Осознанное чтение тексты и задания = Mindful Reading texts and tasks. Учебное пособие = Textbook-1

PART 2. FUNCTIONAL STYLISTICS: NON-FICTION

By and Between,

[Teacher Name] (hereinafter referred to as the “Teacher”) a citizen of [Country / State Name] with address at [Teacher’s Address], and, [School Name] (hereinafter referred to as the “School”) an institution established at [School’s Address]

The Teacher and the School are collectively referred to as “Parties” and individually as “Party.”

Whereas, the School desires to hire the Teacher for teaching [course / subject] at the School and believes the Teacher has the necessary qualifications and skills to perform his / her duties and responsibilities; And whereas, the Teacher accepts the offer of the School under the terms and conditions of the Contract herein.

Now, therefore, in consideration of the terms and conditions set forth below and other good and valuable consideration, both the parties hereby agree to the below terms and conditions.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

1.Term of Employment

The Teacher shall start working from [Date] (hereinafter referred to as the “Commencement Date”) as a [full-time / part-time] employee and shall continue for [number of years] years.

2.Duties and Responsibilities

•The Teacher shall execute his / her duties and responsibilities in good faith and with due diligence. The Teacher shall perform his / her duties as per the School’s policies and the teacher’s code of conduct.

•The Teacher shall teach students to the best of his / her abilities and within the guidelines put forth by the School.

•The Teacher agrees that he / she shall maintain the records of his / her students’ attendance, progress, and academic performance.

3.Work Schedule

The Teacher shall provide his / her services from [Monday] to [Saturday], from [Start time of school] to [End time of school].

4.Salary

The Teacher shall receive a monthly salary of $ [0.00] to be paid on [Date] of every month.

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Tasks

1.Identify the text: name the text and specify its status.

2.What is the primary function of the text?

3.Who is the text aimed at? Is the personality of the author strongly felt? Why (not)?

4.Concentrate on the style-forming features of the text. What guarantees its clarity and certainty?

5.Characterize the linguistic features of the text. Make sure to comment on graphical means (capitalization), the use of the modal verb ‘shall’, archaic forms, clichés and set phrases. What does the idiom ‘in good faith’ mean?

6.Comment on the composition / layout of the text. What helps to organize the content of the text?

Text 2.8

CC: Consular Section of the Embassy of the Republic of Latvia in Moscow Dear Mr. Ivan Ivanov,

With reference to your letter concerning the visa refusal, we would like to inform you that in compliance with the paragraph 2 Section 17 of the Immigration law of Latvia the officials, who have refused to issue a visa, shall not be obliged to state the grounds of such decision. Moreover, the Paragraph 2 of the above mentioned Article stipulates that a decision regarding the refusal to issue a visa shall not be subjected to dispute or appeal.

However, the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia has evaluated the decision of the consular official regarding refusal to issue a visa and has not detected any indication of illegitimacy of such decision.

At the same time taking into account all the circumstances we would like to inform, that since you are not included in the list of those foreigners for whom entry into Latvia is prohibited, you have the rights to re-apply for a visa at the Latvian Embassy in Moscow.

Sincerely, Anita Ozolina

Director of the Consular department

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia

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PART 2. FUNCTIONAL STYLISTICS: NON-FICTION

Tasks

1.Identify the text: name the text and specify its status.

2.What is the subject matter of the letter, what is its key function?

3.Who is the recipient of the letter? Who is the author? Is the personality of the author revealed in the letter? Why (not)?

4.Characterize the style-forming features of the letter.

5.Identify the linguistic features of the letter, comment on its vocabulary and syntax. What does ‘CC’ stand for?

6.Speak about the layout of the letter, is it standard and conventional?

Text 2.9

Dear Ivan Ivanov

Thank you so much for giving us the opportunity to consider you for the Audit Consultant position at PwC. We appreciate the time and effort you invested in submitting your application. We have finalized our decision on your application and regret to advise you that your application has been unsuccessful.

We will retain your profile as part of PwC talent pool and should your skills, qualifications and experience align with future job requirements, we may connect you directly.

We wish you well in your continued career search. Sincerely,

PwC Recruitment Team

Tasks

1.Identify the text: name the text and specify its status.

2.What is the subject matter of the letter, what is its key function?

3.Compare and contrast Text 2.9 with Text 2.8. Is its tone more / less formal? How is this degree of formality reflected in the choice of the language?

4.Comment on the lexical and syntactical features of the letter.

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Text 2.10

Dear Mr Potter,

We have received intelligence that you performed the Patronus Charm at twenty-three minutes past nine this morning in a Muggleinhabited area and in the presence of a Muggle.

The severity of this breach of the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery has resulted in your expulsion from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Ministry representatives will be calling at your place of residence shortly to destroy your wand.

As you have already received an official warning for a previous offence under Section 13 of the International Confederation of Warlocks’ Statute of Secrecy, we regret to inform you that your presence is required at a disciplinary hearing at the Ministry of Magic at 9 a.m. on the 12th of August.

Hoping you are well, Yours sincerely, Mafalda Hopkirk

Improper Use of Magic Office Ministry of Magic

(taken from Happy Potter and the Order of Phoenix by Joanne Rowling)

Tasks

1. What makes this text fundamentally different from Texts 2.6 – 2.9?

2.How does Joanne Rowling stylize the text of the official letter?

3.Do you find the stylization successful? Why (not)?

Section 3. The Publicistic Style

Typology of publicistic texts

▪oratory and speeches

▪essays

▪editorials and media texts of different genres

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PART 2. FUNCTIONAL STYLISTICS: NON-FICTION

Functions and aims

▪to inform about important public issues

▪to express a clear opinion about some controversial issue

▪to offer the interpretation of the news

▪to persuade the audience to share the stated point of view

▪to brainwash and manipulate the audience

Style-forming features

▪a combination of logical argumentation and emotional appeal

▪objective and fact-based

▪logical and coherent

▪standard

▪subjective and opinion-based

▪personal

▪emotional

▪expressive

▪evaluative

Beyond the text: Matching

1)emotional

2)evaluative

3)enthusiastic

4)appeal

5)persuasive

6)reasoning

a)based on the assessment of importance of something

b)showing what somebody thinks or feels

c)showing how much you enjoy something by the way you behave and talk

d)the process of thinking before making a decision

e)making you want to do or believe in a particular thing

f)the quality that makes something or somebody attractive or interesting

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Linguistic features

▪emotionally coloured vocabulary

▪abstract notion words and international words

▪imagery

▪clichés and set phrases

▪proper names / facts and figures

▪repetition

▪parallelism

▪inversion

▪rhetorical questions

▪proper intonation (in oratory and speeches)

Text 2.11

No Compassion for Drunk Drivers

I would like to make an admission up front: I have a thing about drunken drivers.

I hate them. I really hate them. Every time I read about another innocent person slaughtered by a drunken driver, I become enraged.

So when I saw the nationally broadcast PBS special on drunken driving last week, I did not react as many did. I did not think it was sensitive and forthright.

I did not react as Phil Donahue, the host, did when he came on at the end and said: “I was enormously moved by this documentary, as I’m sure you were.”

Not me, Phil. I wanted to kick in the set.

I was plenty moved for the victims. I was plenty moved for the people who were crippled, paralyzed, reduced to vegetables or killed. But the drunken drivers themselves did not move me. I thought most got off real easy.

First, let me tell you about the magnitude of the problem. Someone is killed by a drunken driver every 20 minutes in this country. On any given weekend night, on any road in America, 1 out of every 10 drivers is drunk.

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PART 2. FUNCTIONAL STYLISTICS: NON-FICTION

Which is why drunken drivers will continue to get off easy. Because so many of the lawmakers, so many of the jurors, so many of the judges have driven drunk themselves. They have a certain amount of sympathy for those who get caught.

(taken from No Compassion for Drunk Drivers by Roger Simon, published in The Los Angeles Times on May 12, 1986)

Example of Text Analysis: Step by Step

I.Name the text and specify its status (fiction / non-fiction, its

style, its field and its genre)

Non-fiction; style: publicistic, a newspaper article

II.Identify the subject-matter of the text

In the text, the author voices his opinion on the issue of drunk driving in the US. His attitude towards drunk drivers is highly negative, he stresses the scale of the problem and expresses his outrage that drunk drivers avoid the deserved punishment.

III.Specify the main functions of the text

Roger Simon does not only raise awareness of the problem of drunk driving informing his readers about its magnitude, but being emotional and quite persuasive he tries to convince the audience to share his viewpoint on the issue as well as his indignation.

IV. Identify the type of the text and its form

The text is argumentative as the author’s aim is to persuade the readers to support his viewpoint about the deadly danger of drunk driving. It is presented in the form of a newspaper article. The author’s monologue is very emotional, some elements of interaction, including direct address to the host of the TV program the author disagrees with, make readers feel involved.

V.Characterize the addressee of the text

The text is aimed at a wide audience of American newspaper readers.

VI. Describe the style-forming features of the text

The article is characterized by a combination of logical argumentation and emotional appeal. In order to affect the minds of readers, Roger Simon resorts to facts and figures. Consequently, his words sound convincing and fact-based. The text is presented in a well-structured and coherent manner which adds up to the clarity of

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expression. At the same time the text is highly emotional, it explicitly conveys the author’s concern, hence, the text can be characterized as subjective and personal. Besides, the text produces an impression of being expressive due to the use of various stylistic devices (anaphoric repetition, gradation, elliptical sentences).

VII. Characterize the linguistic features of the text, its lexical and syntactical peculiarities

The first feature, which captures attention, is the abundant use of the personal pronoun ‘I’, which makes the text sound personal. It also helps the author to establish contact with the audience. Informal vocabulary (real easy), phrasal verbs (got off, kick in the set) and colloquial syntax (short sentences) create the atmosphere of a casual talk. With the help of emotionally coloured vocabulary (hate, slaughtered, enraged), anaphoric repetition and parallelism

(I was plenty moved… I was plenty moved…) Roger Simon makes his point absolutely clear: drunk drivers shouldn’t avoid punishment so easily and should get what they deserve. Powerful gradation

(people who were crippled… paralyzed… reduced to vegetables… killed) enhances the effect. The composition of the article also facilitates our understanding of the contents: the text is divided into short paragraphs mostly composed of 1–2 sentences. The words are used in their logical meanings with a few exceptions (reduced to vegetables, slaughtered). Culturally specific vocabulary (the name of the TV host and the public broadcasting corporation) reflects the relevance of the text for the particular audience and sets up the context: the presented text is an outraged reply to a TV program.

VIII. Characterize the figure of the author and identify peculiarities of his / her individual style

The key feature of the publicistic writing is that the ‘I’ of the text is a concrete person, whose point of view on the problem is explicitly expressed. The author of the given article is Roger Simon, he is categorical in his judgment and condemns drunken drivers in a straightforward way. His negative attitude is manifested in the careful choice of vocabulary and syntax, the most powerful means being repetitions and emotionally coloured vocabulary.

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PART 2. FUNCTIONAL STYLISTICS: NON-FICTION

Text 2.12

Beyond the Text: Matching

1)to shell out

2)to top off

3)redemption

4)centerpiece

5)carols

6)to loaf

a)a decoration that is put in the middle of a dinner table

b)being saved from evil, especially according to the Christian religion

c)to pay money for something, especially when you do not want to

d)to idle the time away doing nothing

e)to add a final element or flourish to something

f)songs that people sing at Christmas

I have never had to return a Thanksgiving gift. Of course not, you say, there are no Thanksgiving gifts. Exactly. That’s just one reason I vastly prefer the coming celebration of turkey to its neighbor just down the calendar, Christmas.

Don’t get me wrong. I love Christmas. The joy of anticipation in little children. The warmth of gathered families. The promise of redemption and salvation embodied in the religious celebration. I just can’t stand what we’ve done to Christmas. The traffic at the malls. The chaos. The pressure. The endless advertising urging us to give, to spend, to buy happiness. The bills.

Thanksgiving is so easy. When was the last time you saw your neighbor standing in the snow trying to string Thanksgiving lights around his house? Do people shell out sixty-five bucks for a dead Thanksgiving tree for their family room? Do they sit hour after hour, addressing Thanksgiving cards they bought on sale back in May? Who, late on Thanksgiving Eve, will be driven to thoughts of suicide, murder or at least divorce upon reading the words ‘some assembly required’?

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Thanksgiving is more like an old friend come to visit. There’s a knock on the door, you greet each other warmly, and soon it seems you’ve never been apart. Here are the complete instructions for a Happy Thanksgiving: Roast a turkey, make way too much other food, and top it off with one of three or four approved desserts. You can watch a little football, or not. Take a walk. Loaf. Whatever. No one expects you to decorate the house, make a killer table centerpiece, invite the president’s entire cabinet to your cocktail party, or stroll the neighborhood singing Thanksgiving carols.

Thanksgiving is budget-friendly. If you are invited out, bring the hosts a bottle of wine or a nice dessert. That’s it. No gifts you can’t afford. No endless worrying about what so-and-so got you last year or whether Grandma really wants another a) robe, b) toaster, or c) bottle of cologne.

(taken from Thanksgiving’s No Turkey by Robert W. Gardner)

Beyond the text: Cultural aspect

1.Write down associations which you have with this celebration.

2.When and where is Thanksgiving celebrated?

3.What do you know about the origin of Thanksgiving?

4.How is Thanksgiving celebrated nowadays?

5.Tick off the items related to Thanksgiving and its history: family reunion / carols / gifts / festive dinner / harvest / trick or treat / Mayflower / valentine cards / Pilgrims / blessings

Tasks

1.Identify the text and specify its status

2.What is the subject matter of the essay?

3.What do you think about the purpose that the author pursued when writing the essay?

4.Characterize the style-forming features of the text

5.Although the text is written in a light-hearted manner, it touches upon some serious problems. Comment on the linguistic means which make the essay engaging from the very first lines

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