How to structure a language analysis introduction
Form, source, contention, audience and tone in three sentences.
A Language Analysis introduction has a lot of information to fit in — and no room for plot summary or throat-clearing. Four moves, done briskly, is enough.
Form & context
Name the piece, its form (opinion article, speech, cartoon, podcast), the publication or platform, the date, and the issue it responds to — in one tight sentence.
Contention
State the writer’s overall argument in your own words — not a paraphrase of the headline, but the position they want the audience to land on.
Tone & shifts
Name the dominant tone (or the shift, if there is one) in a single word or phrase, such as urgent, wry, conciliatory, and you’ll unpack it in the body.
Audience
Identify who the piece targets and why that matters to how it persuades — a local paper’s readers respond to different appeals than a national broadsheet’s.
In an opinion piece published in The Age on 14 March, following council debate over a proposed bike lane, [Writer] contends that the plan prioritises cyclists over the majority of ratepayers. Adopting an indignant, at times mocking tone, [Writer] appeals directly to local residents who fear being “taxed off their own streets.”
Three sentences: form & context, contention, tone & audience — nothing wasted.
Common mistake
Summarising the article’s content instead of naming its argument. Your reader already has the piece — the introduction should show you understand what it’s doing, not what it’s about.
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