Edexcel English Lang - Anthology Section 1

'The Explorer's Daughter' by Kari Herbert

This text explores the moral dilemma that Herbert faced during her time in Greenland. She was conflicted by the killing of the animals and explains her argument for both sides by mixing informative writing with her narrative of a story.

- Semantic field of necessity in paragraph 3, in favour of hunters > factual importance of the narwhal hunting

- Narrative of women watching hunting in paragraph 4, in favour of hunters > story is used to show the stress of the women to reinforce how integral the hunting is

- End of paragraph 4, explains human characteristics of the narwhal, allows the reader to empathise with the narwhal

PAF: Provides audience with why it's so necessary that the Inuit hunt narwhal, anyone interested in arctic communities (or because of negative media coverage in past), Non-fiction informative piece with personal anecdotes

'Explorers or boys messing about? Either way, taxpayer gets rescue bill' by Steven Morris

- Written in a highly satirical and sarcastic tone > mock the 'explorers' > give support to the author's arguement > waste of taxpayer money

-written in chronological order, factual, has a summary, anti climatic

- Wife used in quotations to make the men look pathetic > 'running back to mother' > unprofessional / stupid

'H is for Hawk' by Helen Macdonald

- Description of the first half is very poetic with syntactical parallelism, juxtaposed with the disjointed nature of the description of the second hawk.

- she is hanging head-downward, wings open, like a turkey in a butcher's shop, only her head is turned right-way-up and she is seeing more than she has ever seen > almost like what happened to her, father died, she seeks a new relationship > death vs new life

PAF: to inform, to entertain, those with an interest in animals/birds, those who may have lost a loved one > seeking companionship, extract from autobiography

- direct speech, suspense, metaphors, synthetic list, empathy, compares it to a greek tragedy, cliff hanger, list for time moving, comparative adjectives

Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston

- use of long, complexed sentences > indicative of the endurance and perpetual length of the man's struggling > ALT > shows the way in which time slows > even more indicative of his pain

- heavy use of technical jargon > used to add complexity > adds tension > ALT > could be used to show a glimmer of hope > man is an expert?

- suspense, relatable, adverbs introduce danger 'this is trouble', time scale, lists, short sentences, ending contrast technical lang from beginning, left on a cliff hanger

A Game of Polo with a Headless Goat by Emma Levine

- frequent comparison to western cultural references > used to emphasise the difference between east / west > how unusual the situation is

Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah

- initially > references to heaven > success > reaching for the stars

- crushed when father says she'll be a doctor

- father uses stereotypes of women to force her

- father is god-like > oppressive

- lots of catharsis > stream of conscienceness

- antidote, suspense, mood changes lots, assertive verbs