Linguistic and Stylistic Analysis of Texts - Academic Writing

Thesis Statement

• Think of the thesis statement as the title sentence, as in the 1st sentence to the entire passage, that tells the reader what the passage is about. 
• Example - Holden in The Catcher in the Rye is caught between continuing to be part of the innocent world of childhood and trying to become a part of the complex adult world. 

Coherence

• A passage is considered coherent if the reader finds it easy to understand.

Cohesive Devices

• Organising ideas - are they structured well, do the ideas flow coherently, or do the ideas go back and forth
• Paragraphing - does each paragraph contain a separate idea
• Idea Substantiation 
• Explanation / Elaboration
• Comparison and Contrast
• Exemplification
• Analysis - Causal Relation
• Sentence Structures - are the sentence long indicating complexity or short making the ideas easy to follow, is the grammar correctly used? 
• Linking Words 
• Additive - And, Furthermore, Moreover, Similarly
• Compare and Contrast - Although, Despite, However, In comparison
• Cause and Effect - Because, Since, Therefore, Thus
• Sequential - First, Then, Subsequently, Lastly, 
• Introductory - 
• Concluding - 
• Vocabulary level - are the words difficult to comprehend or easy to understand?

List the main ideas in the given passage. 

• Think of making a powerpoint slide for the entire passage. Bullet the main points para by para. 

List the Sub-ideas

• All the points given under idea substantiation are examples of sub-ideas. Identify and present these.