How to compare texts - OCRHow to answer a summarise and synthesise question

Comparing a writer’s methods

Writers use different methods to achieve their purpose. The form of a non-fiction text will also effect the writer’s choice of method. A comparison of two texts should focus on HOW the writer’s methods are similar and/or different. For example, you could focus on a writer’s use of:

• tone, eg humorous, serious, satirical
• language, eg word choice, literary techniques, rhetorical devices
• structure, eg order of ideas, repetition, sentence structure

The writer’s choice of method will have an effect on the reader’s response: it’s important to think about the impact on the reader when comparing texts. This is also where you can share your opinion about a text. You are the reader, so think about how the text is making you feel and respond.

Example

Read these two extracts that both focus on describing a dramatic event. One is from a 21st century magazine article about a paramotoring accident the other is a 19th century newspaper account of a ballooning accident.

Extract 1

Experience: I fell out of the Sky

I pulled the brake lines to increase the angle of the wing for extra life. But I forgot that I had tightened them before take-off and made them far more sensitive. I pulled too hard. That, combined with the eddies swirling from the trees and building ahead, caused a break in the airflow under the canopy. Instantly, it began to deflate.

I had just enough time to look up and see the thin material of my wing falling towards me like an enormous bunch of useless laundry. I was dropping like a stone.

Tumbling through the air with no way to stop is a sensation of utter helplessness: a truly stomach churning moment where you know you’re not going forwards or upwards; you’re just falling. There is no time to think. One second became two, two became three. I closed my eyes. Wallop.

Magazine article,The Guardian Weekend, 2014

Extract 2

The injured aeronauts at Buxton

It was now the critical moment - two or three severe bumps were inevitable, the wind blowing in angry gusts, and the car dashed through one wall of about eighteen inches in thickness, making a clear breach, and hurling the stones forward as if they had been pounded by the largest Armstrong missile at present in use. Mr. Coxwell was full strain on the upper valve, which is thirty inches in diameter, but still the mass bore onwards, and a second clean breach was repeated in the next wall.

Away again with renewed vigour, and down for the third time, and once again through another wall, and now the cry was raised by astounded lookers-on, that two fields further lay the Deep Dale or gorge which would surely prove fatal.

Buxton Newspaper article, 1861

Analysis

Here are some similarities and differences between the two texts. In an exam you wouldn’t have to cover all of these points.

Similarities

• Purpose - both are informing and entertaining the reader.
• They are both about a similar topic, an airborne accident.
• Both use a technical semantic field - The Guardian article refers to “brake lines...take-off…canopy…” The Buxton report refers to “aeronauts…upper valve…”.
• Both use dramatic, emotive language to excite the reader. The Buxton report uses the dramatic verbs “dashed” and “hurling” whilst The Guardian article uses phrases like “utter helplessness” and “stomach churning.”
• Both structure the last paragraph in the extract with a dramatic phrase. In the news report “..surely prove fatal” and in the article ‘Wallop’.
• Both texts use similes to make the accidents more vivid for the reader. The Buxton report uses “…as if they had been pounded by the largest Armstrong missile…” and the paramotoring article uses “…I was dropping like a stone…”

Differences

• Different form - extract 1 is a magazine article and extract 2 is a news report.
• Headline in the Buxton report is informative rather than emotive – the reader knows the men survived. The headline of the modern article is intriguing for the reader – this underlines the astonishing nature of the story.
• The Buxton report is written from the perspective of someone observing the accident, so the reader is presented with the emotions of the onlookers.
• The paramotoring article is written from the perspective of the man involved in the accident, so the reader is presented with his emotions.
• Lots of multi-clause sentences in the Buxton report to build a sense of anticipation.
• In the paramotoring article, lots of single clause, short sentences build the tension.
• In the Buxton report, the use of some present tense makes it seem as if the incident is happening now. This makes it more dramatic for the reader.
• The use of past tense in the modern article informs the reader that the writer is recounting a memory – headline and main text infer that he survived the accident.
• The informality of the word “Wallop” in the paramotoring article is shocking and also perhaps creates an amusing tone for the reader.
• The humour is also suggested by the simile, “like an enormous bunch of useless laundry…” The contrast of this humour with the serious subject matter makes the text very effective.
• The tone in the Buxton report is more grave. The writer personifies the wind, “..in angry gusts…”, to suggest the danger of the situation.