Genre: Speech, more specifically a TED talk and thus both serious in content and slightly informal in tone, though never losing the marks of an academic register. We wish to listen to Adichie.

Voice: 1st person and highly subjective, yet not didactic. There is humour here and a self deprecating humour which can see the weakness in herself as much as in others. The story is told clearly, yet at times the force of the single sentence carries weight – ‘she assumed that I did not know how to use a stove’ – the raised eyebrows are there for all to read.

Purpose: to educate and to raise awareness of stereotyping in all societies. We are persuaded by the eloquence of the narrative rather than by overt ‘persuasive techniques’.

Structure: 

1: the background in Colonial Africa, the family.

2: The first single stories – what books might contain and Fide

3: USA (further reading, her novel Americanah) and single stories against her. Mixture of humour, self-awareness and ignorance

4: Her own single story of Mexico.

5: Summing up of the message.