Edexcel Certificate 1/2: TOP TRUMPS Wednesday, 29 April 2020

Jonathan Peel SGS

Language Paper 1, section B

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10 marks for a reading response Need to refer to the text to support answer – QUOTE and explain.

Focus should be on writer’s craft Look carefully and identify the focus of the question.

Underline the key words 10 marks for a transactional response based on a theme of the passage 45 minutes for the two questions.

Jonathan Peel SGS

APPROACH

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Familiarity is one step to success – you should hardly need to read the passage because you know it so well.

Awareness of author, genre, attitudes, approach, key writing styles, intended effect will enable you to begin quickly.

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My TOP TRUMPS slides might help you to achieve this aim…

Jonathan Peel SGS

Touching the Void a strange response...

      Author: Joe Simpson and Simon Yates Genre: Autobiography/adventure narrative Attitudes: 2 different viewpoints: Joe is more emotive – he is the injured one, Simon is more objective.

Approach: accounts are separate but tell same event from different perspectives. First person narratives with plenty of literary effects to generate tension and excitement.

key writing styles: Joe: Short sentences, expletives, direct thought, metaphorical descriptions. Simon: more explanatory, longer sentences though still a variety, strong vocabulary for effect, certainty in utterance.

intended effect: An exciting story told with maximum impact. Tension and excitement created throughout. Contrasting narrative perspectives maintain interest. NB only a short section of a longer book.

Jonathan Peel SGS

Beach Safety

      Author: RNLI safety document ( website ) Genre: Leaflet – information and instruction with elements of persuasion.

Attitudes: Positive approach to seaside fun. Encourages reader to be safe and to be aware of the work of the RNLI.

Approach: Dramatic use of colour linked with personal anecdotes provides interest. Clear use of diagrams aids comprehension.

key writing styles: Instructions are clear and organised mixing images and bullets. Imperatives are a feature of this kind of text. Anecdotes are engaging and make use of direct speech. Information uses images very strongly together with short, clear sentences. Persuasion uses 2 language is used throughout.

nd person to engage the reader and provides clear information under subheadings, for clarity. Positive intended effect: To raise safety awareness and to raise money. NB intended audience is one of all ages.

Jonathan Peel SGS

Climate Change website ( Current Greenpeace website FYI )

      Author: Unknown, though run by Greenpeace, a strong organisation of “eco-warriors” Genre: web page – news, information and persuasion Attitudes: Very biased- not necessarily incorrect, but only showing the single side of the story.

Approach: Strong use of images, choice of links and advertisements reinforces the POV of the organisation; involves the reader in the debate.

key writing styles: Emotive, negative language; use of 2 address reader directly; strong, short sentences deployed for effect; 1 st person plural used to link the writer and the reader.

nd person to intended effect: To raise awareness of climate change and to present a single side of the argument with a view to raising support for Greenpeace. Also to provide clear links to similar activities run by Greenpeace.

Jonathan Peel SGS

       Author: Kate Ravilious ( Kate Ravilious website ) writing in the Guardian, a left of

Climate Change: The Facts

information.

Attitudes: The Facts are never challenged suggesting a bias, but the evidence, although untested seems relatively convincing.

Approach: Q+A techniques suggest a trustworthy writer –a didactic approach. Graphs and tables look trustworthy and deliver a speedy overview of the article – newspapers need to attract readers… key writing styles: humour provides bathos and ensures the article I s not off putting; 3 rd person Q+A suggest authority; information is delivered with clarity; a lack of modal verbs provides a sense of certainty; verbs chosen with care reveal that much is supposition rather than fact. Statistics widely used. Headline suggests certainty which a close reading does not support.

intended effect: To increase awareness of one side of the climate change argument. Writing is not over-emotive and this balance is possibly one reason why this reads as an effective article.

NB: The page of graphs is colourful and occasionally misleading – note the comparative size of the heating coils in the centre, for example, or the suspiciously un-wobbly line sin the prediction area of the graphs at the foot of the page. What else can you find?

A game of Polo with a headless Goat

      Author: Emma Levine ( author website ) Genre: Travel writing - information, description, autobiography Attitudes: A fascination with a variety of cultures and a wish to share them with the reader.

Approach: Recounting an event in a complex layering of “races”. Generates excitement and gives information.

key writing styles: past tense generally from 1 st person perspective; vocabulary chosen for effect – onomatopoeia is evident – and to create excitement; triplets link ideas and there is some use of “sound bites” in the writing; occasional shift of tone allows for evaluation of the story to emerge.

intended effect: To engage and entertain without losing a sense of the writer’s judgement and perspective.

Jonathan Peel SGS

A passage to Africa

      Author: George Alagiah ( follow the author on twitter ) Genre: Autobiography and News reportage – information and opinion Attitudes: Strong moral centre as a response to harrowing news reports. Approach: Autobiographical writing which tells a story whilst raising uncomfortable questions in the readers’ minds.

key writing styles: triplets, strong vocabulary, repetition “there was…” , short sentences/paragraphs for effect, Rhetorical Questions, self awareness shown in later paragraphs – clear evaluation of the information intended effect: To raise awareness of the plight of the starving in Africa and also to promote a positive perception of the author. Since he is moved and obviously questioning the motives and role played by journalism in this horror, the reader will do the same.

Jonathan Peel SGS

Explorer’s Daughter

      Author: Kari Herbert ( news article ) Genre: autobiography – description and information – travel writing.

Attitudes: A balanced viewpoint of a current animal rights issue Approach: A mixture of highly descriptive writing and clear information delivered as balanced and strongly evaluated.

key writing styles: Description is reliant on carefully chosen words and phrases to provide a sense of peacefulness which contrasts with the violent exertion of the hunt. Long sentences increase the sense of conversational narrative; information is clear and plainly told and tends to alternate with more dramatic narrative sections.

intended effect: To provide a considered view of an extreme culture and an activity widely perceived as being cruel. To provide an “apology” (a defence, in legal terminology) for the activities of the Innuit.

Jonathan Peel SGS

Explorers, or boys…

      Author: unknown – from the Guardian though “adapted”.

Genre: news – information and opinion Attitudes: biased coverage focusing on cost and a perceived puerile approach to such undertakings Approach: news reportage laced with highly emotive phrases and suggestions; POV of author becomes evident due to the choices made – negative POV.

key writing styles: strong emotive language; humour designed to ridicule; irony, selective quotation, bathetic final sentence; double focus of headline.

intended effect: to ridicule the adventurers and to belittle any achievement; to raise awareness of the cost of such a rescue.  study notes found online - take care...

Jonathan Peel SGS

Taking on the World

       Author: Ellen Mac Arthur website Genre: autobiography – positive narrative of heroic endeavour.

Attitudes: 1sr person presentation of a moment of high drama – presented clearly and factually with some sense of personal engagement evident Approach: Organised narrative –chronological. Engages by content and by use of 2 nd person. Evaluation evident at end.

key writing styles: Use of 2 “factual” verbs.

nd person, technical lexis, strong vocabulary chosen for effect, similes, powerful short sentences, occasional use of present tense, mixture of modal and more intended effect: To engage the reader and to convey some sense of the difficulties faced. The technical lexis and attention to detail might suggest a wish not to be seen as writing solely for dramatic effect.

NB Compare this passage with Explorers… and with Void – what do you notice?

Jonathan Peel SGS

Chinese Cinderella

      Author: Adeline Yen Mah ( website ) Genre: autobiography Attitudes: retelling the childhood of a Chinese daughter – clue is in the use of Cinderella in the title Approach: Narrative containing a large quantity of dialogue – how reliable is her memory?

key writing styles: direct speech in dialogue; some use of emotive language for effect; triplets, use of present tense; verbs chosen for effect to convey emotion; authority is shown to lie with father by choice of lexis and by relative balance of speeches.

intended effect: A retelling of a childhood which looks critically at the attitude of the Chinese culture to females and to the overtly patriarchal nature of society. The author seems critical, but not bitter. There is a gentle humour evident in some of her writing, serving to undercut the father’s pomposity.

Jonathan Peel SGS