The student room question A

English revision essay Text A is a student chat room designed to inform and to entertain by allowing someone to ask a question and other students to reply with concerning the question. This is a very informal texted as each segment of writing is wrote on the spot as it is a comment. The mode of this piece is a website and text A is a certain page from this, the audience for the website is students as the website is designed to supply a chat room and revision sources on one website. The Graphology of the piece is fairly simple, this is because it all links to a website as the page layout is a website. There is a header on top of the page which allows you to search up what you want by going through categories. There is links where other chats are being disused next to the texted, this allows the students to switch chat room to another topic which interests them. There is other features such as the “share this discussion” at the bottom of the page which allows the students to share their discussion onto their social network sights. Even simply the tittle of the website which is in the top left corner of the texted which tells you that it’s for students as the website is titled “ The Student Room” In the texted there is also graphology such as the emoji’s in the bottom comment which indicates a feeling without a word written responses which may enhance the comment as writing the comparison to the emoji might in fact not fit the sentences or just show how she felt be for explaining here feeling which she does “ emoji* I was so embarrassed” . As this is transactional language because the layout is a question an answer basis, there is a lot of interrogatives in the texted. An interrogative is a statement and doesn’t allow any other point of view on the matter due to the tone which an interrogative normally is. In this texted The Phelps states “No idea why you would walk into the side of a moving car” this is interrogative as he’s making a statement about why would you do that not from a distance, this means he could be doing a stupid thing due to the tone of that sentence or that he confused by the decision and disagrees with it. These types of sentences could be due to the format of the texted where it’s in a transactional language. As this is four different students commenting there are changes of writing styles, wikiellie comment on her friend could fit a stereotype of women can’t drive as her comment states “ she actually drove the wrong way round the entire circuit” as her friends a female and the stereotype from males in the world that women can’t drive her, her comment could be linked to this. However due to their friendship and her gender she could just be describing the incident and trying to show her disbelief. There is also a semantic field of motoring as it uses words such as moving, car,road,mirror,signal,maneuver,handbrakes and neutral to name a few. This is because all the comments of are linked to the same topic and will uses similar words throughout the pieces these words are needed to describe the topic or to (in this case) enhance the story for the audience. There is also a lot of first person pronouns such as “I” and first person plural such as “my” through the piece. This is because the comments are normally relating to themselves or a close friend so first person is needed to describe themselves in their comment.

Langauage and power

Language and Power

In this piece I will talk about the tone, audience and purpose of the texted and how the page is laid out and presented to the readers. I will look at the language and power of the piece and how this texted demands power. The audiences of texted H is the candidates taking the test and are reading the exam rules on to how perform the test.

The list format of the pieces demands power as its giving you a set of instructions in an organised manner. The list is issued as a warning however how the Graphology of the piece is very organised and is shown as rules by the format, this demands respect and power as the rules are demanding power from the candidates reading it to follow or fail the exam.  The images near the bottom also show power as its telling the candidates you can’t uses these certain equipment in the exam. Both of these are influences the reader as they have a choice to follow the rules of the exam, however the candidates chooses to as the instructions format states that you have to follow the rules or fail the exam. Without the Graphology looking respectable and easy to read, the rule sheet for the exam would loose that level of respected and candidates might dismiss the rules as they will feel it isn’t important due to the Graphology. Without the bold writing in the piece e,g the date of the exam and all the musts, these are highlighted for the candidates to show important information for quick skim reading. The boldness of the texted also is there as it tells the candidates that you must follow these rules.

The lexis choice is very demanding in this piece especially the “must not” and “Must” as these words demand respected because must is an auxiliary modal verb it gives the candidates no option but to follow the rules, combined with  the bold writing which highlights the fact they have no choice but to follow. The word “must” is powerful as it talks down to the candidates as it turns a normal sentences to a demand. The word “must” also is scatted throughout the texted seven times which shows tagin every rule needs to be followed. The heading of the piece “Warning to all candidates” is interesting as the word warning really sets the tone of the piece. The word “warning” tells the candidate’s that you must follow the rules but in a completely different way than the “musts” this is because it’s telling the candidates that if you don’t follow these rules it’s your fault that you failed. The word “warning” draws attention from the reader and gets them to read through the rules as they don’t want the failure that the heading warns them about. The term “criminal offence” again really tells the reader that failure to abide by the warning to follow the rules, consequences will happen. All of these three words are in the same semantic field, also words like “misconduct”, “dishonest”, “unfair” and words which explain consequence such as “serious offence”, “ disqualified” and “debarred”, all tell the candidate that following the rules isn’t a choice if they want to succeed and that consequences may take place if need be. There are a lot of imperatives sentences in this texted e.g “Remember: you must not become involved in any unfair or dishonest practices in any part of the examination”. The imperatives part of the sentences is “you must” as imperatives are sentences that are commanding. The word “must” I commanding as it doesn’t allow you to do anything else as you must do it that way but adding “you” personalises it and directs it to the reader reading it. Instead of using word such as “can” giving an option to the reader the words such as “must “make a texted forceful as it tells the reader who’s in charge as “must” and “have” are deontic modal verbs. while “can”, “may” and “might” is a epistemic modal verb  gives someone an option  follow the rules, this tells them that they themselves must follow these rules.  The grammar of the piece is very formal which fits the format of the piece and is very professional. As this is in an exam it needs to sound professional to fit the forceful nature of the texted

In conclusion I believe that the texted is very forceful and powerful. From a graphology view the texted looks very militarised as it’s in an organised fashion with a set instructions. The boldness of writing allows the the reader to pick up on that if you don’t follow the examination rules your setting yourself up to fail. The lexis choice of “must” and words from that semantic field tells the reader again follow the rules or you’re setting yourself up to fail. Without these words the texted wouldn’t be forceful enough however and would allow candidate’s to disregard the rules. Without the theme of power the grammar had to sound professional to fit with the criterial of a power set of rules which doesn’t allow candidate’s to disregard them. I believe that texted H is forceful because of the deontic modal verbs which doesn’t allow the readers any room to change the rules.

questonaire answer

When looking over my results from my questionnaire various questions helped me build a picture on people attitudes towards each other and how they are viewed. My first question “Do you think people judge you on your accent?” 70% of people said no. I found this very interesting as answers were simply “you should judge someone on their personality nothing else” but when tired in with the next question this answer is strange. When asking “Do you make decisions on someone’s accents when speaking to them?” around 60% of the answers where yes, a gentleman answered “ you can learn a lot about them just from listening to the way they speak, how they speak, how they acted, friendship groups and other things” Because of the first question with most people saying you judge someone on their personality and the over half of the participants agree with the second question stating they do judge someone from the accent. I believe that people don’t realise their being judged on the way speak and that your building a mental image on someone’s lifestyle of the way they sound tired in with other aspects such as appearance. I hear great examples when being rude to someone such as “ you sound like a chav” your applying they live like one and have a lifestyle like a “chav” or personal experiences where my friend has a proper “laddish ”Essex accent  but I could tell by the way he speaks he would work and now does work as a builder simply because of the way him and his family sound as they sound like most of their conversations are around similar people to get a similar sound. Most people by the way they sound can guess their social group and how intelligent they are, however they are intelligent but because of the way they sound most people wouldn’t expect it.

Another interesting answer I gathered from this questionnaire is from the two following questions “Would you prefer your child to speak in a regional accent or nonstandard English?” and “Would you respect someone more with a non-standard English accent than a scouse accent?” most people answered that they prefer someone with a posher way of speaking than a regional accent. This tells me that speaking “posher” gets you further as the answers state that people would respected someone because of how well-spoken they a regional accent . Everyone wanted the children to speak non-standard English as one answer stated “it’s easier to succeed with a posher accent” this shows that nationally it’s easier to be successful as everyone in my question believe that speaking more clearly than an accent. This tells me that people think speaking with an accent are judged as if people didn’t judge on accents no one would care if they spoke cockney or non-standard English.

 My last question drew up an interesting point “Does your change when speaking to your family and Friends? What are changes do you notice?” most people said yes “I change to my audience” this tell me that social groups effect accent as everyone stated that they change when speaking to others. This also tells me regional accents effect the area however social groups especially in children between 15 to 18 and how “popular” they accent can be different but everyone’s accent is based around the same basis.

accent questionaire

 

Name:

Age:

Gender:

Ethnicity:

First spoken Language:

What region of England do you live:

Have you lived in any other countries:

 

Do you think people judge you on your accent? __________________________________________________________________________________

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Do you make decisions on someone’s accents when speaking to them?

 

 

 

 

Would you prefer your child to speak in a regional accent or nonstandard English? __________________________________________________________________________________

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Would you respect someone more with a non-standard English accent than a scouse accent?  __________________________________________________________________________________

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Do you think accents effect your employment chances e.g preferring to employ someone who speaks in nonstandard English than someone from a cockney background? __________________________________________________________________________________

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Would you say “The Queens English” is proper English and regional accents and slang are wrong? Why do you think this? __________________________________________________________________________________

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Would you say your region effects your dialect and lexis for the better or worse e.g created words, word meanings? __________________________________________________________________________________

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Does your change when speaking to your family and Friends? What are changes do you notice? __________________________________________________________________________________

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