Coriolanus [Act 1]

What is Shakespeare’s larger purpose in his characterization of Coriolanus in Act I?

Coriolanus was play written by Shakespeare in the 1600s and it deviated from his usual writing genres, as it was mostly a political play written about the Roman leader Caius Martius Coriolanus, it was one of 2 of tragedies he has written. 

In Act 1, Shakespeare introduces, to the audience, all of the main characters and he allows the reader to develop their own opinions on the characters; he mainly allows us to develop our own opinion on Martius in Act 1, when he is not present, however his name very much is. In the first act, the citizens are endlessly complaining about the lack of food and they express their concerns and dislike towards Martius.

In Act 1, Scene 2, Martius enters the play and immediately the reader can note that he is a very direct, self-absorbed and overly confident individual, this is because as soon as he comes face to face with the citizens, he begins to bash them and ignore all of their requests, whereas Menenius actually listened to them.

Perhaps Shakespeare gives the audience a bad first impression of Martius Coriolanus, because he wants the audience to dislike him as much as the citizens do (put themselves in their shoes), however he occasionally reminds the reader of how much of a powerful individual he is, suggesting that it would be extremely difficult for anyone to take him down. We, as the audience, are given the choice to either support the citizens on their hatred towards him or side with him for his power and bravery in the battle against the Volsces. 

In this act, Shakespeare expects the reader to read between the lines and make their own personal judgements on Coriolanus' character, before revealing his hidden identity; one way he does this, is by presenting Menenius and Martius very differently (when both enter the play, the reactions they receive and their attitudes towards the people differ largely).

Many people could argue that Shakespeare's larger purpose of this specific characterisation in the first act is to foreshadow the ending of the play; Martius seems to be eager to get rid of the complaining citizens and he seeks for a war between the Romans and the Volscians so that some of the citizens are 'gone' with the battle, Shakespeare hints that perhaps because Coriolanus was full of hate and bad intentions, he was like one who ended up getting the biggest punishment. 

"It has been hardest to integrate black vernacular in writing, particularly for academic journals. When I first began to incorporate black vernacular in critical essays, editors would send the work back to me in standard English. Using the vernacular means that translation into standard English may be needed if one wishes to reach a more inclusive audience."

This quote suggests that society has not accepted African American Vernacular English as a dialect of its own, they consider it as the 'wrong' type of English and anything written in AAVE is considered to be 'incorrect' and 'informal'. Nowadays it is very difficult to find a book/novel/journal.. written in AAVE and not Standard English.

Text that can be analysed through the lens of bell hooks’ quotation: Of MIce and Men- by John Steinbeck

The novel Of Mice and Men is written in Standard English, however AAVE is shown through dialogue, for example Crooks' character, who is shown to be a black farmer who does not receive much attention at the barn, most probably because of his race inanition to the way he speaks. Even though the novel is based around the theme of racism and Steinbeck clearly states that he is against racism, however it appears as if he is aware that his novel would not have been as successfully, written in AAVE, for this reason he embeds it, through Crooks' character. Moreover, in the novel it is shown that there is a very bold line dividing Crooks from the other white characters, this is because he stays in a room on his own, far from the rest. 

Steinbeck writes the entire novel in Standard English, however when it comes to using a different dialect, he ensures that it is quoted (said by one of the characters), so that it does not appear as if the novel is 'informal'.

How does the author of this piece use language and imagery when discussing language? And with what effects?

“Any language is as divine and endless a mystery as a living organism.” 

In the piece 'Speaking In Tongues', the author uses imagery to help him describe how language can be compared to a living thing e.g a plant- if it is not cared for and nurtured, it will eventually die out; this causes the audience to feel sorrowful and perhaps persuade them to keep their language alive.
What many people do not take into account nowadays, is the fact that a language can easily become extinct if its people are not keeping it alive; many languages are now non-exisistant, because its people never valued its worth and did not put in the effort to pass it on to their children.
The use of the adjective 'divine' to describe language, suggests to the audience that a language is somewhat something that is extremely heavenly and something that could not easily be replaced, similarly to how a living organism can not be replaced if it passes away. The use of imagery in this piece helps the audience have a better understanding about the importance of language in one's life- it shapes us and our cultures.
Not only does a language help define a culture, but it helps us understand our history better- how and why the language was constructed and this can later on be told to our children's children.
In this piece, the audience can clearly detect that the author is trying to display the importance of language in our lives; he does this by using imagery to help the audience picture more easily

Stereotypes in advertisements

Stereotypes are made anywhere and everywhere- perhaps sometimes unintentionally, however they are very common; they help us understand the complex world we live in.
At times, stereotypes are used in the media, specifically in advertisements. Many people argue that with the use of stereotypes, good advertising is made- this is because advertisements aim to persuade and send a message to a certain audience, not everyone- advertisers aim to avoid any potential misunderstandings in the process, however at times stereotypes are made unconsciously or people may perceive them in a different way than they are actually meant to be perceived.
Marketers/advertisers may occasionally use stereotypes in advertisements to make the origin of the product more understandable to the target audience.
Personally, I believe that advertisers have a moral duty to avoid stereotyping people, however some of them may choose to include stereotypes for their own reasons (the product may only be aimed at people in a certain culture, therefore the marketers are sure that they are not offending anyone who doesn't belong in the aimed culture).
Overall, marketers can never really indicate or assume how the audience will react to the message they are trying to send out, however most (if not all) advertisers try to avoid using language or stereotypes that may offend a certain culture or community.
So the main question is: is the risk of using stereotypes needed to make the product advertised more remarkable?

ChildFund

This advertisement is composed by an International organisation, however if we examine closely we notice that it is mostly aimed at less developed countries such as India as well as '11 other countries'. 

Many can argue that this advertisement is gender biased, this is because women are empowered in it, we can see this in the heading, which states that 'HER future begins on two wheels', this may be because in countries like India and its neighbouring countries, education for woman is opposed to by many local individuals, therefore perhaps Child Fund is attempting to make a change on this- this helps the audience have a better understanding on the social/cultural context. The girl is shown to be smiling; suggesting to the audience that education leads to their happiness. 

Furthermore, it is suggested that this ad attempts to induce equality; there is a very bold line between the rights of women and men in East Asian countries. The use of juxtapositioning in the heading may have been used as a persuasion technique- hinting to the reader that if they choose to donate, then this girl's future can change dramatically.

The composer chose the colour green as the theme colour; this may be a device used to portray satisfaction and renewal, as the colour green is mostly associated with nature; the girl has a 'renewed' life after the Child Fund organisation gifted her with a 'Dream Bike' - hence why she is 'satisfied'(smiling).

Overall, this advertisement can be viewed in multiple ways, as people have different opinions.

The Pitch

What main appeals did you use in your pitch? Why did you decide they would be the most effective?

In our pitch, we aimed to use a wide range of appeals, however we concluded that only a couple were suitable for our pitch.
Psychological needs: we listed the 7 basic needs of aa child and we tried to link the product to as many as possible

What were some specific persuasive techniques you used (include examples) why did you believe these would be effective?

My group and I, decided to try and use as many persuasive techniques as possible to make our pitch as persuasive as can be. Some of the techniques we include are:

• Rhyme- "well oh boy, its time to eat that toy!"
• Triplets- "no harm, no mess and no, no yes"
• Humour- we aimed to make the audience (company) laugh, to assure their attention
• Association- we linked the ice cream to the dippin dots toy
• Maybe- we made suggestions about how each target audience would feel about this product
• Rhetorical questions- "have you ever witnessed your child attempt to devour this believed toy?"
• Direct address- we spoke directly to the company we presented to
• Scientific evidence/ statistics- we included the conclusions about some studies that looked into the views of kids channels 

How did an awareness of audience and context influence your overall approach to this activity? 

For us, we had a couple of target audiences instead of just one, therefore we made sure to explain how the marketing ideas would be perceived from the 2 points of views. For example, for the marketing idea, one of our picks was a tv commercial on disney channel. We stated that we would ensure that its very visual and factual as well; this is because the children will be persuaded by the visual aid, whereas the parents would be persuaded by the factual information given. 
  
If you were to complete this presentation again, what would you do differently in terms of content and preparation? 

Next time, we would assure that we are 100% ready before we took the stand. Also, we would assure that the entire group was involved in every section, instead of splitting up the sections.