Activity Ideas: Number Crunching a Text with 'Word'

A teaching resource created by the HEA English Subject Centre.

Number crunching a text — analysing the number of exclamation marks or how many times a particular word or lexical cluster appears in a text or section of a text – can be an illuminating and very concrete way into wider exploration and analysis providing students with a sound foundation for discussing for example:

• Language
• Structure
• Characterisation
• The relationship between the way the text is written and its themes