HOW TO COMMENT UPON A DOCUMENT

Le document que nous allons étudier est un article tiré de Time ... The document we are going to deal with is an article from Time / Newsweek ... an American magazine.

Ce document est un extrait du Times ... This document is an excerpt from The Times / the Guardian ... a British newspaper

... is a text from a book called ...

... is adapted from ...

a été rédigé par ... and written by ... , a British / an American / an Australian / a Canadian author.

This document is a dialogue / a conversation between ...

... an interview of ... by ...

... a diagram / a chart / a table showing ...

... a picture / a comic strip / a cartoon (the caption )

Il a pour titre ... et a été publié en ... It is entitled "........" and it was published in ......

Comme d'habitude, il y a un sous-titre pour expliquer le titre principal qui demeure peu clair. As usual, there is also a subtitle "..." to explain the main title which is rather unclear.

Le sous-titre éclaire mieux le sujet. The subtitle is a better clue to the topic : ...

Ce document traite de / parle de ... This document deals with .../ is about .../ The main topic is ... / The key idea is ...

 

The author

starts

this passage

with an example / an anecdote

The writer

introduces

the topic

with a pun / a joke

The journalist

begins

his article

with a proverb / a saying

The reporter

.

the editorial

by ...-ing

The editorialist

supports his theory

with figures and statistics

 

Le document peut être divisé en ... The document can be divided into ... parts

Le document se subdivise en ... The document falls into ... parts

The first part,

from line ... to line ...,

emphasizes ...

The second part,

from paragraph ... to paragraph ...

underlines ...

The next part,

.

highlights ...

The last part,

.

shows ...

.

.

explains why ...

.

.

helps understand why ...

.

.

accounts for ...

 

The writer

stresses

an opposition between ... and ...

.

develops

a topical issue / a worn-out theme

.

denounces

the discrepancy / the gap between

.

points out that ...

.

is biassed/biased in favor of ... / against

.

is unbiassed/unbiased / objective

 

The

story

takes place in ... (place) in ... (time)

.

scene

unfolds

.

action

.

.

events

happens

 

The tone of the article is (rather) optimistic / pessimistic / neutral / detached / humorous / ironical / emphatic.

Finally, the author concludes by ... (ing)

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