When looking for ways to ‘group’ texts, subtlety is what gains marks. The choice of grouping itself gains few marks; but the discussion of the problems or subtleties of the text within its grouping gains many marks. Texts are never either ‘one thing’ or ‘another’: they lie on a continuum between the grouping’s extremes (see the EnglishEdu Guide for more on this).
It can be argued that, at some level, all texts are persuasive: that is, they act, if their audience recognises the text as ‘addressing them’, to influence their audience, to shape or mould the audience in important ways to accept the text’s ‘world view’ or ‘ideologies’. When and if this happens (and it often does), the audience can be said to have become the text’s ‘ideal reader’.
When looking for ways to ‘group’ texts, ‘influence’ can be a very subtle grouping and the ideas discussed below can be used to allow for the most subtle level of commentary that will achieve very high marks indeed.
- It’s important to remember that the examiner will not award marks ‘twice over’ so if you use ‘influence’ as a grouping, then the same comments must not be used in Part B of the exam if you were to choose Language & Power or Language & Gender.
If you find yourself grouping texts and discussing linguistic aspects under the following...
