Presentational/Layout + Linguistic Features

PRESENTATIONAL/LAYOUT FEATURES

• Heading/sub-headings
• Use of graphics/visual images – pie chart/bar chart/graph/diagrams
• Use of colour
• Photos
• Logos
• Different font types
• Different print sizes
• Bold print
• Italics
• Numbering
• Underlining
• Short paragraphs
• Bullet points

Language features

• Rhetorical questions
• Metaphor
• Simile
• Rule of three
• Repetition
• Alliteration
• Emotive language
• Persuasive language - opinion/opinion presented as fact
• Informative language – facts/statements/figures/statistics
• Hyperbole/Exaggeration
• Onomatopoeia
• Question and answer

Rhetorical Questions

A question that does not require an immediate answer.
Aims to make the reader think/encourage them to agree with
writer

Examples:

“Who wants to live forever?”

“What can we do to stop cyber-bullying?”

“Is the death penalty really an effective deterrent?”

Metaphor

Use of language to create an image by describing one thing as if it is
another

Examples:
• She listened to him with a stony face
• The audience voted with its feet and left the theatre
• The typical teenage boy’s room is a disaster area.
• His cotton candy words did not appeal to her taste.
• Kathy arrived at the grocery store with an army of children.
• I was lost in a sea of nameless faces.
• The wheels of justice turn slowly.
• Laughter is the music of the soul.
• David is a worm for what he did to Shelia.
• The teacher planted the seeds of wisdom.

Simile

Use of language to create an image by describing one thing as like another thing

Examples:

• 
• Dry as a bone
• As clear as mud
• Like two peas in a pod
• Slept like a log
• Hard as nails
• Like a bat out of hell
• Old as the hills
• Good as gold
• Fits like a glove
• Went down like a lead balloon
• Keen as mustard

Rule of Three

The rule of three is based upon the thinking that people tend to
remember things in groups of three

Examples:
Blood, sweat and tears
Faith, hope and charity
Education, education, education
There are three types of lies: lies, damned lies and
statistics
Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness
Stop, look and listen

Alliteration

Repetition of the same letters at the start of several words in the
same sentence

Examples:

Proper preparation prevents poor performance
She sells sea shells down by the seashore
Weeds in wheels shoot long and lovely and lush
Peter picked a peck of pickled pepper
He was blessed with a brilliant brain
My mother makes mouthwatering mince pies

Emotive Language

When a writer uses words or phrases to make the reader feel a
particular emotion

Examples:
Thugs taunt a victim after a brutal mugging

Abandoned children found in filthy, flea-infested flat

Make your wardrobe sparkle with our new desirable spring
collection

One hundred protestors slaughtered by troops

Hyperbole/exaggeration

Extravagant exaggeration used to emphasise a point

Examples:
I’ve told you a million times to sit down and be quiet!
You could have knocked me over with a feather
They have tons of money
He has a brain the size of a pea
I’m so hungry I could eat a horse
He could drink Lough Neagh dry
We did a shedload of work yesterday
It’ll blow your mind away (Burger King strap line)

Onomatopoeia

Words or sounds which, when spoken, imitate the sounds they
describe

Examples:
Thud
Crash
Sssh
Click
Clatter
Slither
Buzz
Thwack