Which text is more successful is giving an account of someone who survives life-threatening situations? You may choose either Text One or Text Two but you must explain your choice carefully. Give two reasons why you choose this text and one reason for not choosing the other text. You may wish to comment on the writer’s language and technique. You should support your points with evidence from the text. By Roha Khan

Compared to Text Two, I think Text One does a better job at achieving its purpose, that is, to inform the reader about the feelings of a person moving to a foreign country. To make his point clear, the author describes Allen’s feelings using words and phrases like “a source of wonder for Allen”, “bizarre” and “excitement”. This intends to give the reader a clear idea about the character’s mix of emotion.

The author has used imagery to tell about the changes. Without any direct comparison, the writer tells about the differences, for example, “so smooth, no potholes, no wild bends”. He even writes about how London is quieter, compared to Ethiopia,   especially using the words, “Can you hear the nothing, Father?”  This makes the reader realize the change in the environment better. The writer also addresses the character’s sense of smell−“to the strange smell of English breakfast”−which help the reader understand how different things are.

Text Two, on the other hand, is in first person and gives an impression of being “rescued” rather than “moving”. The author does not understand the language that is being spoken, but rather comments on people’s attitude towards her, for example, “generosity” and “gratitude”. Except for in the first paragraph, the author fails to tell us about the new place or city.

 

Advertisement

Which text is more successful is giving an account of someone who survives life-threatening situations? You may choose either Text One or Text Two but you must explain your choice carefully. Give two reasons why you choose this text and one reason for not choosing the other text. You may wish to comment on the writer’s language and technique. You should support your points with evidence from the text. By Faryal Shuja

I believe Text One “Sole Survivor: the woman who fell to earth” is far more successful in giving an account of someone who survives life-threatening situations. I believe this for many reasons, the first being it connects with the reader more, and gives a personal tone, despite it not being written in first person. Examples of this are: “just a girl in a thin cotton mini dress” in line 22 and “didn’t her mother tell her about the birds?” in line 42. The detailed description of Koepcke allows the reader to truly connect to her, as she is wearing very ordinary clothes. This visual of her appearance connects the reader, making them think that they could have been in that very same situation. This makes the reader put themselves in her position, and therefore makes Text One superior at giving an account of a life threatening situation.
The second quote in which the author uses a rhetorical question is also extremely successful, as it humanizes Koepcke, to make it seem as if she truly is a lost girl, still trying to remember her mother’s advice. This once again makes the reader sympathetic towards Koepcke, and gives them a further understanding of her situation. This all makes Text One far superior to Text Two.
The second reason I chose Text One was the extremely well executed literary techniques. The author uses techniques such as a hyperbole, tripilism, emotive language, and much more. An example of a hyperbole is: “danger behind every bush”. This creates a heightened sense of danger, causing the reader to feel anxiety and fear for the life of Koepcke, making them understand just how she felt. There is also tripilism when “there were jaguars, scorpions, and poisonous snakes” is written. This once again begins describing and emphasizes just how dire Koepcke’s situation was to the reader. Finally there is the descriptive and emotive language used, examples are: “lurching”, “catastrophic”, and “vanished”. These are all dramatic and emotion evoking words that illustrate to the reader all that has happened to Koepcke, thus making them aware of all that had happened. All this is why I have chose Text One as the more successful of the Texts, it’s ability to inform the reader while still writing beautifully is commendable.
I did not choose Text Two, “Angels in the Wilderness” as it was not as interesting or captivating. Despite its captivating title, and interesting story it seemed boring, due to the writing, as it was an interview. It was more matter-of-fact, and less engrossing. There was a significant lack of figures of speech and emotive or descriptive language. Instead, there were short, and choppy sentences, and though sometimes it added dramatic effect, most times it didn’t. An example of this is: “I had enough water. I had fallen near a stream”. This sentence adds nothing to the drama of the scene, and it does not captivate the reader. A simple addition of the word thankfully, or instead of writing “enough water”, writing “just enough water” would have changed the sentence completely. These small changes easily could have improved the Text, and made it a more successful account. I believe this because if a reader cannot connect with, or at least be captivated by a text, it is unsuccessful. This all makes Text Two far less successful than Text One.

Which text is more successful in showing what it is like to move to a different country? You may choose wither Text One or Text Two but you must explain your choice carefully. Give two reasons why you chose this text and one reason for not choosing the other text. By Wishka Syed

I believe that text two is more successful in showing us what it is like to move to a different country. Text two’s style of writing is descriptive which lets the reader feel, hear, smell, see and touch all the character’s feelings and emotions as he moves to a different country; “white house with its perfectly mown lawns and flowers lining the entrance and a carpet in every room”, “a landscape so white, so pure, could only dazzle us, blind us, intoxicate us.” By reading such description, the reader for example, feels as if he himself is standing with the landscape right in front of him. The author uses description to create an image in the reader’s mind and to give him a closer look of the story.

 

I also chose text two because of the amount of figurative language used in it; “like a mother duck, she walked ahead of us”, “garment over another, layer by layer, like the homeless”, “The town of Granby sheltered us.” FOS makes sure that the description does not bore the reader and from time to time adds sparkle to the text. The author uses them to captivate the reader and give them something to relate to.

 

The reason I did not choose text one was because of the abundant usage of short sentences like, “The taxi pulled up outside the hotel.”, “Alen watched television.” These short sentences although might add emphasis, but over usage of them makes it look like the author is an eight year old! Short sentences lack proper description which, I believe, cannot give the reader a full show of what it is like to move to a different country.

Comparison Question: Survivors of a life threatening situation by Azwa Azwa

Both Text One and Text Two do an excellent job of presenting information regarding the difficulties and hardships encountered while moving to a different country, but I personally felt that Text Two was more superior and successful in it’s portrayal of the topic. Text One and Text Two are both book extracts.Text One was written by Benjamin Zephaniah, while Text Two was written by Kim Thuy.

The purpose of both texts is to inform and they have a general audience.However, Text One is tailored to suit a wide range of audiences, while Text Two has a more sophisticated audience. Although the language used in Text One is simple,clear and easy to understand, I prefer Text Two. Text Two has a more mature perspective and uses vivid imagery to enhance it’s appeal. There are also well-chosen adjectives e.g.”A landscape so white, so pure”,”short-sleeved orange pullover” which allow the reader to create a clear image in their mind.

Text Two is more interesting and amusing and is able to effectively grasp the reader’s attention making it overall more enjoyable to read. Text One lacks this quality and hence it appears more dull and fails to maintain the reader’s interest.

Text One contains a majority of short sentences and short paragraphs. This makes the writing seem more simple and childish e.g.”but there were no people”,”Alem watched television” etc. Text Two allows the reader to relate to the author and feel more attached to the text. The long sentences and relatively longer paragraphs enhance logos significantly.

Text One comparatively contains much less figures of speech than Text Two. Text Two is therefore much more alluring e.g.”like a mother duck” Text Two is made much more beautiful and enchanting.

Text One although reader-friendly has a major flaw-it lacks vivid and crisp descriptions. It is simple and this simplicity does not appeal to me as much as Text Two. Text One and Text Two have an informal tone and both relate personal experiences. Text Two is more successful as it effectively presents the hardships in a more graceful manner.

Another reason why I prefer Text Two is because of its wonderful vocabulary that is very impactful and entrances the reader immediately. I also feel that Text Two contains more information and essential details. It is extremely well-written in my opinion. Text One lacks these redeeming qualities which make it very inferior in comparison.

Comparison Question: Survivors of a life-threatening events by Esha Anjum Khan

Passage One and Passage Two both focus the life threatening situations faced by different people at different times. The explanation of various threatening situations is also given , which will help the reader to know and gain knowledge of all that can happen in a forest.

I like Passage Two better, entitled,”Angels in the wilderness” which was interviewed by “Amy Racina”. I like this passage as it is a story of personal experience, which details every single misery the person has gone through. For example, “dragging myself along with my hands.”line 8, the use of ethos is done, which emphasis the audience to feel sympathy for the person. It also uses description such as,” Onto solid hillside crumbled beneath me.”.The range of audience is very wide as she is basically teaching the audience not to give up for instance,” I survived for four days and nights, dragging myself along with my hands refusing to give up.”and ” Making a plan kept my mind focused on what I could do to help myself.”. Due to these statements many may get inspiration and would not give up. Her final statements impress many as she says, ” Just a few final thoughts. Love your life. Never give up. And always believe in miracles.” which encourage people to believe themselves and to achieve something in life.

Text One is ” The Soul Survivor” written by, “Sally Williams”. I did not choose Text One because firstly its not narrated by the victim itself as if it was narrated by the victim in Text Two, if it was narrated by the victim there would be more sympathetic appeals as well as description. The description of the misery is not given clearly, which may cause the narrator to loose a lot of sympathies. Secondly this text does not contain anything which would inspire or make the readers feel sympathetic, the ending is also very vague,”It was pure chance that they came that day.” whereas the feelings of the girl are not described,which may not urge the audience to read further articles and feel for her.

Therefore, I prefer Passage Two better than Passage One as it fills in every aspect of sympathy. Both poetry same objective ,yet Text Two is better.