Language Analysis: Yay or Nay?

[werdna]

LMAO CHECK THIS OUT!!!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/VCAA-2012-English-Exam-Article-Not-sure-if-BOY-or-GIRL/163590553782483?fref=ts

Didn't take too long for it to pop up. Lol

Page has blown up hahaha

[BigAl]

could've done better. For some reasons I feel panicked and little things slip through my fingers.

[Toto.]

Although a lot of the persuasive devices were quite obvious, I think there were a few things which my fellow students will have missed.

1. The tone shifts which coincide with the shifts in contention of the argument
2. The way that language is actually used (individual words and phrases)
3. The visuals too because every year people forget (but I think it was a lot more obvious this year)

Overall, I would say that it was easier than the 2010 VCAA, and like 987654321 times easier than last year's blog post. Had something similar to last year's come up, I would have been so annoyed.

[naki12]

I don't think you'd be shifting contentions within a persuasive piece. Isn't the whole point to argue whatever your view is? Why would you change that view mid-way?
For me, the words and phrases were too hard to talk about. The author also was pretty creative in her speech using stories and talking about weird almost philosophical stuff like dead dinosaurs and magic of sharing books.
I think this was the hardest LA I've ever done, yet it could have been done well in some many ways. It was weird. She tries to tell people that e-books are good but then tells them they can't forget the printed books. It's like she's taking two sides and really knows how to not attack any side. I think the listener to her speech would have gone through a large amount of confusing and mixed feelings about the whole book issue.

[BigAl]

I don't think you'd be shifting contentions within a persuasive piece. Isn't the whole point to argue whatever your view is? Why would you change that view mid-way?
For me, the words and phrases were too hard to talk about. The author also was pretty creative in her speech using stories and talking about weird almost philosophical stuff like dead dinosaurs and magic of sharing books.
I think this was the hardest LA I've ever done, yet it could have been done well in some many ways. It was weird. She tries to tell people that e-books are good but then tells them they can't forget the printed books. It's like she's taking two sides and really knows how to not attack any side. I think the listener to her speech would have gone through a large amount of confusing and mixed feelings about the whole book issue.

that's why her tone is a bit informative too..doesnt really pick a side..she does but..yeah

[DJing]

Although a lot of the persuasive devices were quite obvious, I think there were a few things which my fellow students will have missed.

1. The tone shifts which coincide with the shifts in contention of the argument
2. The way that language is actually used (individual words and phrases)
3. The visuals too because every year people forget (but I think it was a lot more obvious this year)

Overall, I would say that it was easier than the 2010 VCAA, and like 987654321 times easier than last year's blog post. Had something similar to last year's come up, I would have been so annoyed.

I'm no expert, but I'm quite certain that whilst tonal shifts marked changes in the direction/aim of Elliot, her contention always remained the same. Her initial 'approval' of e-books was, (in my opinion), an attempt to build rapport and establish that she was up-to-date and not in fact an old, 'dinosaur'.

Personally, I would have preferred the 2011 one, simply because it held more subtleties, whereas this year it was more focused on the effect on the specified audience.

Yay or nay? Who knows...I think I'll wait until december to find out!!

[Toto.]

Although a lot of the persuasive devices were quite obvious, I think there were a few things which my fellow students will have missed.

1. The tone shifts which coincide with the shifts in contention of the argument
2. The way that language is actually used (individual words and phrases)
3. The visuals too because every year people forget (but I think it was a lot more obvious this year)

Overall, I would say that it was easier than the 2010 VCAA, and like 987654321 times easier than last year's blog post. Had something similar to last year's come up, I would have been so annoyed.

I'm no expert, but I'm quite certain that whilst tonal shifts marked changes in the direction/aim of Elliot, her contention always remained the same. Her initial 'approval' of e-books was, (in my opinion), an attempt to build rapport and establish that she was up-to-date and not in fact an old, 'dinosaur'.

Personally, I would have preferred the 2011 one, simply because it held more subtleties, whereas this year it was more focused on the effect on the specified audience.

Yay or nay? Who knows...I think I'll wait until december to find out!!

Yeah that was what I meant, she was just making it appear like "wow look at e-books. I love them they're awesome. I'm an early adopter of new technology" before telling everybody to just be like: "the world is going down with this"
I have to say though, her point was not entirely clear to me until the very end, where I believe she combined both the enthusiasm and the alarm to actually make her contention clear.

Also, I absolutely hated last year's one, I mean by the time you finished commenting on the tattoo blog post, you had to then analyse the comments as well as include the visuals along the way! When I practised writing on last year's piece, it ended up dragging to like 9-10 pages and it was just too much!

[michaela12]

just wondering if people presumed that the students at the forum wanted to go or if it was compulsory?

because i thought this would be quite significant as not all kids if they were forced to go would have been "enthusiastic" readers and it would have made her optimistic tone quite unsuitable in retrospect...

anyway i presumed they wanted to go. hope i didn't interpret this incorrectly. but meh, can't do anything about it now!

[naki12]

just wondering if people presumed that the students at the forum wanted to go or if it was compulsory?

because i thought this would be quite significant as not all kids if they were forced to go would have been "enthusiastic" readers and it would have made her optimistic tone quite unsuitable in retrospect...

anyway i presumed they wanted to go. hope i didn't interpret this incorrectly. but meh, can't do anything about it now!

Now, why would you be forced to attend some forum on 'reading and literacy-related activities'? Can't really force anyone to do anything. Where else would the students be if not there? At school perhaps. I'm sure they'd jump at the chance to be able to go on an excursion rather than have to coop themselves up at school.

Your job was to analyse the ways in which language is 'used to attempt to persuade the audience to share the point of view of the speaker'. That is you explain what the author does, why they do it (how it helps them) and how they attempt to persuade the audience with it. I think whether or not the techniques are successful is somewhat irrelevant.

But really, you can't really interpret anything wrong. You can say whatever you want as long as you give the evidence to support it. In a way, your language analysis of another person's persuasive piece is, itself, a persuasive piece.

[rhysoid]

a lot of people a referring to the first image with hindsight which i dont think is too wise as it appears in a specific part of a speech, listeners are likely to follow the speech and forget the image they just saw. So i think the image and its persuasiveness should only be analysed in response to what has already been said, although the fact that she goes on to attack e-books can be brought into the analysis as the image of the boy and the previous positive argument for e-books can and is quite possibly an attempt to display that she is not a bigot when attacking technology, reinforcing the credibility of her contention in the audiences mind.

[naki12]

a lot of people a referring to the first image with hindsight which i dont think is too wise as it appears in a specific part of a speech, listeners are likely to follow the speech and forget the image they just saw. So i think the image and its persuasiveness should only be analysed in response to what has already been said, although the fact that she goes on to attack e-books can be brought into the analysis as the image of the boy and the previous positive argument for e-books can and is quite possibly an attempt to display that she is not a bigot when attacking technology, reinforcing the credibility of her contention in the audiences mind.

Your last sentence is very, very long. I disagree with the image needing to respond to what has already been said. The image is not necessarily pictorial support. It could be and is it's own persuasive technique and it makes it own point. Although I must agree that, since the picture appears right after the mention of "terrible burden of their great big textbooks", it was more likely that the author used it to support that view of hers. But we do not know for how long she shows that picture for before she changes the picture. She could've had that picture up the entire time up until she changed to the next picture we see. Thus all the points following the picture could be relatable to the image. We are not sure how many slides she had. It's possible that she only had 2 slides.

I think what's important is that you show your skills. If you show you can analyse the picture insightfully (even if incorrectly), the assessor might be impressed and put in a good word for you. At least, that is what I think. I'm no assessor so I have no credibility.