Read transactional texts closely

 Explain the experience of travelling in the New York subway described by the writer. Support your answer with specific detail selected from at least one place in the text.  How can we break this question down into two points?  Explain the experience described by the writer.  Details from the text, that support your answer.

Being afraid. “Panic. And so he gets on the train.” Insufficient explanation of main idea. Supporting detail provided but not linked to explanation. The experience the writer describes is that getting lost on the subway can be dangerous for someone new to New York. This is the point he makes when he writes that a post person “has a serious problem.” Explains a main idea and incorporates supporting detail.

 Analyse the writer’s intentions in describing the subway in this way. Support your answer with specific details from at least one place in the text. To show that the subway is dangerous. He compares going down into the subway station to miners going into the pit. Insufficient analysis. Detail proved but not linked to analysis. The writer has written about the subway in this way in order to warn people about the dangers of being lost there. He uses words like “disorientation”, “panic”, and “fear” to make people aware of how they might feel and react in the subway. His intention is to highlight how awful the experience of being lost in the subway can be. He does this by describing it as “a nightmare, complete with rats and mice and a tunnel and a low ceiling,” as though it was a worst possible fear.

Look at the three sections in bold in Resource A (see resource_a.rtf). Select part of each section and describe the effect created. Use correct terminology to identify the language feature you have selected from each section. Example: “often they look like miners' wives watching their menfolk going down the pit.” Term: simile. Description of effect: He compares going down into the subway station to miners going into the pit. Example: “often they look like miners' wives watching their menfolk going down the pit.” Term: simile Description of effect: This suggests the worried look that a person might have watching someone going into a dangerous place.

Example: “… it has bars and turnstiles and steel grates. It has the look of an old prison or a monkey cage.” Term: using words with particular connotations Description of effect: To show that the subway is dangerous. Example: “… it has bars and turnstiles and steel grates. It has the look of an old prison or a monkey cage.” Term: using words with particular connotations Description of effect: By using words like “prison” and “cage,” the writer creates an image of being trapped. He wants to make the subway look unfriendly.

Example: “… 'A train...Downtown... Express to the Shuttle...Change at Ninety-sixth for the two...Uptown... The Lex... CC... LL... The Local...' Term: jargon Description of effect: to make it hard to understand. Example: “… 'A train...Downtown... Express to the Shuttle...Change at Ninety-sixth for the two...Uptown... The Lex... CC... LL... The Local...' Term: jargon Description of effect: This jargon is impossible to understand if you are not a local. It is there to suggest the confusion someone new to the subway would experience.

From whose point of view has the text been written? Analyse the effect created by using this point of view. Support your answer with specific details from at least one place in the text. How can this question be broken down into three parts? 1. From whose point of view? 2. What was the effect? 3. Details that support your answer from the text.

The writer has written this from a third person point of view. He does this to make the reader feel more involved in the text. Insufficient analysis. No supporting detail provided. The writer has written this from a third person point of view. The fact that there are no defined characters, just a stranger, suggests that this experience could happen to anyone. It is as though the writer as combined many fears many different people have when travelling the subway and described them as if they were experienced by one person. This is suggested in the last paragraph: “This story most people tell of subways fear.”

1. Name the language feature. 2. Insert a quote from the text that shows the language feature. 3. Explain what the effect of the language feature is. 4. Explain why the writer used that language feature. Example 1. The following language feature is a simile. 2. “often they look like miners' wives watching their menfolk going down the pit.” 3. Similes are used to paint a picture in the readers mind and create an image to emphasise a point to the reader. 4. The writer has used this simile to show the worried look on the face of someone watching a person going into a dangerous place.

 Simile: to create an image in the readers mind.  Metaphor: to create imagery so the reader can visualise the connection between to objects or concepts.  Rhetorical question: forces the reader to think and allows the writer to position them in favour of the argument of message they are trying to convey.  Personification: helps the reader relate more to the object or subject being personified because it is easier for us to relate to something with human attributes.  Hyperbole: exaggerations or extravagant statements that are used for emphasis or dramatic effect.

1. The following is an example of a hyperbole. 2. “We have herd it a million times”. 3. Hyperbole’s are exaggerations or extravagant statements that are used for emphasis or dramatic effect. 4. The writer has used this hyperbole to stress that he has herd this information many times before and is sick of it etc.

1. The following is an example of a metaphor 2. “The comedian attacks the unassuming audience, by aiming witty bullets at their insecurities”. 3. The metaphor creates an image to reader of a comedian literally shooting his audience. 4. The writer used this metaphor to illustrate how nasty the comedian was and the offence his audience took to the jokes.

1. The following is an example of a rhetorical question 2. “How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?” 3. The rhetorical questions forces the reader to think for a second and allows the writer to position them in favour of the argument or message they are trying to convey. 4. The writer has used this rhetorical question to make the reader acknowledge all the obstacles that men must go through in an attempt to draw sympathy from the reader.

 The following is an example of personification  “The operation is over. On the table, the knife lies spent, on its side, the bloody meal smear-dried upon its flanks. The knife rests”  Helps the reader relate more to the object or subject being personified because it is easier for us to relate to something with human attributes.  The writer personifies the knife to emphasise what an important tool it is during an operation. The reader feels admiration for the ‘resting knife’ and is able to appreciate the vital role it played in the operation.