Chosen Hero Text

My group ultimately decided to use a combination of two texts, one being an advertisment for train tickets and the other being an advertisment for men to donate blood platelets; so there was a reasonable amount of contrast between the two.

As a group we discussed how the train ticket advertisment was aiming to attract both genders, this was because it was in the form of a movie (with it's font, the title "Saving Precious Penny" and the age rating) and specifically a chick flick, which would therefore appeal to more women. However, they also give the male the look of strong and powerful as well as making the woman appear as an object with the line "but can he get her back?" This will therefore make men want to look at this in hope for them to fulfill the main aim of the text, to make people buy their reduced priced tickets.

The poster advertising bloof platelets also encouraged alot of discussion in the group, we mentioned the list of criteria that the person would have to fit if they were to donate blood platelets. We concluded that this was used to give the donator the belief that they are special as they are one of the few that are eligible and also the feeling that they are really needed as many people will not be eligible. Although the criteria is not too strict (the first being that they have to be male) this may be enough to motivate the reader to actually do something about what they are reading and consequently donate their blood platelets.

The final discussion between our group was why two such contrasting pieces were put together, we decided that it was as both are imposing on the male to do something for someone other than themselves, which would therefore make them be seen as a hero.

Grouping task

Both texts E and F use spontaneous language, they are both dialogues between two people. There is evidence of Text E being spontaneous with the high use of non- fluency features such as 'er'. These are useful for the text as it clearly shows that it is a conversation that is taking place between the customer and the vendor, the use of non-fluency features also shows that what is being said is fresh from their head and not had any time to think over in their head.


Another example of spontaneous language in Text E is the regular use of pauses, there is a range of the length of these, from brief such as "hello there(.)..." to a couple of seconds long like "OK (2)..." This also consolidates the fact that this is a spontaneous text as the use of these pauses perhaps show that the person who is speaking has to take a break to think about what they are going to say next, possibly to consider if what they are going to say is correct, appropraite and makes sense.

This text can also be considered as spontaneous with the use of the actions and movements that take place during when one of the people are talking. For example, the use of action and movement that takes place in "let me just check that for you [looks for records].." shows that they what they are saying has been just thought of as the actions either match his words or are an result of what he says next.

Text F is also spontaneous, this can firstly be seen in the times that the messages have been sent, for example, person B sends four messages in the space of only eleven seconds. These messages are too close to eachother; they must be coming straight from their thoughts and then typing.

The dialogues are both between two people who know eachother, however, Text E shows evidence that they are not particularly close, this is as the vendor knows the address of  the customer, but remains speaking in a colloquial register to the customer, this can be considered as professional, but it would be gathered from the text that they are only famililar with eachother and have no solid relationship. In contrast, Text F shows signs of a stronger relationship, with the use of an intimate register, non standard english and an uneven dialogue, as person B sends more messages than person A

After taking a considerable amount of time going through my Language and Power piece and then looking through an example of the same piece from an A grade candidate, I compared our work to see how I could improve in attempt to achieve the same high grade.

I compared it by using a certain criteria, these were the use of Power terms, Context (with the use of Audience, Purpose, Form) and Terminology/Quotes. I recognise that a regular and in depth use of these concepts will make my piece more sophisticated and therefore will push me onto achieving a higher grade. I highlighted these three concepts in different colours on both pieces.

After doing this, I could see just by looking at both pieces that the A grade answer had far more highlighted overall than what mine did. My answer especially lacked Power terms and Context. I have therefore given myself the target of learning more of these, my task will be practice of the power terms and then including these in PEE sentences with insightful context.

Language and Power

Piece 1
Extract of Barack Obama's State of Union Address: 

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of Congress, my fellow Americans:

Today in America, a teacher spent extra time with a student who needed it, and did her part to lift America's graduation rate to its highest level in more than three decades. An entrepreneur flipped on the lights in her tech startup, and did her part to add to the more than 8 million new jobs our businesses have created over the past four years. An autoworker fine-tuned some of the best, most fuel-efficient cars in the world, and did his part to help America wean itself off foreign oil.

A farmer prepared for the spring after the strongest five-year stretch of farm exports in our history. A rural doctor gave a young child the first prescription to treat asthma that his mother could afford. A man took the bus home from the graveyard shift, bone-tired, but dreaming big dreams for his son. And in tight-knit communities all across America, fathers and mothers will tuck in their kids, put an arm around their spouse, remember fallen comrades, and give thanks for being home from a war that, after 12 long years, is finally coming to an end.

Tonight, this chamber speaks with one voice to the people we represent:  It is you, our citizens, who make the state of our union strong.

And here are the results of your efforts:  The lowest unemployment rate in over five years. A rebounding housing market. A manufacturing sector that's adding jobs for the first time since the 1990s. More oil produced at home than we buy from the rest of the world -- the first time that's happened in nearly 20 years. Our deficits -- cut by more than half. And for the first time in over a decade, business leaders around the world have declared that China is no longer the world's number one place to invest; America is.

That's why I believe this can be a breakthrough year for America. After five years of grit and determined effort, the United States is better positioned for the 21st century than any other nation on Earth.

The question for everyone in this chamber, running through every decision we make this year, is whether we are going to help or hinder this progress. For several years now, this town has been consumed by a rancorous argument over the proper size of the federal government. It's an important debate -- one that dates back to our very founding. But when that debate prevents us from carrying out even the most basic functions of our democracy -- when our differences shut down government or threaten the full faith and credit of the United States -- then we are not doing right by the American people.

Piece 2
Educating Essex 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eu2MCbeKHG0

Piece 3
Sky news - Interview with David Beckham
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53cGvGDwsOY

Piece 4
Outnumbered Scene 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDf_kU2V5as

Piece 5
Guardian Article
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/oct/31/cultural-power-of-languages-live-chat

Synthetic Personalisation

The advertisement uses synthetic personalisation to make them believe what is being said is intended directly for them. This is done by the use of the words “your” and “you” that is used in the piece. The use of the words “your life” is a clever use of personification which makes the person believe that their phone is their life, and therefore they deserve the best phone. The use of the words “At last” is also useful as it gives the reader the perception that they have always needed what this new phone has to offer, even though they may not have known it. The words at last create the connotations of need and desire which will therefore make the reader want whatever they have been missing with their current phone. 

Mini investigation - Language and Technology

I set out with the hypothesis that linguistic features remain at a constant level in terms of linguistic features and/or distinctive features in a particular person whatever form of social network is used.

I attempted to test this by going onto some famous peoples Facebook and Twitter pages. I am aware that some famous people have hired people to manage their social media accounts and to in response to this possible issued I made sure I looked at well known people who are known to be very opinionated and an icon who people would be listened to and followed so therefore would be highly unlikely to have someone write their status'/tweets.

I realised that on most of the celebrities social networks, their posts were completely identical on all social networks, I then remembered that it is possible to synchronise Twitter to your Facebook accounts so that status' and tweets are the same.

I must therefore adjust my hypothesis so this has been put into consideration

Transcript Writing

Our task was for Liam to draw several abstract images and shapes. Me and him were back to back, Liam then had to describe to the best of his ability what he had drawn. He was directing me on what to draw, as I could not see what he had drawn, the objective of the task was to try and get identical pictures but more importantly to record what was said in order to practice transcript writing.

Here is an extract from mine and Liam's dialogue.

Liam: To the top left draw a diamond.

Me: (7) Yeah.

Liam: About the space of your little finger (.) on the (.) right edge of the diamond (.) stick your finger out and draw a snowman with a small head(.) but it's got to be joined.

Me: Small head.

Liam: Then a big body going down but don't separate the head (.) don't put a line (2) if you get where I'm coming from.

Dwayne: Yeah.

Liam. Um (3) below the diamond (.) probably a finger space below it do an equal sign.

From this extract you notice a lot (.)'s, these are pauses in Liam's speech. This was because Liam is thinking of the directions in his head before he tells me them. This prevents him from telling me the wrong thing. In this extract you also see a very long pause before I say yeah "Yeah". This is because I was processing in my head what Liam had told me then actually performing the act by drawing the object. After Liam gives me a set of directions, I repeat back to him a part of what he said by saying "Small head". This is a use of back channel agreement, doing this shows that I have heard and understood what he has said, he then also has the opportunity to correct as he has heard what is on my mind.