Written task: Interview

Interview

Sean Carter: Good evening, people of USA. Welcome again to a new episode of “An hour with Sean”, the most interesting late show of the country. Tonight we have a very interesting guest; we are going to interview Thomas Parker, the editor of one of the most important newspapers of the whole world, the USA Informer. We are going to know important issues about bias in the news. Good evening, Thomas.

Thomas Parker: Good evening, Sean! I’m glad to be here, thanks for the invitation.

Sean Carter: It’s very good for the programme to have you here. Well, let’s get started. First of all, tell me about your previous life before your work at the USA Informer.

Thomas Parker: well, I graduated from the University of Cambridge, in England, in the career of journalism. After my graduation, I travelled to USA looking for job opportunities. After some time, I received a call from the USA Informer, which I considered a very good opportunity for my career as a journalist, and now I’m here.

Sean Carter: So, Thom, tell me, what is your specific role as a newspaper editor?

Thomas Parker: well, in general terms, I’m the one that selects which information is going to be presented in a piece of news and which one not, the specific words of the title and the article, the images used, etc. In other words, I have to bias the information.

Sean Carter: Interesting. Tell me, how can we detect bias in a piece of news?

Thomas Parker: There are four pillars of bias, saying it in some way. They are: framing, omission, limiting debate and word choice. In simple words, framing is the perspective of how the piece of news is covered, omission is which information you include in the article and which one not, limiting debate is information that can have only one position, and word choice is the manipulation of words in such a way that the sentence meaning is subtly changed. Also you can find bias in the use of euphemisms and in the images. The job’s editor is to manipulate the information in a subtly way.

Sean Carter: I see. Can you tell us a personal recent example of each pillar?

Thomas Parker: I’m glad you ask. I remember one that I did last week. Did you realize that Chile lost against Brazil in the World Cup? Well, we, as a newspaper, think that they made an awesome match, so we wrote the article from the perspective of the good match of Chile. That is framing. In case of the word choice, one perfect example is the title of the piece of news. It was: “AFTER AN AMAZING MATCH, CHILE IS OUT OF THE WORLD CUP”. Instead of saying this, we could write “BRAZIL ADVANCES TO QUARTER FINALS”. So the words we chose were “with” the Chilean team. In case of omission, as we were presenting the article from the perspective of the amazing match of Chile, we didn’t include in the piece of news that Brazil attacked almost all the extra time, and that they played better. Finally, in the limiting debate we set, for saying it in some way, that it was a good match for Chile using the statistics, so the reader was unable to say the otherwise, because there was a statistic proof. But hey, don’t think that I’m saying that the newspaper was against Brazil. We were only taking the perspective of Chile, without detracting the good game that Brazilian team offered. We also included that, but in a less noticeable way.

Sean Carter: ah. And when the information is biased, you have always to include these four pillars?

Thomas Parker: no, it isn’t necessary to include all of them. These are ways of detecting bias in a piece of news, but many times I use one or two of them.

Sean Carter: but, tell me Thom, doesn’t a newspaper has to be objective?

Thomas Parker: that’s true, and I’m not saying otherwise, but it doesn’t mean that a newspaper tells all the truth in the most objective way. A newspaper tells the information, but in such a way that they select how to present the information to the public. I’m not saying that the newspapers invent information, but that they present the information how they want it to be presented using the techniques I mentioned before. Indeed, my friend, I dare to say that all the information is biased, in one way or another. The editor’s job is to do this but in a subtly way, as I said before, and also not crossing the line! Because bias has limits

Sean Carter: what do you mean with all the information?

Thomas Parker:  well, if you ask the manager of a newspaper, he will tell you that they tell the information completely objective. But I think that this is impossible. For example, when you tell a friend a story that you lived, you will tell it from your perspective, from what you saw, so you are telling the story in a biased way.

Sean Carter: wow, these are strong statements. Regrettably, Thom, we are running out of time, so this is my last question. Which are that limits that you mentioned before?

Thomas Parker: well, you have to be careful about being too partial. If you want to, you have to bias the information but not defend one side or the other. As I said, you have to be subtly, and not transform the article in a completely subjective one. You can’t transform the facts in points of view. Those are the limits I refer to.

Sean Carter: ok, so you have to be very careful about manipulating the information! Well, thank you so much for this fascinating interview, Thom. Good evening, people of USA, and thanks for this amazing rating. I’ll wait you the next week with the continuation of this topic, with a special guest expert in stereotypes, Jessica Read!

Rationale (291 words)

For the written task I wrote an interview between a show presenter, Sean Carter, and a newspaper editor, Thomas Parker. The interview is situated in a fictional TV show with fictional characters. We studied bias and manipulation in the mass media during the year, so I chose this topic to my interview, developing the topic through an expert in this one. Listening to a newspaper editor, even he is a fictional one, the texts generates more credibility in the reader, listening the words from an expert.

Through this interview I developed the principal elements of manipulating the information, such us the techniques used to recognize this bias, for example, when the interviewer asks Thomas this question: “Interesting. Tell me, how can we detect bias in a piece of news?” This type of text is an easy way to guide the conversation and to talk about this topic which I’m interested in.

With a newspaper editor as the interviewed person, the topic of bias in the information can be easily explained, being an expert the one that is talking about it, and also it is a perfect way to present the most important points of basing the information. Also in the interview there is given an example of a real and recent event, giving even more credibility of the topic developed showing an example of a real event and that most people are familiarized with.

In terms of the language used, I presented a colloquial language, not too formal and not too informal, always with the purpose of getting more confident with the reader. For example, when Thomas says: “Good evening, Sean! I’m glad to be here, thanks for the invitation”. We appreciate more nearness with the audience from the show’s guest.

Narrative Techniques

http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/narrative-technique-r-bengoa/23043494/?s=nZhimq&ref=app

Speech about "The Social Network"

WRITE YOUR SPEECH AS IF YOU WERE ADDRESSING HARVARD ALUMNI IN A PUBLIC SPEAKING EVENT. APPEAL TO THE THEMES OF FRIENDSHIP, MASS MEDIA, MONEY, AMBITION AND COOLNESS. YOU HAVE TO NARROW DOWN THE TOPIC (Headline, subtopics, more specific ideas). YOU SHOULD SOUND CONVINCING ENOUGH SO THAT THEY BELIEVE IN YOUR WORDS OR GET THE FEELING THAT YOU ARE RIGHT IN WHAT YOU ARE SAYING


Speech

Good evening, dear community of Harvard. My name is Eduardo Saverin. Probably some of you know me because of Facebook, probably not. Maybe some of you know me because I’m in a class with you. Well, it doesn´t matter, it is not why I am speaking to you. I turn to you today because I want you to be conscious about an important issue that can happen to anyone, and that happened to me.

Well, before telling you my story, let me introduce myself. As I said before, my name is Eduardo Saverin. I am a student of this university, but also I am the co-founder of one of the most important social networks in the whole world: Facebook. Because of this, I’m here in front of you.

Well, let me tell you how Facebook started, and the real purpose of my speech, to tell you to be careful about the ambition. I helped Mark, one of my best friends and the founder of Facebook, with my money to found the social network, and also I helped him with some algorithm issues. So, we accorded that I would have the 30% of the company, and Mark the resting 70%. Then the problem started. The company reached a huge magnitude in a few time, so that was fantastic. The problem was that my friend Mark started getting very ambitious, and he wanted to make more and more money. Here is where the purpose of my speech starts, dear students.

The ambition of power and money can reach very high levels, don’t you think so? Well, the problem is when this ambition reaches levels that exceed our values. This is what I lived, and I tell you so don’t live the same. Always be careful, people, always.

Mark and I were happy because of the business growth. Everything was going fine, until Mark fell in this level that the ambition of money was higher than the value of friendship. From one day to another, he asked me to sign a paper. Can you believe that this paper decreased my part of the company from a 30% to a 0.3%? I would never believe this from my friend, so I signed the paper, trusting him. As you can infer, I was wrong. He forgot that I was the one that helped him in the starting of the company, he forgot that I was the one that contributed with money, he forgot that I was his only friend! I remember I said him: “I was your only friend – you had one friend”. But he forgot that, because now he could have as many friends as he wanted, because he was important, popular. These are not important things, students. You must not change a true friend for money, because you are ambitious. Remember, dear community,  that true friends are the ones that are in all, independently from money, independently from the situation in which you are involved, they are in all. Mark forgot that. He can make more friends, obviously, but will they be true friends? Ask you this question before you fall in the ambition, before considering betray a friend. When you have power, surprisingly many people want to be your friend.

My friends, I am telling you this thinking in the two possibilities: if you are the one that falls in the problem of ambition or you are involved with someone that did it. Always be careful. I was betrayed by my true friend. I would never believe this before it really happen.

After this entire situation, now I’m involved in a court case with the one I used to call my friend. The ambition is not bad, but it must have limits. Never fall in ambition, my friends, never. Before getting near to it, consider the things that I said you today. I tell you this because you are intelligent people, and you can create companies like the one that Mark and I founded. You can make great things, people, but always establish limits, and don’t betray others, especially if they are your friends. Don’t change your friends for power or money, because these things are temporal, but friends are forever.

Thank you, Harvard community.

Jane Eyre

http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/jane-eyre/22705863/?ref=app

Class Activity

Dear Jamie:

I write you with a strange, but fundamental request. I want to ask you to leave your job in NATO. After the war of Kosovo, I realized that all the information that you gave about it was full of blatant euphemisms. With these ones, I realized that the communication of the war scaped from your hands. These euphemisms were so barefaced that almost most of the information you communicated turned in a big lie. You can make great things with language, dear Jamie.  You have a great power in your hands while you communicate the information. From y opinion, this power is going out of your control.

With these words, I mean that the people have a completely wrong perception of war, because of this manipulation of the information that you made. Is not good that people think that war is like you portrayed it. People must know what is happening in wars. People must know that soldiers, their own familiars, are dying in cold blood, are killing between each other, between humans, no respecting the life of the one that they are having in front. People must know that soldiers go to war with the only dream of coming back and see their families, with the dream of having a life, and with the fear that they can loose it in one second.

This is why I am writing you this letter. You have to leave your job, you have to stop lying the people that hear you, and stop creating a wrong perception of war.

Without further ado, your sincerely

Aldous Huxley

Writing Activity: Comparing two letters of application

http://www.thinkib.net/englishalanglit/page/9671/8-writing-tips --------> link of the activity


Tip 1: don't use too many clauses at the beginning of a sentence.

With this tip, the corrected letter is easily to read, because it is more fluid, so at the same time it is more interesting because it hasn't an excessive number of clauses at the beginning of the sentences. So, in a short way, the ideas in the corrected letter are joined without the clauses that are not necessary, so they put all the ideas in one sentence.

Original Letter: "Over the past six years, each morning, as soon as my students walk in the door… I am so happy to see them again and see my classroom take on life again." 

Corrected Letter: "Each morning for the past six years, I have been happy to see my students walk through the classroom door."

Without the clauses separated by comas ("as soon as") the reading is more fluid and easily to read, because the ideas are related without these clauses so we can understand them in overall. 



Tip 2: Avoid 'it' as the subject of a sentence.

This tip is very important when you write a text. When the use of the pronoun "it" is reiterated, the text looses seriousness and formality. Also when "it" is repeated so much times, the text is weaker. So, without the reiterated use of this pronoun and the use of the noun, the text is stronger in terms of content.



Original letter: "It feels so natural to me to be a primary school teacher."


Corrected Letter: "Being a primary school teacher comes so naturally to me."


In this case the pronoun is not replacing a noun, but without the "it" the text acquires consistency and is stronger.


Tip 3: use the right verb tense

The correct use of the verb tense is fundamental, because it also makes the text stronger but, more important, the bad use of the verbe tense makes the text more diffcult to the reader to understand.

Original letter: "Yet for the past few months I am longing for and thinking about a new personal challenge"


Corrected letter: "Nevertheless for the past few months I have been contemplating a new personal challenge"

In the corrected letter the correct use of the verbe tense was used, which makes the sentence understandable. Also the words were changed, aspect which gives the letter a content with good words, "strong" words.



Tip 4: use (relative) clauses


The use of relative clauses makes the letter more fluid. With the reative clauses, the reading of this one is more continuos and its easier to the reader to connect the ideas that are linked by the relative clause.


Original letter: "..it is a relatively young international school and I would like to be a member of a pioneering and ambitious team."


Corrected letter: "it is a relatively young, international school, where I could be part of a pioneering and ambitious team."

In the corrected letter we can appreciate the use of the relative clause "where", linking two sentences. Also the change of the punctuation marks is important in the corrected letter, making a pause before linking the two 
sentences.




Tip 5: watch out for wordy sentences

Sentences with a big number of words are gennerally boring, and make the reader loose his/her attention in the content of the sentences. Sometimes the wordy senteces are necessary to explain something, but also there are occasions that they are completely not necessary, and if is one of that occasions, don't use boring and wordy sentences!


Original letter: "Last, I value the fact that the experience of living in Amsterdam and the Netherlands are being used and added to within the multicultural setting of your school, as I think this city and also the Dutch culture have much to offer"


Correted letter: "I also like the fact it is a Dutch subsidised school with competitive fees and open doors to a variety of students."


The  corrected sentence is summarized, so we can understand the point easily and no getting bored.



Tip 6: never start a sentence with "but"

Starting sentences with "but" can make the sentence loose seriousness. Taking the "but" out of the sentence make this one have more formality, and look stronger.

Original letter: "But in view of my university education, teaching secondary school students might be a future job possibility to me."


Corrected letter: "In view of my university education, teaching in the secondary school might be a future possibility as well."


The corrected letter, without the "but", has less contradictions and it is more "advanced" in terms of language, to say it in some way.



Tip 7: use parallelisms

Parallelisms are a good way for calling the attention of the reader. They are a stylistic device, so they make the text look more attractive and make the reading more sofisticated. Also, the parallelisms, as a stylistic device, make the 
reader want to continue reading the text.


Original letter: "I am an open minded person with excellent social skills. I tolerate pressure easily."


Corrected letter: "As a colleague you will find that I have an open mind, good social skills and an ability to handle pressure easily."

The parallelism is in the way he lists the characteristics that he has. Firstly a quality and then the adjetive. This parallelism makes the reading more interesting and connected, not like the first sentence of the original letter. The parallelism connects the whole idea in one sentence so it is easier to connect the ideas.



Tip 8: use active verbs


Using active verbs, that is to say, the active form of a verb, makes the sentence stronger and centers the attention of the action in the one that is doing it. So the content of the sentence is much stronger.


Original letter: "..value would be added value to your organisation by..."


Corrected letter: "I would add value to your organisation."


So, in the corrected sentence the action is centered in the author, making emphasis on him, that would add value to the organisation. The active form captures the attention of the reader, not like the passive form.
So, in the corrected sentence the action is centered in the author, making emphasis on him, that would add value to the organisation. The active form captures the attention of the reader, not like the passive form.










































Summarizing all, all of these tips help us to make the reading of our text more interesting and help us also to capture the attention of the reader, and keep him/her interested on the text. These tips help us to give more formality to the text, make the content stronger, etc. So, in other words, these tips improve our writing in general.
Remember these eight imortant tips in your writing activities!

Cumulative Test practice

Writing Tasks

Take a stand and develop arguments that support the following ideas statements

1. Fatelessness has a message and it is something that Imre Kertesz never thought or considered when he was writing his novel. Write between 150 and 200 words

From my point of view, the statement raised is true, and the story of the book has a hidden message behind it. In my opinion, the message that the story gives is to stop the discrimination. Along the whole story we can see that in the Holocaust the discrimination against the Jewish and many other races was excessive.
In my special case, the story of the book caused a feeling of sadness for the Jewish people specially. Gyurka, the main character, suffers like hell in the concentration camp because of this unmeasured discrimination. I think that the discrimination in general is bad, but the discrimination in the story  exceeded the limits. Before reading the book, I knew about the holocaust and what happened, but after reading it, I could realize the feelings that all the  discriminated people had, so now I understand  the feelings of the Jewish people thanks to the hidden message in the book.


It is hard/easy to understand the points of view expressed in Fatelessness. It is likely to be a cultural problem/advantage mainly. Write between 150 and 200.

From my point of view, its easy to understand the points of view expressed in the novel.
Firstly, I think that its easy because the protagonist is the one that is telling us the story, so we can make an idea of what Gyurka is passing through.
Also, I think that there is also a cultural issue. In our culture, we study the Second World War, and in some specific schools they study the Holocaust in a more detailed way, so that things can help us to understand easily the feelings involved in the story.
Lastly, the other thing that I think that us fundamental to understand the feeling in an easily way is that we, in our culture here in latin America, have had also many wars. Specificly in my country, Chile, we have for example, the war of the Mapuches against the chilean army. It wasn't exactly like the Holocaust that the Jewis were killed, but it was like an "invasion" to the Mapuche people. So,
with these cultural elements that we had, also like Germany with the Second World War and the Holocaust, can help us to understand easily the feelings developed in the story.


Fatelessness has different narrative techniques that seduce and affect our minds. Write between 150 and 200 words.

From my opinion, the statement is true, the novel has different narrative techniques. The author, using these techniques, can keep us hooked in the book. These techniques help to be hooked it what is going to happen, and all these sort of things, so it makes the book more interesting and also create a sensation that we "have" to read the book, to know what is going to happen.
From another point of view, these techniques that the author uses helps him to make the novel more easily to understand and also more calling. With these techniques, we can understand more easily the feelings that has Gyurka, also we feel sad for Gyurka and the situation through which is passing, and these is possible thanks to the techniques that the author uses.
Lastly, the specific technique of use a protagonist narrator, I think that is the most important. It makes us feel identificated with the character because he is saying what is happening and the feeling he is is developing, so it also makes the story more realistic because is a personal perspective.



The Holocaust and its atrocities have helped us understand Fatelessness much more. The context is a key factor in the creation process of a story. Write between 150 and 200 words.

I am completely agree with the statement. I think that the context is fundamental in writing a book. The context is what sets the idea of the book, saying it in some way.
In the specific case of Fatelessness, the context is the key factor that develops the story. Indeed, the story of Fatelessness is based on the context in which the book was wrote. Without the Holocaust, the story wouldn't exist, I think. The story is developed in the Holocaust, and also the conflict is developed with this events.

Because the story is a real one, the context of this one is what develops it. The Holocaust is the main topic explored in the story, how did Gyurka survive, what feelings developed him during this events, how the Jewish people were discriminated, etc. In other words, the novel, in general, is about the Holocaust and it atrocities.
In conclusion, the context of a book is fundamental to write it, and knowing about this is essencial to understand the story completely, because without knowing about the context, is so much difficult to understand it, and also to enjoy it.