non-fiction notes

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  • Created by: emily
  • Created on: 25-04-11 13:27

Mongolian wedding

Tone: light, sarcastic, ironic, humour used

Purpose: to entertain his readers, Interested in other cultures & experiences, a travel writer,

Audience: adults mainly, who are interested in travel writing

Language used:                           

• Exaggeration “fell headfirst”

• Amusing anecdotes [stories] e.g. bride hiding

• Detail “great fatty tail” contrast of cultures – the feast seems unappetising

• Short paragraphs, emphasises a lot going on

• Active verbs “flattened” “pulled” emphasises comedy

• This contrasts to the inactivity of bride and groom

• Foreign words included to give a real feel of the country “arkhi”

• Varied sentences give impact, short sentences emphasise speed of event

1 of 10

other side of the dale

Tone: Friendly, interested, rather impersonal, not an official document

Purpose: to entertain, a school Inspector reporting on his visit, an extract from Phinn’s memoirs

Audience: the local community, readers who enjoy reading about the lives of others,

Language used: : • vivid adjectives used to describe dirt and squalor of Miss S,s surroundings, e.g half eaten food, grimy raincoat, lank grey hair

• simile where she is compared to a “chimpanzee” ”animal” emphasises this

• ghostly description makes her seem witch like“effigy” also she brews up her own petrol

• vivid, strong personality shown in the way she talks, educated “pipe down” “Tunbridge Wells”

• a certain elegance about her: she listens to Radio 4, author calls her “Miss”

• some sophisticated words emphasise this “sojourn” “retired””evening stroll”

• dated slang “done in” “spree”gives a vivid impression of her character

• she can be loud and boisterous “flung open…hurled”

• varied structure uses diary form at time to emphasise passage of time, also scripted conversation, a vivid real sense of their relationship

 • she is ungrateful and cantankerous “green doesn’t suit me”

2 of 10

Don’t leave me here to die

Tone: serious, sad, emotional, negative

Purpose: a newspaper article, taken from an extract from memoirs, to inform readers

Audience: newspaper readers, serious, educated, interested in current affairs

Language used:

• emotive, makes reader feel sympathy for the victim, and for the dilemma Cathy O’Dowd faced

• grotesque images “puppet”

• several similes “porcelain” makes victim seem fragile, delicate

• lists reasons for leaving victim – so many, emphasises uselessness of rescue

• rhetorical questions to make the reader think about the problems and issues

• repetition for emphasis, e.g. “we had no..” also “try” shows desperation

• structure –brief paragraphs emphasises speed and urgency of situation

• “I” and “we” used frequently – this is a very personal account, people are very involved/ first person narrative

• includes sub heading as introduction and a tragic postscript

3 of 10

Sport for all Save our children

Tone: Sarcastic, ironic, scornful

Purpose: to give his views on the stupidity of compulsory school games, newspaper article

Audience: adult, parents, educated

Language used:

• melodramatic headline “horror” makes the fate of school children seem terrible

• tense language creeping,victim, sweat, ogre like

• personal experience, uses “I” but involves parents “our children”

• scorn expressed “waffled””nonsense”

• bitterness of his experiences shown “humiliated””misery”

• shows opinions dressed up as facts with words like “allegedly””we were told”

4 of 10

School sports culture …. Violence

Tone: Serious, argues dangers

Purpose: to give his point of view, warn reader, newspaper article

Audience: adults, parents,

Language use:

• sums up argument in headline summary [known as resume] – contrasts “god like” with “nerds”

• gives a positive view of the athletes with vivid adjectives “huge, extraordinary”

• structured to give positive impression in first few [7] paragraphs

• change in tone introduced by rhetorical question to make the reader think about the issue “what does it make ..”

• tries to make it impersonal by using 3rd person but at the end, his own opinion is clear “there is a price” we see he disagrees with the idea of the “godlike status”

5 of 10

sports in schools

 Tone: Uses humour to appeal to the reader, personal, ironic

Purpose: Newspaper report, argues case that, in the past, children got exercise in their ordinary lives, PE is necessary now because they don’t getany exercise

Audience: adults, parents, specific to Scotland

Language use:

• exaggeration to amuse and get message across “icebergs”

• structure – paragraph 3only 1 sentence long– emphasises serious point, starts with “But”

• structure – then repeats humorous attitude – memories which adults would identify with “Joe 90”

• then changes tense to present – how children are nowadays

• argues his case but presents little evidence quite conversational in tone with some colloquialisms to keep audience interested “****”

6 of 10

parents......say no

Tone:Impersonal, serious, reasoned argument

Purpose: to give a reasoned argument for greater discipline

Audience: parents, concerned adults

Language use:

• fear of children described, e.g. “retreated, escape, struggling”

• language formal, readers educated, eg “gurus”

• uses comments from experts to reinforce argument, gives evidence from organisations, gives statistics

• negative adjectives describe children “brats, overbearing, whingeing”

• impersonal – uses 3rd person,uses the opinion of others to illustrate argument

• structure – introduces problem, then provides evidence

7 of 10

pay your children

Tone: impersonal, serious, butbiased towards one viewpoint

Purpose: To argue and inform

Audience: adults, parents

Language use:

• formal language “chief executive, dedicated, controversy, detriment, stimulate, stimuli” all reinforce the formality and impersonal tone

• uses experts to reinforce arguments

• however these experts give opinions rather than facts

• parents are viewed in a negative light – language reflects this and the pressure they use to wards children “anxious, limited, bombard,push”

• some exaggeration – “future criminals”

• heavily biased – children will be damaged it is claimed – vocabulary emphasises bias “long term detriment,lower curiosity”

8 of 10

use persuasion, not coercion

Tone: personal at first but then becomes impersonal, advises

Purpose: to argue and inform, a newspaper article

Audience: the general public, parents, adults

Language used:

• structure – immediately states heropinion on the matter, produces

• criticises the behaviour of parents – uses strong language “lousy, cajole”

• mimics “oooh sweetie” young people ”

• forthright and forceful language, e.g. “the point is,..

• uses rhetorical question to emphasise point “sounds innocuous”

• shows some sympathy with parents “exhausted mother, tantrum, wailing”

9 of 10

smacking not the answer

Tone: informative, takes a variety of views

Purpose: puts the viewpoints of children as well as adults, informs and persuades

Audience: children [see where it comes from]

Language use:

• starts with reaal life situation then argument, then concludes by repeating goes to comments from a number of the idea that persuasion is the answer

• refers to “young adults” which lends authority to what they say, contrast to “kids”

10 of 10

Comments

melissa

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you've  mixed up the language used bit, with 'the lady in the van'

and you have missed out lady in the van, and also have no notes on the language used, in the other side of the dale. =P 

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