PRACTICE GROUPING TASK (from 3 texts extracted from previous lessons)

Texts A, B and D are all strong inclusions in the first group of persuasive language techniques I am going to explore. Text A is packaging for ‘Matchmakers’ by Quality Street; (a popular UK chocolate brand). The overall appearance of the text that is used on the packaging is immediately eye catching, which would instantaneously make potential buyers more persuaded to pick up the product than if the typography (and packaging) was not audacious or colourful. The linguistics used in this text includes informal adjectives to describe the product such as; “YUMMY” and “DELICIOUS” rather than the possible alternative of simply describing the product for what it is; [Honey comb flavour chocolate]. The use of these adjectives clearly accommodates to the consumers for this product which could possibly be anyone who is younger or perhaps has younger children as all the language included are commonly used adjectives and are easily readable. This is also shown in its mention of social networking opportunities for the audience to ‘Like on Facebook’, which is socially deemed as a younger and more modern thing to do. Additionally, the persistent use of capitalising the most ‘important’ persuasive language, allows the target buyers to be subconsciously persuaded to believe that the product is indefinitely all of the adjectives mentioned above. Both the language and the typography where it is used easily persuades the audience to buy the product because it is bold, informal and perceives itself as an “approachable and friendly” product for a large audience by using a certain type of tonal language choice over the entirety of the packaging. Text B is another packaging for a food brand ‘Jaffa Cakes’ by Mcvitie’s. This packaging uses a similar technique to Text A, in terms of bold typography and informal adjectives such as; “CRACKELY CHOCOLATE” and “THE SMASHING ORANGEY BIT” to perceive itself as a friendly and approachable product and to persuade the consumers to want to buy it for these mentioned traits. However, B uses a significantly less daring technique in the way it uses font. But this may be because the use of the word “ORIGINAL” persuades the audience to buy the product because it is a ‘classical’ and ‘original’ product in itself and a product that everyone knows about already. It may also be because the brand may be accommodating to a wider audience than text A. Therefore the typography needn’t be too brash or too big. As well as Text A, Text B includes a social networking option but instead uses a more communal phrase; “Join us at fb/jaffacakes.”  This may persuade the audience to actually ‘join them’ on a network because of its social and communal meaning which allows for the target audience to then again be wider by accommodating to more individuals, all of which have different interests. My last Text, Text D is a transcript (of a speech), which seemingly took place inside of a local newsagents between two people; the customer and the employee. In terms of persuasive language, person B (the employee) has to be able to persuade person A (the customer) to want to return and buy more produce. This is clearly shown throughout the transcript as person B is persistently friendly and uses persistent informal language to attempt to form a type of ‘acquaintance bond’ between both of them. It is especially noticeable when B says’ “I’m not getting much right today [laughs]” as this is of a significantly more relaxed tone than there would be if there was only silence or a demand from ether person. Additionally, person B is mostly using self-deprecating language to subconsciously make the person A feel more superior which could possible persuade him to return as they may feel like they’re getting good customer service as person B wants to meet their every need.

                   

The Stuff of Dreams (English CourseWork 2015)

THE STUFF OF DREAMS

“You were like a dream,

I wish I hadn’t slept through.
Within it I fell deeper,
Than your heart would care to let you”- Lang Leav

 

“I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exhaled, every hill and mountain shall be low, the rough places will be made straight and the glory of the lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it.” These are the notoriously celebrated words spoken with full justice only by Martin Luther King JR; The American pastor, activist, humanitarian, leader of the African-American civil rights movement and a dreamer. Everyone’s dreams are individual to their own mind and it’s how you interpret them that matters.

 

With so much of our time devoted to dreaming, it is not surprising that speakers, writers, scientists, philosophers, doctors and poets, have all endlessly applied themselves to the vast exploration of this fascinating, yet also undeniably dark side of human existence.

 

Scientifically speaking, dreams are a series of chemically induced images, emotions, ideas and perceptions that occur involuntarily in the unconscious mind during sleep. The purpose and content of dreaming has never been definitively understood, though they have been a subject of psychological and scientific speculation, as well as a subject of philosophical and religious interest at the time of discovery and discussion of dreams and dreaming throughout history. They have been described as “The royal road to the unconscious” by Sigmund Freud, a doctor in the nineteen hundreds. “The royal road” supposedly being a metaphor, used by doctors of the imaginative sort, for the journey of exhilarating twists and electrifying turns that reveal unconscious thoughts, feelings and perceptions of reality you never knew you possessed. This may not be an occurring fact when you wake from a dream that involves you participating in sporting events, stark naked with your ex-lover. However, the interpretations of these kinds of dreams are a specialist interest for psychoanalysts who believe that all dreams have a hidden meaning. Some may say that your previous partner being over exposed with you means that you can see right through them and their intentions. It may also foretell an unconscious longing for an illicit love affair or some scandalous thoughts. But, this is not scientifically proven. Dream analysis is only a personal interpretation based on gathered facts and statistics of a wide audience.

 

If dreams are the ‘Royal Road to the Unconscious’ then the route that we’re taking when we dream may not always be deemed as positive. When we dream we may be met by the deadliest highways of horrendous twists and turns leaving us heavily sweating and struggling to breathe. Or, they may be mysterious, bewildering and more often then you may assume: eye opening.

 

The history of dreaming dates back to the BC era, when ancient Greeks and The Egyptians were the leading force in teaching and education of subjects that nobody had explored before. The Egyptians analysed the main meaning behind dreams and the Greeks interpreted these theories into their own culture. Aristotle famously wrote: “A person awakes from sleep when digestion is complete”. - This is evidently not true, however many of us wake from sleep or dreaming when the worst possible scenario is about to occur. Psychoanalysts believe this is an unconscious decision made by our brain or our ‘Super Ego’ to stop us damaging our other unconscious processes. In other words; our brain stops us from dreaming any further if the mental images we’re creating would do damage to us emotionally or physically.

 

Despite the possibility of our mind emotionally damaging us through the form of mental images, some people enjoy dreaming so much that they participate in taking an extremely potent, illegal hallucinogenic drug called Dimethyltryptamine (otherwise known as DMT). This drug is an isolated and synthetic form of the similar chemical formed in our brains when we dream. It allows the individual to continue dreaming throughout the day without their brain waking up with unconscious decision.

 

I’m almost certain, that the majority of individuals would prefer not to actively participate in dreaming more than the given norm. And the past child in us all has had more than their fair share of obscure and temporarily mentally damaging dreams to last us an entire life time. I don’t dream, not the way I used to. Which I suppose is a part of getting older, isn’t it? Eventually, we’re all expected to linger aimlessly in retirement homes, singing old songs and staring as our televisions scream a white noise crackle. I used to think this was to do with the ticking biological clock, but I now realise it’s to do with our minds. As I look for dreams, I find myself dreaming less and less. But this dreaming, does it really have a meaning or is it just a desperate cling-on to escapism? There you are, trapped in a job you might hate, a tiny town with surrounding walls or perhaps, it’s the unemployment that stifles? The fact is, maybe you just don’t fit? So you make your own work unconsciously. You may daydream of the job you desire or dream about new fears, an appreciated unaccustomed effort, an added something extra- whether you do this asleep or awake- it is now part of your personality- and the dream you open and walk towards takes you apart from your greyish life- into a coloured one. It is, at the moment, a fantasy, but dreaming keeps your mind alive.

 

Sadly, dreams are often passed off as a simple one night occurrence or an unreachable aspiration, never to be seen again unless the wandering, sluggish mind accidently bumps into its old friend on a cold lonely night- the reoccurring dream. And what do you need more on a cold lonely night than to relive terrible memories that you swore you’d never revisit… But, one of the best ways to fully appreciate the strange fluidity of this unconscious state of mind is to remember the beautiful rarity of this hallucinogenic cinema of imagery that parades around your thoughts throughout the night. Picking up on things that your eyes had seen in the daytime but had passed off as something that needn’t be stored in the already crowded brain.  When you wake from a dream it’s easy to forget the unnatural bombardment of thoughts that travel through your head. Forgetting how easy it is for your brain to turn a park bench into a fully-fledged sleigh as you ride through the night in a land you’ve never been before. Dreaming truly is the land of the bizarre.

 

'City life and lessons' PRACTICE ARTICLE EXTRACT

I 'grew up' in the rolling red bricks of England. The busy streets were never a place i was allowed to play unless it was either snowing, where no cars dared to venture, or a sweltering hot afternoon where all the sensible individuals had retreated into the cool shade of their homes. Not me. I much preferred making myself dizzy by swinging around the washing line pole until the sheer heat of the metal burned my hands and left me with 'boyish' blisters- an ever occurring phrase that regularly swung round the washing pole of my life for the good part of eleven years. Of course when you're this age, hardly anything is boring and everything that is supposed to make no sense, never matters. Because when you're this age what would you worry about more; The fact that the economy is crumbling or whether you could fit in seeing three of your friends all in one day?

The day we moved from the terrace house in the busy streets of Bristol to a quiet home on the outskirts of North Somerset, I had just turned eight. My little sister was a new born and my younger brother was around five. He cried horrendously when we left the house for the last time. Forever the attention seeker he would cry at anything-not so much anymore but he always finds a way to get some kind of attention nevertheless. I, however bragged to my friends about the "huge" new house we were moving into and how the garden was "one-hundred feet with a swing and loads of trees". Moving to the countryside wasn't a big deal for me at this time. I wasn't a bored child, I was simply unoccupied from time to time. Before i could fully imagine the endless possibility of the city and what it beholds in its grey hands, from the people i would meet in my teenage years to all the situations I would face later on, the countryside was open and an endless opportunity. My dad and I had a patch of garden that we tended to sporadically. A muddy patch of ground, set aside from my parents' adult garden and all just for me and dad. I have no recollection of tending to my muddy patch I was ever so proud of. It probably survived through a stroke of Somerset luck or, more likely, the unseen hand of my dad.

When i reached the ever so tender age of fifteen, my teenage years piled on fast and thick. I was still only a young adult but the need to escape the countryside was growing. By the time I had reached sixteen (almost reaching seventeen) and had left school I was gagging to escape the green grasp of the country. My mind was begging me to leave the quiet, the uneventful blanket of rolling hills and grazing cattle that seemed to be suffocating me. I chose a college that was as far away as acceptable and back in the bustling city that held me so tenderly as a child. Here is where i encountered my very first taste of life as a whole. With this new found freedom I learnt more lessons than I could count on my two hands. All the people encountered, all the relationships, all the dates, all the places I visited, taught me something. They allowed me to grasp reality faster than I believe i would've staying in the comfort of my parents' humble abode. Which brings me onto my first lesson that was an essential part of my development as a person: "If your dreams are bigger than the town you live in, you've got to get out of there" (-Brian Fallon)

The beginning of college for me was overwhelming. I struggled intensely with the work load that my previous teachers had not prepared me for prior to starting. I tried my very hardest to juggle both my social life as well as my education, this, I just about managed with but only by the tightest schedule I've ever encountered. Looking back on it now I made such rash decisions about what came first, which was almost always my social life. Regrettably, this left me with a reputation as someone who didn't always hand in the perfect essay homework, that arrived late because I'd stayed up late the night before and as the one who always left things to the last minute. However, don't get me wrong, I always tried my hardest in class and in the time I'd freed up for study. My teachers never saw the hardest I ever worked because I was never one to raise my hand in class. But i listened intently to every single detail that was ever written, spoken or discussed. I picked up on all the little improvements that were needed to achieve the highest grades and I made sure that i never fell behind in class work. But homework has always been my pitfall. Unfortunately, this is what you're judged on.  At the end of my two years, a personal statement was required to each of your subject teachers. I remember very clearly what i wrote to all my AS and A-level teachers. Lesson number two, a statement that quoted Tiger Woods and one that I'd been trying to get across to them throughout the entirety of my stay; "I'm trying as hard as I can, and sometimes things don't go your way and that's the way things go."

THE STUFF OF DREAMS (FIRST DRAFT)

Dreams are a series of images, emotions, ideas and perceptions that occur involuntarily in the unconscious mind during sleep. The purpose and content of dreaming has never been definitively understood, though they have been a subject of psychological and scientific speculation, as well as a subject of philosophical and religious interest at the time of discovery and discussion of dreams and dreaming throughout history. They have been described as ‘the royal road to the unconscious by Sigmund Freud, a doctor in the nineteen hundreds. This may not be an occurring fact when you wake from a dream that involves you participating in sporting events, stark naked with your ex-lover. However, the interpretations of these kinds of dreams are a specialist interest for psychoanalysts who believe that all dreams have a hidden meaning. Some may say that your previous partner being over exposed with you means that you can see right through them and their intentions. It may also foretell an illicit love affair or some scandalous activity. But, this is not scientifically proven. Dream analysis is only a personal interpretation based on gathered facts and statistics of a wide audience. Everyone’s dreams are individual to their own mind and it’s how you interpret them that matters. You may never think about the dream again.

If dreams are the ‘Royal Road to the Unconscious’ then the route that we’re taking when we dream may be the deadliest highway of horrendous twists and turns leaving us heavily sweating and struggling to breathe. Or, they may be mysterious, bewildering and more often then you may assume: eye opening.

The history of dreaming dates back to the BC era, when ancient Greeks and The Egyptians were the leading force in teaching and education of subjects that nobody had explored before. The Egyptians analysed the main meaning behind dreams and the Greeks interpreted these theories into their own culture. Aristotle famously wrote: “A person awakes from sleep when digestion is complete”. - This is evidently not true, however many of us wake from sleep or dreaming when the worst possible scenario is about to occur. Psychoanalysts believe this is an unconscious decision made by our brain or our ‘Super Ego’ to stop us damaging our other unconscious processes. In other words; our brain stops us from dreaming any further if the mental images we’re creating would do damage to us emotionally or physically.

Despite the possibility of our mind emotionally damaging us through the form of mental images, some people enjoy dreaming so much that they participate in taking an extremely potent, illegal hallucinogenic drug called Dimethyltryptamine (Dime-Thigh-l-tripe-tamine). This drug is an isolated and synthetic form of the similar chemical formed in our brains when we dream. It allows the individual to continue dreaming throughout the day without their brain waking up with unconscious decision.

 Personally, the thought of dreaming more than the norm is not something I would like to actively participate in. I’ve had more than my fair share of obscure and temporarily mentally damaging dreams to last me an entire life time. Dreams are often passed off as a simple one night occurrence. Never to be seen again unless the wandering, sluggish mind accidently bumps into its old friend on a cold lonely night- the reoccurring dream, and what do you need more on a cold lonely night than to relive terrible memories that you swore you’d never revisit… But, one of the best ways to fully appreciate the strange fluidity of this unconscious state of mind is to remember the beautiful rarity of this hallucinogenic cinema of imagery that parades around your thoughts throughout the night. Picking up on things that your eyes had seen in the daytime but had passed off as something that needn’t be stored in the already crowded brain.  When you wake from a dream it’s easy to forget the unnatural bombardment of thoughts that travel through your head. Forgetting how easy it is for your brain to turn a park bench into a fully-fledged sleigh as you ride through the night in a land you’ve never been before. Dreaming truly is the land of the bizarre.

poem

How could he say he knew her,
when he'd only seen her skin,
not bothering to find the world she hides,
that's buried deep within.
But she had heard his ribs all creak,
behind each plaited vine,
When he had only touched the waterfall,
that cascaded down her spine.
He'd said to her, "loving someone is harder than you assume,
so don't go thinking that I love you now, and definitely not this soon."
But he had not been here long enough,
to see her new love start,
or find the ruined castle,
that lay implanted in her heart.
She had explored all the branches,
that were wrapped around each lung,
swaying with the breezes,
that she so longed to touch her tongue.
He said, "Don't mark me with your footprints,
I plan to leave too soon."
and with that her world just crumbled,
and her heart span round the room.
She knew that day that he broke her heart,
not just once but once again,
that love truly wasn't like the ones written down in ink and pen.
But anyone who saw,
 how fondly she'd still look,
knew in just an instant,
 how strongly she was hooked.

Course work (style model 1) UNFINISHED DRAFT

So this story, this part of my life, begins with my first diagnoses at the age of thirteen. I was wasting my time in front of the TV, when my parents attempted to soundlessly edge their way through to the sitting room, i don't know whether this was an attempt to soften the unavoidably devastating news, like their heavy footsteps would make it harder, but nevertheless the news shot me down. The background noise of the TV drowned out the details of what my parents were explaining but I didn't care. My shocked body didn't even notice that the cat had wandered in and shat on the floor.

That first sense of a genuine shock was intensely unsettling. At thirteen, i was entering a phase where I needed to fit in. A phase where popular opinion of those around you dictates your every move. I could feel it creeping up on me as my friends began to regroup and when people started to gain knowledge of my diagnosis; others eyes clung to my skin in the school corridor, i no longer 'fit in'. I wanted to turn round and scream at these onlookers, these nosey 'need to know' scavengers: "I AM NOT ABNORMAL". But i was. There was no running from the fact. I was abnormal. The word shrieked at me from every hospital letter; my peers delicate approach to talking to me; my parents' newly resurrected sympathy became a loop hole to getting what i wanted but it was the kind of sympathy you get when you're two and you graze your knee. I became an object that shouldn't be allowed out of the heavily packed box, and this frustrated me on an enormous level. Pushed off guard by a hormone secreting brain tumour, my ever so important social status was crushed, for the next year those around me named me "the brain tumour girl" behind my back and my self confidence was in shreds. This beginning experience was probably subconsciously exaggerated due to my teenage brain telling me that everything was to come crashing down. It wasn't. It didn't. My mental stability fluctuated massively between the ages of fourteen/fifteen. But aside from that my diagnosis was actually strengthening for me, not only because i was forced to haul myself out of bed so I didn't lose the ability to walk, but for me as a person too. It was the beginning of an extremely long year but I can still count on one hand the amount of times i cried over it.

"Just remember, everything is okay and we'll get this sorted, it's only a two hour operation" the doctor reminded me as she ushered me into a curtained room, covered in crudely coloured octopi (a room I wouldn't stay in very long in the following few months). My mother sat down next to me and brushed my hair into a ponytail and back out. The hospital gown was white, with ugly pink flower blotches that we're barely attached to their translucent stems. Catching a glimpse of myself in the reflective window, my dad made a comment about how i looked like a Norman Rockwell painting.

Transcript Analysis

 

Participants: Mille (M) and Ella (E).

Transcript analysis of a communication exercise.

The communication exercise took place in the school cafeteria at 2:30pm, in a fairly busy environment so background noise can be heard throughout the entirety of the recording (although the majority of this murmur is not written/recorded due to an unnecessary inclusion).

At [00:00 seconds] (M) begins to communicate with (E), immediately using informal jargon to communicate her point across. The colloquial use of “gonna” is expressed throughout the transcript creating imagery of an informal situation. The micro-pauses (.) and pauses (n*) throughout the transcript/recording let us know that the speech is not rehearsed but spontaneously thought of in order to make sense of what was trying to be communicated towards (E). (Although forms of micro-pauses are obligatory or completely necessary and numbered or timed pauses could be included to leave time to follow complex instructions given by the main speaker). Other forms of delayed expressions are also used, including the phrase “hang on” and continuous stalling by asking questions for clarification from (M) to (E) such as: “is that right?”; “Which side are you  doing?” and “on which side?”.  The paralinguistic tone of voice in these questions is significantly different to the rest of the sentences which don’t include questions. 

At [00:30] (M) begins to leave longer pauses between words. Giving her time to assess what she will say to (E). The sentence that (M) says is obviously  clearer to (E) this is shown when (E) replies with a short, one worded answer; “Okay”, to clarify to (M) that what she said was made clear.  After this communication the language between the two subjects becomes less clear, including more questions to and from (M) and (E) with a significant rise in the number of micro-pauses (.) included, with a maximum waiting time of (5)seconds. This long wait between words and at the end of sentences not only gives the impression that what (M) was trying to communicate was complicated or complex to both subjects but also that subject (E) needed time to assess and clarify what she was going to do post instruction. The clarification word that comes across strongest is the term “Right?//right.”   This shows the reader that the two participants have formed an unconscious “safe” word to communicate affectively.

At the end of the transcript the language begins to alter. Shifting dramatically from standard communication (back and forth) to a communication whereas participant (M) begins to [laugh] repeatedly throughout. This sudden outburst ends the communication exercise.