Written language and power homework

One way that power is asserted in this text is through the use of imperatives, such as "write a letter today". This gives the text power because it is telling the reader what to do and giving them no other option. This makes the reader want to oblige because they don't have anything to fall back on and do instead. 

One technique the text uses to assert power is through the use of persona pronouns, as shown in the text by using the word "you" to directly address the reader as opposed to generalising to the audience. This gives the effect of being quite intimidating by singling out whoever reads it, ad as a result the reader is more likely to do what they are saying to do. 

The text also uses the word "we" which makes the reader feel part of a team an that the author of the text is with them not just giving out instructions, so to be a team player they would feel like they should do what they are being asked of them and not let people down. 

Another way the text asserts power is by using modal verbs such as "must" which tells the reader there is no other option other than to do what the text is telling them to do. Graphology such as putting the word "must" in bold in the sentence "you must quote both" helps to back up the point more and make more of an impact, in turn giving it more power because its harder to miss than the rest of the writing, because it jumps out at the radar. 

Another modal verb featured in this text is the word "will" which emphasises to the reader that if they write the letter it will definitely help, so they should do it because theres no chance of failure.

There is a lexical field of supermarkets gives power because using words such as "superstore" and "Sainsbury's" shows the reader that the author knows what they are talking about and so they have authority because the reader cant question their knowledge, or they my not know as much themselves.

In this scene from Mean Girls, Gretchen is asserting power while telling Cady the rules she has to follow if she wants to be in their group.

Gretchen uses lots of declaratives to assert her power such as “you can only wear your hair in a ponytail once a week” which gives Cady no alternative so she feels she has to comply. This gives Gretchen power over Cady because Cady isn’t able to go against Gretchen and do something alternative because there isn’t anything else other than not do it and that would be breaking the rules.

Gretchen also uses the lexis of fashion, using words such as “tank tops” and “jeans or track pants” and this asserts power over Cady because she is showing that she knows what she’s talking about which may make Cady feel less powerful if she doesn’t, and more inclined to go along with what Gretchen is saying because she doesn’t want to get it wrong.

Gretchen also uses the Face Threatening Act by threatening Cady’s face when she says “so I guess you picked today” and “you wouldn’t buy a skirt without asking your friends first if it looks good on you” which shows she is assuming that Cady follows the same social rules as the rest of the group, and if Cady doesn’t then she will look stupid and be embarrassed that she isn’t doing the right thing, so she will do what Gretchen is implying she should do.

Gretchen also uses the modal verb “if” when she says “if you break any of these rules, you can’t sit with us at lunch” which makes Cady want to follow the rules and do what Gretchen is telling her because the consequence is made to sound bad and she would want to avoid that. This gives Gretchen power because she could say anything is a rule and Cady would follow it to avoid being kicked out of their group.

Categorising texts #1

Text 1: National Trust leaflet

Text 2: Weetabix competition on Disney website

Text 3: Mr Men competition

I am grouping these three texts because what they they have in common is mainly the fact that their audience is children, and they all have the primary purpose of persuading them to enter their competitions. Text 1 is a National Trust leaflet entitled "50 things to do before you're 11 3/4". It has a rhetorical question at the start, to get the readers thinking, and to give a feel of what the rest of the page is about, as children need to be able to understand what they are reading or they will lose interest. As with all three texts, it is informal, calling it a "wild-time challenge" and saying "we'll kit you up with your own flip camera" which is ideal when persuading children because they don't always understand more formal, complicated language. 

The Disney/Weetabix competition advertisement (which is on the internet) also understands the importance of maintaining the children's interest, by keeping what they are saying short and sweet, simply saying "play our sporty games for the chance to WIN great prizes!" and there are pictures to tell the rest of the story, a graphology feature that all three texts have chosen to use. Pictures will mean there is something for the children to refer to, so they can make sense of the information being given to them, and also it makes it more interesting. 

The third text is a competition to win Mr Men etc goodies, again on a children's radio website. Like the other two texts, graphology has a big part, as the colours are bright, there are lots of pictures of Mr Men as well as the products that you can win. Showing the children what they can win gives them more incentive to enter the competition because they want the goodies they can see. This text also uses lexis of Mr Men, talking about names such as "Mr. Bump" and "Little Miss Sunshine" and places like "Nonsense Land".

Studies about dialect

Peter Trudgill, Norwich 1970s

What did he investigate?: People that dropped the 'ng' at the end of 'ing' words, e.g. goin' instead of going.

Who did he investigate?: Differences between men and women in different classes of society.

How did he do it?: Talked to people from different areas of society.

What did he find?: The higher up the classes you go, the more results there were of the people using the proper 'ng' instead of missing it out, however higher up the classes the men tended to miss it less than the women, whereas lower down the women missed it out more than men.

Labov, 1960s

What did he investigate?: How people pronounced the 'r' at the end of words like 'floor', saying it how it looks or like 'flo-ah'

Who did he investigate?: Staff in three different New York department stores, Saks (upper class), Macy's (middle class) and Klein's (lower class than the other two).

How did he do it?: He went into the stores and asked a question to get a response of 'fourth floor'. He would ask a second time, and compare their spontaneous speech with the way they repeated it.

What did he find?: Staff in Saks used it more the first time, and Klein's the least, and in Macy's there was a bigger shift in how they pronounced their 'r' when asked the second time.

Tidholm, Yorkshire

What did he investigate?: 'Definite article reduction' which means a thing that Yorkshire folk do where they miss out words like 'the' and say 't' instead.

Who did he investigate?: People in Yorkshire of all ages, class and gender.

How did he do this?: He interviewed them

What did he find?: That it occurred more with older speakers, and that in a couple of generation's time it will have disappeared! He also found that upper working class women tended to use it the least, who spoke more in an RP way.

Text 15: A summary of the plot of The Great Gatsby by iTunes

The Great Gatsby follows would-be author Nick Carraway (Tobey Macguire) as he leaves the Midwest and comes to New York in the spring of 1922, an era of loosening morals, glittering jazz, bootleg kings and sky-rocketing stocks. Chasing his own American Dream, Nick lands next door to the mysterious, party-giving millionaire, Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio) and across the bay from his cousin, Daisy (Carey Muligan) and her philandering, blue-blooded husband, Tom Buchanan (Joel Edgerton). It is thus that Nick is drawn into the captivating world of the super-rich, their illusions, lovers and deceits. As Nick bears witness, within and without of the world he inhabits, he pens a tale of the impossible love, incorruptible dreams and high-octane tragedy, and holds a mirror to our own modern times and struggles.

Audience: People who are going to buy the movie The Great Gatsby from iTunes

Purpose: To give an insight into what the movie is about, as well as making it sound appealing and entertaining, so customers will want to buy it and watch it.

Format: a paragraph on the iTunes store online.

Interesting language features: It has a lot of powerful description in it, for example 'glittering jazz' and 'sky-rocketing stocks' and 'high-octane tragedy' that makes the movie sound exciting and action-packed. All the main characters are introduced straight away, which would make it easier once you are watching the movie.

How does this text exert power: Lots of big describing words have been used, and the more people and situations are described the more it builds up tension, and it sets the reader's imagination going, and therefore by the end of the paragraph the reader could be imagining lots of action and how good the film sounds.

Text 14: Terry's Chocolate Orange packet

Audience: people who buy and eat Terry's Chocolate orange.

Purpose: to look nice so that people will want to buy it, and to be colourful and eye-catching so that people notice it among all the other chocolate bars that are being sold on the shelf.

Format: chocolate wrapper

Interesting language features: They haven't put anything on the front of the wrapper apart from the name on the flavour, so perhaps they are relying on the fact that either it will catch a persons eye and make them pick it up and read the back, or that people already know what it is, as it is a development of the original Terry's chocolate orange. Also, the writing is shaping like orange peel, so its not hard to know what flavour it is, plus its colourful and stands out.

How has technology influenced this text: The colours are very bright and bold, and the font is very unique to the chocolate because it is in the shape of orange peel, to show that its chocolate orange.

Text 13: Reese's Puffs cereal commercial

Audience: The main characters are boys, and the voice over is male, suggesting they are targeting an audience of children that are boys.

Purpose: to get the target audience to want to buy the cereal.

Format: TV advert

Interesting language features: They've made a rap to portray the product, making it memorable and fun, so people are more likely to think about Reese's puffs when they are deciding what cereal to buy. They also describe the ingredients of the cereal as 'being great when they're separate, but combined they make the morning time epic' making the cereal sound original and tasty and like nothing that has been made before.

How has the gender of the audience influenced this speaker: The voice over is a male, perhaps to appeal more to males.