Student checklist for planning your FOA

The stimulus
Is your stimulus related to an issue?
Is your stimulus a text, short clip of a movie, TV show, newspaper article?
Is it long enough and rich enough that you have a range of devices to identify?
Can you analyse it, in detail, within 10 minutes?

The thesis
Does your thesis have the word language (or similar) it in?
Is it a fairly short statement or question?

Analysis
Have you picked out a range of devices to identify?
Are you identifying lexical, grammatical, structural, phonological and
graphological features (if appropriate)?
Have you explored each feature in a PEE(L) format?
Is each point linked directly to the context and/or the thesis?
Are your explanations creative and interesting? Have you given alternative
interpretations where possible, e.g. This could symbolize x, however, it could
also symbolize y, It could be that the writer included this because of x, however,
some people might see it as y.

Structure and content of your oral

Does your introduction state the thesis and give background information about
the context and issue?
Have you selected topic sentences / markers to allow the audience to follow you
from one piece of analysis to another?
Have you structured your analysis feature by feature?
Does your conclusion summarise your ideas? Does it refer back to the thesis and
context?

Format
Is your format creative?
Does it interact with others and/or the audience?
Does it allow you to develop depth in your analysis?
Does it allow you to use technical vocabulary?
Have you considered how to use language appropriate to the format?
Will it lend itself naturally to a 10-15 minute analysis?