ENG2601 - Applied English Language Studies: Further Explorations
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University Of South Africa (Unisa)
The document consist of an excerpt from Jan/Feb 2023 supplimentary exam paper and an answer script that obtained 88% in final mark. It provides an analysis of language systems that entails genre and register, as well as persuasive and argumentation techniques.
ENG2601 - Applied English Language Studies: Further Explorations
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ENG2601. JAN/FEB 2023
Supplementary
Examination Answer
Script
The document consist of an excerpt from the Jan/Feb 2023 supp exam
paper and an answer script that obtained 88% in final mark.
Author: Malesela
For more information contact:
maleselamakwesa1@gmail.com
,ENG2601FEB/MAR 2023 EXAM
Questions One and Two are based on Text A
Read Text A below and answer the questions set.
TEXT A
Saudi Arabia Wants to Build This Bizarre City Dubbed ‘The Line
The ambitious project sounds like something from a dystopian sci-fi movie about the death
of the planet.
Saudi Arabia is developing a new city, 150-stories tall and built from scratch, that will
serve as a semi-enclosed environment where people can live and work without ever
stepping foot outside. And while the promotional videos released Monday are likely
an attempt to give the development a utopian feel that recalls so many “intentional
cities” of the 20th century, the project comes across as extremely dystopian.
The city, completely walled on four sides with some kind of ventilation on top, is
planned to be about 546 yards tall (500 meters), 218 yards wide (200 meters), and
105 miles long (170 km), according to the promotional videos, and will feature
cutting-edge technology along with high-speed transportation from end-to-end. Cars
will be completely unnecessary.
A video uploaded to Twitter proclaims this new city will house 9 million residents to
provide a more healthy and “sustainable” quality of life. And while it’s being
advertised as an eco-friendly project, with water and power supplies billed as “100%
renewables,” the details have yet to be provided.
“For too long, humanity has existed within dysfunctional and polluted cities that
ignore nature. Now, a revolution in civilisation is taking place. Imagine a traditional
city and consolidating its footprint, designing to protect and enhance nature,” the
narrator of the new video explains.
The video shows what appears to be autonomous drones zipping around the new
city, with plenty of greenery. And people who live there will supposedly be able to go
from one end to another in just 20 minutes-minute walk.
“Residents have access to all their daily needs within 5-minute walk
neighbourhoods,” the narrator continues.
Another promotional video, uploaded to YouTube on Tuesday and similar in content,
shows the city from the perspective of a young woman literally flying through the
environment. And its soundtrack definitely helps it sound dystopian – a dark and
spooky cover of Louis Armstrong’s “It’s a Wonderful World.”
Why would they use a dark and spooky version of the song more likely to hear in the
trailer for a 2010s movie about a serial killer? Your guess is as good as ours. But it’s
certainly a choice.
As we mentioned earlier, this is far from the first time that an incredibly expansive
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,ENG2601FEB/MAR 2023 EXAM
planned community has taken shape on the drawing board. Even Amazon founder
Jeff Bezos showed off something similar in 2019, albeit his plan is for a space
colony.
Whether it was the George Pullman’s hyper-capitalist town in Chicagoland, the drug-
free cult of Synanon in California, or Upton Sinclair’s socialist cooperative in New
Jersey, history has shown intentional communities are often ruined by the egos of
the people building them. And there’s arguably no bigger ego on the planet than the
developer of this city, Mr. Bone-saw himself, Mohammed bin Salman.
“We cannot ignore the liveability and environmental crisis facing our world’s cities
and NEOM is at the forefront of delivering new and imaginative solutions to address
these issues,” MBS said in press release about the project.
“NEON is leading a team of the brightest minds in architecture, engineering and
construction to make the idea of building upwards a reality,” the Saudi royal
continued.
The question is whether MBS will be able to pull this one off. The country likely has
enough money to make it happen, but as we’ve learned from countless utopian
communities of the 19th and 20th centuries, you always need more than just money
to make a utopian experiment work.
Note to students: Do not research this topic! You are required to analyse this
excerpt ONLY. The link to the webpage is merely for reference purposes, and
you should not discuss the promotional video or the Twitter feeds mentioned
in the text.
QUESTION 1: Genre and register
Read Text A above and write a well-structured essay of 1000 - 1200 words in which you
analyse how the purpose of the piece is established and maintained throughout. In your
analysis, pay particular attention to the genre and the register of the text. Remember to
provide evidence from the text for your claims. [50]
QUESTION 2: Persuasive/Argumentation techniques
Read Text A and write an essay of 1000 - 1200 words in which you discuss which
persuasive and argumentation techniques are used in the piece; you should also
consider whether they are effective. Remember to analyse HOW language features and
rhetorical devices are used by the author to persuade the reader. Refer to specific
examples from the text to substantiate your claims. [50]
Saudi Arabia Wants to Build This Bizarre City Dubbed “The Line”
This essay aims to analyse how the writer of the abovementioned article uses
register and language conventions to establish and maintain the message he
communicates throughout the text. Furthermore, the essay seeks to determine the
type of genre this text belongs to. In the process the essay will provide examples
from the text to support the arguments made.
To start with, examining the text our attention is immediately drawn to paragraph 1
which stands out for it written in italics. The use of italics is in this paragraph creates
the impression that the writer is sharing his thoughts with the reader, and at the
same time providing a glimpse of his thought on the impending topic.
After a close reading of the provided article the essay would thus argue that the text
belongs to a genre of online blog writing, commonly known as blogging, where
writers “interact with ideas and facts of the exterior world” (Eagan: 2013) and then
share their opinion with their audience. The claim of online blogging could be
deduced in paragraphs 4 and 8 through the mentioning of associated online media
platforms such as Twitter and YouTube, respectively. Another feature distinct to
online writing is the inclusion of a link, which is provided at the bottom of the article.
A link affords the reader the option to conduct a further of the topic. According to
Eagan (2013) blog writing “is a new genre waiting to mature and solidify its status
like the novel did in the twentieth Century”
Furthermore, the essay maintains that the article is a blog post, first because of the
inclusion of the writer’s name, Matt Novak, and date and time of the post’s
publication, which was on 7/26/22 at 7:00 a.m. consecutively. Secondly, there are
grammar errors in the text. For example, in paragraph 2 the following statement,
“promotional video released Monday…” sounds grammatically incorrect with the
omission of the determiner ‘on’, between the words ‘released and Monday’.
Moreover, the writer incorrectly uses “150-stories” (in paragraph 2) instead of
“storeys” to indicate the height of the building of the planned city. Unlike traditional
media where writers have editors to proofread their produced work before public
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