final column tells you what kind of effect to look for, but the effect must always be checked against the actual words in front of you.
| Technique | What it is | Original example | Typical effect (what to say) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alliteration | Repetition of initial consonant sounds | 'the slow, sour silence of the kitchen' | Draws the ear to a phrase; the sound can mimic mood (soft 's' for hush, hard 'k' for violence) |
| Allusion | A reference to another text, event or figure | 'She packed with the patience of someone building an ark.' | Borrows the meaning of the reference; invites comparison or irony |
| Anaphora | Repeating a word or phrase at the start of successive clauses | 'We waited for rain. We waited for the bank. We waited for someone else to decide.' | Builds rhythm and insistence; accumulates frustration, grief or urgency |
| Antithesis | Contrasting ideas in a balanced structure | 'He spoke of the future and lived in the past.' | Sharpens a contrast; suggests tension, hypocrisy or a divided self |
| Characterisation | How a character is built: speech, action, appearance, others' reactions | 'He apologised to the chair he bumped.' | Reveals values and inner life indirectly; say what is revealed and how |
| Connotation | The associations a word carries beyond its literal meaning | a 'cheap' holiday versus an 'affordable' one | Shapes the reader's attitude without stating it; name the association |
| Dialogue | Spoken exchange between characters | 'You coming?' 'In a minute.' She did not move. | Reveals relationship and subtext; note what is not said |
| Emotive language | Words chosen to provoke feeling | 'the shattered, abandoned families' | Positions the reader to feel before they judge; name the feeling |
| Enjambment | A line of poetry running on past the line break | 'she left the gate / open' | Creates momentum or suspense; the break can give a word two meanings |
| Hyperbole | Deliberate exaggeration | 'I have told you a thousand times.' | Emphasis, humour or intensity of feeling; can signal an unreliable speaker |
| Imagery | Language that appeals to the senses | 'the tin roof ticked as it cooled' | Immerses the reader; identify the sense and the mood it creates |
| Inclusive language | Pronouns that gather the audience in ('we', 'our', 'us') | 'Our town. Our water. Our decision.' | Builds solidarity; assumes agreement; common in speeches |
| Irony | A gap between what is said or expected and what is meant or happens | 'The "Welcome" sign had been nailed to the locked gate.' | Undercuts a surface meaning; invites the reader to judge from a distance |
| Juxtaposition | Placing contrasting elements side by side | 'A wedding photo beside the eviction notice.' | Highlights difference; creates tension or silent commentary |
| Metaphor | Describing one thing as if it were another | 'Grief was a tenant who never paid.' | Compresses meaning; explain which qualities transfer from one thing to the other |
| Modality | The degree of certainty or obligation in language | 'The council will act' versus 'The council might act' | High modality asserts authority; low modality signals doubt or tact |
| Motif | An image, object or phrase repeated through a text | a closed door appearing in every chapter | Accumulates meaning; track how it changes each time it appears |
| Onomatopoeia | Words that imitate sounds | 'the hiss and tick of the kettle' | Immediacy; sensory realism; can create unease or comfort |
| Oxymoron | Contradictory terms placed together | 'a comfortable silence' | Captures a complex or paradoxical feeling in a compact form |
| Personification | Giving human qualities to something non-human | 'The drought sat down at our table.' | Makes an abstract or natural force an active agent; suggests threat, intimacy or inevitability |
| Rhetorical question | A question asked for effect, not information | 'Who among us has never looked away?' | Involves the reader; implies its own answer; builds persuasion |
| Simile | A comparison using 'like' or 'as' | 'quiet as a held breath' | Clarifies through comparison; explain the shared quality and why it matters |
| Symbolism | An object or image that stands for a larger idea | a cracked water tank standing for a failing marriage | Condenses a theme into something concrete; say what it stands for and how you know |
| Syntax | The length and arrangement of sentences | 'She ran. The door was locked. She ran again.' | Short sentences create urgency; long ones suit reflection; fragments suggest shock or disorientation |
| Tone | The composer's attitude, carried by word choice | 'the ever-so-generous landlord' | Mocking, tender, detached, bitter: name it precisely and quote the words that carry it |
| Truncated sentence | A deliberately incomplete sentence | 'Not today.' | Finality, shock or emphasis; slows the reader down |
Analysing a technique in four moves ('The drought sat down at our table.')
Turning a weak sentence into a strong one
Which techniques are worth analysing? Choose the ones that carry the idea you are arguing, not the ones that are easiest to spot. A single image that recurs and changes is usually richer than three isolated similes. In every essay, include at least one structural or form technique (perspective, tense, structure, stanza shape) alongside language techniques: it shows you understand that meaning is built at the level of the whole text, not only the sentence.
Answers: 1. Personification (the paddocks are given the human capacity to forget); it suggests a drought so long that greenness has become a lost memory rather than an absent condition. 2. A metaphor says one thing is another ('the exam was a wall'); a simile compares using 'like' or 'as' ('the exam loomed like a wall'). A metaphor is more absolute; a simile keeps the two things separate. 3. A shift in pace or feeling: urgency, shock, a decision, or a moment the composer wants to isolate for emphasis. 4. e.g. 'The emotive verb "robbed" casts the policy as a crime and the children as its victims, positioning the reader to feel outrage on their behalf before any argument has been made.' 5. e.g. first-person narration creates intimacy and allows bias; a cyclical ending invites the reader to measure what has changed since the opening. (Any two from the list with a sensible effect.) 6. Depth shows understanding of how a choice creates meaning; a list only shows recognition. Markers reward explanation of effect and idea.
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A step-by-step guide to the senior English analytical essay: turning a question into an arguable thesis, structuring an introduction, body…
Study Guide · Year 12 · Text Analysis & Essays · Level 3 · Challenge
Study Guide · Year 12 · Text Analysis & Essays · Level 3 · Challenge
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