E303B TMA
Semester 2, 2017-2018
Please return your completed assignment to your tutor to arrive by the end of week 11.
You are required to write no more than 1,500 words, but you will also need to present some of your findings in graphical or tabular form. Please indicate at the end of your essay the number of words you have used.
Before you start this assignment, refer to the general guidance on completing and submitting your assignments on page 41 in the course guides booklet that you have received with the package.
• Task 1 (selection of texts)
Choose two texts by native speakers/writers of English from two different registers: one text should be spoken (a natural conversation/dialogue between two or more speakers) about any subject taken from TV, radio, magazine, newspaper or any other source) and the other text should be written (academic prose) text in English taken from any academic source. The written text can be about any specialized subject (e.g. medicine, law, education, arts, politics etc.). Each text should be about 200-250 words in length. The texts you choose should be RECENT; i.e. published over the last 2- 3 weeks. You can access most daily newspapers, magazines or academic proceedings on the internet.
You should expect to spend a reasonable amount of time selecting your texts, as your choice of text will potentially affect the quality of your answer. Do not be afraid to reject your initial choice if you come across something better, since you will inevitably have gained insights from the process of selection. However, you need to remember to leave yourself enough time to spend on the analysis of your chosen texts.
Important Notes:
1. Your chosen texts MUST be approved by your tutor to make sure they are the proper texts for the TMA, otherwise your TMA will not be accepted.
2. You should write an introduction to the TMA at the very beginning of the page on which you are beginning the TMA. Also, you should write a conclusion to the whole TMA at the end in which you sum up what you have done in the TMA and state your own evaluation and opinion of the TMA.
3. In an appendix attach a photocopy or a printout of the two texts you have used for analysis.
4. Indicate in a very clear manner the source and date of publication of each text.
• Task 2 (analyzing the experiential meanings with special reference to coherence and cohesive devices)
• You should type the two texts (200-250 words) in your TMA.
In this task you should analyze the experiential meanings in the two texts as outlined in Book 3, Unit 13, section 4 using the SFL aspects and analytical methodology. You can also refer to Unit 15 and 16 for more information, illustration and practice that are relevant to this TMA.
You need to clarify how cohesive devices are deployed to build experiential and interpersonal meanings to create a coherent text; how cohesive patterns are interpreted in relation to the contextual variable of mode and in terms of their role in building those experiential and interpersonal meanings and why certain uses of lexical cohesion make a text more or less effective.
• Task 3 (comparison of the 2 texts; 750-1000 word essay)
In this task you should write an essay (750-1000 words) in which you discuss, explain and compare the two media articles depending on the findings provided by the raw text analysis you performed in Task 2. You should suggest reasons for, and communicative effects of, the differences (i.e. differences in views and ideas of the same event/topic). You should illustrate your discussion/comparison with examples taken from the two texts you analyzed in Task 2.
Note: You can use tables, graphs and any other formats to do the tasks properly and make them convenient and easy to follow. You could also use appendices to tabulate the results of the 2 articles.
Semester 2, 2017-2018
Please return your completed assignment to your tutor to arrive by the end of week 11.
You are required to write no more than 1,500 words, but you will also need to present some of your findings in graphical or tabular form. Please indicate at the end of your essay the number of words you have used.
Before you start this assignment, refer to the general guidance on completing and submitting your assignments on page 41 in the course guides booklet that you have received with the package.
• Task 1 (selection of texts)
Choose two texts by native speakers/writers of English from two different registers: one text should be spoken (a natural conversation/dialogue between two or more speakers) about any subject taken from TV, radio, magazine, newspaper or any other source) and the other text should be written (academic prose) text in English taken from any academic source. The written text can be about any specialized subject (e.g. medicine, law, education, arts, politics etc.). Each text should be about 200-250 words in length. The texts you choose should be RECENT; i.e. published over the last 2- 3 weeks. You can access most daily newspapers, magazines or academic proceedings on the internet.
You should expect to spend a reasonable amount of time selecting your texts, as your choice of text will potentially affect the quality of your answer. Do not be afraid to reject your initial choice if you come across something better, since you will inevitably have gained insights from the process of selection. However, you need to remember to leave yourself enough time to spend on the analysis of your chosen texts.
Important Notes:
1. Your chosen texts MUST be approved by your tutor to make sure they are the proper texts for the TMA, otherwise your TMA will not be accepted.
2. You should write an introduction to the TMA at the very beginning of the page on which you are beginning the TMA. Also, you should write a conclusion to the whole TMA at the end in which you sum up what you have done in the TMA and state your own evaluation and opinion of the TMA.
3. In an appendix attach a photocopy or a printout of the two texts you have used for analysis.
4. Indicate in a very clear manner the source and date of publication of each text.
• Task 2 (analyzing the experiential meanings with special reference to coherence and cohesive devices)
• You should type the two texts (200-250 words) in your TMA.
In this task you should analyze the experiential meanings in the two texts as outlined in Book 3, Unit 13, section 4 using the SFL aspects and analytical methodology. You can also refer to Unit 15 and 16 for more information, illustration and practice that are relevant to this TMA.
You need to clarify how cohesive devices are deployed to build experiential and interpersonal meanings to create a coherent text; how cohesive patterns are interpreted in relation to the contextual variable of mode and in terms of their role in building those experiential and interpersonal meanings and why certain uses of lexical cohesion make a text more or less effective.
• Task 3 (comparison of the 2 texts; 750-1000 word essay)
In this task you should write an essay (750-1000 words) in which you discuss, explain and compare the two media articles depending on the findings provided by the raw text analysis you performed in Task 2. You should suggest reasons for, and communicative effects of, the differences (i.e. differences in views and ideas of the same event/topic). You should illustrate your discussion/comparison with examples taken from the two texts you analyzed in Task 2.
Note: You can use tables, graphs and any other formats to do the tasks properly and make them convenient and easy to follow. You could also use appendices to tabulate the results of the 2 articles.