Author Archives: evelynoconnor

Macbeth in performance

Posted on September 4, 2014 | 1 comment

NOTE: This article was originally published in the Irish Independent Written Word Supplement, March 2014.

theatre

There is an oft repeated cliché that plays are meant to be performed on a stage, not dissected in a classroom. Like so many clichés, there’s more than a grain of truth to this idea. Shakespeare wrote to entertain. His plays are filled with intrigue, betrayal and bloodshed and these features come to life more fully embodied in the flesh, rather than read on a page.

Yet an either / or debate pitting performance and close reading of the text against each other misses the point entirely. Students should both study the play and see the play! So the question really becomes, in what order?

Your experience of a play undoubtedly matters. The emotions you feel as the drama unfolds should not be ignored or discarded or dismissed. In fact, one of the most common examination questions on the Shakespearean play asks you to trace your fluctuating levels of sympathy for the central characters, so tune in to your human visceral response as Lady Macbeth imagines dashing her child’s brains out on the flagstone; as Macbeth cries out in horror “full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife”; and as Lady Macduff so piteously begs for mercy as her killers advance. As the tension rises and the stakes become ever higher; as their mental state unravels and ultimately things fall apart because the centre cannot hold and mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. You should feel adrenaline coursing through your veins.

But, like it or not, sometimes the Shakespearean language is a road block to this level of connection. For many students, seeing the play ‘blind’ is an exercise in futility.

So let’s consider the other option: you study the play first, then you go see it performed.

This works well for two reasons. First of all, you know what the hell is going on! When you hear that Macbeth “unseamed” some bugger “from the nave ‘to the chops”, you have the mental image of him slicing someone open already hideously clear in your mind. You can bask in the dramatic irony of Lady Macbeth being addressed as an “honoured hostess” even as she plots Duncan’s murder and almost cringe at her confident assertion that “a little water clears us of this deed” because you are aware of her imminent psychological collapse. Knowing the play in advance deepens your experience of seeing it performed, even if it does admittedly deprive you of the tense anticipation of wondering what will happen next.

Secondly, you can disagree with the way the actors interpret the characters. They may play a character or scene differently to how you imagined it in your mind’s eye. This feeling, the feeling ‘that’s not how I’d play that scene’ is incredibly powerful and extremely valuable in clarifying your interpretation of both the characters and the play itself. Conversely, if you see the play before you study it, the version of each character presented to you by the actors is very difficult to dislodge from your mind. Their interpretation becomes the ‘truth’ of the character and may shut down debate, which is the last thing you want! Ultimately you are searching for the version of each character that makes the most sense to you personally, even if others might disagree.

Once upon a time, seeing three different versions of the play before sitting the exam was pretty difficult, but nowadays with youtube at your fingertips, theatre companies like Second Age and Cyclone Rep performing the leaving cert play annually and many different film versions to choose from, this isn’t such a tall order anymore.

So how does this help you to prepare for the exams?

It helps a lot, if you know what to do! Select a scene. It could be the Banquet scene, the sleepwalking scene, or Macbeth’s famous soliloquy “tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow”. Go to youtube and compare the different levels of sympathy you feel depending on who’s delivering the lines. Re-watch pivotal scenes until you know which version fits your sense of how that scene should be performed. Now you know how you would play that character if you were acting in the play. Ultimately what you view as the ‘truth’ of that character should become clearer in your mind.

Let me illustrate with an example. Last summer, I saw Joseph Millson play Macbeth in the Globe in London. He’s about 40 but he looks younger. He’s tall, very good looking and has a commanding physical presence on stage. He interpreted Macbeth as an ambitious power-hungry noble, determined to prove his manliness to his wife. However, he rarely gave us any convincing glimpse of the “milk of human kindness” in his personality. He showed remorse for the murder of Duncan but his horror hinged on madness and his determination not to get caught was emphasised far more than any self-loathing. Hence, when he delivered his “tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow” soliloquy, I found it hard to connect emotionally to his despair because I had never fully connected to him emotionally in the early scenes of the play. I was frankly quite glad when he was eventually defeated by Macduff.

I’ve also seen Patrick Stewart’s BBC version of Macbeth from 2010. His Macbeth is older, in his late 50’s at least and there is an insecurity to his character, a desperation to prove to his glamorous yet ruthless young wife that she has not made a mistake in marrying a man so much older than her. His pitiful panic, confusion and palpable fear following the murder of Duncan is profoundly disturbing for the audience, as is his gradual transformation from puppet in his wife’s schemes to a cold hearted murderer. When he delivers his “tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow” soliloquy, he is looking down upon her dead body and his utter contempt for life is frightening to behold. His portrayal of Macbeth is edgy and unsettling, filling the audience with conflicting emotions as we are torn between sympathy and disgust in a film which plays havoc with our emotions and leaves us utterly exhausted by the end.

Finally, I recently saw Macbeth performed in a classroom in our school by Cyclone Rep Theatre Company, with Marcus Bale in the central role. He plays a Macbeth slightly younger than his wife, who is eager to please and quite easily manipulated. His immediate remorse is heartfelt and his transformation never feels fully complete despite the horrific deeds he engineers. Thus when he delivers his soliloquy, there is pain as well as numb despair as he observes that life “is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”. His interpretation of Macbeth was, for me, the most authentic of the three.

Seeing each of these performances allowed me to clarify that it is the human face of Macbeth’s character, despite his disturbing embrace of evil, that makes me choke back tears every time I hear that soliloquy. This perhaps says as much about me as it does about the play; about my blind determination to believe ultimately in the goodness of human nature, despite all the evidence to the contrary this play presents.

I believe it also helps to experience live theatre in a really intimate space. Film versions are always observed at one remove, and the Globe is a large open air space with the stage on high, which places the actors at a certain distance. By contrast, having the actors pacing the floor so close you could reach out and touch them really heightens the drama and establishes a connection to the characters that youtube can never provide!

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Posted in Macbeth

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Article vs Speech

Posted on September 4, 2014 | 3 comments

NOTE: This article was originally published in the Irish Independent Written Word Supplement, March 2014.

It can be difficult to wrap your head around the difference between writing an article for publication and writing a speech to be delivered to a live audience. In order to help you to grasp the difference, I’ve taken the same topic, used the same structure and made the same points, but one is an opinion piece for publication in a newspaper and the other is a speech. Read them both and then play a game of SPOT THE DIFFERENCE…

IT’S MY BODY AND OTHER LIES

Mia Murphy

[*Mia Murphy is a lawyer, a journalist & a human rights activist. She blogs at www.freedomfightersireland.ie or you can find her on facebook/freedomfightersireland or twitter @miamurphy]

We live in an era of unprecedented individual freedom. Unhappy with your parents? Divorce them. With your gender? Change it. With your life? End it.

The question begs to be asked however: is unlimited personal freedom a good thing for society? The answer, resolutely, is no. We are too eager to glorify people’s right to choose, too willing to ignore the reality that many people’s choices are often limited or foolish or self-destructive. In the very worst cases they are sometimes all three. So despite my fond notion that I am free to do what I want, in reality I know that my freedom is in many ways a construct of a good education and a well paid job. Without these two pillars of security in my life, my ‘choices’ might look very different indeed.

Let’s consider, for example, the idea “it’s my body and I should be allowed to do what I want with it”. At the simpler end of the spectrum, I can decide to shave my hair off for charity. I won’t really be hurting anyone – or myself – because the hair will grow back. Slightly more complex might be my decision to donate a kidney to a family member or friend. I get the warm fuzzy glow of saving a life, and hey, it turns out most people can survive perfectly fine with just one kidney! So even though it won’t grow back the way my hair did, who cares? Perhaps I could use my body as an incubator, could carry a baby for my fertility-challenged sister, or for my gay brother and his partner? There is no greater gift on earth than to give someone who would otherwise be childless the opportunity to experience the joys of parenthood.

So the freedom to do what I want with my body is a good thing, right?

Well only if I remain resolutely blind to the selfless utopian bubble I’ve created above, where motives are always pure and bodies and minds remain unharmed by the choices we make. This is simply not true. Many people sacrifice parts of themselves they would much rather keep sacred, through economic necessity. To really understand a person’s level of individual freedom, what matters is not so much what we do but rather why we do it.

Hair these days is big business. If I’ve got long locks, I can sell my ponytail for about €100. If my hair is blond, the rarest shade, I’ll get closer to €1000 for it. The hair extensions industry in Ireland alone is estimated by Hallinan Beauty Group to be worth about €2.5 million and significantly the vast majority of it is imported from abroad. But where does this hair come from? In most cases, it’s shave or die of the worst kind, where women in India, China and Eastern Europe sell their hair to stave off hunger and poverty or to pay for a better education for their children. In a world where long hair is still the benchmark of female beauty, this isn’t about personal freedom, this is about lack of options, lack of money, lack of choice. Or to be more precise, so that women in the developed world can feel beautiful, can have the ‘free choice’ to wear someone else’s hair and pass it off as their own, women in the developing world are making the not-so-free decision to privilege food, shelter and education over their own ‘beauty’. They are every bit as selfless as the wealthy westerner who shaves their hair off for charity but they are entitled to feel bitter that extreme poverty makes this not a choice but a necessity.

The freedom to do what I want with my internal organs is even more fraught with difficulties. Of course I can – and should – carry an organ donation card with me. If I die before my time, I might as well give my body parts to someone who can use them. But what about auctioning off my organs to the highest bidder whilst I’m still alive? Again, the issue of poverty, necessity and sometimes just plain old stupidity and greed raises its head, as a recent case in China illustrates, where a 17 yr old teen secretly sold a kidney for €3,500 before admitting to what he had done when his mother questioned how he could suddenly afford to buy a laptop, iPad and iPhone. His actions were not just a case of consumerism gone mad but were also unwittingly self-destructive, as his remaining kidney was subsequently revealed to have limited function. Ironically, he now finds himself on the organ donor waiting list alongside 1.5 million others, the organ shortage in China fuelling the very black market trade this boy fell victim to. Yes he made a free choice, but one he will undoubtedly regret for the rest of his life. What all of this reveals is that sometimes limiting people’s freedom is necessary in order to protect them from their own profound stupidity.

Nonetheless, there remain many miraculous things we can do with our bodies. Using them to create life is perhaps the greatest ability we have as human beings. We view the right to procreate as so fundamental that we are overwhelmed with sympathy for couples who are unable to conceive. Hence, many of us have no problem with the concept of surrogacy if the aim is to offer a childless couple the miracle of parenthood. However, once money enters the frame we become decidedly more squeamish. Is my body a commodity to be bought and sold? When I list my assets on my tax return, should I include my fully functioning womb? I can rent it out for maybe €15,000 per pregnancy. Heck, that’s more money than I’d get on the dole! Yet the emotional, psychological and ethical fallout from surrogacy can be horrendous.

What if, as happened recently in the U.S., the baby has foetal abnormalities? Can the surrogate be forced to abort the baby if the genetic parents decide they only want a ‘healthy’ child? If the surrogate falls ill, can she be forced to continue with the pregnancy against her will? Even if we put these relatively rare scenarios aside for a moment, the inconvenient truth is that most commercial surrogacy arrangements take place in poor countries where there is little regulation, countries like Thailand, Uganda and the Ukraine. Baby factories have sprung up all over India where the industry is worth $2bn and where estimates suggest 25,000 babies a year are born to surrogates. Many women are ashamed of their decision, hiding it from their existing children and in-laws but are lured in by the monetary reward which will give them a roof over their head or pay for an existing child’s education. It also carries less of a stigma than prostitution. However, despite the illusion that it is safer, many surrogates are risking their lives. Maternal mortality remains high in India, with 56,000 women dying during pregnancy or childbirth. Yet these women are being exploited, receiving only 10% of the amount being paid by commissioning couples and signing contracts waiving their right to health care in the case of miscarriage or complications after the birth.

We still live in a world where “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others” so the next time you hear the defence “it’s my body and I’ll do what I want with it” spare a thought for those who use their bodies for profit because they are the only item of value they possess.

—

*NOTE: Thanks to a colleague for pointing out that it’s important to be aware of  and discuss with students the way that the opening series of rhetorical questions  “We live in an era of unprecedented individual freedom. Unhappy with your parents? Divorce them. With your gender? Change it. With your life? End it.” are deliberately facetious and are designed to provoke and shock. Of course none of us actually believe that anyone changes gender or takes their own life lightly but journalists often say something shocking or controversial to grab people’s attention.

*NOTE: some of the statistics I included I simply made up. Real journalists obviously can’t do this, but as a student in an exam without access to google, you’ve got no choice. You’ll have to make things up. You may also decide to exaggerate for dramatic effect. For example, the story about the 17yr old selling his kidney is true but I invented the subsequent kidney failure to add dramatic irony to the situation.I made up the name of the journalist so any resemblance to anyone real is entirely coincidental. 

Now…

To help you to appreciate the stylistic difference between writing an article and writing a speech, I used the same topic, same structure, same ideas but transformed it into a speech.

Your task is to SPOT THE DIFFERENCES between them (we’ve identified 8 in total but there may be more…)

Speech on Personal Freedom

Hi everyone, you’re very welcome to the Docklands Theatre for this lecture series and can I just say, I really appreciate the effort you’ve all made to be here. The bad weather probably had you jumping over muddy puddles outside like a possessed Peppa Pig, but you’re here now, so relax, kick your shoes off if they’re wet, switch off your phone and we’ll begin! For those of you I haven’t met before, my name’s Mia Murphy and if you’re tweeting this event I go by the not very cryptic twitter handle @miamurphy. I’m a journalist with the Irish Independent & a human rights campaigner and I’ve spent the last seven years of my life studying the way our freedom in the Western World limits the freedom of people in the Developing World.

We live in an era of unprecedented individual freedom. If you’re unhappy with your parents, you can divorce them. If you (point to someone in the front row) are unhappy with your gender (pause for laughter) – and I’m not suggesting you are, cause you look pretty good as a guy to me! – but if you were, you could just pop into a hospital and sort that out! Boom! You go from Phillip to Philomena in a heartbeat!

But what bugs me about all of this is the assumption that unlimited personal freedom is a good thing for society. That we’re all better off cause we can do what we want. I don’t buy that personally. I think we’re too eager to glorify people’s right to choose and we’re far far too willing to ignore the reality that people’s choices are often limited & foolish & self-destructive. While I might like the notion that I’m free to do whatever I want, the truth is that my freedom is guaranteed because I’ve got a good education and I live in a rich country.

One idea in particular that fascinates me is the statement you often hear people saying when they’re getting a body piercing or dying their hair purple: “it’s my body and I should be allowed to do what I want with it”. And I know that can sometimes be a good thing! I can shave my hair off for charity. I can donate a kidney to a family member. I can even be a surrogate for my sister if she’s having trouble getting knocked up and I’ll definitely help out my gay brother and his partner if they want kids because no matter how hard they try, they are definitely not gonna get pregnant!

The sad truth is, though, that lots of people shave their hair off and donate kidneys and act as surrogates for one very simple reason, and that reason is money!

How many of you know that hair these days is big business? I’ve got long brown hair (grab ponytail & wave it at audience) so I can sell my ponytail for about €100. But if my hair was blond, like this lovely lady in the front row (point) – would you mind standing up? – would you believe she could sell her hair today for €1000? So if you see her on the street next week and she’s doing an Emma Watson, you know what she’s been up to! And you should ask her to buy you coffee, cause she’s got €1,000 in her back pocket!

Seriously though, let’s talk about the real price of hair. The hair extensions industry in Ireland alone is worth about €2.5 million and the vast majority of this hair is imported from abroad. Women in India, China and Eastern Europe sell their hair to escape hunger and poverty and to pay for a better education for their children. This isn’t about personal freedom, this is about lack of options, lack of money and lack of choice. The sad truth is, so that you and I can feel beautiful with our flowing extensions like Kim Kardashian, women in the developing world are making the decision to privilege food, shelter and education over their own hair. And bear in mind that cutting their hair off means feeling ‘ugly’ for many of these women, because we’re not the only culture that associates long silky hair with sexiness you know!

You see this with organ donation as well! There was a case in China recently where a 17 yr old teenage boy secretly sold one of his kidneys for €3,500. But of course the mammy twigged that something was up when he could suddenly afford to buy a new laptop, iPad and iPhone and she forced him to admit what he’d done! Now this poor eejit didn’t need the money – he wasn’t starving – but I guess he wanted these signifiers of success pretty badly to go to this extreme. What he did was profoundly stupid, no question. But as yet there’s sadly no cure for stupidity in this world! Maybe that’s what my next research project should be! (pause for laughter)

Anyway, this kid then discovers that his remaining kidney has limited function! You won’t actually believe this but he’s now on the organ donor waiting list – I kid you not! – alongside 1.5 million others. And if this doesn’t prove that limiting people’s freedom is sometimes necessary to protect them from their own stupidity, I don’t know what does!!!

The last thing I want to mention, briefly, is surrogacy. Now I don’t have any moral qualms with a person deciding to be an oven for cooking up someone else’s baby, but it’s not as simple as setting the timer and waiting for the ping! I read about a case recently in America where at the twenty week scan, they discovered the baby had foetal abnormalities. The parents wanted the surrogate to have an abortion. But she didn’t agree with abortion, and she could already feel the baby kicking, so she refused. The baby was in her body but genetically the egg and sperm had come from the couple she was carrying it for. So they went to court looking for a court order to force her to have an abortion. And what did she do? She went on the run!

The point I’m making here is that it is never, never as simple as “It’s my body and I can do what I want with it”. Even leaving aside this extreme case, the truth is that most commercial surrogacy arrangements take place in poor countries where there is little regulation, countries like Thailand and Uganda and the Ukraine and India.

In fact, in recent years baby factories have sprung up all over India. The industry is worth $2bn and somewhere in the region of 25,000 babies a year are born to surrogates. But this is a country with poor hospital infrastructure. 56,000 women die during pregnancy or childbirth every year. Not only are they putting their lives at rick, they’re also being exploited. They only get about 10% of the amount being paid and they’re signing these awful contracts which mean that as soon as the baby is delivered, they have no right to any further medical care. So if they get sick or die, the couple who now have their beautiful new baby have no further responsibility towards this woman who has given them the gift of becoming parents. And for me, that it sick and that is wrong. (Pause)

I want to leave you with a quote from George Orwell’s Animal farm where he said that “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”. So the next time you hear someone say “it’s my body and I’ll do what I want with it” I want you to just spare a thought, please, for those who use their bodies for profit because they are the only item of value they possess.

(Step back and bow. Pause for applause)

Thank you so much for listening (bow, wave, exit stage).

 

 

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Posted in Composing, Leaving Cert Paper 1

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Summary of information, argument, persuasion etc…

Posted on September 4, 2014 | 3 comments

NOTE: This article was originally published in the Irish Independent Written Word Supplement, March 2014.

Language Types

The way we use language changes depending on the situation. The words you use in a job interview are obviously more formal than the words you choose when chatting to your mates. If you write a fawning comment to win a competition you’ll use lots of superlatives (think ‘biggest’, ‘best’, ‘brightest’) but for a political speech on bank debt you’ll use financial terminology.

The division of Paper 1 into language categories (information, argument, persuasion, narration/description and aesthetic language) reflects the fact that we use language in different ways in different contexts. These categories aren’t absolute, in fact they often overlap, but understanding the basic rules for informing, arguing, persuading, describing and narrating will make you a more discerning reader (i.e. better at comprehensions) and a more skilled writer (i.e. better at QB & composing).

Language of Information

What is it?
Writing whose main purpose is to communicate information.

Examples:
Report, leaflet, instructions, travel guide, encyclopaedia.

Layout:
The reader wants to glance at the page and select the information they are looking for instantly. Present the facts using a logical, easy to follow structure. Use headings, sub-headings and bullet points or numbering. However, if you are writing an informative essay, full prose paragraphs, rather than bullet point lists, will be expected.

Style:
Your focus needs to be on facts and statistics. Every point you make should be backed up by a specific example. If you are giving advice, it needs to be specific – think “count your daily fruit and veg intake and try to gradually increase by one a day until you reach your target” rather than the so-vague-as-to-be-almost-completely-useless “eat more healthily”. You can make statistics up, but you’ll have to make them sound believable. One way to do this is to name the source of the statistic – researcher, title & institution e.g. “According to research carried out by Dr. Hazel Nolan, sociology professor at Harvard University, one reason for the increase in smoking amongst teenage girls is because it is perceived as a good way to control weight gain”. However, your statistic must be convincing! I once had a student write that “92% of teenage girls in Ireland are now smokers”. You only need to look around you (or sniff those around you!) to know this couldn’t possibly be true.

Your language must be appropriate to your audience. Reports commissioned by the government or by an organisation such as the Central Statistics Office (CSO) or the Economic & Social Research Institute (ESRI) adopt a very formal and professional tone and use subject-specific vocabulary. However, a leaflet offering advice to teenagers on staying safe online would need to adopt a much less formal approach, otherwise the people it’s aimed at (teenagers) would stop reading.

Language of Argument

What is it?
Writing which offers personal opinions & refutes opposing views logically is argumentative.

Examples:
Speeches, debates, opinion pieces, letters to the editor, election material.

Layout:
The headings and bullet points you used for the language of information are generally speaking not appropriate here. You are expected to write in complete sentences, alternating between short snappy sentences and longer more complex ones. You need to build up a series of inter-connected ideas paragraph by paragraph, with each one flowing into the next. Election leaflets, however, will use headings, bullet points, etc…

Style:
Argumentative language is logical, rational and convincing. Obviously there is a certain amount of overlap with the language of information, with a focus on facts, statistics and examples. However, unlike the language of information, you are not presenting all of the facts and allowing the reader to decide for themselves. Instead, you are emphasising only those facts which support your point of view and offering logical reasons why those who disagree with your viewpoint are wrong.

A strong argument uses logic and reason:
1. to arrive at a particular point of view
2. to defend this position and
3. to refute counter arguments.

Once a person stops utilising the facts to prove their point and resorts to personal insults, they are no longer arguing, they are now persuading.

Language of Persuasion

What is it?
Writing which draws you in emotionally to manipulate how you feel and how you think is persuasive.

Examples:
Advertisements, competition entries, sermons, inspirational speeches.

Layout:
It depends on the genre. Advertisements pay close attention to layout and use a wide variety of headings and font sizes for captions, slogans, statistics etc. A persuasive speech will use a traditional essay-style layout. A competition entry or proposal will have a clear structure – introduction; details (3 – 4 paragraphs); what you expect to happen next.

Style:
Rather than purely factual (information) or logical (argument), persuasion manipulates your emotions to make you feel strongly about an issue. The writer draws on personal experiences to lure the reader or viewer into feeling certain emotions – sympathy, distress, disgust, admiration, pride, anger, fear, amusement. Once you are emotionally ‘hooked’ it becomes harder to analyse, assess and accept or reject the writer’s message logically because the heart, not the head, is now in the driving seat! Asking rhetorical questions, making urgent references to time, using emphatic, superlative and emotive words, repeating a key phrase, adopting collective personal pronouns, creating vivid imagery, hyperbole, contrast and humour are all effective ways of manipulating people’s feelings. Argument & persuasion often overlap – logic and emotion is a great combination if you want to win people over. You’ll also find significant overlap between the language of persuasion and descriptive writing, which also draws people in emotionally.

Language of Description / Narration

What is it?
Narrative language tells a story, descriptive language paints a picture using words.

Examples:
Novels, short stories, memoirs and diary entries narrate. Travel writing, personal essays and feature articles describe.

Layout:
All stories have a beginning, a middle and an end. Hemmingway’s six word short story “For sale, baby shoes, never worn” has all the ingredients of a compelling story:
set the scene, rousing the reader’s curiosity (for sale)
draw the reader into the action emotionally (baby shoes)
finish with an unexpected development (never worn)
Obviously you need a more fully developed plot, setting and characters for a 1,000 word short story. Descriptive essays are less demanding because they do not require a plot, but they too must draw the reader in emotionally to what is being described.

Style:
To write descriptively, you must choose specific verbs. Rather than writing “Susan walks over and says she’s really excited” select verbs which add energy and movement: “Susan bounces over, squealing with excitement”.
Adjectives add details about the size, shape, texture, location etc of the noun being described. Rather than writing “As rain fell from the sky, my daughter began to cry” include adjectives which add vivid detail “As heavy rain thundered from the dark grey sky, tiny tears flooded my daughter’s pale face”. However, be careful not to overload your sentences – too many adjectives can make your writing slow and cumbersome.
Evoke all five senses (sights, sounds, smells, tastes and touch) to add depth to your writing. Rather than writing “A van pulled up and a burly man jumped out, ran into the shop, pulled out a gun and demanded that the shop assistant open the till” instead create a multi-sensory experience for the reader: “A shiny black van screeched to a halt and a burly man jumped out, bursting through the double doors and barrelling into the shop. Reaching for the cold metal butt of his revolver, he growled at the trembling shop assistant “open the f**king till!”.

Aesthetic Language

What is it?
Language which is crafted to create something beautiful. Only the language of information deliberately avoids trying to be beautiful & engaging, choosing instead to present the facts in a purely objective fashion. All other types – argumentative, persuasive, narrative and descriptive – aim for beauty as well as clarity.

Examples:
Poetry, song lyrics, novels, plays. Any great work of art: think William Shakespeare, James Joyce, Seamus Heaney or equally Emily Bronte, Sylvia Plath, Eavan Boland.

Layout:
There are no rules, there is only beauty. Emily Dickinson ignored all the ‘rules’ of grammar to create an aesthetic effect; so did James Joyce. Great writers master their craft by obeying the rules at first but they will also experiment and play with language to create something new.

Style:
Similes, metaphors, personification, symbolism, contrast, alliteration, onomatopoeia, rhyme, rhythm, recurring motifs, pathetic fallacy, allusion, foreshadowing, dramatic irony, poetic justice. However, just using literary techniques won’t necessarily make your writing aesthetically pleasing and beauty is always in the eye of the beholder, so what I might consider beautiful, you might consider boring.

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Posted in Composing

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Book Covers sample answer

Posted on September 4, 2014 | Comments Off on Book Covers sample answer

NOTE: This article was originally published in the Irish Independent Written Word Supplement, March 2014.

Publishing houses often create more than one cover for the same book, particularly if they feel the book will appeal to ‘multiple target demographics‘. In simple English, this means they think people of different ages, life stages, genders, hobbies and education levels will all like this book so they can’t just target one specific group (young adult readers, romantic fiction fans, sci-fi nerds) with their advertising efforts.

One way they get around this is by creating different book covers aimed at different groups. For example, you can probably remember that there were children and adult book cover versions of all of the Harry Potter books so that adults didn’t have to feel embarrassed sitting on the train reading them!

As with the photographs, you may be presented with more than one cover and asked which one you prefer, or which one best captures the theme of the written text. In this case an extract from the novel itself will most likely accompany the book covers so that you get a flavour for the book even if you haven’t read it. You might also be asked to say whether or not the book cover would entice you to buy and read the novel.

When assessing the effectiveness of a book cover or for that matter of any product or advertisement ask yourself three questions:

  1. Does it grab my attention?

  2. Does it make an impression?

  3. Does it convince me to buy the book / product / service?

Have a look at this book cover for the wonderful novel Skippy Dies by Irish author Paul Murray.

skippy dies b

Sample Question:

Does this book cover for “Skippy Dies” make you want to read the novel? Give reasons for your answer, based on a close reading of the various visual and textual elements. (20 marks)

Sample Answer:

This book cover instantly grabs my attention. I really like the design and colour scheme: the geometric pattern of semi-circles in alternating shades of green and red against a warm cream background is quite hypnotic. It also looks like the cover had water spilt onto it in places as the paint has smudged and I feel this prevents the design from being too clinical in appearance. This slightly bohemian edge is again evident in the vertical lines drawn by hand around the edges of the rough red and cream semi-circles which reveal the title of the novel and the author. I like the handwriting font too which adds to the informal vibe. All of these features add a warmth to the book cover; a willingness not to be too perfect, which I really like.

In much smaller font at the top and bottom are quotes from reviews, sourced from reputable newspapers The Times and The Guardian. Including these snippets tells us this is literature, not pulp fiction, and yet the promise of fun and entertainment ensures we’re not scared off – if reading this book is “hilarious” and “outrageously enjoyable” then I can cope with the “tragic” content!

At the very bottom of the page we’re told this book was “SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2012 COSTA NOVEL AWARD” and fellow author David Nicholls describes Murray as “A brilliant comic writer” At this point it’s difficult to resist this book, it’s being so highly praised!

The title also instantly intrigues, with the stark warning that in this book “Skippy Dies”. It’s a daring concept to tell the reader what’s going to happen and yet still ask them to invest their time and emotions in the characters, three of whom are represented in little uneven edged coloured blobs, each with their own rough line drawing. The presence of two boys and one girl at first brought a love triangle to my mind, but the fact that the girl is on the right rather than in the centre made me question this assumption. Their youth suggests that this might be a coming of age story, but my awareness that a central character dies gives this book an edge. It makes me think this is not going to be some twee little teen romance, but rather a book which challenges and provokes.

To conclude, this book cover most certainly made an impression on me and I am now tempted to leave the exam hall to go buy it!

 

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Sample answer visual texts

Posted on September 2, 2014 | Comments Off on Sample answer visual texts

NOTE: This article was originally published in the Irish Independent Written Word Supplement, March 2014.

We all know a good photo when we see it: a splash of colour, a glint in the eye, a captivating landscape, a moment frozen in time. Yet articulating what makes an image spellbinding can be quite difficult.

It can help to think of your eyes as zoom lenses and of the photo as a puzzle to be deciphered. Each piece of the puzzle can be zoomed in on individually, analysed, discussed and interpreted. Each element contributes to helping you make sense of the bigger picture.

Consider some of the following elements when interpreting an image:

Framing: What is your eye drawn to immediately? What’s in the foreground / background / centre / left / right of the frame? Is everything in focus or are some elements blurry? Why might this be?

Body language & facial expression: What mood is reflected in the subject’s face? Are their eyes telling you something? What about the tilt of their head? Look at their hands and arms and legs: are they reaching, holding, relaxing, moulding? Does the slope of their shoulders reflect their mood?

Setting: Where is the photo taken? When? Consider time of day, season and era. Clothes, hairstyles, accessories and objects can give you clues about where and when the photo is set.

Lighting & colour: is the lighting natural or artificial, indoors or outdoors? Are shadows used? To what effect? What colours stand out? Do they symbolise anything? Has a filter been applied? Why?

Comprehension questions on visual texts:

In the exam, there will typically be two or three images accompanying each written text. These can be any mixture of photos, paintings, graphs, book covers and possibly even cartoons, posters and advertisements. Although these last three have yet to make an appearance, whoever is setting the papers seems to like mixing things up a lot, so expect the unexpected! No matter what type of visual text appears, remember to zoom in on details, colours and, if relevant, text (font size & style). Questions can ask you to select your favourite image and explain why you like it; to describe the impact of the photo on you intellectually and emotionally; to evaluate how well an image captures a theme; or to assess how well the written and visual elements work together.

Let’s imagine this photo, and two others, accompany a text on the theme of childhood.

Hazel reaching up

Sample Question:

“In your opinion, which of the visual images best captures the theme of childhood? Give reasons for your answer, supporting your points through close analysis of the visual text”. (20 marks)

Sample Answer:
In my opinion, image two, which shows a young girl reaching up to grasp the window ledge of an old school building, is the image which best captures the theme of childhood. Her small body is barely tall enough to see in the ‘window’ so she is on her tippy toes, her head is tilted right back and both of her arms are at full stretch. Her curiosity to see and to know, which is such a feature of childhood, is really endearing in this photo. [Focus on body language]

She looks too small to have started school yet and there is a nice contrast between the little girl outside the window and the painting of the two older children who are ‘in’ the schoolhouse. They are not nearly as enthralled by the concept of school once they have seen it from the inside, which is so true of childhood. As a child, you often want something really badly but once you’ve got it, you tire of it easily. [Focus on framing in the image, particularly the use of contrast]

I also found the detail in the painted children quite striking. The boy at the back of the window frame is pulling the hair of the girl in front of him. She looks quite distressed, while a shadow across his face captures his cruel intention. This detail captures the casual torment and violence children are capable of inflicting on each other. Physical fights, slaps, hair pulling and kicks from siblings and classmates are a feature of childhood many of us remember with a cold shiver down our spines. [Focus on facial expression & light/shadow]

Finally, this photo reminds me powerfully of schooldays from my childhood that seemed to drag on interminably. Neither of the painted children are paying any attention to their schoolwork: however, the clock on the wall says that it is a few minutes to four o’ clock so it’s hardly surprising that they’re finding it hard to concentrate! The torture of being trapped in the school for what seems like forever is further emphasised by the fact that it is clearly a bright summer’s day, reflected in the t-shirt, shorts and crocs worn by the little girl and in the blue sky at the top of the photo peeking through the fluffy white clouds. [Focus on weather, clothes and lighting to reveal season]

For all of these reasons, to my mind this striking image brilliantly captures the wonder, curiosity, fickleness and cruelty of childhood.

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