Edexcel IGCSE English Language A: Paper 1: Non-fiction Texts and Transactional Writing Flashcards

What are the three thoughts and feelings represented in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s ‘A danger of a single story’?

The danger of stereotyping, we are all guilty of stereotyping and stories can be empowering.

How does Adichie convey the danger of stereotyping?

• cautionary tone ‘the danger’

• juxtaposition and antithesis of stories and realities (stories she wrote as a child, her preconceived ideas of fide, her roommates expectations of her, her prejudice of Mexicans)

• repetition of ‘over and over’ in line 74

• parallel structure ‘a single story catastrophe’

How does Adichie convey that we are all guilty of stereotyping?

• uses collective pronoun ‘we’

• chooses language such as ‘unintended’ and ‘well meaning’ to create an empathetic tone

• personal anecdotes

• ethos - self critique establishes credibility

How does Adichie convey that stories can be empowering?

• juxtaposition of ‘great possibilities’ in lines 75-77

• contrasts danger with ‘paradise’

• optimistic tone which is inspiring

• uses collective pronoun ‘we’

• use of colon in line 27 to emphasise how African stories saved her

What are the three thoughts and feelings represented in George Alagiah’s ‘A Passage to Africa’?

New crews become apathetic, sympathy for the Somali people and that we don’t deserve the comfortable lives we have

How does Alagiah convey that news crews become apathetic to horrendous situations and conditions?

• language choice depicts predatory behaviour

• dismissive tone highlights apathy of the media

• simile ‘like the craving for a drug’ exposes the greed of the reporter

How does Alagiah convey that he sympathizes with the Somali people?

• triplets and listing creates an image of great suffering

• clinical tone empathizes how commonplace death is

• contrast (p7&8) between there suffering and attempts at maintaining dignity evokes pathos

How does Alagiah convey that we don’t deserve the comfortable lives we live?

• contrast of the ‘comfort’ of out living rooms with the frank description of the feeding centre

• rhetorical questions to engage the reader and encourage reflection

• short sentences highlight moments of clarity and sudden realization