return to Writing: Practice and Context

Applications of Writing: Language in Context

Every text has a social, cultural and historical context that affects its language and style. The following framework will be helpful for discussing the kinds of texts read and written in this module.

Audience and Purpose

What is the mode of this text? Is it designed to be read or spoken?
For whom is the text written, and with what purpose? What power relationships are implied within the text?

Context
In what situation, environment or historical period is the text written, performed or read? What is the topic?

Register
In analysing language it is useful to consider register. This term describes the context-specific variety of language formed by three different aspects:

Mode or the channel of communication (e.g. speech, writing);
Tenor or relationship between participants;
Field or subject matter.

Form and Style
What form does the text take? What attitudes towards the subject matter are created? How do audience, context and purpose affect the choices made by the writer about:

Lexis (type of vocabulary, imagery, lexical sets)
Grammar (the construction of sentences, use of nouns/verbs/adjectives etc. syntax, use of interrogative or imperative, non-standard features, dialect)
Phonology (the sound of the language, alliteration, rhythm, rhyme etc.)
Discourse structure (the organisation of the text as a whole, form, narrative technique, point of view, use of first, second or third person, order, juxtaposition)

By looking at these areas, it is possible to see how texts both reflect and create particular values in society, including those relating to class and gender, for example. This module encourages an awareness of such issues as you consider how best to write texts aimed at specific audiences.

Zoe Skoulding

Last updated 23.10.2007