Mini prep-investigations

Please spend the remainder of this lesson, and Wednesday's lesson, trying out a prospective investigation by choosing a hypothesis and collecting sample data to test it with. Do a quick analysis to see if your hypothesis is supported or contradicted and to what extent (a successful investigation could either support or contradict theory or a bit of both!). Post your findings and any issues you encountered to your blog. What would make this a valid investigation?

Sample data is a bit like the data you might really collect - you'll need to make headway in collecting your real data over the summer so this is good practice. The sample data will give you an indication now as to the problems you might encounter, what you might find, how much data you might need etc.

Here are some examples of what you could do today and Wednesday.

Think back to last year's EU Referendum (or even this year's election). You could collect Vote Leave/ party political propaganda from the internet (your real data might be leaflets). You could test a power hypothesis (e.g. instrumental/influential power) or the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis by looking at how controversial subjects are referred to e.g. lexical fields, use of synonyms, euphemisms/desphemisms, adjectives etc.

If you want to look at mixed-sex discussions to test the deficit theory you could find something on YouTube to transcribe in order to test the hypothesis that women will use Lakoff's uncertainty features, to see if that was the case and suggest reasons why/why not, bringing in other theory when you discuss it. You could then decide what you actually record.

You could look at how occupation affects language by testing the hypothesis by Swales that members of a discourse community share a pragmatic understanding by looking at comments on a particular business magazine or reviews of a product for a particular business and see the kind of abbreviations,  coined terms, shared references that were used.

Please post some analysis and reference to how far your hypothesis was supported/contradicted and what you learned about possible investigations.

Additionally, please read this example investigation on the AQA website. This will show you the kind of language you need to use when writing the investigation.

If you're struggling with ideas, here is a list from Dan Clayton's English language blog of some potential investigation hypotheses.

1. A study of the language techniques used by Great British Bake-Off judges when commenting on the cakes produced in the final rounds of the competition, focusing on politeness, directness and possible gender differences.

2. An investigation into the language of female boxers during interviews to see if stereotypes about female communication are true for these women.

3. A comparison of the language used by three children of different ages when responding to the same task, focusing particularly on the stages of development they are at and their ability to use vocabulary and grammar.

4. An investigation into the ways in which different political parties and pressure groups represented the EU during the 2016 referendum across their campaign literature.

5. A study of ways in which local newspapers in 3 different areas represent their local dialect and accent in reports about varieties of English.

6. A comparison of how Maybelline adverts change over a 75-year period in their representation of female beauty.

7. An investigation into the messaging styles of 3 different age groups when using WhatsApp.

8. An investigation into the ways that the language of Twitter arguments differs from those carried out face to face.

9. An exploration of the different language techniques used by three supermarkets to represent their values to the general public on their official websites.

10. A study of the linguistic techniques used by rugby commentators in a radio commentary compared to an online commentary from the BBC website.

Paper 2 Revision Lesson

Morning all,

One paper down, one to go. Tomorrow you will sit your Paper 2 mock. This paper has 2 sections:

Section 1 - a choice of 2 data-based questions focusing on linguistic theory. Could be language and gender, occupation or sociolect. Your essay must explore the data, but it must also be discursive and you must incorporate your wider reading to demonstrate your knowledge of the theory.

Section 2 - creative writing. You will be given a brief, and will need to write an opinion article in which you explore language traits and quirks. You must clearly state your intended audience at the start of the article and ensure that what you write matches your stated audience.

Use the blog and your own notes to revise. Ensure that you are prepared for any theory which might come up.

Revision

Morning all,

Hope you have all had a nice half term. As you know, your mocks are next week with Paper 1 on Monday and Paper 2 on Thursday with a revision session in between on Wednesday. Tomorrow we will be going over some Paper 1 techniques and will be doing some practice paragraphs, so today you are free to get on with whatever revision you need to do.

There is a wealth of information available on both this blog and Dan Clayton's blog so you shouldn't be stuck for materials. Read the info and summarise on your blogs - remember that everything you learn this year will be relevant for your final exams next year, so you need to be able to revisit them.

(Additionally for language and occupation, here's a really useful revision source for the theories.)

Any issues, let me know.

Coursework: Commentary

Hi everyone,

Your coursework hand-in is tomorrow, so we have one lesson left to get everything finished.

Please follow the advice below for how to approach the commentaries, and also for what your style model should be.

Commentaries

The commentary is designed to enable you to explain the decisions you have made in writing your piece and the language levels that you have employed and replicated following your exploration of a style model.

Word Count

The commentary is just as important as the Original Writing piece in that it is also 750 words and the same number of marks (25). 

Assessment Objectives 

This piece will test your ability to employ all of the assessment objectives equally. Below is a screenshot from the criteria on the top band features: 

What does this mean? 

A01: You need to use a range of language levels. Note the key words ‘integrated’ and ‘connected.’

Regardless of the language levels used, aim to cover a range rather than repeating multiple times the use of a particular word class. Do not write about the language levels in a disjointed fashion. You will do better by integrating them, e.g. The attributive adjective “gold” within the noun phrase “the gold surface.” 

A02: Through your knowledge gained from the style model, you will need to demonstrate an awareness of genre. How does your original writing imitate the genre? How have you shown understanding of how individual genres work (and possibly overlap)?

A03: You need to engage in the way language is used to create meanings and representations. Think about how the language levels are used to create different effects.

A04: Within your commentary, you must make reference to the style model. An integrated comparison between the style model and original writing piece is needed.

A05: Throughout the entire piece, you will be assessed on your ability to express ideas clearly and carefully using an effective structure. Note the key word “guide.” You need to provide a clear analysis that is well organised rather than a disjointed piece of work that lacks coherence.

Getting the process started

In order to produce a successful commentary, you should complete the following:

1. As part of your planning for the Original Writing, you will have have selected a style model and looked at the linguistic strategies that it uses. In order to write a successful commentary, analyse the language levels used in your style model. Highlight them in different colours, e.g. red = syntax, green = word classes. This is a really important starting point as you need to make connections (A04) to your style model. Your commentary cannot just write about your own Original Writing piece as you need to justify how they relate to your selected style model.

2. After analysing your style model in detail, you need to then identify the language levels used within your own work. Think about why they have been used. 

• What representation did you intend to create? 
• What purpose does the language level that you have employed serve?
• Ensure that you make a comments on the way the audience, writer and subjected are positioned along the way.
• When you are analysing your work, it is important to consider a range of language levels. Avoid just focusing on the ones you feel most confident with using. A good spread of language levels that are appropriate and meaningful to justifying your ideas is better than repeating the same ones constantly. 

Beginning the Commentary 

As part of your A Level course so far, you will be familiar with the importance of context and how this shapes the meaning and production of the texts. When producing your commentary, your opening paragraph should contextualise your Original Writing piece and making a clear connection to your style model. Consider the following as part of your opening paragraph: 

• You need to contextualise your own piece of work. Ensure that you comment on the purpose, form, topic, audience and how the subject is being represented. Do not generalise here. You need to be very specific. Generalisations will not help you reach high marks.
• You also need to introduce your style model. Why have you selected it? How does it relate to your own original writing piece? 

Example:

"My style model is in the genre of a dramatic monologue. There are different sections in the text with scene changes indicated by 'Go to Black' or 'Fade.' The monologue explores a character who is not fully self-aware and I have reflected this in my Original Writing piece... My monologue is similar to Bennett's in many ways, whilst also having differences..."  

Main Paragraphs in the Commentary

After establishing the context of both your own original writing piece and your style model, you then need to carefully analyse the language levels employed in your own work.

• Remember that you need to integrate linguistic description where possible, e.g. The pre-modifying attributive adjective ‘gold’ used within the noun phrase ‘the gold star’ is used to represent it as ….
• Once you have commented on your own piece of work, you then need to make sure that you make connections to the style model. It might also be the case that there are marked differences in how you have used the language levels. This is equally acceptable but you need to explain why, as this will enable you to discuss contextual factors shaping the production.
• Remember that you need to engage in meanings. Think about the way the linguistic strategies and language levels used create a representation.
• Adopt an interwoven comparison throughout rather than writing about the style model and your own production piece in isolation.
• Referring to the assessment criteria, you will note that it asks you to ‘guide’ the reader through. You will need to develop a coherent line of thought here. In order to guarantee this, you need to avoid leading with A01 features and instead developing topic sentences that enable the reader to understand the connections and points of comparisons being made. 
• Both the style model and original writing piece employ … but to create different representations…
• Within the style model, it utilises … which has been imitated in my original writing piece to …
• Throughout the style model there is use of …. This is mirrored in my original writing piece … so that the subject of … is represented …
• Whilst the style model utilises …. To represent the subject as … I have employed them in a different way so that the topic can be represented as … 
• Ensure that you refer closely to your style model by quoting specific examples from it. Likewise, you will need to do the same with your own original writing piece. If you provide no evidence, credit for A01 features cannot be given regardless of how vast a range of features you have employed. 

Example: 

"As monologues are spoken, it is important to represent speech. Bennett employs ellipsis to make it sound spontaneous and realistic. For example, Marjory says 'Said it was Rawdon anyway." This has been imitated in my own original writing piece through..." 

Concluding the Commentary 

This does not need to be a lengthy part of the piece. A couple of sentences will do here. Your concluding paragraph should very succinctly summarise the overall representation that you have created in your original writing piece.

• Overall, my original writing piece employs a range of language levels that are similar to my style model to represent the subject as … 

Useful Phrases: 

• Emulate / Mirror / Employ / Reflected / Imitated / Utilised / Mimics / Aligns /
• Represents / Portrays / Illustrates / Illuminates / Conveys
• The audience are positioned / This positions the audience to …
• Both / Equally / Similarly / In the same way / Using the style model, I have …
• Whereas / In contrast / Unlike / Alternatively / On the other hand

Meanings & Representations contd.

Hi all,

We made some good progress on M&R work last week, especially last Thursday, but there's still work to be done, especially on using a framework approach to build up analysis.

Today I want you to find your own texts for analysis. The criteria is;

• Two texts
• Share a common theme
• Must be of different genres

For example, if you found a text about music, one could be a review of a particular band and the other could be a forum post discussing that band. 

Once you have found them, do the same as last week: build up some analysis of both AO1 (linguistic techniques and analysis) and AO3 (analysis of context and representation). Try to to GRAMPS and then a framework approach.

NOTE: Do bear in mind that the web filters may not allow you to access some sites, so you may have to work around this.

Meanings and Representations

Morning all,

More re-visiting of the meanings and representations tasks today. you should have all completed paragraphs that you were set on Monday. Today you will be doing more of the same to ensure that your close linguistic analysis is up to scratch.

First of all, click here and here to read the advice that Dan Clayton has on his blog about this task, and make some notes.

Then, try to have a go at this task. This is exactly the same task as the School Proms task we completed a few months ago. There are two different texts which are connected by a central theme. On your blogs, make a list of the linguistic techniques you can see in Text A and Text B (as an extension you can start turning these into PEE paragraphs). We will be continuing with this tomorrow and the start of our lesson will be a feedback session on the techniques that you have found in both texts, and we will be working on developing a comparison between them.

Plenty to do. Any questions, let me know.

Wider Reading - Gender & Sociolect

Morning all,

Due to trips/absences etc I think we're going to be quite depleted in numbers today. So instead of starting a task which will span today and tomorrow as we usually do, today I want to devote this lesson to research and wider reading.

As we know, wider reading is essential when you want to demonstrate your knowledge and understanding in this subject. However, unlike a subject more established and traditional, such as as English literature, English language theories are constantly evolving and changing with new studies surfacing almost every week, so it can be really difficult to know where to start when you're trying to read around the subject.

Today I've got some great resources for you for Sociolect and Gender from Dan Clayton's blog - again make sure you check this regularly when revising as it's great for revision.

For Sociolect, check out these posts:

Regional variation & accents

Class & social groups and here

And for Gender, click here (look at the Daily Mail 'Legs-it' post especially!)


Choose a good variation of these posts and follow the links in the posts to access the wider reading materials. Read them and summarise them on your blog so you can access them for revision at a later date.