What will I need to learn?

In this unit you will study voices in speech and writing from an integrated literary and linguistic perspective. You will need to explore spoken and written language in literary, non-literary and multimodal texts of the 20th and 21st centuries in order to learn about how spoken voices are used and how written voices are created.

The focus of your study will be on voice and representations of voice and by the end of the course you will be expected to know:

• the differences between speech and writing
• the features of spontaneous and scripted speech
• the features of natural conversation and the construction of dialogue in written texts
• the features of oral and written narratives
• the use of narrative voice in written texts, both literary and non-literary, in a range of genres
• idiolect in speech and the creation of distinctive voices in written texts
• audiences, purposes and contexts for spoken and written texts and how these might influence choices of language
• register in spoken and written texts and the degree of formality and informality
• representations of regional dialect in written texts.

What text will I study?

In the exam the focus will be on the close reading of one of the set texts on the left. You will study this text in class with your teacher with particular focus on the creation and use of voice. In the exam you will need to demonstrate your understanding of the range of ways the spoken word is represented in literary texts by referring to your set text. Your response should integrate both linguistic and literary analyses.

What will I need to do?

You will also be expected to sample from a wide range of other texts in order to explore how writers create voices. To excel in this task you will need to employ a variety of reading strategies.

The unseen assessment could be taken from a wide range of prose fiction and non-fiction so you will need to explore each of the language sources below:

• short transcripts of conversation
• radio broadcasts
• TV chat shows
• podcasts
• scripted dialogue, such as play extracts, TV or radio drama, film scripts
• literary texts
• non-fiction
• electronic communication such as emails, text messages
• poetry texts

What will the exam involve?

The examination will last 2 hours 15 minutes and is worth 100 marks. You will be allowed to take a clean copy of the text you have studied in class into the exam with you.

One of the questions will be an essay-based question focussing on the creation and use of voice. You will need to demonstrate your understanding of the range of ways the spoken word is represented in literary texts by referring to your chosen text. In your respose you should integrate both linguistic and literary analyses.

The other part of the exam will require you to analyse three short unseen texts / extracts / transcripts. These will be drawn from spontaneous and scripted sources and you will need to identify and comment on how speakers and writers shape and craft the extracts provided. There will also be a section requiring short responses based on data analysis.

 

What am I being marked on?