When you are sitting in that daunting hall ready to sit an exam, and you see the papers slowly being handed out, there's always a page in that paper notifying you what you have to do. It is telling you certain rules and what you need to pay attention too. It does this by asserting the power of the language used so that you pay more attention.

Firstly, the first thing I saw on the page was in the biggest letter in the page was the title: ‘warming to all candidates’. In this situation the use of big letters is used to give the title a kind of authority showing the readers that this is important. Straight away it sets the tone of the piece you are about to read as it is the title and is shown in big letters. Therefore the way power has been asserted straight away is by making the title the biggest thing on the page.

Something else worth noting on, is the bold letters in most points made. The use of bold letters stands out and makes people go, ‘I need to pay attention’. Although, I have also noticed that the same word or phrase ‘must/must not’ are the only words in bold, these words aren't just suggesting something or perhaps saying maybe you should do this, in fact it is the complete opposite. This set of alternate phrases are commanding that you MUST or you MUST NOT do this, they are telling you exactly what you should do and they are not giving the reader any other thing they can possibly do. This is asserting power as it is letting you know you are not in charge, and that you must follow what they say and it is as simple as that.

Also, this whole piece is finished with a closing sentence that is bigger than the general text of this piece and is also in bold letters. This when glancing makes us look at what it is saying because it is noticeable and can be seen easily. Being one of the biggest, boldest things on the page it stands out amongst everything else so automatically without it even been read it has an asserting power about it already. After setting it self a important piece of the writing once you get reading it asserts more power by again like I mentioned earlier using the word must. Therefore, the fact we have a sentence in bigger and bold writing using an assertive word it seems like it must be read due to the power asserted within it.

Finally, the case seems to be amongst this piece that every important part of it that must be seen is presented in either bigger or bold text. These are two very important things when in need to assert power so show us that power is asserted throughout this piece through the use of; assertive words/phrases, bold writing and bigger writing. Although these are just some of the ways power is asserted in day to day pieces.

How does langauge effect you? - Research task

Analysis:

After handing out several questionnaires to family and friends about language and how it effects people, I found certain findings. The first that I want to talk about is how 8/9 of the people that actually filled in my questionnaire and gave it back to me seemed to find that those who speak of ‘Urban Slang’ normally recognisable from those living in the East London area. The reasons for this could be of many, and one in which I think is key is the way in which they project their voice using made up slang words quite aggressively, this is commonly known as ‘black English’. The reason those 8 people chose this could also be that they know the area as they ae not far away and are aware of what people from the area using ‘urban slang’ are actually like. The other options I put with this were ‘a strong manc speaker’ which could be quite intimidating due to the strength in which these people speak, which is similar to a ‘scouse speaker’ which for me would have the same effect as a strong manc accent. Reason for these two being intimidating would be that these are unknown by people of this area who filled out my questionnaires and so therefore would be quite intimidating at first, when coming across one of these speakers.

Question 5: If you were to meet one of the following people with one of these certain accents for the first time, would you find any of these intimidating?

Urban Slang speaker (8)  Strong manc speaker (Manchester) (0)   Scouse speaker (1)   Formal Language speaker (0)   

Above I have put the question I have just spoke about and out next to the answers how many people chose that answer. And as I’ve already said, all but one found the urban slang speaker most intimidating with one person differentiating, saying that they would find a scouse speaker most intimdiaitng due to the strength of a scouse person.

In my questionnaire findings I found something that came of a shock to me, one of the people who handed the questionnaire back to me stated in that when they speak to someone of higher class, they changed the way they speak dramatically. Meaning they completely change their tone and voice when speaking to someone like the queen. This came as a shock to me because even though I and most other people would change the way they speak when speaking to those of higher class, not everything would change, and I would just avoid the way in which I use slang so I don’t look like an idiot, they seemed to change everything that makes up the way the speak. The answer they gave was as followed:

‘I would change the way I speak to someone of higher class to me because they are of higher class, simple as that. I would change everything involving the way in which I usually speak so I can set a good first impression, because at the end of the day if they are of higher class, you don’t want to look like an idiot.’

This answer was quite stern and straight to the point, and perhaps tells me that they may be intimidated by someone of higher class if they are changing the way they speak when faced with someone of higher class.

Overall, nothing really came much of a surprise to me when receiving back my questionnaire, all but a few was of sensible answers and I expected what I got back. There was a few hiccups though but those were what was commented on above.