Authors Technique

Behind every piece of writing, there is a purpose—a reason the author chose to write it. Even if it’s just to entertain, either an audience or themself by writing it, the author has a purpose and will use a variety of writing techniques to accomplish that purpose. Having insight into the techniques authors use to influence readers is like opening a window into how your favorite novel, poem, article, or really any piece of writing truly functions!

Understanding an Author's Technique

An author's technique is the way an author uses their writing to create a desired response from a reader. The techniques authors use to influence readers can refer to many things, from a single word choice to the way the entire piece is structured. The author's purpose for the text will ultimately determine which technique he or she uses.

An author who writes a piece of propaganda, for example, will use a completely different technique than an author who writes a graphic novel; the purpose of one is to persuade the audience, while the purpose of the other is to entertain. The person writing propaganda will likely use an informative technique, while the graphic novelist has more creative license and can use, say, a humorous technique.

Sometimes, though, it's not clear what the author is trying to communicate, so analyzing the author's technique is a means of gaining insight into the meaning of the text.

Techniques Authors Use to Influence Readers

Think of a piece of text as a chunk of wood, and the author’s technique is the way he or she will craft it into something else, like a table or a swing set. These items have different purposes, and so will require the use of different tools.

Fig. 1 - A woodworker's various tools are similar to an author's tools.

There are two major elements of an author’s technique that will have a large impact on the audience; rhetorical strategy and language choice.

Rhetorical strategies are the overall approach the author chooses to convey their message. A scientific article will be rich with examples because the author knows this is the best strategy to communicate their information, while the author of a novel is likely to use narration to share their message.

On the other hand, the choices the author makes on the more detailed level of language choice also affect the reader in a big way. Language choice is the specific way an author uses perhaps their greatest artistic tool—language—to create something that is unique and impacts their audience just the way they want. Whether the author chooses to say, “She looked at the river,” versus “She peered past the glassy surface down to pebbles of the river's bed” will certainly affect how the reader engages with the text.

As the reader, it is essential to understand how these author techniques function in order to analyze a piece of writing.

Author's Technique: Big Picture (Rhetorical Strategies)

Also called rhetorical modes, you can think of rhetorical strategies as the structure, or framework, of the text. The most commonly used rhetorical strategies are:

• Cause/effect - explains how something happens, or more specifically, the consequences of something happening

• Comparison/ contrast - a discussion of the similarities and differences between two or more things

• Definition - communicates the meaning of a term, idea, or object

• Description - uses sensory details to explain a person, place, or thing

• Classification - groups two or more things with shared characteristics into categories

• Narration - tells a sequence of events

• Illustration/ exemplification - provides examples to support a concept

Each of these is a strategy for communicating a thought or idea with an audience, and each has a different purpose for its use. Knowing the rhetorical strategy an author chooses to use can give you insight into their motivation for writing, which is very helpful in understanding the text.

Author’s Technique: The Details

Some tools in an author's toolkit are meant to shape the text in a more subtle way. Below are some examples of authors’ techniques that will accomplish this on a smaller scale, but can still have a massive effect on the reader.

Language Choice

The choices an author makes about language are what one might call style. It is the specific way an author uses perhaps their greatest artistic tool—language—to create something that is unique and impacts their audience in just the right way.

Some examples of language choice are:

Word choice - Words are the building blocks of language. Also known as diction, the author’s choice of words can make the audience feel a range of emotions. Think, for example of a time you’ve been addressed in a formal manner as sir or ma’am, versus when a friend called you by a nickname. These inspired different reactions in you. Authors manipulate language to get different reactions.

Sentence structure - Readers look for a natural pattern in sentences as they read, so any deviance in the pattern will send a signal of some type. Sentence structure can communicate just as much as the words inside the sentence.

Figurative language - Also known as figures of speech, figurative language is phrasing that goes deeper than the literal meaning of words to get a different meaning across. Figurative language uses literary devices, such as similes and metaphors, to communicate something outside the boundaries of the words themselves.

Literary Devices and Examples of Techniques in Writing

Literary devices are creative writing techniques that have been used by authors from Shakespeare to J.K. Rowling. Although they are a creative use of language, literary devices create images with words and can be effective in any context.

While there are dozens of types of literary devices, the 5 basic branches are metaphor, simile, hyperbole, personification, and symbolism. If you understand how these literary devices work, you’ll be able to get a grasp on most other types.

Fig. 2 - A simile is like a metaphor, but less direct

Metaphor

A metaphor is perhaps the most commonly used literary device. A metaphor does not use the words “like” or “as” to make a comparison, it simply makes a direct comparison between two things.

Metaphors create imagery for the reader, which is much more effective than literal language. Think, for example, how much more impactful it is to say “It’s a furnace in here!” when you could instead say, “It’s hot in here!” The image of a furnace carries with it the connotations of burning, red-hot, unbearable heat whereas hot simply means hot.

Simile

This figure of speech is used to compare two seemingly unrelated things to show how they are similar in a particular way. A simile is a subset of metaphor, but is different because it is not a direct comparison.

Similies are a useful literary device because there can be any number of insightful connotations that help convey meaning without the use of words.

Hyperbole

Hyperbole is a figure of speech that uses exaggeration to make a point. As with all other literary devices, hyperbole is not literal but rather overstates something to make a statement beyond the words themselves. To say to someone, “I’ve said this a million times before” is a hyperbolic way of saying, “I’ve said this many times,” but it also communicates a sense of frustration.

Personification

Personification is like a more complex metaphor; it compares two things, but goes one step beyond metaphor and gives human traits to something that is not human.

Symbolism

Symbolism is the idea that one thing can represent something else. What this means is that the color blue, for example, can represent feelings of sadness. This literary device can produce a huge impact by attaching additional meaning to things, and so is used regularly in literature.

Fig. 3 - Symbols are incredibly common in writing.

Other Examples of Author’s Technique

There are other ways an author's technique can manifest itself in a piece of writing. Readers may often take these details for granted, but they are actually specific choices the author made to give the text the greatest intended impact.

Timeline

The way the timeline of a story is structured will certainly have an effect on the reader or listener. Think, for example, of a story you’ve heard or read where the timeline jumps back and forth from present to past. How did this make you feel?

Perhaps it made you feel sympathy for a villain to understand more about his or her past. This was surely a conscious choice on the part of the author—they wanted you, the audience, to feel sympathy and so they chose this technique to tell their story. Very effective!

Fictional Element Choices

There are other elements of fiction writing that will have an impact on the reader, and so authors can manipulate things such as:

• Setting

• Plot

• Voice

• Characterization

Each of these choices is like a cut made into a piece of wood to create that swing set. (Remember the woodworking simile?)

Some things are obviously going to impact the way a story is received, like the plot and how the characters are developed, but other things like the setting and voice used to narrate the story will also affect the reader a great deal.

Why Analyze Author Writing Techniques?

The ability to decipher and analyze authors’ writing techniques is extremely important to any student of literature, and will almost certainly be tested on placement exams.

Authors’ techniques give you clues to interpreting the author’s message behind any given text. With this skill, you’ll be able to read a wider range of texts with more awareness and even write your own with greater depth.