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.

Text 12: Blurb on the back on the book ‘Silver Linings Playbook’

Imagine that your life is a film directed by God. A romcom, obviously, complete with happy-ever-after ending. Before the credits roll, there will, of course, be tears, tantrums, and misunderstandings, but you know you'll get there - and get your girl - in the end.

Welcome to Pat's world.

It's a world of silver linings and true love, but also a world where God makes movies and Kenny G lurks in your attic - and when Pat inadvertently befriends the tragic Tiffany, he begins to question whether or not he might juts have got the entire genre wrong.

Audience: It is sort of a love story but it has a twist, so anyone who is interesting in reading those sorts of books.

Purpose: To intrigue people who pick up the book and make them interested to buy the book and find out what happen in the story.

Format: a blurb.

Interesting language features: It is very vague in how it describes the story, giving away bits of the story that you want to string together to work out the whole story. It also leaves a bit of suspense at the end, to make the reader want to carry on reading.

How does this text exert power: It doesn't give a lot away-this puts the reader kind of under the control of the author because they want to read on and the blurb has been written so that the reader wants to keep going.

Text 11: Cien Soap label

Audience: People who want to wash their hands with good quality soap.

Purpose: To inform customers of the features of the soap, and make it look as appealing as possible.

Format: a label

Interesting language features: There is some interesting words used, for example ‘nourishing’ that is something that makes the soap sound like a good thing to buy, and they also start by saying it is ‘gentle’ which is what you would hope a soap is.

How has the gender of the audience influenced this text: Although the colour scheme is influenced by the ingredients of the product (honey) more than the gender of who would be buying it, the way the product has been described (gentle, nourishing) seems to try and influence women more than men, as it is something a woman might be more concerned about rather than men. Also, some of the font seems more feminine, for example the ‘Cien’ font of the logo.

Text 10: Blu-Tack Packet

Audience: People who need to use blu-tack

Purpose: To inform people what blu-tack is and why they should buy it and use it.

Format: Front of the packaging of blu-tack

Interesting language features: On the packaging only short phrases are used, to get the message across clearly and simply and not overcrowd the packaging and make it confusing for the customer. All the fonts are the same or similar, to keep some consistency, and they also have similar colours as well, except for words they want to stand out. The word ‘original’ stands out, perhaps because they know their product is well known and want people to trust them.

How technology has influenced this text: The font is fancy, as it is done in a way to make it look like it has been made out of blu-tack and is 3D.

Text 9: Maybelline advert (spoken language)

Discover the dream;

Dream Matte Mousse Foundation from Maybelline New York

The sensuous, air-whipped sensation

One hundred per cent micro-fine for Matte Perfection

The secret?

Our foundation, with silky-matte powder spheres, rides on smoothly.

(whisper) Flawless Finish

Live the dream!

Number one Dream Matte Mousse

(jingle) Maybe its Maybelline

Audience: the product is for use by women, so the audience is therefore women.

Purpose: To persuade women to buy the foundation

Format: TV advert

Interesting language features: They use lots of powerful words, for example 'sensuous' and 'flawless finish' making the product sound very high quality. The tone of voice of the woman varies and more than one woman speaks. At the end of the advert one character whispers a line, which makes it seem more important that you listen to it and take in what is said. The jingle of the company is played at the very end of the advert, reminding the audience they are a trusted brand.

How the gender of the audience might have influenced this text: The product is for women to buy, so they have put in women’s voices to speak, which may make the audience relate better, and they've also used words that women might aspire to be, women may want to be 'flawless' or a 'sensation'.

Text 8: 'Juno' movie poster

Audience: Those that would most be interested in going to see the movie, so teenagers.

Purpose: To make people want to go and see the movie, to advertise the movie so more people hear about it, and to have something that fans of the movie might want to buy and own as a  souvenir or something.

Format: a movie poster, about A1 size

Interesting language features: The title of the movie is in an uncommon font, it is quite fun and childish, as it looks like it has been drawn on with crayons, which might be suggesting what the feel of the movie is about. The play on the word ‘bump’; in the sentence on the poster it suggests they are using the word bump as another word for obstacles or challenges you find when growing up, but then you see that the main character has a bump because she is pregnant.

How might the gender of the audience have influenced this text? : Nothing about the poster suggests it is more for males or females, as the colours are gender-neutral, there is both a male and female character on the poster, and the style of the fonts don’t seem to sway either way as they are neither masculine or feminine fonts. This could suggest they are advertising for both genders to watch the movie. 

Text 7: Angel Slices box

Audience: people who like cake, its colourful so kids might be drawn to it, and it’s interesting so it might catch the eye of shoppers.

Purpose: to make the product stand out and look nice so people will buy it.

Format: Packaging

Interesting language features: They’ve made the logo/writing of Mr Kipling the biggest thing on the packaging, as Mr Kipling is already a well-known and trusted brand to people, and this may make them want to buy it more because they know that the quality of the cake is good.

How technology has influenced this text: The colours of the writing and the images on the packaging are very bright and eye-catching, but they are also mostly pink and white colours, as that is the colour of the cakes that are selling. Each part, for example the logo, the section about free range eggs, and the bit about it being individually wrapped, is finished off nicely and they are separated so it is easy for the customer to see what the business  is trying to say about the product.

Text 6: A canvas of inspirational quotes and sayings from my kitchen wall

Audience: People who would buy the canvas, possibly its more likely women would than men, age range could be anything from twenties to eighties.

Purpose: To create something artistic using words that a person would want to hang in their house, maybe it is entertaining or inspiring or has a personal meaning to an owner of the piece.

Format: Printed canvas

Interesting language features: Each saying is in a different font and in different sized lettering, but the colour of all the words is the same, perhaps to tie it all together into a picture.

How does this text exert power? :  A lot of the sayings are very powerful in themselves, for example “the world is your oyster” is a very powerful saying. Also, the way some of the sayings are displayed larger than others makes them stand out more and therefore more powerful too.

Text 5: An extract from The Fault In Our Stars (the end paragraph)

'“What else? She is so beautiful. You don’t get tired of looking at her. You never worry if she is smarter than you; You know she is. She is funny without ever being mean. I love her. I am so lucky to have her, Van Houten. You don’t get to choose if you get hurt in this world, old man, but you do have some say in who hurts you. I like my choices. I hope she likes hers."

I do Augustus.

I do.'

Audience: I would say this book is aimed at teenage girls, as the main character is just that.

Purpose: The whole purpose of the book is to entertain the reader, but I think that this last paragraph has a purpose of its own, to keep up the mystery of what happens to Hazel and to round of the book in a very interesting and different way.

Format: Extract from a book

Interesting Language Features: John Green uses a rhetorical question to begin the paragraph, and then goes on to answer it with lots of short sentences, building tension. I also like how Hazel’s reply to the letter was so short as well, like it left her almost speechless and not only did It leave her reeling but it leaves the readers reeling when they realise that’s the end of the book, and nothing more happens.

How does the gender of the audience might have influenced this text: The fact that it was aimed at teenage girls may mean that John Green has written things in this paragraph that teenage girls would want to hear coming from a boy about them, and he went very dramatic about how much Augustus loves Hazel, which perhaps makes the audience be drawn to Augustus even more than before from the rest of the book. 

Text 4: Back of the DVD of the movie ‘Les Miserables’

“Set against the backdrop of 19^th-centry France, Les Miserables tells an enthralling story of broken dreams and unrequited lov, passion, sacrifice and redemption-a timeless testament to the survival of the human spirit. Jackman plays ex-prisoner Jean Valjean, hunted for decades by the ruthless policeman Javert (Crowe) after he breaks parole. When Valjean agress to care for factory worker Fantine’s (Hathaway) young daughter, Cosette, their lives change forever. “

Audience: Fans of the musical of Les Miserables, of history, and of movies in general. A more specific audience would probably be women, as it has a lot of emotion in it that general women may enjoy more, however men would also enjoy it.

Purpose: To give an initial overview of the start of the movie and to set the story, as well as informing people of the background of the story too (i.e. the fact that they are in 19^th century France).

Format: A paragraph of information on the back of the DVD case, placed under various awards it has won.

Interesting Language Features: The amount of information the synopsis gives away is good, as it gives the audience something to go by, as the film is quite long and could get confusing, so as a guideline it’s a good place for them to start. The section uses lots of intense describing words, for example a “timeless testament” which makes the movie sound very important, and a bucket-list sort of viewing. It also creates intrigue for the audience, as it tells how the characters’ lives are “changed forever”, which makes you want to watch so you find out what happens to them.

 How does this text exert power? : It makes the film sound very big and important, and the intensity of the way it has been described as well as the dark colours and images from the film make it seem very emotionally powerful.

Text 3: Heaven Cake Shop and Café leaflet; Celebration Cakes

Audience: Anyone who might eb interested in buying a celebration cake, parents for children, brides-to-be or someone celebrating an anniversary or achievement for example.

Purpose: To give all the options of what is available to the customer, giving examples other than just cakes like “cupcake bouquets” and “giant message cookies” and where they can get ideas (facebook).

Format: A leaflet.

Interesting Language Features: Uses of verbs, for example “giant” is more interesting than bog-standard ‘big’ or ‘large’. Paragraphs are set out nicely to make it clear to readers what the message is that is trying to be put across.

How the gender of the audience might have affected this text: The gender could be anyone really who would like to purchase a cake, and the colours of the leaflet are coinciding with the colour scheme of the shop, which is also pink and purple. The cakes advertised cater for both boys and girls birthday cakes, as well as a neutral one for the older customers.

Text 2: Circus Advertisement.

Audience: People who would be interested in going to the circus, for example families (from the children to grandparents) although not young children.

Purpose: To let people know about the circus coming to town, and to encourage them to go by giving them 50% off with the leaflet. Also, to make it look appealing with Spiderman and the magician looks very intriguing.

Format: It’s a leaflet

Interesting Language Features: Alliteration makes the  name of the circus (“Charlie Chiiperfield’s Circus) more interesting. Lots of exclamation marks, making it sound very excited and lively, much like you would hope a circus is.

How technology has influenced this text: It has different fonts, colours and sizes, images carefully placed on the leaflet. Other than that technology hasn’t really influenced it much as it is just a piece of paper with the information on it. 

Text 1: Alton Towers; Air

The characterisation of this ride describes how Air gives the rider a feeling of flying, hence the name, as through the air is the path that the rollercoaster travels. The way it is described as going "close to the ground" and "under footpaths" gives a sense of quite a dare-devil type of ride, definitely not for the faint-at-heart. Alton Towers' audience are going to be the kind of people who enjoy a thrill anyway, and this looks to them like a suitable ride to satisfy their need for a thrill.