Chapter 1 – Genre and the organization of text

Activity 2

Look at the following extracts (slightly modified) from an abstract/summary of a mini-dissertation, and say what you think is wrong with them. How could you rewrite them to distribute given and new information better? (You can make a few adjustments by adding a word or two if necessary, as in examples 5–7, in Activity 1.)

ABSTRACT

1. That persuasion depends on the interrelationships between discourse and society is generally recognised.
2. The idea that ideological persuasion can be repeated, so that later it becomes taken for granted, is argued in this study.
3. Essentially the framework for studying discourse proposed by Fairclough (1992) will be used.

Activity 3

The following two paragraphs convey the same information but distribute it differently by having different themes. Identify the first themes of each sentence in both passages. Which passage is most successful, and how is this related to the patterning and progression of themes?

1.

Spring and fall are the most beautiful time of the year here in the Blue Mountains. Millions of wild flowers and trees are in bud, and the many planned gardens in the region start to flourish in springtime. The North American species of trees introduced long ago into the region – oak, elm, chestnut, beech and birch – do the same in the Blue Mountains as they would in the Catskills: turn brilliant reds, oranges and yellows in fall. Campers and hikers are found descending on the mountains in throngs in summer, and the mountains are at their quietest and most peaceful in winter, offering perfect solitude for city escapees.

2.

Spring and fall are the most beautiful time of the year here in the Blue Mountains. In springtime millions of wild flowers and trees are in bud, and the many planned gardens in the region start to flourish. In fall the North American species of trees introduced long ago into the region – oak, elm, chestnut, beech and birch – do the same in the Blue Mountains as they would in the Catskills: turn brilliant reds, oranges and yellows. Summer finds campers and hikers descending on the mountains in throngs. Winter is the time the mountains are at their quietest and most peaceful, offering perfect solitude for city escapees.

(Fodor’s Sydney p.115, quoted in C. Matthiessen (1992) ‘Interpreting the textual metafunction’, in M. Davies and L. Ravelli (eds), Advances in Systemic Linguistics. London: Pinter, pp. 37–81.)

*Activity 4*

Find a short paragraph from a book or magazine text that is written in continuous prose. Try to analyse it by seeing what kinds of paragraph structure it incorporates. Remember that most real paragraphs will mix at least two of the basic designs – step, stack, chain and balance. How useful are Nash’s categories of paragraph type?

Activity 5

Which of the following genres is generally deductive, point first, and which inductive, point last: murder mystery; research article; classified advert; sophisticated advert in a glossy magazine; joke; news report?

Activity 6

Look at the following short narrative. Try to identify the narrative moves Abstract, Orientation, Complicating Action, Resolution, Coda and Evaluation.

I think Peter’s always been a bit foolhardy. I remember once we were on holiday in Cornwall, and it was one of those lovely sunny breezy days which are just right for a picnic. So we’d decided to go down to Clodgy point, the rocky cliffs of the Atlantic coast. After picnic lunch Peter and his brother asked if they could go for a walk while me and my husband had a nap. So off they went. They hadn’t come back in two hours, so we went to look for them. We walked quickly along the cliff for half an hour, and, as we came round a promontory we caught sight of them at the foot of the cliff on the rocks at the opposite side of the cove. I was terrified. How had they got down there? We called frantically for them to come back. They climbed up the steep grassy slope, which must have been about 60 degrees. I don’t know how they did it. When they met us at the top I said,

‘Why did you go down there? Don’t you know it’s dangerous?’

Peter held out a black and white striped snail shell, and all he said was,

‘If we hadn’t gone down there I would never have seen this.’

So nowadays I’m never surprised to hear he's involved in some dangerous adventure or other.

Activity 7

Look at the news report about Christopher Reeve already used in the introduction. Sentences are numbered for your convenience.

‘Superman’ may never walk again

SUPERMAN star Christopher Reeve is in hospital with a suspected broken back (1). His family ordered hospital officials not to give out any information – but sources say he is partially paralysed (2).

The actor’s publicist, Lisa Kastelere, was plainly upset as she revealed that horse-mad Reeve was hurt show-jumping in Virginia (3).

Witnesses saw him hit the ground hard as his horse shied (4). As doctors evaluated his condition in the acute care ward at the University of Virginia’s Medical Center in Charlottesville, it was not known whether he will walk again (5).

Reeve, 43 and 6ft 4in, was flown to the hospital by air-ambulance after doctors at the competition decided he needed special care (6).

Reeve, who starred in 4 Superman movies, lived with his British lover Gael Exton for 11 years (7). They had two children (8).

Reeve then began a relationship with singer Dana Morosini (9).

1. Can you identify the different elements of Van Dijk’s model in that text?
2. *Experiment with modifying this for an online newspaper with hyperlinks and new generic elements.

*Activity 8*

A. Which of the following discourse types or genres would you regard as most visually informative? List them in order of informativeness. *You might bring an example into class and be prepared to identify the kinds of visual informativeness it displays.

1. poem
2. form
3. recipe
4. textbook
5. magazine advert
6. newspaper report

B. Does your ranking of the different text types tell anything about the degree to which the readership for these is assured?

Activity 9

• Compare the email from Education and Curricular Review (EDCR) with ‘What’s all the buzz about’ (WB), both below. In what ways do these two texts differ in their global layout features (2), use graphics to make textual organisation clear (3), or use local text features or highlighting (4)? Which of the two texts is more visually informative (1)?
• Word-process the email from Education and Curricular Review to make it more visually informative, like the WB feature on coffee

*Activity 10*

Promotional emails are commonplace in the internet age. Take a look at one such visually informative email and identify the various clusters, explain their specific meanings, and see how they relate to the overall purpose of the email.

*Activity 11*

Take the following text, which has a discourse structure typical of narrative, and transform it into a news report (200–250 words).

• Concentrate on reproducing the typical discourse structure of a news report in a quality online newspaper, including as many of the generic elements as possible, in an appropriate order. Indicate how the different parts of your text realise these categories. You may have to invent some material, especially for the consequences and comment categories and hyperlinks, and, of course, you do not have to include all the details of the original. Verbal reactions may be added and become more important, as it is only through these that the reporter can access the thoughts and feelings of a character.
• You should also modify other aspects of style besides discourse structure. Typical news report features include placing together (or apposition) of two phrases referring to the same person, e.g. ‘Janet Lee 32, a receptionist with Peat Marwick’; inclusion of detailed precise facts like ages or exact numbers; complicated noun phrases, e.g. ‘the judge in the mail train robbery trial in Aylesbury’; and short paragraphs of one or two sentences. Look at a few newspaper reports as models.
• Make your text more visually informative and multimodal than the original, in ways that are appropriate to news reports.
• Be prepared to discuss the changes that have been made to the discourse structure and visuals of the original narrative. Why does the new discourse structure seem inappropriate for this material? Does this story contain the news values necessary for newsworthiness?
• How could you have given a different emphasis and a different value to the news reported by selecting a different headline and lead for your story?

Little Red Ridinghood

Little Red Riding Hood’s mother was packing a basket with eggs and butter and home-made bread.

‘Who is that for?’ asked Little Red Riding Hood.

‘For Grandma,’ said Mother. ‘She has not been feeling well.’

Grandma lived alone in a cottage in the middle of a wood.

‘I will take it to her,’ said Little Red Riding Hood.

‘Make sure you go straight to the cottage,’ said Mother as she waved good-bye, ‘and do not talk to any strangers.’

Little Red Riding Hood meant to go straight to the cottage, but there were so many wild flowers growing in the wood, she decided to stop and pick some for Grandma. Grandma liked flowers. They would cheer her up.

‘Good morning!’ said a voice near her elbow. It was a wolf. ‘Where are you taking these goodies?’

‘I’m taking them to my Grandma,’ said Little Red Riding Hood, quite forgetting what her mother had said about talking to strangers.

‘Lucky Grandma,’ said the wolf. ‘Where does she live?’

‘In the cottage in the middle of the wood,’ said Little Red Riding Hood.

‘Be sure to pick her a nice BIG bunch of flowers,’ said the wolf and hurried away.

The wolf went straight to Grandma’s cottage and knocked at the door.

‘Who is there?’ called Grandma.

‘It is I, Little Red Riding Hood,’ replied the wolf in a ‘little girl’ voice.

‘Then lift up the latch and come in,’ called Grandma.

Grandma screamed loudly when she saw the wolf’s face peering around the door. He was licking his lips. She jumped out of bed and tried to hide in the cupboard, but the wolf, who was very hungry, caught her and in three gulps ate her all up. Then he picked up her frilly bedcap that had fallen to the floor and put it on his own head. He pushed his ears inside her cap, climbed into Grandma’s bed, pulled up the bedclothes and waited for Red Riding Hood to come. Presently, there was a knock on the door.

‘Who is there?’ he called, in a voice that sounded like Grandma’s.

‘It is I, Little Red Riding Hood.’

‘Then lift up the latch and come in.’ She opened the door and went in.

‘Are you feeling better, Grandma?’ she asked.

‘Yes dear, I am. Let me see what you have in the basket.’ As the wolf leaned forward the bedcap slipped and one of his ears popped out.

‘What big ears you have,’ said Little Red Riding Hood.

‘All the better to hear you with,’ said the wolf, turning towards her.

‘What big eyes you have Grandma!’

‘All the better to see you with,’ said the wolf, with a big grin.

‘What big teeth you have!’

‘All the better to eat you with!’ said the wolf and threw back the covers and jumped out of bed.

‘You are not my Grandma!’ she screamed.

‘No I’m not. I’m the big bad wolf,’ growled the wolf in his own voice, ‘and I’m going to eat you up.’

‘Help! Help!’ shouted Little Red Riding Hood as the wolf chased her out of the cottage and into the wood.

The woodcutter heard her screams and came to the rescue. As soon as the wolf saw the woodcutter’s big wood-cutting axe, he put his tail between his legs and ran away as fast as he could.

‘What a lucky escape I had,’ said Red Riding Hood to the woodcutter.

What a lucky escape indeed.