Are you struggling to write good, Band 6-level textual analysis for your HSC prescribed texts?
When I was in Years 11 and 12, I had to learn the hard way why just reading your texts isn’t enough to get you top marks come exam time. Now, after having tutored HSC English students like yourself for 200+ hours, I’ve got a solid 5-step process for textual analysis.
In 5 minutes or so, this article is going to get you un-confused about how to analyse your HSC English texts. Let’s jump into it!
What is Textual Analysis?
What’s the difference between an Analysis and a Summary?
Step 1: Understand the Text’s Foundations
Step 2: Identify Significant Themes
Step 3: Take Notes
Step 4: Choose Examples and Techniques
Step 5: Carry out Your Textual Analysis
Busting 3 Myths about Textual Analysis
HSC Textual Analysis Examples
🤔 What is Textual Analysis?
Textual analysis is the most important part of the essay, serving as the supporting evidence that expands upon the argument you present in your thesis. Like we’ve done in this textual analysis of Mabo (2012), strong textual analysis shows your understanding of the text in three key ways:
- Identifying literary techniques.
- Interpreting how the author’s context impacts upon their work.
- Reflecting upon the author’s perspective on key themes.
🤔 What’s the difference between an Analysis and a Summary?
A summary just talks about what happens in the text. It’s the kind of thing you’d find in the ‘plot’ section of the Wikipedia article about the text you’re studying.
However, an analysis requires you to discuss the text on a deeper level. You need to identify specific themes and literary techniques and explain how the author uses them to create meaning.
Here’s an example of the difference between the two:
| Summary | Analysis |
|---|---|
| Othello snuffs out a candle and murders Desdemona in complete darkness. | Othello refers to the candle as “the flaming minister,” a metaphor for how it literally shines light upon his sin, so he conceals his actions in the dark to alleviate his dishonour and self-reproach. |
Step 1: Understand the Text’s Foundations
The first thing you need to do is to build a strong foundational understanding of the text. This will help you create a more nuanced analysis later on!
#1: Make a Plot Summary
As you read your English text, make chapter/scene summaries with only the super important parts and compile them all together once you finish the text. Edit this so that you end up with a short 1-2 page summary of the key events in the text.
While it can be tempting to just copy paste online summaries, try to only use them as a reference and still make your own summary so that you understand it better.
#2: Create Character Profiles
The best way understand the complex details of your text’s cast is to create character profiles for main characters that include their name, background, personality, and any other key details.
You should also include the character’s significance to the overall plot, such as the role they play, how they grow, and their relationships with other key characters. These profiles can also include some important quotes related to the character.
Feel free to get creative! If you’re a visual learner, you can even add some sketches or pictures of what you think the characters look like!
#3: Understand the Context
Looking into the context of the text and the composer can help you uncover the purpose of the author, the effect of the text, and some of the symbols, metaphors, and deeper meanings hidden in the text, which will allow you to formulate stronger arguments.
When you’re studying your text, the best way to contextualise it is to:
- Make note of the setting of the story, including when and where it’s set.
- Next, before reading or watching the text, do some research into the time period and country/place it’s set in. Take some notes about the social, political, cultural, and economic circumstances of that time and place.
- Now, do the same thing but with the context of the composer. Check out some author/director biographies and write down their background, when and where they lived, and how this might affect their perspective.
Struggling to find relevant information about an author’s context online and how it connects to their writing? Find all the information you need with Artie, our AI English tutor by making a free account!
The Explore Context feature provides comprehensive information on context AND the author’s intent for writing the story.
Here’s an example of the contextual information it provides about Macbeth:
Step 2: Identify Significant Themes
Literary themes are the underlying main ideas of a text. Themes are a lot more complex and sophisticated than the overall plot and narrative events of the text.
Some easy ways to identify them in English texts include exploring the language used, making note of characters and the plot, and looking out for motifs and symbols, which are images and ideas that appear repeatedly throughout the text. These can give you a good sense of what the composer is trying to express, which will help you identify key themes within the text.
Some common literary themes interrogated by texts might include:
- Love
- Power
- Death
- Coming of age
- Appearance VS Reality
- Heroism
- Good VS Evil
Step 3: Taking Notes
Once all your background research is done, it’s time to highlight key quotes from the text for reference so you can include them in your notes and use them for analysis. This is often the most confusing part of the process because it’s difficult to know what quotes are useful for your analysis.
Here’s a guide for things to look for when marking up your text:
| What to look for | What it means | How to spot it |
|---|---|---|
| Techniques | Techniques are the way an author uses language to create a certain effect. Some common effects are: 1. Creating a deeper meaning. 2. Making the audience relate or empathise with a character. 3. Simply just making the writing sound nice. Some common techniques to look for are metaphors, imagery and characterisation. | It’s useful to create a list (or find one online) of the most common techniques and their definitions so you can refer to it while reading through your text. It’s also helpful to highlight anything that stands out to you. If you sense there might be a hidden meaning or if the wording feels unusual but you’re not sure why, chances are the author is using a technique! |
| Themes | Themes are basically the main ideas and subjects which are represented within a narrative. Themes are not to be confused with motifs, which are images or concepts that recur throughout a text. Motifs can be used to represent a theme, for example, the image of a cross and the concept of an afterlife are motifs that represent the broader theme of religion. | It’s helpful to research the text first and identify all the main themes so you know what you’re looking for when highlighting quotes. Pay special attention to the conflicts that shape the plot and moments where characters openly express their beliefs. These often highlight the main ideas and provide concrete examples to connect to the themes you're analysing. |
| Context | Context is the background information of what was happening when the text was written. There are several different types of context: • Sociopolitical context: any political or social movements happening when the text was written. For example, if your text was written during the 1960s in America, part of the political context would be capitalism and part of the social context would be the civil rights movement. • Cultural context: any traditions, customs or other cultural norms when the text was written. • Personal context: what was happening in the author’s life when the text was written. • Literary context: what was happening in the literary world when the text was written. For example, the predominant literary movement right now is referred to as Postmodernism. | Look for parts of the narrative that closely reflect real world events. For example, if a character is going through a divorce and the author wrote the book right after being divorced themselves, the text’s representation of divorce would likely be influenced by their personal context. |
| Perspectives | • A perspective is the overarching view of an author on the themes they are exploring. • A perspective can either be supportive or critical. • Take the theme of technological advancement, here are two differing perspectives an author could present: Supportive: Technological advancement is beneficial for society because it enables progress in fields such as healthcare and education. Critical: Technological advancement is detrimental to society because it impedes human autonomy and creativity. | Sometimes authors will incorporate lines or even full speeches that align with their own perspective. An example of this is the ‘Quality of Mercy’ speech from William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice where he presents a supportive perspective on the Christian ideal of mercy. However, authors aren’t always as direct with their perspectives and you have to read into how things are represented in the text. For example, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale never flat out mentions the notion of a patriarchy. However, through the oppressive way she portrays a society that controls women’s bodies and limits their freedoms, the reader can understand that she is critiquing the ways in which a patriarchal system denies women their autonomy. |
Here’s a marked-up passage from Macbeth using this note-taking method:
Step 4: Choose Examples and Techniques
Your examples (often these are quotes) are basically the evidence to support your argument.
When you’re choosing your examples, make sure you’re able to identify techniques within the example. Techniques help you to dig deeper into the meaning of the text that the composer’s trying to express and will really strengthen your argument!
If you’re finding it a bit tricky to identify techniques, check out our literary techniques cheat sheet, and our visual techniques cheat sheet!
The best way to organise your examples and techniques before starting any essays, exams or other assessments, is to write up a TEE (Technique, Example and Effect) Table. By creating a TEE Table, you’re practically breaking down an English paragraph into three columns, which are super easy to fill out.
Here’s are some text analysis examples using a TEE Table with quotes from Macbeth:
| Technique | Example | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Metaphor | I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only / Vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself and falls on the other. | The metaphor compares Macbeth's ambition to a horse that leaps too high and crashes, symbolising his reckless overreach for power and inevitable downfall. |
| Rhetorical Question | “Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand?” | Macbeth questions the vision of the dagger, showing his confusion and inner conflict as he contemplates murdering Duncan. |
Step 5: Carry out Your Textual Analysis
Now that you’ve picked out your examples and techniques, here’s how to write an analysis!
Make sure to focus your analysis on supporting your overall argument or thesis. As you analyse examples and techniques, flesh out their effects and emphasise on how they prove your point.
Think about what the composer’s purpose is, how these techniques and examples achieve this purpose, and most importantly, how readers or viewers respond to the text.
Let’s take a look at an analysis of Macbeth as an example, rather than a simple statement like this:
Macbeth highlights the destructive impact of guilt and ambition through Lady Macbeth’s use of a rhyming couplet “’tis safer to be that which we destroy/than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy”. This is interrogated through the motif of sleep, as Macbeth says ““ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep… terrible dreams… the torture of the mind to lie”.
Our analysis should expand on how the examples and techniques support the thesis, which looks more like this:
Busting 3 Myths about Textual Analysis
Myth: You have to provide all details about a scene’s context.
Reality: Your marker is already familiar with your text and just recounting the plot doesn’t show your full understanding of all the most important elements of a text such as themes, techniques and authorial intent.
The best method is to engage in selective retelling: provide just enough detail to contextualise where the quote is from in the text so the marker knows what you’re talking about before getting right into the analysis.
Myth: Using big words makes your analysis more sophisticated.
Reality: It’s always best to keep your analysis as clear and precise as possible so the marker understands the point you’re trying to make. Using big words when you’re not sure what they mean often leads to your argument becoming convoluted.
Remember, George Orwell famously said “never use a long word where a short one will do.”
However, you should try not to repeat the same exact phrases multiple times throughout your essay because it will make your argument seem really repetitive.
Myth: Context doesn’t matter.
Reality: Many students assume that analysis only involves identifying a language technique and examining a certain theme. However, every aspect of the text is influenced by the time when it was written. You will not be able to achieve full marks if you don’t make any reference to context.
HSC Textual Analysis Examples
We’ve walked you through a step-by-step guide to analysing English texts, including understanding the plot, identifying themes, and choosing examples and techniques. Apply these to your English texts and you’ll be acing your analysis in no time!
You can also check out the range of texts we’ve covered below to give you a better understanding of how to analyse specific texts:
Prose
- Jane Eyre
- Lord of the Flies
- All the Light We Cannot See
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time
- Frankenstein
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- Pride and Prejudice
- Past the Shallows
- Things Fall Apart
- Mrs Dalloway
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
- 1984
- Jasper Jones
- The Book Thief
- In Cold Blood
- The Union Buries its Dead
- The Great Gatsby
- Fahrenheit 451
- Hag-Seed
- Burial Rites
- Never Let Me Go
- Like a House on Fire
- The Pedestrian
- Ransom
- The Stranger
- After Darkness
Poetry
Non-Fiction and Media
Drama
Film
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Christina Ugov is currently completing a double degree in International and Global Studies and Theatre and Performance at the University of Sydney. Outside of her studies, she enjoys exploring creative writing projects, analysing literature and playing with her cat. She spends her spare time reading, listening to music and drinking lots of tea.
Maitreyi Kulkarni is a Content Writer at Art of Smart Education and is currently studying a Bachelor of Media and Communications (Public Relations and Social Media) at Macquarie University. She loves writing just about anything from articles to poetry, and has also had one of her articles published with the ABC. When she’s not writing up a storm, she can be found reading, bingeing sitcoms, or playing the guitar.
