Compare and contrast how the writers and speakers in these extracts present Paris . You should refer to both extracts in your answer and consider. * the language choices made and their likely effects. * the different audiences and purposes of the texts. * aspects of mode.
Text A which is an extract from ‘The Most Beautiful Walk in the World’ by John Baxter is a memoir in the form of written mode. Text B is an extract from a video guide by an employee form the travel company “Lonely Planet” in the form of spoken mode this is made clear through the use of unvoiced pauses , lack of grammatical complexity , Phatic communication , slow pace and contractions. These are common features of spoken language which are used throughout Text B. The purpose of Text A is to target tourists to visit Paris, to inform about how funny tourists behave in Paris and to target people that live in Paris. Text B is also trying to target tourists to come to Paris, and wants to inform tourists about what kind of activities you can do Paris and facts about Paris. Text A and Text B present Paris in two different ways. Text A does not favour Paris or discuss any positive elements of Paris, the text focuses on describing the tourists that visit Paris. In text A there are uses of negative orientated words such as ‘loiter’ , ‘huddle’ , ‘huddle’ and uncertain which are used to describe the tourists present Paris in a negative way. The modifier ‘uncertain’ has connotations of lacking confidence, not being certain which tells the reader that the tourists are disorganised and have no idea or clue of where they are going or what to do, discriminating tourists and mocking their lack of language about Paris compared to his. The verb huddled suggest that tourists create a chaotic atmosphere by surrounding the streets, present Paris as a hectic place. John Baxter shifts from past to present tense throughout the text ‘Uncertain they loiter at the foot of our street’ , so as the reader , reads the text events sound like they are happening as your reading. In text A John Baxter uses personal pronouns’ which makes the reader visualize themselves as if they are a pedestrian in Paris. John Baxter writes in third person constantly referring to tourists as ‘they’, ‘them’ presenting tourists as others and presenting himself as superior to ‘them’. Whereas Text B favours Paris and discuss the beauty of Paris and positive facts about Paris. For example the metaphor ‘the city of light’ engages the reader as the metaphor is referring to Paris as a place of enlightment. His use of lexical choices such as ‘charm’, ‘grand’ and ‘leisurely stroll’ which all describe Paris as the perfect place to visit. The use of the word ‘corduroy’ is a complicated word which a teenager would probably not be familiar with, indicating what kind of person should be reading this text. The use of declarative sentences such as ‘Paris probably has more familiar landmarks than any other city on earth and positive lexical choices all take part in persuading the listener to visit Paris . The choice of positive lexical choices’ and declarative sentences define the purpose of this text and audience. Text B is aimed at people who have booked with the Travel Company, people who want to visit Paris and people who want to book there trip to Paris with the company. The two different aspects of mode in Text A and Text B means that the audience being target differs between texts as Text B is not aimed at a pacific audience as it is an online format addressing people that go online and that use the internet. Text B presents Paris as a possibility of a holiday for tourists. In which Text Text A addresses local Parisians with a knowledge of Paris, relating to the annoyance of tourists in their hometown in which explains why John Baxter assumes a certain level of education about Paris in Text A , as he audience that should be reading this is local Parisians.