文筆分析：探究達意技巧微妙處

This course aims to give students a working understanding of stylistics so that they may employ stylistic techniques in their own work.
 
Stylistic analysis is the identification and description of style features in written (and spoken) language to explain how such stylistic features evoke particular feelings and responses, intended by the author, in the mind of the reader (or listener). The discipline relates linguistic facts (linguistic description) to meaning (interpretation) in as objective and explicit a way as possible, given that some stylistic techniques can be indirect and have a subliminal effect. In short, we aim to understand how skilled authors subtly influence the delivery of meaning.
 
The course provides guided critical readings of a wide variety of texts of different genres (fiction, drama, poetry, advertising, business, journalism, legal texts, etc.) to expand students’ lexical and rhetorical repertoire, and to apply the skills and vocabulary thereby gained through working on:

written and oral in-class exercises
 
The principal focus will be the written word, with reference being made to spoken language where appropriate.
 
The determined student should finish with a more proficient and effective personal writing style and a more penetrating understanding of texts written by others.

This course will cover:

• The various kinds of ‘deviation’ (discoursal, semantic, lexical, grammatical, etc.) and how their psychological effect (‘foregrounding’) works through not conforming to what is linguistically normal
• Rhetorical devices
• Parallelism and the ‘parallelism rule’
• Style variation (dialect, medium, tenor/register, domain, etc.)
• Discourse structure and the modes of speech & thought presentation
• Phonetic structure (the ‘sound effects’ of written language: rhyme, alliteration, sound symbolism, etc.)
• Metrical structure (rhythm & metre, stress, timing, natural/rhythmical ‘reading’, etc.)
• Dialogue/conversational aspects (point of view, context, speech realism, etc.)
• Assumptions/presuppositions, conversational rules, and the inference of meaning
• Linguistic indicators of viewpoint (value-laden expressions, sequencing, deixis, etc.)
• Narrative and descriptive style

For summer schools for teachers, the course is 36 hours (12 x 3-hour workshops; twice a week) in duration. 

 

About the Trainer

Mr Peter Brokenshire, British English elocution and accent reduction trainer,  was raised in Malaya and educated in England. He graduated in Classics (Latin and Ancient Greek) and joined the British Army, first in the infantry and then as an intelligence analyst, and met his wife in Hong Kong in 1982. He was then self-employed in sales and IT, and gained a BSc in Natural Sciences and an MSc in e-Commerce. He then worked for the Department for Transport in IT procurement, negotiating and managing large data management, IT services and software development contracts. In 2012 he returned to the Far East and teaches English and elocution in various tertiary education institutes in China and Hong Kong. His interests include languages, history, natural sciences and fish keeping. Students will be impressed by his sense of humour and dynamic teaching methods.

You may also be interested in the following courses:

British English Elocution for Teachers 
British English Elocution
British English Elocution (3)

Stylistic Analysis: Insight into the Subtle Delivery of Meaning		-
Application Code	2292-1059NW
Start Date	18 Jul 2024 (Thu)
Time	2:00pm - 5:00pm
Venue	Fortress Tower, 250 King’s Road, North Point, Hong Kong
Tutor	Mr. Peter Brokenshire

Days / Time

• Tue, Thu, 2:00pm - 5:00pm

Duration

• 12 meeting(s)
• 3 hours per meeting

Venue

• Fortress Tower Learning Centre

Course Fee

• Course Fee : $4,800

This short course is designed for advanced English speakers. Applicants will be graduates and willing to take part in discussions and practical in-class exercises, ideally with little inhibition. They should be reasonably confident and fluent English speakers.

Enrolment Method