Language Feature Spotting

1. Language Feature Spotting

2. Section B A teenage magazine is including articles on the topic ‘Everybody needs a role model.’ Write an article for the magazine describing your chosen role model. • Purpose: to inform and describe- your opinion • Audience: teenagers • Consider who and why they are a role model • What a role model consists of • Do we actually need a role model?

3. Writing techniques • list of three • use of personal pronoun ‘I’ • imagery • guilt • statistics • personal story/allegory/allusion • repetition for effect • rhetorical question • emotive language • politeness • something that stands out (wow factor) • use of quotes • structural change: different sentence structures • punctuation for effect • facts and figures • celebrity pull quote

4. OMAM and Language Analysis

5. If all else fails, PEE in your paper! Point • The point is concise (normally one sentence) and explains what Steinbeck is trying to achieve and the method he is using to achieve it

6. If all else fails, PEE in your paper! • Evidence • The evidence is well selected – only the necessary words are given instead of whole sentences or paragraphs • Evidence may be embedded within a sentence • The quote has been selected carefully to make sure there is an opportunity to write in depth about the language used

7. If all else fails, PEE in your paper! • Explanation • Should be the longest and most detailed part of the paragraph • Should refer directly to the language in the quote • Should discuss the impact of specific words and phrases on the reader

8. How does the language influence our view of Lennie? A. Steinbeck often describes Lennie by comparing him to an animal. “ Behind him walked his opposite, a huge man, shapeless of face, with large, pale eyes, with wide, sloping shoulders; and he walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws”. Lennie is described as an animal because he is big and strong. He is also not intelligent like George is and doesn’t think carefully about things. Lennie is also compared to a horse, a dog and a bull.

9. How does the language influence our view of Lennie? B. Steinbeck often uses animal imagery to describe the way Lennie looks and moves. When we are first introduced to him he is described as “walk[ing] heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags his paws”. This comparison to a bear immediately suggests that Lennie is a man of immense physical strength. His heavy footsteps support the idea that he is a large and powerful man. Steinbeck goes on to describe how ‘his arms did not swing at his sides, but hung loosely.’ The verb ‘hung’ suggests that Lennie does not seem to make the effort to control his limbs and this lack of control is also reflected in his accidental killings. Lennie’s slow and sluggish movement is directly contrasted with the ‘sharp’ and measured movements of George, ‘his opposite’.

10. How does the language influence our view of Lennie? a Slowly, like a terrier who doesn’t want to bring a ball to its master, Lennie approached, drew back, approached again. George snapped his fingers sharply, and at the sound Lennie laid the mouse in his hand (pg26) b “I’d pet ‘em, and pretty soon they bit my fingers and I pinched their heads a little and then they was dead – because they was so little” (pg27) c They sat by the fire and filled their mouths with beans and chewed mightily. A few beans slipped out of the side of Lennie’s mouth. George gestured with his spoon. (pg33)