Text A: The Guardian Immigrants Article Analysis

Analyse how Text A uses language to create meanings and representations.

Text A is an opinion article from the British daily newspaper 'The Guardian', which has a reputation as a platform for liberal and left wing editorial. It was written by David Marsh, a writer who addresses his strong opinions on the term 'migrants' and the stigma which surrounds that term as he clearly argues is wrong and unnecessary, as he labels it 'badly tarnished after years of abuse by those who seek to strip refugees of their humanity'. This is firstly conveyed through the heading 'We deride them as 'migrants'. Why not call them people?'. The transitive verb 'deride' conveys an immediate negative tone as it denotes a sense of ridicule and mockery that migrants receive because of their identity. The rhetorical question which then follows this again exposes the bias that migrants face as some don't even seem to consider them as individuals anymore. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to inform readers about the controversy one simple word can cause, and about the overall effects of immigration expressed through widespread media and politics today, which is an affordance of the text as the writer is trying to spread knowledge on this topic by creating awareness. Another is that the article has used trustworthy sources such as a quote from Prof Alexander Betts to enforce a point about this topic. Yet a constraint of this could be the article's reliability, as it was written through only one individual's perspective and the type of newspaper is left wing therefore any facts or statistics used could have been twisted when trying to gain the audience's best interests.

Although the text's mode is a written article from a newspaper therefore there could be difficulty in trying to gain a relationship between the reader and writer, the asyndetic list used at the beginning suggests otherwise. 'They are people - men, women and children, fathers and mothers, teachers and engineers, just like us - except they come from Syria, Eritrea, Afghanistan and elsewhere', this implies variety and tries to immediately make it personal to the reader to make them feel sympathetic. This is also an unknown quote to appeal to the audience and encourages people to agree with their views. Furthermore, the famous examples of migrants who are glorified and thought of as British such as Mark Carney, Kevin Pietersen etc show the inequality of the social hierarchy in Britain, as if it was just a normal migrant being spoken about they would only be labelled as stealing everyone's jobs rather than being praised for the successes they've achieved on their own but with a lower social status.

This leads onto the simple sentence 'yes, they are all migrants - or, if you prefer, immigrants' which justifies each noun's connotations. The first noun 'migrants', could suggest that their identity is not helped, there is nothing they can do being one, but the second noun 'immigrant' used with the personal pronoun 'if you prefer' establishing involvement, could suggest a sense of invasion rather being somebody who was born and raised as a migrant. The term 'economic migrants' that is said to be used by media and politicians further shows the exploitation migrants receive as there seems to be a restraint on a migrant being economically successful unless they are directly in the public eye as a banker or sports star. Other than that a direct quote says they only seem to be "marauding" across Europe, which is underlined in the text to highlight the importance of this statement to support the argument. Additionally, Text A continues to discuss the stigma around the term 'migrant' as there's been a lot of talk around people from the UK moving abroad being called "expats", never emigrants or migrants which highlights hypocrisy as if it was the other way round, migrants moving to the UK, the term would be seen as 'toxic, used to frighten us by conjuring images of a 'swarm' and threatening our way of life' as politicians such as David Cameron would say. This highlights the use of extreme vocabulary reinforced by the media. A semantic field used towards the end of the article including the alternative terms that could be used such as 'refugees', 'displaced people' and 'asylum seekers' emphasises a more positive approach to avoid backlash from using the original term, 'migrant'.

Finally, the last two pages of the article truly reveal the discrimination those higher in the world of media have against migrants and the writer uses quotes to support this. For example, as stated, the aims and intentions of the text is 'the idea to alarm, not inform, the public and propagate an agenda that says: migrants = bad; (and then to blame the European Union).' This is because people such as broadcaster's online editor, Barry Malone, are using their platform to generalise the word more, as they don't refer migrants as normal human beings. 'It is not hundreds of people...nor even hundreds of refugees...it is hundreds of migrants' this conveys the attitude that people aren't taking the horror 'migrants' face on a frequent basis seriously and all they are seen as now is vulnerable as 'migrant is a word that strips suffering of voice'. They're being treated as an excuse. Although journalists, like politicians, seem to be recognising this internal crisis as alliteration is used to label their situation as a 'sorry saga' which is making them lose sight of the fact they are people. This gives us as a reader hope for future change. Therefore Text A has been represented as there being a very unbalanced debate over 'migrant', and the whole situation surrounding it. Again, 'this is a story about humanity' which the newspaper wants everyone to understand.

Mirror Money Article Analysis

Analyse how Text B uses language to create meanings and representations.

Student response text B is a website from the newspaper 'the Mirror' which is about how boys are nearly spending as much money as girls on proms and how this is becoming an excessive, unhealthy amount for one night that is seen to be over in a blink of an eye. Therefore, the purpose of the article is to inform readers, more specifically parents of teenagers leaving school, that children most particularly 'image-conscious teenage lads' are being pressured into spending more money to improve looks. This is because proms in today's society seem to be becoming a much bigger deal, when all they really are is a one night, dressy occasion that takes months in advance to prepare for and generally just causes havoc in most people's eyes. A malarkey. Therefore, the purpose of the article is established through the title 'MONEY' and subheading 'Advice you can count on' at the beginning, as the main topic is based around how much people are truly spending on proms. The verb 'count' in this simple sentence also develops a pun which could give the reader the impression of an informal tone being created, as they could be trying to make it sound humorous.  An affordance of this is that graphology has been used, to portray the word 'Advice' in a bigger black font at the beginning of the article, therefore it immediately clears up that advice is the main thing the site has to offer, and that it is something you can count on meaning it is all truthful and reliable as it is coming from a legitimate newspaper article. The multiple statistics and figures used throughout also support this as it provides us with even more factual information, such as 'spending 24% more on their outfit a year ago' has been repeated twice to establish how ludicrous people are becoming with prom prices. Although a constraint of the article could be that we don't know how truly reliable it could be, despite how accurate the article is made out to look like, for example the writer may have twisted things to make it seem more relatable to readers.

The fact that the text's mode is a newspaper article could weaken the relationship between the writer and the reader. However, almost straight away synthetic personalisation saves this through the imperative; 'stories we think you'll love'. This is as the collective pronoun 'we' immediately brings it together and the personal pronoun 'you'll' gives it a direct address, engaging the reader one on one. Furthermore, the convincing statistic 'Debenhams spokesman Ed Watson said:' further represents the text as more reliable and shows authority as he states "The amount a guy will spend on getting prom-ready is now close to rivalling a girl." This evokes a gender stereotype as the spokesman is practically naming prom as a girl's thing, and the verb 'rivalling girls' suggests a sense of conflict. Another is then later on made 'with the precision of a would be bride' to again suggest that prom's are only a big fuss for girls as they plan for it as if it is their wedding day. Also, the fact he names it as 'prom fever' is almost like he's judging the 'obsession' young teens have for looking and dressing up all fancy for their one special night, as the writer uses a compound adjective 'prom obsessed teenage girls' to describe them which not only plays into stereotypes but supports the judgemental tone throughout representing the subject as overall ridiculous.

However, hyperlinks which include related content that is adult focused are used at the side of the page to represent the audience as sensible spenders. Therefore metaphorical and active verbs such as 'rocketing', 'snowballing' and 'soaring' demonstrate the increase in prices and represent proms as too extravagant for an audience on a modest income.

Overall, text B represents school proms as being something too much of an issue in this generation, especially through the semantic field used in the article 'stretch limos, designer frocks, suits and expensive accessories' describing proms only as an overpriced excuse for teenagers following the American trend, and that too many young people are being pressured into spending a significant amount of money on proms which is rapidly increasing as boys are nearly spending as much as girls.

Mumsnet Article Analysis

Analyse how text A uses language to create meanings and representations.

Student response text A is a forum discussion from the website 'Mumsnet'. It is targeted towards mums, as clearly stated in the web address, and the purpose of the discussion is to get across to parents of teenage boys and girls different ideas and opinions on the topic of school proms that can then be shared and debated by parents who identify themselves through the use of monikers. By doing this, parents aim to seek support and reassurance from their audience as they argue prom's are utterly pointless and unnecessary and want others to agree with them. Additionally, the idea of the website being a place which promotes a constructive, mature discussion for adults further instigates the purpose as they want to encourage more parents to join. A note has even be placed at the beginning 'Please bear in mind that whilst this topic does canvass opinions, it is not a fight club.' to reestablish the forum's intentions. The forum has a very informal register which creates a friendly online environment as it suggests how members are welcome to be open about their different opinions on the spoken topics and to not get judged for doing so, despite some being shared coming across as controversial - these are some affordances of the forum. However, there are possibly more constraints of forums as people's intentions can be misinterpreted by others therefore this could result in offence and possibly create conflict which could lead to cyber bullying. This is why if you are opinionated, you will have to consider the repercussions before sharing your view to the online world despite having an anonymous identity.

The user 'woolyideas' expresses her strong opinions through the repetitive use of interrogatives through her entire post, such as 'but AIBU in thinking my DD's school should not be promoting limohire etc., as it's 'prom fair'?' These have also been frequently used in order to align herself with popular opinions other mums on the site would have, and acts as if she's looking for response and acceptance to reassure herself that her opinions are correct or valid. Also, the slang used in this interrogative 'AIBU' and 'DD', which are abbreviations for 'Am I Being Unreasonable' and 'Dear Daughter' further adds to the informal tone that the text creates. Furthermore, woolyideas goes on to reveal herself as 'I'm a bit of an old puritan about these things'. The quantifier 'a bit' has been used to position herself as reasonable, firstly making her out to seem more superior than her target audience, then the colloquial phrase 'old puritan' denotes that she's labelling herself as having more of a status and knowledge on the topic of proms, suggesting tradition and exposing her passion. This has also been used as part as a lexical field alongside the adjectives 'frothy' and 'sane', in the interrogative 'sane parent', to evoke a sense of anger towards those who don't agree with her views and are debating against them.

Later on, wooly ideas further targets parents as she switches from labelling one as 'what sane parent', not being at all general, to 'who are these parents' at the beginning of an interrogative, using the determiner 'these' to group them. This represents that she is trying to directly target parents this time to show she doesn't agree with their absurd ideas on proms being a beneficial thing, as well as using the abstract noun 'expenditure' to suggest that the general cost of it all together is simply not okay.

However, the forum then leads on to emphasise different views, beginning with participant 'MuckyCarpet'. Firstly, she uses the short sentence 'Don't be a grump!' to convey how she is against the negative viewpoint on proms. But then she contrasts this through the subordinating conjunction 'although' to state that she also finds the helicopters 'OTT' (over the top) as previously mentioned by wooly ideas in the declarative phrased as an interrogative 'asked whether they could land a helicopter in the school field?' to emphasise how ludicrous this idea was. Therefore, MuckyCarpet's alternating opinion shows that despite the website being a place for debate, she can still agree to disagree with people as the forum is portrayed as a friendly environment for a mature discussion.

On the other hand, the forum shows that the for and against's over if proms should occur for teenagers is very balanced. Some, like woolyideas, thinks it's just 'competitive consumerism' for their 'precious teens'. The adjective 'precious' has been used in a sarcastic manner to again place the participant as having more authority over others and in a sense regarding the teens as unimportant as if they're trying to say 'why should teenagers be deserving of this when everything get's done for them?'. Others such as 'Mrsrobertduvall' also back this up by using an adjective 'unnecessary', stative verbs such as 'naff' and identifies it as 'formal expensive' because of their young age, which seems to be the biggest issue here for those who are against proms.

Whereas some participants like 'McHappyPants2012' think that it is a fun excuse to get all dressed up, hence why overall, text A uses representations to show that the prom topic is controversial as opinions are clearly very varied and different parents have different lengths to how far or how much effort they are willing to contribute to their child's 'prom fair'.

Accentism article: How does the author represent ideas about language and identity?

In the article, the author represents ideas about language and identity through the critism the author speaks about which those with a Birmingham accent receive, throughout the entirety of the article. Firstly, the author uses an informal register to portray his anger towards the backlash Brummies receive, Greg Woodin himself being one. This is proven through the statements 'continually rips the piss out of' and 'I'm sick of seeing memes about how the Birmingham accent is the aural equivalent to a kick in the balls, or the world's shittest roast dinner.' The lexical field of the foul language used to describe the ways people mock the Birmingham accent has been represented by the author to make the article relatable to their readers, their intended audience.

Furthermore, the author has used a report from a university student from Manchester Dr Alexander Baratta to emphasise the point across that he has experienced people having to 'flatten out their accents to escape judgement and progress in their careers' and 'simultaneously feel ashamed at this betrayal of their self identity'. The noun 'betrayal' used here gives us an insight on a Brummie's perspective as because they're having to flatten out their accents to escape judgement and progress their careers, this is preventing them from being their true self which society doesn't seem to want to accept. Other reports also show that teaching is a big issue if you have an accent which doesn't seem to be easy to understand, mainly if you're from the North, and this is starting to strongly affect individuals self confidence as they're not being labelled as the norm.

Following this, the university student shares their experience; 'As a Brummie, I can relate to this - and painfully so'. The adverb 'painfully' has been used by the author to reinforce the extent of how much mockery those with a Birmingham accent receive, and the fact they 'want to be proud of their Brummie roots' suggests how they feel our accents should define us, as it's a major part of our development and upbringing. Yet they continue to be held back because of the discrimination against their accents from individuals in the wider society which is turning them into 'self-hating Brummies'.