Practising Writing Concisely

Text from Book

1. Outline two ways in which Pilkington gives you a sense of perspective in the first 8 lines of the text?

In the text, Pilkington talks about his thoughts and his emotions and he also gives his opinion about the hotel. In the text, he uses uses "I" which creates a first person perspective

1. Identify two ways in which the author makes the description of the toad killings memorable

To make the toad killings memorable, Pilkington used humour, he relates what it happening with himself (gives personal examples) and uses gruesome description and also

1. Select two examples of humour from the text and analyse the effect of each on the reader

The first example of humour in the text was when the writer talks about The Great Wall of China“ ‘Great’ Wall of China … Alright Wall of China”. This moment creates a sense of humour towards the readers because normally, no one would say anything about the Great Wall of China but in this text, we can see the author talk about the Great Wall of China as if there is no importance to it and it doesn’t have any value.

The second example of humour in this text is when the author says “... I have 2 goldfish in a bowl. I’m not sure if they’re for company or for a snack”. This part of the text also creates humour because the author talks about China being a place where they eat dogs (which are pets) so when he says if the goldfish are for company or for a snack, it strikes the reader as if it is a joke.

Short Film

1. Outline two ways in which sound plays a role in this scene. (Do not include comments on the use of voice-over here).

In this short film, we can hear diegetic and non-diegetic sounds. For example, we can hear that Pilkington talking and the people in the scene talking in the background and we can also hear the music that has been added after filming the scene.

1. What is the overall effect of the voice-over in this extract? Select two examples of voice over commentary and analyse their effect on the viewer

When the man is eating the eggs, the use of his voice over is really helpful. I think this because when I am watching the video clip, then I can hear what Pilkington is saying along with what it is that he is talking about.

Another example of the voice over effect is when we see the man with the toads. I think that the voice over in this part of the clip has a small impact on the viewer. I think this because with the voice over we can see what is happening along with seeing it but in this part of the clip, if there was no voiceover, then there wouldn’t be a huge impact on the scene.

1. Outline two ways in which Pilkington makes the scorpion eating scene humorous through his spoken language in the scene. Give an example of each.

When Pilkington is talking about the woman eating the scorpions, he talks about the way she is looking at her food. He talks about how she has 2 sticks and is looking at the ‘good parts’ of the food to eat. This scene is humorous because normally, we do that with food which would taste good, but seeing what she was eating, it doesn’t seem like that would be something that we would eat.

When Pilkington is talking about the spider in the woman’s bathroom, he talks about what she would do. “I’ll eat that croissant for tomorrow”. This creates humour because normally, croissants are something that we would enjoy to eat for breakfast and spiders are something that we would be afraid of and would like to avoid whereas this scene shows us the exact opposite of what we would do.

15 minutes