Close Reading for Audience and Purpose Essays - Communication Design

Close Reading for Audience and Purpose Essays - Communication Design Close Reading for Audience and Purpose Key Terms: Audience: defined as the group of listeners or readers for whom a text or message is intended Purpose: describes the writer's intentions in writing a text, be they to entertain, enlighten, persuade, inform, evaluate, define, instruct, explainor even deceive. Writer's and speakers want to instigate a response from their audience. Context of Interpretation: refers to the factors that can influence a reader of a text, such as time, place, or personal experience. Context of composition: refers to the factors that influence a writer when creating a text, such as time, place, and personal experience. AUDIENCE In order to study the relationship between a text and the context in which it was written, you need to know and understand the concept of audience. Like eavesdropping on a conversation, when analyzing texts for the course you need to "fill in the gaps" and look for what is implied. Texts are neither written nor read in a vacuum. Time and place can influence how and why a text is written and how it is interpreted. In the course you will examine texts where you will feel a distance between yourself and the intended audience (think of picking up a magazine that targets people with completely different interests that your own) When considering audience, think of the following questions: Who was the text written for? How are you part of or different from the target audience? PURPOSE Writers want to create a response in their intended audience. Therefore, every text has a purpose. To determine purpose, ask yourself the following: What is the writer's intention? Why did the writer write the text? CONTEXT OF INTERPRETATION Readers are often influenced by the contexts in which they read. They are affected by their particular circumstances and environment, as well as their personal history. This is known as the context of interpretation The context of interpretation is why you may interpret a text differently from someone else or why you may interpret it differently that the author intended. CONTEXT OF COMPOSITION Writers, just like everyone, are affected by their environment and their personal experiences. Time, race, gender, nationality and family history are a few factors that influence writers. Factors such as these are called the context of composition. As you read you need to be a detective looking for pieces of evidence that reflect the context of composition. These pieces of evidence are called contextual clues. The figure below shows the relationship between the context of composition, the target audience, and the context of interpretation CONTEXT OF COMPOSITION 3363162124968 Time and Place020000 Time and Place 14685265212100344606-20471600 6718585622100 327342535560 Writer020000 Writer 140632216459009359904889500 296227551435 Text020000 Text 11899902159000 9810751676400 1261110106680 Aim of Communication: aka Purpose020000 Aim of Communication: aka Purpose 3455035133350 Time and Place of Target Audience020000 Time and Place of Target Audience344606-20471600 16757658699500 9359904889500 3105150118110 Target Audience020000 Target Audience 13265156413500 981075412750 1255395106045 Reader's Placement of Text020000 Reader's Placement of Text 3452751122918 Your Place and Time00 Your Place and Time 167145210203700344606-20471600 6700345870500 9359904889500 3084616125392 Text020000 Text 13265157048500 14065254381500 3357748160622 You020000 You CONTEXT OF INTERPRETATION

Using Verb Tenses in Chinese

Using Verb Tenses in Chinese Western languages such as English have several ways to express tense. The most common are verb conjunctions which change the form of the verb depending on the time frame. For example, the English verb eat can be changed to ate for past actions and eating for current actions. Mandarin Chinese does not have any verb conjugations. All verbs have a single form. For example, the verb for eat is Ã¥ Æ' (chÄ «), which can be used for the past, present, and future. Despite the lack of Mandarin verb conjugations, there are other ways to express timeframes in Mandarin Chinese. State the Date The simplest way to  clarify which tense you are speaking in is to directly state the time expression (like today, tomorrow, yesterday) as part of the sentence. In Chinese, this is usually at the beginning of the sentence. For example: æ˜ ¨Ã¥ ¤ ©Ã¦Ë†â€˜Ã¥ Æ'è ± ¬Ã¨â€šâ€°Ã£â‚¬â€šÃ¦Ëœ ¨Ã¥ ¤ ©Ã¦Ë†â€˜Ã¥ Æ'çÅ' ªÃ¨â€šâ€°Ã£â‚¬â€šZuà ³tiÄ n wÇ’ chÄ « zhÃ… « rà ²u.Yesterday I ate pork. Once the timeframe is established, it is understood and can be omitted from the rest of the conversation. Completed Actions The particle ä ºâ€  (le) is used to indicate that an action occurred in the past and has been completed. Like the time expression, it can be omitted once the timeframe has been established: (æ˜ ¨Ã¥ ¤ ©)我å Æ'è ± ¬Ã¨â€šâ€°Ã¤ ºâ€ Ã£â‚¬â€š(æ˜ ¨Ã¥ ¤ ©)我å Æ'çÅ' ªÃ¨â€šâ€°Ã¤ ºâ€ Ã£â‚¬â€š(Zuà ³tiÄ n) wÇ’ chÄ « zhÃ… « rà ²u le.(Yesterday) I ate pork. The particle ä ºâ€  (le) can also be used for the immediate future, so be careful of its usage and be sure to understand both functions. Past Experience When you have done something in the past, this action can be described with the verb-suffix  Ã© Å½ / è ¿â€¡ (guà ²). For example, if you want to say that you have already seen the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (è‡ ¥Ã¨â„¢Å½Ã¨â€" Ã© ¾ /Ã¥  §Ã¨â„¢Å½Ã¨â€" Ã© ¾â„¢ - wà ² hÇ” cng long), you can say: 我å · ²Ã§ ¶â€œÃ§Å"‹é Å½Ã¨â€¡ ¥Ã¨â„¢Å½Ã¨â€" Ã© ¾ Ã¦Ë†â€˜Ã¥ · ²Ã§ » Ã§Å"‹è ¿â€¡Ã¥  §Ã¨â„¢Å½Ã¨â€" Ã© ¾â„¢WÇ’ yÇ jÄ «ng kn guà ² wà ² hÇ” cng long. Unlike the particle ä ºâ€  (le), the verb suffix guà ² (é Å½ / è ¿â€¡) is used to talk about an unspecific past. If you want to say that you saw the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon yesterday, you would say: æ˜ ¨Ã¥ ¤ ©Ã¦Ë†â€˜Ã§Å"‹è‡ ¥Ã¨â„¢Å½Ã¨â€" Ã© ¾ Ã¤ ºâ€ Ã¦Ëœ ¨Ã¥ ¤ ©Ã¦Ë†â€˜Ã§Å"‹å  §Ã¨â„¢Å½Ã¨â€" Ã© ¾â„¢Ã¤ ºâ€ Zuà ³tiÄ n wÇ’ kn wà ² hÇ” cng là ³ng le. Completed Actions In The Future As mentioned above, the particle ä ºâ€  (le) can be used for the future as well as the past. When used with a time expression such as 明å ¤ © (mà ­ngtÄ «an - tomorrow), the meaning is similar to the English perfective. Take for instance: 明å ¤ ©Ã¦Ë†â€˜Ã¥ ° ±Ã¤ ¼Å¡Ã¥Å½ »Ã¥  °Ã¥Å'â€"ä ºâ€ Ã¦ËœÅ½Ã¥ ¤ ©Ã¦Ë†â€˜Ã¥ ° ±Ã¤ ¼Å¡Ã¥Å½ »Ã¥  °Ã¥Å'â€"ä ºâ€ Mà ­ngtiÄ n wÇ’ jià ¹ huà ¬ qà ¹ TibÄ›i le.Tomorrow I will have gone to Taipei. The near future is expressed with the combination of the particles è ¦  (yo - to intend); Ã¥ ° ± (jià ¹ - right away); or Ã¥ ¿ « (kui - soon) with the particle ä ºâ€  (le): 我è ¦ Ã¥Å½ »Ã¥  °Ã¥Å'â€"ä ºâ€ WÇ’ yo qà ¹ TibÄ›i le.Im just going to Taipei. Continuing Actions When an action is continuing to the present moment, the expressions æ ­ £Ã¥Å" ¨ (zhà ¨ngzi), æ ­ £ (zhà ¨ng) or Ã¥Å" ¨ (zi) can be used, along with the particle å‘ ¢ (ne) at the end of the sentence. This can look something like: 我æ ­ £Ã¥Å" ¨Ã¥ Æ'é £ ¯Ã¥â€˜ ¢WÇ’ zhà ¨ngzi chÄ «fn ne.I am eating. or 我æ ­ £Ã¥ Æ'é £ ¯Ã¥â€˜ ¢WÇ’ zhà ¨ng chÄ «fn ne.I am eating. or 我åÅ" ¨Ã¥ Æ'é £ ¯Ã¥â€˜ ¢WÇ’ zi chÄ «fn ne.I am eating. or 我å Æ'é £ ¯Ã¥â€˜ ¢WÇ’ chÄ «fn ne.I am eating. The continuative action phrase is negated with æ ² ¡ (mà ©i), and æ ­ £Ã¥Å" ¨ (zhà ¨ngzi) is omitted. The å‘ ¢ (ne), however, remains. For example: 我æ ² ¡Ã¥ Æ'é £ ¯Ã¥â€˜ ¢WÇ’ mà ©i chÄ «fn ne.I am not eating. Mandarin Chinese Tenses It is often said that Mandarin Chinese does not have any tenses. If tenses mean verb conjugation, this is true, since verbs in Chinese have an unchangeable form. However, as we can see in the above examples, there are many ways to express timeframes in Mandarin Chinese. The main difference in terms of grammar between Mandarin Chinese and European languages is that once a timeframe has been established in Mandarin Chinese, there is no longer any need for precision. This means sentences are constructed in simple forms without verb endings or other qualifiers. When talking to a native Mandarin Chinese speaker, Westerners may get confused with this lack of continuous precision. But this confusion arises from the comparison between English (and other Western languages) and Mandarin Chinese. Western languages require subject/verb agreements, without which the language will be glaringly wrong. Compare this with Mandarin Chinese, in which a simple statement can be in any timeframe, or express a question, or be an answer.