Analysing non-literary texts: reading non-fiction and multimodal texts through lexis, grammar, pragmatics, discourse and graphology, and the literary techniques of literary non-fiction, to analyse how a text positions its reader by mode, audience and purpose (AO1, AO2, AO3).

What this dot point is asking

Non-literary texts, journalism, persuasion, reportage, multimodal and digital texts, make meaning by their own resources, and analysing them needs the language levels read to the effect of positioning a reader. Much of the prescribed non-fiction is literary non-fiction, so it also rewards the literary methods. This dot point sets out how to analyse non-literary texts: the language levels that read persuasion and positioning, graphology in multimodal texts, and the literary techniques of literary non-fiction.

The answer

A non-literary text is built to do something to a reader, inform, persuade, move, sell, and the analysis reads how its language positions the reader to that end. The language levels read persuasion precisely, graphology reads the multimodal, and the literary methods read literary non-fiction.

The language levels read positioning

Persuasion and positioning work largely through pragmatics and grammar. Direct address ("you") and inclusive pronouns ("we") position the reader into a relationship; presupposition smuggles in assumptions the reader is led to accept ("Tired of waiting?"); implicature persuades by what is implied; imperatives and modality command or urge; loaded lexis colours the subject before any argument is made; discourse organises the text to lead the reader to a conclusion. Reading these to the effect of positioning, not labelling them, is the skill.

Graphology in multimodal texts

Multimodal and digital texts combine writing with layout, typography, colour and image (graphology), and often blend the written with the spoken (a social post's speech-like informality in written form). Read graphological features for purpose, the headline that frames, the image that anchors a meaning, the layout that guides the eye, and read the mode blend: how a digital text imports spoken immediacy into the written mode. Always connect the visual feature to meaning, not just description.

Literary technique in literary non-fiction

Much prescribed non-fiction is literary non-fiction: reportage, memoir, literary journalism that uses the techniques of fiction. Read its focalisation (a scene filtered through a participant), its narrative method (suspense, the handling of time, the withholding of information), its voice (a constructed persona, evaluative narration) and its imagery. Literary non-fiction shapes the reader's response with literary method while claiming the authority of fact, and reading it as literary non-fiction, not bare reporting, finds the craft.

Examples in context

The texts vary, so the moves below are illustrative.

Positioning by presupposition. "The advert positions the reader before it argues: the opening question presupposes the reader's dissatisfaction ('Still struggling with...?') so that the remedy is accepted before it is examined, and the inclusive 'we' folds reader and brand onto one side. The persuasion works at the level of what is taken for granted, not what is proven." Presupposition and deixis read to effect.

Literary non-fiction's craft. "The reportage focalises the killing through a bystander and withholds the outcome across several paragraphs, borrowing the novelist's suspense, while evaluative lexis colours the 'neutral' account; the reader is positioned to dread and to judge by literary means, even as the text claims the authority of fact." Literary technique read to effect.

Try this

Q1. What is a non-literary text read for? [2 marks]

• Cue. For what it does to its reader, how its language positions the reader to feel or think, not for the content it states.

Q2. Why read literary technique in prescribed non-fiction? [2 marks]

• Cue. Much of it is literary non-fiction (reportage, memoir, journalism) that uses focalisation, narrative method, voice and suspense to shape the reader; reading it as literary non-fiction finds the craft.

Q3. Analyse how the unseen non-literary text positions its reader, considering contexts. [out of 60]

• What the marker wants. Precise analysis of the language levels (pragmatics, grammar, lexis, discourse, graphology) read to the effect of positioning (AO1, AO2), framed by audience and purpose (AO3), not content summary.

A note on non-literary texts

This guide is AI-written and not individually human-reviewed. The texts vary by series; confirm them against the current Eduqas A710 materials. The skill, reading the language levels to the effect of positioning, with literary technique where the text uses it, transfers across non-literary and multimodal texts.