AS English Language AQA B Re-Sit May 23rd 2016 - Categorising texts

Original post by HeatherLafferty

Just wondering how many people are re-sitting it! So nervous as last year and in my mocks i've always ran out of time to write what i wanted in the categorising texts section. I'm doing language and power for the 2nd section and find that fine. What about you?

Reply 3

https://mrswhelan.com/as-english-language/

Hey, I'll be doing the resit on Monday also!
I'm nervous because I cannot seem to grasp language and Gender theory and structuring an answer, so I'm hoping that the Power text will be easy considering I didn't study the technology section.
I've found some model answers and useful resources if anyone needs them :smile:

Reply 4

https://mrswhelan.com/as-english-language/

Original post by Hannah3105

Same as me! Struggled with language and gender so I'm doing power and hoping for a spoken text as last year was written. Thanks for the link!😀

Reply 5

Nope9093123

Can anyone help me?I have an exam on Monday and I'm not sure where to start from. a2 English language 9093!!

Reply 6

nancy1

I'm re-sitting too, and I'm planning on doing language and power but I don't know of any theorists to include?!

Reply 7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6APgc5SPZko

Original post by nancy1

I'm re-sitting too, and I'm planning on doing language and power but I don't know of any theorists to include?!

This video may help you learn some power theories :smile:

Reply 8

Original post by nancy1

I'm re-sitting too, and I'm planning on doing language and power but I don't know of any theorists to include?!

Same i'm doing power! You don't need to know as many theories as gender it's more picking up on rhetoric devices, influential/instrumental power, Power in and behind discourse etc.. Fairclough and Brown and Levinson are the main ones i would recommend learning!x

Reply 9

For the Section B part of the exam, my teacher told me that topic sentences are really important as always be tentative when giving possible reasons for different thing. Before she told me the importance of topic sentences, my paragraphs were a bit jumbled and I've start a new paragraph without giving the point.

The topic sentence at the beginning of each paragraph should basically give an overview of what you are doing in that paragraph (I'm doing Language and Power but this applies to all of them e.g. Gender and Technology.) So, for example, if I am writing a paragraph on synthetic personalisation (Fairclough) my topic sentence would be something like 'This text makes effective use of Norman Fairclough's notion of synthetic personalisation to help persuade the audience' and then I'd go on with the rest of that paragraph accordingly.

In terms of theorists, the most important are synthetic personalisation (Fairclough), Face Theory (Levinson & Brown), Accommodation Theory, Politeness and Grice's Maxims.

Some important terminology is:
Power behind Discourse
Power in Discourse
Instrumental Power
Influential Power
Personal Power
Positional Power
Political Power
Occupation Power

and other good key words that should be referred to authority, status, hierarchy, constraints, unequal encounter, power asymmetry, most powerful participant, least powerful participant, and so on.

In terms of lexis look for: modal auxiliary verbs (deontic or epistemic), pre-head and post-head modification, verb choices, superlatives, SE, colloquial lexis, field specific lexis, and perjorative lexis.

In terms of discourse you should look for: repressive/oppressive discourse strategies, adjacency pairs, turn taking, bullet pointing, etc.

In terms of graphology look at: logos (what do they represent, do they display institutional power or rely on shared understanding), colours (what do they convey, how do they catch the eye), the use of imagery, emboldening, underlining, italics, capitalisation, etc.

People tend to lose most marks when they aren't referring to context, so always be referring to why someone says something and to serve what purpose- REMEBER: you're not there, so offer more than one explanation for a reason why someone says something. But, at a very least, at the beginning of your question always mention GAP (genre, audience and purpose) and talks about the mode of production/mode of reception and register is applicable.

Reply 10

KatieJoness

That's so useful thank you! Do you have any advice on how to structure a Language & Power essay?

Reply 11

Original post by KatieJoness

That's so useful thank you! Do you have any advice on how to structure a Language & Power essay?

This is my general pre-planned structure in my head, but it usually changes slightly depending on the text.

Introduction:
-State the Genre (leaflet, advertisement, contract, etc.)
-If its a speech or contract, etc. talk about the conventions of these sort of texts.
-State the Audience (young audience, broad audience, ideal audience, etc.)
-State the Purpose (inform, persuade, instruct, entertain, etc.)
-Talk about context of production is applicable.
-If its a transcript, is it scripted? spontaneous? monologue? dialogue?
-I'd also include the register (mixed formality? formal? informal? and why?)
-I'd also say something to do with the mood e.g. declarative, serious

Then my first paragraph is usually to do with Power behind Discourse as this allows me to hit at least some marks for contextual awareness. For example, there was a transcript a couple of years ago which was a staff member ringing up a customer on behalf of the company- due to this, Power behind Discourse is shown as the company was personal power over the staff member to make her ring the customer as that is the description of her job.

This would lead quite nicely onto a paragraph on instrumental power, as this type of power allows authority to be enforced so you could say how this authority is enforced. For example, a teacher has instrumental power over children, a boss has it over its employees and whilst saying this, you could refer to something to do with personal/political/occupational power.

Then, I would usually talk about power in discourse which is usually evidenced quite nicely by things like deontic and epistemic modal verbs, which are usually within every single power text for some reason, or by other things such as imperatives, interrogatives and so on.

I would then maybe look at some lexical items within the text that may evidenced power in discourse such as superlatives, other types of verbs, pre-head modifiers, field specific lexis, perjorative lexis. If there is some sort of lexis e.g. perjorative lexis that may be considered Face Threatening, I would definitely talk about that whether it is threatening to the positive face (the need to feel wanted and appreciated) or the negative face (the want to have freedom and not feel imposed upon.)

Then, I would start to talk over influential power, which clearly can be nicely linked with Fairclough's notion of synthetic personalisation and how this increases/decreases the metaphorical 'distance' between the reader-writer. At this point, you should definitely mention the type of address e.g. direct address, third person, and the effects of this.

Also, I'd usually try and find something to do with Accommodation Theory which either decreases/increases the difference of the reader-writer relationship. This could either be divergence (using lexis to move away from something, which is usually in more formal situations), or convergence (when someone starts using lexis similar to someone else, which is usually in more informal situations.)

Then, I'd quickly talk about the graphology e.g. colours, so red may represent danger or green may represent caring. The logo (look carefully as it may suggest something), as on a previous past paper there was a logo from Amnesty International, which is a human rights group, and its logo was a candle wrapped in thorns, and this had loads of connotations.

Then talk a bit about discourse and whether it is a repressive or oppressive discourse strategy. Something this could fit with the instrumental power, and may include closed questioning that puts constraints on the text-receiver. Closed questioning is when someone asks a question that only allows for a 'yes' or 'no' reply.

... and that's basically it. I'd do a short conclusion which is more of a summary, all the while referring to the context of the text. Whos the most power/least powerful participants? Is there a hierarchy? Who has authority? How are the role represented within the text?

This is clearly different depending on what text it is, but these are the things I'll (hopefully) be thinking about. So, in summary...

1. Intro: GAP, register, mood, context of production, context of reception
2. Power behind discourse
3. Instrumental power
4. Power in discourse
5. Influential power
6. Synthetic Personalisation
7. Accommodation Theory
8. Face Theory/Politeness
9. Lexis, discourse, graphology
10. Conclusion

Reply 12

KatieJoness

That was incredibly helpful, thank you ever so much!

Reply 13

Good luck tomorrow everyone!!

Reply 14

Excuse Me!

Here's how I plan out answers for anyone interested! (this was 2015 paper).

Scared for tomorrow now 😞 Think ivw got the hang of it. I've been getting As in Power and Bs in the groupings. Hopefully the groupings texts are nice. Last year I couldn't read the handwriting one!

Also my tutor said that you don't have to do every text but don't leave more than one out.

Also, the features you pick out (A01) is important. Aim for 5 bits of terminology each para.

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Reply 15

How did use find the exam guys?

Reply 16

Original post by hlaff

How did use find the exam guys?

I was so pleased with the grouping texts! there was so much two write about, I wrote about 7 sides for that one. I answered the power question and I feel like that went okay. Nothing special but overall I'm actually happy with how it went tbh I used lots of terminology and for power I included lots of theory :smile:

How about you?

Reply 17

Original post by Hannah3105

How about you?

Same as me! Wrote so much for the grouping texts but ran out of time to do as much as I wanted for power! :frown:

Reply 18

I'm sure you did really well :smile:

What were your groupings?

Reply 19