Analyzing Text: BACON, DIDLS, SOAPSTone, OPTIC, TPCASTT

SOAPSTone: Speaker, Occasion, Audience, Purpose, Subject, Tone

DIDLS: Diction, Imagery, Details, Language, Syntax

SOAPSTone and DIDLS are for Analysis of Prose.

Speaker - Voice that tells the story; the author may be the speaker, or non-fiction article is carefully planned and structured, and it is within that plan and structure that meaning is discovered

The author, the narrator, the character

Narration 1-2-3 Limited-3 Omni, Reliable/Unreliable, Point of View,

Occasion - Time and place of a piece; it is important to understand the context that encouraged the writing to happen.

Genre and Setting

Audience - Group of readers to whom the piece is directed; it may be one person, a small group, or a large group; it may be a certain person or a certain people; an understanding of the characteristics of the audience leads to a higher level of understanding.

Purpose - Reason behind the text; without a grasp of purpose, it is impossible to examine the argument or logic of the piece.

Authorial Intent

To instruct youth, To inform, To persuade, To Steer Politics

Subject - General topic, content, and ideas contained in the text; be able to state the subject in a short phrase.

Concrete Topic

Abstract Theme

Theme in order to purpose = Theme

Tone

Diction - Choose unusual and/or effective words from the passage. Evaluate the connotations of the words and write synonyms for each. Then, decide what the word choice suggests about the character’s or narrator’s demeanor.

OPTIC: Overview, Parts, Title/Text, Interrelationships, Conclusion

OPTIC is for Analysis of Pictures

TPCASTT: Title, Paraphrase, Connotation, Attitude, Shift, Title, Theme

TPCASTT is for Analysis of Poems

BACON: Body, Actions, Comparisons, Oration, Narration

BACON is for Character Analysis in Literature

Occasion - Time and place of a piece; it is important to understand the context that encouraged the writing to happen.

Genre and Setting

Imagery - Cite examples of imagery from the passage. Identify the sense appealed to, and interpret the meaning.

Description of Tangible Human Experience

There are many human physical senses that can be used to describe a tangible object, place, or person. Smell, sight, taste, sounds, and touch are the basic five that can be conveyed. Taste breaks down into bitter, sour, sweet, salty, and umami sensations. Also explore the sense of balance and acceleration, pain sensation, sense of hunger and fullness, thirst sense, sense of movement and position, sense of heat and cold, sense of oxygen levels, chemoreception sense that tells your body to throw up when encountering toxins, magnetoreception sense that tells you which direction you are facing as your body can feel the magnetic poles, itch sensitivity, pressure sensitivity, sense of time passing, a sense of where your limbs are in relation to your body. Explain all sensory experiences that enhances your thesis.


MAKE HANDOUT

Details - List facts or the sequence of events from the passage.

Language - Determine the type of language used (formal, informal, clinical, jargon, literal, vulgar, artificial, sensuous, concrete, precise, pedantic, etc.). Site examples.

    • Handout: Language Words - Words that can describe the mood of a work as a whole (1 page)

Syntax - How does sentence structure reveal the character’s attitude?