Below are some example paragrahs for 2B, and an explanation why they are so useful. However, the best thing you can do is READ THE A* EXAMPLES FROM PREVIOUS STUDENTS that I emailed out to you.
Annotate their essay and observe the ways in which they have structured their paragraphs. Look how often they mention theory. How to they respond to theory when they have included it? What have they put in their final paragraphs? THIS IS WHAT YOU SHOULD BE DOING.
However, here's some examples from me.
Texts 2 and 8 both contain messages which are examples of unsolicited advertising. Within Text 2 we see examples of imperative verbs 'CLICK' and 'FOLLOW' which allow the text to adopt an authoritative tone which may encourage less technologically minded people to fall into their trap. The non-standard capitalisation of the verbs serves as a prosodic feature, implying that the sender is shouting, which may encourage some more vulnerable readers to act on the commands. The inclusion of a hyperlink 'www.cash4u.com' has been used to increase the chances of curious and less technology savvy users 'clicking' the link and being drawn into a process of giving away their personal data. Within Text 8, we can see similarly domineering inclusions such as the emotive imperative verb statements, 'don't miss out' and 'act now'. The phrasal verb 'miss out' and adverb 'now' both imply that you will be at a loss if you do not do what you are told, encouraging some vulnerable users to act. Additionally, there are signs that these texts are trying to adhere to a word limit do to the use of the '@' pictogram instead of the preposition 'at', and the use of elision such as 'wanna'. This has probably been done as the sender will want to keep costs as low as possible due to the nature of this type of text which will normally be sent many thousands of times to different users.
Text 1 is an example of an official announcement in the form of a Tweet from Everton Football Club. Due to the official nature of the tweet, concerning a serious injury to a player, the writer attempts to remain formal and sensitive, whilst also sticking closely to the character limit imposed by Twitter. The omission of the first person pronoun and verb 'We are' before the declarative 'Wishing Seamus a speedy recovery', implies sympathy as well as saving a vital 6 characters. Additionally, the inclusion of the players Twitter handle @seamuscoleman will mean that the player himself will receive a direct notification of the sympathies offered by the club, giving him an opportunity to respond to them. The hashtag #fighter is used primarily in order for the emotive noun 'fighter' to be seen by the player and fans to encourage them at a difficult time, but will also potentially encourage others to adopt the hashtag when posting their messages of sympathy.
Text 3 and 5 are examples of Facebook messenger messages sent between family and friends meaning that we should expect various informal features. Text 3 begins with the elided imperative phrase 'check for me what time it starts'. Here, the omission of the modal verb 'can' and pronoun 'you' suggest that the speaker is at ease in giving a direct order to the receiver. The grammatically incorrect omission of a question mark goes unnoticed here due to the fact that formality is not required on such social media texts, and the command/request is still understood pragmatically. When discussing the effects that CMC has on the English language, broadcaster John Humphreys said in a recent interview that communication such as this is 'doing to language what Genghis Khan did to Asia', implying that it is unforgiving and destructive. However, I would argue against this view as clearly the message is pragmatically understood between writer and sender, so no meaning is lost. In text 5, the sender decides to include an emoji of a face gritting its teeth, before typing I can CU in the nex carriage.' The emoji is used to suggest awkwardness and creepiness in order to elicit a humourous response from the receiver. Interestingly, the sender chooses to use letter homophones such as 'C' instead of the verb 'see' and 'U' instead of the second person pronoun 'you'. This type of communication originally came about during the era of charged text messages to save space and money, but is now largely just a feature of online sociolect. Some critics argue that this sort of non-standard communication is 'raping the English Language' (John Humphreys), but linguist David Crystal disagrees saying 'many of the abbreviations we use today have been around since the Victorian times - queen Victoria herself played with language in letters she wrote.' Therefore, I think these prescriptivist view are unwarranted.
Text 4 is an SMS sent by somebody who is about to lose their battery life on their phone. The simple message 'Batt 1% Cu@84drinks' contains multiple Rebus abbreviations which are used here to enable the writer to send before the phone turns off. The clipped noun 'batt' and pragmatically understood enumerator '1%' would serve as an explanation to the reader why the text may appear short and rude. Broadcaster Will Self, a prescriptivist, once called these types of abbreviations examples of 'Bowdlerisation'. However, I totally disagree. Even in an emergency situation such as this, it is clear to see what the meaning of the message is and, in fact, if a prescriptivist such as Lynn Truss had 'painstakingly written out a grammatically correct message' in this situation, she would probably have run out of power and been unable to communicate at all.
Why are these paragraphs good? Well - firstly, they are not based on real texts, but it shows how easy it is to access 'perfect' texts for your final two paragraphs, if you put your mind to it.
1. Each paragraph is filled with terms which demonstrate my understanding of 21stC English.
2. Multiple textual examples are given in each PG.
3. Not all PGs use theory/views, but in those that do it is commented on, replied to and integrated into the PG - not just tagged on the end.
4. I always explain why each of the features is useful/present IN THE CONTEXT GIVEN. It is not enough just to feature spot, you have to say WHY things are happening. Remember - Irregular capitalisation etc can be present in 2 different texts, but be used for totally different reasons. You need to show that you understand that.
5. The paragraphs are about clear GROUPS of texts.
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