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Non-literary text forms an independent part of a publication . Non-literary texts are informational writing: factual material, informational explanations, newspaper articles, textbooks, journal and diary entries, and so forth that are published in newspapers, Informative magazines current affairs news and educative articles. Non-literary composition uses facts and figures to proof a point. Examples of non-literary texts are personal diaries, current affairs news, journals, text books and articles. Non-literary composition is written objectively.
In contrast, literary texts are fictional compositions based on the artist’s will and imaginations and are therefore subjective. Poetry, novels, short stories and dramas are written in a particular way, and this is referred to as literary text. In literary texts, authors creatively create feelings and ideas to entertain their audiences. Examples of literary texts are poems, short stories and dramas. They have been described as “the best words in the best order”. The use of sound of words make poems sound like songs when read aloud.
Poems have a particular appearance that shows they are poems before even reading the words. Poems have shorter lines than most sorts of writings. Language features refer to the sound of the language in literature, the use of specific vocabulary to describe and clarify the literature or anything used in storytelling to draw the reader’s attention. Language features are the ways in which spoken, written and visual texts are shaped according to personal, historical, cultural, social and workplace contexts.
Language features can be everything that the artist-writer uses with particular artistic intentions that is employed in literature and storytelling. Language features of poems are art form that expresses ideas through language, which can be recognized, identified, interpreted and analysed. Literary language features are the means authors use to create meaning through language, and that readers use to understand and appreciate their works. The language features employed in literary prose are written deliberately in a more stylized manner to “flow” or “sing” without actually being poetry.
In comparing the language features of the poem with the newspaper article, the poem uses literary devices which have different meanings and that allow the reader to interpret. This is because poems have a regular rhythm and repeated lines, words or sounds. However, the author of the news paper article uses words for easy interpretation and understanding, because the messages he is conveying to his readers are facts with figures. No-literary texts are explicit in nature, in that they are written to educate and inform his readers using convincing and/or persuasive language.
In the article, for example, the author’s constant uses of question marks invite the readers’ involvement. The author of the news paper article is a third party; this is because he is reporting somebody’s research work to his readers. Whereas Duff, the author of the poem uses first personal pronoun in every sentence to show that it is her own piece of creative work. In respective of the language features used in both texts, the authors communicated their messages to their respective readers. A poem and an article show similarities in language features employed in their construction.
They are also written composition to attract readers. Both poem and article make use of language features to make their readers understand them and appreciate their work. However, the sound of the word or language used in building a poem to impart the reader’s mind makes a poem different from an article. The use of metaphors, alliterations to describe objects make poems emotional, creative and appealing also differentiate a poem from an article. Article on the other hand, make clear, accurate and straight forward sentences to put their messages across .
Articles are different from poems in that, articles can have as many writers as possible when people, through rejoinders, either contribute constructively or criticize the work of the original writer, whereas, only one writer is recognised in poetry. Above all, poetry involves aspects of language that appeal to, and communicate by sound and sight. In literary text the meaning is linked to the purpose, and it means that the character in the poem is fed up with boredom, loneliness and social isolation.
In contrast, the meaning which is linked to the purpose of the article in the newspaper has to do with the wave of knife crime among the youth in United Kingdom. Articles and poems always have meanings for their readers. A poem and an article share similarities when it comes to the choice, use of stock of words in a language and order of words in a sentence. Authors and/or narrators make correct choice of words from in a language and arrange them properly in sentences to express clearly the intended meaning. Writers’ aim is to get the readers’ attention, so syntax and lexis are manner of speaking when used properly in literature.
However, Poetry is often a fluid and personal passion without the necessary need to adhere to certain grammar rules or stanza styles. The structure, as seen in the article is more pronounced in that; a good title is created, an introduction that outlined the main features of the subject and described how the subject is all about was explained in a clear way. It had a conclusion. However, the poem has no beginning, middle and ending. Poetry differs in visual form from articles. It has been noticed that the use of prose in article differs in poetry ( Reckin, 2008).
Poetry usually appears as a sequence of lines arranged in stanzas rather than a sequence of sentences within paragraphs. The article, as observed in the newspaper has useful sub-headings that gave detailed information about different aspects of the knife crime. The audiences for the two literatures are not the same. Articles target the general public as their audience, because their publications appear in newspapers and magazines, whilst poems appeal to interested readers (Zacharakis et al, 2011). The poem told a story, described an object and situation, narrated an event and finally expresses feelings.
Whatever the substance of the remarks and the ultimate message, poetry is characterised by linguistic elements that go beyond standard sentence structure. A poet can speak directly to an audience, much as a narrator in stories. Poetry is the most personal and indirect form of fictional expression. The next stage of the assignment will be to summarise the main structural features of a poem. Poems, like articles have structures. Structure of a literature refers to how written expression is set out on the page. Poetry is restricted expression of the written word and the uses of structures provide the tools of poetry writing.
Poetry structures have a collection of rhyming patterns, grammar and imagery. Poems have different structural features (shape) which can be used to classify poems. These features are simple and easy to distinguish, for example, the lines of poems are often much shorter than those of prose. Authors use literature techniques such as metaphors and similes to make poetry more descriptive and interesting and are often used in other forms of writings, such as articles. Personification is also literary technique employed in poetry to give human feelings and actions to objects or ideas.
Alliteration, where repetitive consonant sounds at the beginning of the words and repetition of word or a phrase is repeated again and again in such a way to draws the reader’s attention to it. The use of all these techniques make poetry more creative, imagery and emotional to convey ideas and meaning ( Lowe, 2011). Non-literary texts have come under criticism, due to firstly, the changing society. A change in society will demand a change in one or more techniques normally used in non-literary texts if they are to win the audiences’ attention.
Secondly, non-literary texts make use of extra linguistic styles, such as rhymes, rhythm similar to poems or oral literatures, thus making non-literary texts inconsistent. Finally, the ability to narrate one’s personal experience involves a great deal of mastery, creative talents and linguistic skills that can be found in oral or poems. We should not lose sight of the fact that a poem does not affect its reader in quite the same way that a work of prose does. In conclusion, this assignment has described the language features typically used in literary and non-literary texts and critically analysed their effectiveness.
It has also applied appropriate linguistic and structural devices from variety of original literatures in my own creative writing. A summary of the main structural features of literary and non-literary texts and how they have been used in creating meaning and mood have been provided. This assignment has also analysed the ways authors use literature techniques to create meaning and ideas, and analysed an argument and implication and inconsistencies of non-literary texts. References Bandle, O. (2002) The Nordic Language: an International handbook of history, Volume 1, Berlin: Die Deutsche Bibliothek.
Collins English Dictionary (2009) Collins Dictionary: 175 years of dictionary Publishing, Glasgow: Harper Collins Publishers. Catherine, R. (2006) E. E Cuming, New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation. Little Oxford English Dictionary (2008), Oxford: Oxford University Press. Lowe, I. (2011) A voice of Reason: Reflections on Australia, China: Palgrave Macmillan. Reckin, A. A. (2008) Poem as landscape, space, place and the visual, New York: UMI Microform Publishers. Zacharakis, A. Spinelli, S. Timmons, J. (2011) Business Plans that works: A guide for small businesses New York: Mc Graw Hill Publishers.