013102 Take Home Assignment

Instructions: Analysis: For each text: 1. Divide the text into clauses by typing out each clause on a separate line. (Ignore embedded clauses in nominal groups). 2. For each clause identify the Process and Process type. (You can do this by putting the verbal group realizing the Process into bold and putting the name of the process type at the end of the clause. see example text) 3. For each clause identify the Theme. (You can do this by underlining the Theme.) Intepretation: For each text: 4. Describe the social purpose and genre of the text; and the field, tenor and mode. 5. Describe the experiential meaning of each text. What types of process types do you find? What types of things are acting as Participants in the clauses. 6. What types of interpersonal meanings do you find in each text. 7. Describe the patterns of Theme running through the text. Discussion: 8. Compare the two texts. What are the similarities and differences. 9. Discuss how you could use your knowledge of the relationship between context and text to assist the student writer of Text A to produce a more successful text in the future. Imagine you had 15 minutes to spend with this person. What would you focus on? What would you praise? What would you try to change? How would you attempt the latter? Student Text: Text A [Background: This text was written by a Year 8 Geography student early on during a unit of work on climate. The topic of the text was meant to be Sydney's climate. The teacher’s comment to the student on this piece of writing was: “You need to write a geography paragraph on temperature and rainfall not an English essay!”]

Sydney’s Climate Sydney is a beautiful place to visit it has one thing I don’t really like that is the

weather. Its climate is always different. One day it could be raining and the next day it would be so hot you would have to have a cold shower. I like Sydney’s weather when it is nice and sunny I like Summer that is my favourite time of the year, because it is mostly sunny. Although this year in Sydney it wasn’t as sunny as I thought it would be. Because half of Summer it was either raining or was very windy and very cold. (Year 8 geography student) Wikipaedia Text: Text B [Background: This text is taken from a Wikipaedia (an online encyclopaedia) article. ]

Sydney’s Climate Sydney has an oceanic climate with warm summers and cool winters, with rainfall spread throughout the year. The weather is moderated by proximity to the ocean, and more extreme temperatures are recorded in the inland western suburbs. The warmest month is January, with an average air temperature range on the coast of 18.6°C – 25.8°C and an average of 14.6 days a year over 30°C. The maximum recorded temperature was 45.3 °C on January 14, 1939 at the end of a 4 day nationwide heat wave. The winter is mildly cool, with temperatures rarely dropping below 5°C in coastal areas. The coldest month is July, with an average range of 8.0°C – 16.2 °C. The lowest recorded minimum was 2.1°C. Rainfall is fairly evenly divided between summer and winter, but is slightly higher during the first half of the year, when easterly winds dominate. The average annual rainfall, with moderate to low variability, is 1217mm, falling on an average 138 days a year. Snowfall last occurred in the Sydney City area in the 1830's.