Analyzing Opinion Pieces: Structure and Language

Analyzing Opinion Pieces

(Titled) ... (publication and date). Journalistic genre: Opinion subgenre. Item to be presented subjectively, allowing us to understand the author's (name) thesis.

Signed Article/Summary

Communication elements are present, though unilateral (not occurring simultaneously with the issuer's message, but when the reader receives it).

Therefore, we consider that (title text) responds to the characteristics of expository-argumentative texts. Its internal structure corresponds to the typical organization of such texts:

• Introduction: The author introduces the facts on which to display their position and the focus of the discourse.
• Conclusion: The author closes the linguistic discourse with a summary of views developed in the text (identifying theses).
• Argumentative Body: The author develops the arguments supporting their thesis (narrowing down).

In parallel with the text and thesis structure, the following language functions can be highlighted:

• Representative: Throughout the text, as the author describes the presentation of facts.
• Appeal: Throughout the text, as the author tries to persuade us that... is good or bad.
• Poetic: Not a major role, unless...

At the syntactic level, we can highlight:

• Simple and complex sentences
• Use of textual markers

At the morphological level, we can observe:

• Concrete and proper nouns
• Specific or explanatory adjectives
• Personal pronouns (atonic, tonic)
• Numerals (percentages, dates)

In the semantic field, we should look at the following aspects:

• Thematic progression, directly related to the classical structure of expository-argumentative texts
• Appearance of resources like synonyms, antonyms, hyperonyms (e.g., furniture), and hyponyms (e.g., table, chair, wardrobe)

To finish the linguistic analysis, the theme developed in the text should be emphasized. From this, we will start the development of a critical comment (my opinion and conclusion).