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AS LEVEL ENGLISH LANGUAGE COURSE SUMMER HOMEWORK There are two sections to this: - Analytical Skill – this section assesses your ability to comment on a fiction and non-fiction text. - Creativity – this section assesses you ability to use source material to produce a new and original text using your imaginative skill.
SECTION A – ANALYTICAL SKILL
In this section there are two tasks – one on a fiction text, the other on a non-fiction
text;
Analytical Skill – Fiction Text
Read the extract below from Joseph Heller’s Catch-22.
It was love at first sight.
The first time Yossarian saw the chaplain he fell madly in love with him.
Yossarian was in the hospital with a pain in his liver that fell just short of being
jaundice. The doctors were puzzled by the fact that it wasn’t quite jaundice. If it became
jaundice they could treat it. If it didn’t become jaundice and went away they could discharge
him. But this just being just short of jaundice all the time confused them.
Each morning they came around, three brisk and serious men with efficient mouths
and inefficient eyes, accompanied by brisk and serious Nurse Duckett, one of the ward nurses
who didn’t like Yossarian. They read the chart at the foot of the bed and asked impatiently
about the pain. They seemed irritated when he told them it was exactly the same.
‘Still no movement?’ the full colonel demanded.
The doctors exchanged a look when he shook his head.
‘Give him another pill.’
Nurse Duckett made a note to give Yossarian another pill, and the four of them
moved along to the next bed. None of the nurses like Yossarian.
1. Highlight the key words or phrases in the text that are particularly effective in creating
the tone and meaning of this passage. 2. Using the margins, label each of the examples that you have highlighted with a brief
comment on how it helps to create the tone and meaning of the passage.
Analytical Skill – Fiction Text
3. Using the examples that you highlighted, comment fully on how Heller uses language to create the tone and meaning of the opening of the novel.
You might comment on the following in your answer:
Word choice – look at nouns, verbs and adjectives;
Sentences – looks at the length and types of sentences;
Overall structure of the text – think about how the information is structured. _______________________________________________________________________________________
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Analytical Skill – Non-Fiction Text
Read the sales promotion letter below
Dear Marketer:
If I can give you:
- a quick, easy, hassle-free way to generate new business,
- a steady stream of pre-qualified sales leads,
- and I’m willing to guarantee results,
would you be willing to discuss it with me?
We’ve been in business for ten years, serving seven different markets. Over 1,200 active clients
currently use our direct response programs each year to generate new business. The formula for their
success, tried and proven over the past ten years, is so certain that we even guarantee results.
Our formula for success, based on our extensive experience, is very simple:
Offer: We work with clients to design an offer especially for our
medium that compels response in our market place.
Message: We build a message and card design around that offer that
is informative and catches attention, and the we know speaks to the market.
Audience: We carefully select and refine our lists to reach true,
authorised buyers covering the maximum purchasing power in the marketplace.
Timing: Extra attention is paid to ensure the proper mailing dates
in order to coincide with key buying times (and the times you need to support your major trade
show investments)
Guarantee: We minimize your risk by GUARANTEEING the
response.
The bottom line is a risk-free opportunity to put your sales message in front of the entire market of
ready-to-buy prospects…and to create a steady stream of qualified, closeable sales leads that convert to
sales.
Please give me a call at 800-862-6630 for more details or return this fax today.
Sincerely,
Chris Chmela
President.
1. Highlight the key words or phrases used by the writer to persuade the audience to purchase his services.
2. Using the margins, label each of the examples that you have highlighted with a brief
comment on how it helps to persuade the audience to purchase his services.
Analytical Skill – Non-Fiction Text
3. Using the examples that you highlighted, comment fully on how the writer has used
language to persuade his audience to purchase his services. You might comment on the following:
Word choice – look at nouns, verbs and adjectives;
Sentences – look at the length and types of sentences;
Overall structure of the text – think about how the information is structured. _______________________________________________________________________________________
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SECTION B – CREATIVITY
Read the text below about English in the Eighteenth Century.
By the turn of the 18th Century there was a growing feeling that the Renaissance had created a language
that was out of control. That is, the influx of foreign loan words had created a language in which there
was a superfluous number of words which were similarly defined, that spelling had been arbitrary and
the language was decaying.
Some people like John Wallis in his Grammatica Luingae Anglicanae (Grammar of the English
Language) commented on the need for standardisation because there is ‘great demand for it from
foreigners who want to be able to understand the various important works which are written in our
tongue.’ While others criticised those linguists who had adopted Latin as the model upon which
English might be moulded, arguing that this created ‘useless rules about the cases, genders, and
declensions of nouns’ for example.
Some linguists were even more vehement; Lowth commented that English was rapidly becoming a
‘corrupt’ language. Lowth argued that the models of grammatical construction had been men like
Shakespeare and Milton, all of whom in his opinion ‘offend’.
There is little doubt at the outset of the 18th Century, there was considerable division amongst linguists
about how to effectively regulate and control the language. However, it is clear that the language
needed regulating somehow.
Task
Imagine that you have been asked to contribute to a text book called ‘The History of English’ written for Year 9 pupils.
You have been asked to write a section on ‘English in the Eighteenth Century’. You need to write the text for this section. You must only use the information printed above – do not invent any additional information.
You must also give consideration to the graphology (layout) of your text. Think carefully about your audience and ensure that you adopt the appropriate tone and
register.
Section B - Creativity
Use the space below to give an indication of how you might present the text in its final printed version.
Section B - Creativity
Use the space below to write your text _______________________________________________________________________________________
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