IGCSE English Language B, June 2019: Question 3
Explain how the writer presents the achievements of the students taking part in the Grieg City
Academy sailing programme.
You should support your answer with close reference to the passage, including brief quotation.
RESPONSE:
The writer presents the achievements of the students taking part in the Greig City
Academy sailing programme using different language structures, literal techniques, and
rhetorical devices.
One of the structural features the writer used is the feature of order of events. The
events in the text are not organized in a chronological order. This is because the first paragraph
of the text talks about the award the young sailors won, and then what they did to win this price,
and their hard work is developed later on in the story. In addition, the pace at which the writer
builds up their ideas in the text is slow. The ideas are not built up to create tension.
Another structural feature the writer used to present the achievements of the
students is using repetition. An example of a word that was repeated is ‘EVERY’. An example is
“Montel did EVERY talk for fundraising (over 50) and took EVERY sailing opportunity possible” In
this part of the text, the word EVERY is repeated in order to put emphasis and highlight a specific
point the writer is trying to make.
The writer also used the literal technique which is the triples or the rule of three.
The writer uses the rule of three in order to strengthen his idea and argument. An example is “to
women, to young people, and to those from different groups within society.” The writer groups
people into three which will easily capture the reader’s attention.
Another way the writer presents the achievements of the students taking part in
the sailing program is using statistics. In the fourth paragraph of the text, the writer uses statistics
to show even though the boys were not privileged, they still put in every effort they could to
compete in the race and complete it. The writer used statistics to prove his idea and support his
statement.
The writer also presents the students achievements in taking part in the Grieg City
Academy sailing programme the use of acknowledgement and praise. An example is “The boys
did it all.” The writer gives all the credits to the boys for their hard work. The writer also uses
the pronoun ‘they’ to also give all the credits to the boys.
Another language feature the writer used is pathetic fallacy. An example is “Rough
weather, being becalmed for several hours, and they’ve gained lots of things.” This is pathetic
fallacy because the writer creates an environment which reflects the mood or the character of
the scene. With this, readers can imagine how hard it was for the boys because rough weathers
denote hard times.
To present the achievements of the students, the writer uses informal diction,
and therefore the vocabulary is familiar. The vocabulary used to present the ideas isn’t
sophisticated showing that the author’s intended audience are students and young people who
are trying to achieve their goals.
To conclude, the author used the rhetorical device known as logos. Logos is
the appeal to the audiences’ sense of reason or logic. In this text the writer tries to appeal to the
audiences sense of logic and reasoning by proving that Montel Fagan-Jordan deserves the award
even more than the other participants because he is a lad of 17 and it will be very logical to award
the price to him. With this, the readers will understand that it is more logical to award the price
to a young boy who worked very hard, so it reflect his commitment and effort.