Paper 1 Question 2
Richard Branson is a well-known entrepreneur. He decided to share his thoughts in an open letter to a stranger. This letter consisted of his advice on the topic of happiness.
As previously mentioned, the text is written in the form of an open letter. More specifically, the purpose of this piece is to give advice to its audience. Who, in this case, is a stranger. The purpose is made clear from the first paragraph by stating, “I would like to help you.” This same sentence also portrays the points of views used in the letter. The first person is reflected through the usage of “I”, and the second person is reflected through the usage of “you”. The first person allows Branson to give his personal viewpoint on happiness. The second person gives Branson a chance to call out the reader and better engage them.
In Branson’s letter, he uses a variety of different sentence structures to give advice to the reader. Most of his sentences are run-on sentences, as he is allowing his thoughts to flow. An example of this is included in the third paragraph. Here Branson is discussing how “fortunate” he is “to live an extraordinary life”. This sentence continues, and it does flow well. The sixth paragraph presents a very different type of sentence structure. The first sentence of this paragraph states, “Stop and breathe.” The sentences are brief and abrupt to the reader because Branson is trying to make his advice to the reader clear.
The structure of a typical letter additionally consists of acknowledging the audience and giving the audience its best regards. Branson’s letter does exactly that in following this structure. Branson begins his letter with “Dear Stranger”, and this reflects that this is an open letter, so the audience is a wide variety. The letter is also concluded with the phrase “Happy regards”. Not only does this wrap up the letter, the usage of the word “happy” reflects the main idea of the letter. To add, Branson structured his letter with short and brief paragraphs. This causes the readability to be high, as it is easy to follow along in the letter.
Furthermore, when analyzing the language of the letter it can be noted that it is an informal piece of writing. This style is written throughout the letter, but an example includes “It’s OK to be stressed…” The word ‘OK’ is informal, and the sentence itself is. This type of sentence allows the reader to feel better connected to Branson. It allows the reader to feel as though Branson is having a conversation with them. An informal letter is something that you would usually write to someone that you know, and considering Branson is writing to a stranger, he is allowing the stranger to feel more comfortable through his writing.
Branson continues to use emotive language throughout his letter. The emotive language pairs well with the informality of the letter. Moreover, the subject of the letter is a piece of emotive language. That being the word “happiness”. Branson’s goal is to better define ‘happiness’ to the reader. He does so by connecting to his reader and he continues to evoke emotion from his reader. This was highlighted in the phrase “(I) had my heart broken.” This is a sentence that does indeed evoke emotion, while it is also a metaphor and a common phrase. Branson’s heart was not literally broken, but he is stating this because he felt as though his heart was broken.
When further analyzing the language of the letter, it can be noticed that Branson involved pragmatics in his writing. Pragmatics is defined as a social concept in writing. Branson uses pragmatics when stating “(We’ve) joined conversations about the future of our planet.” The future of our planet is considered a social concept. The future of our planet is discussed and debated on so many levels, especially politically. This is exactly why Branson connected this back to happiness. The future of our planet is directly correlated with its people’s happiness.
The letter also includes repetition with the word ‘be’. An example of this includes the brief sentences “Be healthy. Be around your friends and family. Be there for someone…” The repetition with the word ‘be’ paired with the brief sentences allows Branson to make his point clear. Branson’s point is that it is not about what you do it is about being present. He continues to make his point clear with the common phrasing of “human beings”. He states that we are called “human beings and not human doings”. He uses the phrasing to make his point even stronger.
Tay Tay!
ReplyDeleteLooking at the AO1 rubric, it seems that you have a very detailed understanding of the text in terms of meaning, context and audience. You made several references to the purpose of the letter and its context, and also referenced how these factors related to the audience. For example, your first paragraph discusses the purpose of the letter and some of its features. This means that you had an effective reference to characteristic features of the letter, and this can be seen further when you discuss the informality of the letter as well. I would award you 4 marks here.
Under the AO3 rubric, I can see that you have a detailed, coherent and effectively structured analysis. Throughout your analysis, you reference several features of Branson's letter and your ideas are structured in an organized manner that makes it easier for readers to follow along. With that being said, I also saw an effective selection of elements of form, structure, and language for analysis, as you discussed the opening of Branson's letter and how he structured it. You followed your evidence with explanations of the evidence, and therefore showed a detailed awareness of the writer's stylistic choices. This also shows that you used effective and appropriate language to link evidence with your explanatory comments. For these reasons, I would award you 13 marks.
Overall; 17/25
AO1: ⅘ marks
ReplyDeleteYou show a detailed understanding of the text as you go very in-depth with your explanations. You cover all aspects of the letter considering context, form, structure, and language. Your form and structure section is very strong as you hit everything I could think of. However, I believe incorporating the writer's usage of lists in the analysis would strengthen it even more. You were effective in referencing characteristic features as you used buzzwords and quotes to support your explanations.
AO3: 16/25
Your analysis is effectively structured and detailed is it was easy to follow and understand. You use an effective selection of analyses for form, structure, and language. As I stated earlier though you could’ve mentioned the lists used throughout the writing and explained the impact and importance that has on the language being used. Every time you explain your evidence you connect to the audience. This shows your awareness of the writer's stylistic choices as describing the connection to the audience gives the reader the understanding that you know what you are talking about and explaining.
20/25
Hey Taylor, I really liked reading your blog and I thought it was very interesting, for A01 the score I would give your blog is a level of 4. I could tell that you had very good knowledge of the topic and you used and mentioned characteristic features throughout the blog. For example, you mentioned the words “dear stranger” and how it keeps the letter open.
ReplyDeleteSecondly for A03, I would give you a score of 14 marks. I give you this score because you had a detailed analysis of the form structure and language of the letter and it was obvious that you knew why the author is using certain words and stylistic choices and explained it very well through the entirety of the blog.
Hello Taylor!
ReplyDeleteAO1: Detailed understanding of text (meaning, audience, context): “Richard Branson is a well-known entrepreneur. He decided to share his thoughts in an open letter to a stranger. This letter consisted of his advice on the topic of happiness.”
Effective reference to characteristic features: “form of an open letter”; “different sentence structures”; “run-on sentences”; ‘structure’; “informal piece of writing”; “emotive language”; ‘pragmatics’; ‘repetition’
[4 marks]
AO3: Analysis is detailed, coherent and effectively structured: “The analysis is effectively structured which is seen by the many paragraphs in the blog which are well separated. It also seems to flow nicely.
(4)
Effective selection of elements of form, structure and language of analysis: “form of an open letter”; “different sentence structures”; “run-on sentences”; ‘structure’; “informal piece of writing”; “emotive language”; ‘pragmatics’; ‘repetition’; “sentences are brief and abrupt”; ‘purpose’
(4)
Clear awareness of writer’s stylistic choices, including how style relates to audience and shapes meaning: “The sentences are brief and abrupt to the reader because Branson is trying to make his advice to the reader clear.”; “This type of sentence allows the reader to feel better connected to Branson. It allows the reader to feel as though Branson is having a conversation with them. An informal letter is something that you would usually write to someone that you know, and considering Branson is writing to a stranger, he is allowing the stranger to feel more comfortable through his writing.”; “Branson’s heart was not literally broken, but he is stating this because he felt as though his heart was broken.”
(3)
Uses clear and appropriate language to link evidence with explanatory comments: ““I would like to help you.””; ‘I’; ‘you’; “to live an extraordinary life”; ‘OK’; “Dear Stranger”; ‘happiness’; “(I) had my heart broken”; “Be healthy. Be around your friends and family. Be there for someone…”; “(We’ve) joined conversations about the future of our planet.” Sometimes the quotes were too long.
(3)
Total: 18 Marks