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This page gives examples of the types of non-literary texts you might receive for text-heavy and image-heavy analyses in Paper 1. Take a look and consider how you would perhaps respond to them - use the structure guide in this site to help you. Try assessing the student examples, too, and improve your understanding of what is expected.
Text A:
Taken from https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/tiger
- How does the organisation use layout, form and content to appeal to the reader to participate and take action?
Text B:
There is always hope.
Banksy (2002). Girl With Balloon. London.
- How does the artwork use image and medium to portray a message about society?
Student Responses - Text B:
Student #1
Student #1
This wall art is from Banksy, and was made in 2002 in London. The same way a piece of writing can have hidden meanings beyond only what words mean, this visual art also has a deeper meaning. This is not achieved through words, but through image and the medium in which the artwork is shown. In this essay I will show how with the use of contrast, shapes, and spray paint, banksy is portraying a message about several flaws in society.
On the picture there is a young girl in a dress who is painted in black and white. The only other element of the picture is the red heart shaped balloon, which seems to have been let go by the little girl and is being carried away by the wind. In the scene of the picture there is wind that can be observed by looking at the girl’s hair and dress which flow in the same direction. This is then confirmed by the balloon flowing in that same direction, that being to the left.
Through the use of contrast in colors, Banksy is showing how the loss of color in one's life is sad. The little girl is only a grey scale person with no color. Color here could represent any emotion in one’s life, but red usually signifies a positive emotion such as excitement, or love which is reinforced by the fact that the balloon is a heart. Without this color, the girl is rendered to a grey and emotionless being. The message relating to society could be that as children lose their sense of wonder, they become regular dull humans.
Just like color, Banksy is using shape to represent emotions, and how they are easily lost by society. The shape of the balloon floating away for the girl is a heart, which can signify a whole range of positive emotions, the most common one being love. The fact that Banksy is using a little girl plays on the prejudice that girls are more emotional than men, which would make the loss of this balloon more impactful to the one seeing the painting.
Lastly, through the use of graffiti, Banksy is denouncing the fact that society doesn't appreciate ethos type of art to make his own more impactful. Society doesn’t like graffiti, this way of making art is frowned upon and is seen as vandalism. Banksy uses this view of his art type to make it more striking since it breaks the people's expectation of museum art being presented in the form of street art.
In conclusion, through the use of contrasting colors and shapes representing emotions, in addition to a uncommon medium for this type of art, Banksy is making an impactful art piece by utilising and denouncing common social dogmas. Color and shape are used to show the loss of emotions in people, and the way the art is presented as graffiti uses the fact that people think its vandalism to break expectations and portray another type of art.
Student #2
Student #2
The non-literary text at hand is a graffiti, sprayed on the bare urban wall in London, UK by the artists under the alias Banksy. The spray-painted graffiti depicting a heart-shaped red balloon escaping the grasp of a little girl appeared in the streets of London in 2002. The caption of the piece: “There is always hope” reveals that the primary message of the image is to give people a sense of hope. However, upon closer analysis, the secondary purpose is to convey an ambiguous message on society, mental health, and love to passersby’s. In order to understand the content, context, and hidden messages of the artwork, the artist’s choice to use an intricate blend of image and medium to effectively communicate these ideas, all the while leaving room for personal interpretation while being discussed in this essay.
The artwork depicts a young girl in a skirt reaching out with one arm to either catch a balloon or let go of it. The bright red, heart-shaped balloon is being carried away by a gust of wind, which blows towards the girl’s back, gently blowing her short hair in front of her face and her skirt forwards. The artwork was spray-painted on a bleak wall with multiple shades of chipped white paint. Behind the girl, an electricity box with multiple cables runs along the surface, indicating that the graffiti is located in an urban environment, perhaps even on the side of an industrial establishment.
The image of the text and the extensive use of symbolism is vital in understanding the secondary message of the artwork. One interpretation of the artwork is that it is the visual representation of the age-old saying: “if you love someone, let it go”. This is supported by the shape and color of the balloon, as the heart shape is a classical symbol of love. However, the interpretation doesn’t just stop at romantic love, but also familial love, platonic love, and even love for a set of ideas and values. Furthermore, the authors chose to employ the symbol of a girl as effective as it radiates innocence, implying that the person “letting go” of a relationship is pure at heart. The girl’s outstretched arm represents the longing of The second interpretation of the artwork’s purpose is that it is trying to give hope to people that are suffering from mental health issues such as depression, and offers encouragement, reminding them that ‘there is always hope’ as a way to aid them in their struggle. The girl, a symbol of innocence, loses the ultimate symbol for hope and love, the heart-shaped balloon. The caption reminds people that even when it feels like hope is lost, represented by the girl’s outstretched arm, it still exists and will return. In this interpretation, the girl symbolizes uncertainty and even desperation, as a child is often associated with helplessness. Next, the wind, which is blowing the balloon away from the girl, represents society. The society around the girl fails to help her, instead of working against her, highlighting the struggle and isolation that people with mental health issues experience. Page successfully saved!
The medium is extremely important to decipher the hidden messages of the artwork. The fact that the image was placed in a presumably public space supports the interpretation that the artwork relates to depression as it is meant to be seen by random passerby’s and brighten their day. The fact that the artwork itself is graffiti emphasizes the anti-authority, rebellious tone of the image. Graffitis are, by nature, caricatures, and scribbles on surfaces within public view without explicit permission. Hence, the message feels like it is being whispered in secret, further highlighting how little support people with mental illnesses receive. Graffitis can be provocative and can also carry a deep message such as this one. The bright red balloon visually contrasts against the grey and white shades of the wall, insinuating that the balloon, the symbol for hope and love, is the center of attention of the piece.
In conclusion, the author effectively employs symbolism such as the girl to symbolize purity and innocence, the heart to represent love and hope, and the wind to portray the counterproductive and damaging effects of society to highlight the message. The beauty of the artwork is that several interpretations can be extracted. For example, the earpiece can be seen as a statement on the difficulty and pain of the abstract concept of love, as well as a critique on how society treats people suffering from mental health problems. As the graffiti exists in a public space, it is hidden in plain sight, to be discovered by anyone whose eye it catches. Graffitis such as these casually and subtly promote internal discourse.
Text A:
Marchant, N. (20.1.21). World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/01/climate-change-link-infectious-diseases-covid-19-study/ Extracted 8.3.21
How does the author's tone aid in conveying an important message about the issue at hand?
Text B:
Cover of TIME magazine (July 2020). New York: TIME inc.
How are textual elements used to create impact and create a call to action?
Student Responses - Text B:
Student #1
In this magazine cover of the TIME magazine published in July 2020, the author attempts to inform the reader of the severity of global warming, while also providing a glimpse of hope to the reader. This is done via the usage of a headline as well as a plethora of different trend graphs depicting the general trends regarding different things about climate change.
At the top of the cover, stands a headline - ”One Last Chance” - of one of the articles within the magazine. Below this headline there is the name of the magazine, which gets partly cut off by the trend graph of “CO2 emissions” (In the middle left of the text) over the “last two centuries” (In the middle left of the text). The TIME logo being cut off here and seemingly being consumed by the CO2 graph is a metaphor about the dangers of climate change, and creates the message in the future, our CO2 emissions might ‘consume’ the planet. Below there are a bunch of graphs showing the trends of different things having to do with climate change. These graphs are filled with the thing they are representing, for example the “SEA LEVEL” (Bottom right of the text) graph looks like water, the “LAND ICE” (Bottom right of the text) looks like ice and the “RENEWABLE ENERGY CONSUMPTION” (Middle left of the text) is filled in with trees. This creates a contrast between the different graphs, and immediately gives an idea of what the different graphs are supposed to depict without even having to read the captions. This makes these graphs very easy to read and understand for the reader. Furthermore these graphs also don’t have a scale or specific numbers, which clearly caters to a non-scientific audience. Instead the graphs only show a general trend over the last two centuries, which is the only thing the reader really has to know. This way the author doesn’t give the reader unnecessarily specific information.
The graphs mostly depict causes and effects of climate change. They show that “CO2 EMISSIONS” are going up, and in turn so is the “AVERAGE GLOBAL TEMPERATURE” as well as the “SEA LEVEL”, while “LAND ICE” is decreasing. These things are all commonly talked about when it comes to climate change and inform the reader about the negative effects of climate change and how they’re developing. Additionally however, there are two key details about these graphs. First of all, the CO2 graph shows a “PROJECTED 7% DROP IN 2020” (Top right of the text), and the graph of “RENEWABLE ENERGY CONSUMPTION” (Middle right of the text) is going upwards. These two things show that actually, there is a chance to combat climate change. The message that these graphs create is that, while climate change is a threat to us and our environment, there is still hope for humanity in the form of renewable energy sources.
The headline shown at the top of the text - “ONE LAST CHANCE” - and the subheading below it - “THE DEFINING YEAR FOR THE PLANET” - expand on this message of a glimpse of hope in a dire situation. The headline means that humanity has one last chance of combating climate change, and informs the reader that we need to act now or it will be too late. Specifically, the thing that is made out to be our one last chance is the year of 2020. Looking back at the graphs, specifically the text saying “PROJECTED 7% DROP IN 2020”, together with the publishing date of July 2020 (Which was well into the covid pandemic) as well as the subheading calling 2020 the “DEFINING” year for the planet, it shows how the author tries to portray the year 2020 and the Covid pandemic as a positive thing for the planet, since it decreased our CO2 emissions by 7%. This implicitly informs the reader that, to cut down on climate change, everybody needs to cut back on their CO2 emissions much like they did during the pandemic.
In conclusion, the author utilizes simplified graphs to inform a non-scientific audience about the trends of the causes and negative effects of climate change. Additionally they use a headline and small annotations on the graph to create their overall message, that climate change is a dire issue, and that our one last chance to fight it is now. This chance refers to the growing renewable energy usage, as well as the dropping CO2 emissions caused by the Covid pandemic.
Student #2
The TIME magazine (incorporated - inc.) has released a new double edition with the title “ONE LAST CHANCE”, released on the 20th of July 2020. Barely any text and mostly visuals attempt in informing the reader about the drastic changes to resources associated with climate change through the use of colors, image/clip arts, and special textual features. However, the clip art does not only make the cover appealing, it also informs the reader about this history of the environmental factors and the beginning of climate change.
The magazine cover is a normal A4 sized cover with a red border. The cover is mostly a graph with some statistics such as “7%” for carbon emissions. The header occupies roughly one seventh of the entire cover. The infographic consisting of clip art features takes care of the remaining space. Different environmental factors have been listed including “carbon emissions”, “Average global temperatures”, “land ice”, “renewable energy consumption”, and “sea level”. Each section is represented by the literal meaning of the factors; the sea levels are represented by a water clip art feature, land ice represented by ice crystals, renewable energy by trees, temperature by yellow contour lines, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through greyish tones. Not are the factors colored through their literal meaning, but also where these are located in the infographic. Sea and ice are at the bottom, followed by trees and temperature at the top, with GHGs at the very top and the title doing the rest. This is why the cover of the magazine looks similar to a mountain landscape with the water at the bottom, followed by trees and forest, with bare rocks at the top of the mountain. The colors eventually decrease in shade and increase in brightness in terms of lighting. Also each factor displayed by dotted line graphs does not necessarily start from the very left side. But looking at the infographic, one essential piece is missing; the numerical values. This emphasizes the fact that some data may be very unreliable if not even fake, as the designer may have over exaggerated certain values. All factors except for renewable energy start from the very left side of the infographic, assuming the very left side is the y-axis showing the absolute percentage of increase from 0 to 100. Assuming the x-axis would be the bottom border line representing time (same as the TIME magazine), then the ice caps would be gone half way through time, where renewable energy would begin at half time. This indicates that the clip art shows that the ice caps will have melted away even if we were to start consuming renewable resources. One does need to know how to read such infographics to avoid misinterpretation of the data presented by the factors. The area under the curve until the next line is met is the amount in percentage i.e. any factor starting at 20% going to 22% does not mean that 22% of that factor is being respected, but only 2%. Sea level shows a very slow exponential rise, or one could even see it as being linear rise. Land ice eventually decreases inversely exponentially after decreasing slowly in a linear manner. The water levels at the point of the graph meeting the ice caps show little icebergs floating in the water, showing how and where the ice will land in the end. The year 2020 has survived a global pandemic involving lockdowns and travel restrictions, which explains why there would be a projected drop in GHG emissions. The GHG emissions is the only factor that appears to be in a decline for the year 2020 based on the infographic. Every other factor has either not made it to 2020 or is in a steady state at which it is increasing. The paradoxical presentation of the infographic shows a GHG emission, temperature and sea level increase, while renewable energy also increases. According to geographical sciences, as renewable energy increases, the other factors should decrease due to the less enhanced greenhouse effect (aka global warming). The enhanced greenhouse effect as used in physics describes the warming of the earth. The infographics showing such a dramatic increase in temperature is therefore clearly exaggerated, since the one GHG responsible for most of the temperature increase is water vapour, which is why carbon and nitrogen emissions are only responsible for a maximum of 1.5°C increase, compared to water vapour accounting for the other 30°C since water vapour is also more abundant that other GHGs.
The magazine is a TIME magazine, enhanced by the fact that the word “TIME” is written largely on the upper half of the magazine using the Times New Roman font, which also has the word “time” in it. The header is clear of color and visuals, but fully packed with words, statements, and the names of known people. The title “TIME” is displayed largely across the cover, and the carbon dioxide emission graph intersects with the title, with the letter “E” to be specific. People who do not know what magazine this is would think that this is a “TIMF” magazine with an “F” instead of the “E”. This means that the actions against the enhanced greenhouse effect should be taken seriously, as we are seemingly running out of time, hence the letter “E” being covered by the emission graph. The running out of time can be seen in many ways; either the 2015 Paris agreement of 1.5°C cannot be halted if emissions continue to rise this year (2020), and/or climate change will be irreversible after a certain period of time with a certain amount of GHG emissions if nothing is done to reduce GHG emissions. One weird thing however is that reports have come out early June 2020 claiming that carbon levels world wide dropped by 7%, which is more than ever before, and exactly one month later the TIME magazine releases this Magazine stating that it is our last chance to handle the situation. ANother way of looking at it would be that one year is not going to be enough, the reductions should take place every year, and a reduction of 7% would not have caused major changes in the reduction of greenhouse gases. The title expresses very clearly that it is “one last chance” with the subtitle “the defining year for the planet” as if 2021 would be everything similar to what happened in the movie 2012 (2009 - the world going down according to the Mayan Calendar). But looking at the title from another perspective, 2020 seems like the year where either GHGs are not reduced and the Paris Agreement is not executable, or that reductions will buy us more time in achieving the 1.5°C annual temperature change goal. This is what could be meant under “the defining year”. The “one last chance” part could be understood as if humans have attempted to reduce GHG emissions in the previous years however failed, and 2020 would be the absolute deadline. Yet the title seems to be over exaggerated, especially when it is know that time progresses and that 2021 will not result in the world going down and that it is not our last chance of anything, especially if the overall temperature rise is only 1.5°C. Since this magazine happens to be a double edition, which is stated very faintly at the top left corner inside the red border, the magazine also contains an addition of “The Dalai Lama, Greta Thunberg, Vanessa Nakate, Oliver Jeffers, Stacey Abrams, Angelina Jolie & more”. This is writing very small under the subtitle. This shows that the magazine attempts to reach a larger audience that may not be interested in the topic of climate change. However as these people are being targeted, their main focus (to spread awareness on climate change) also gets spread even further. These people are either famous due to governmental actions like the Dalai Lama, protests and activism such as Greta Thunberg, or entertainment such as A. Jolie. Everyone reading this magazine might not know who these people are and what they did, which is why these people are probably the ones for more GHG restrictions, but displayed in such a way as if these people belong to the additional stuff from the magazine in the second half of the double issue.
Overall the author has successfully attempted to raise awareness about the time we are running out of slowing down the enhanced greenhouse effect (climate change cannot be halted as it is a natural phenomenon which was present since the creation of earth). This was achieved through the well laid out graphical analysis of certain issues impacting the climate and the hyperbolic title of our last chance of doing something to slow down the enhanced greenhouse effect. Many statistics are obviously over exaggerated and the graphics are not to scale, since the human population has already started consuming renewable resources before all ice has melted away, which is stated otherwise in the graphics. These large details however can mostly only be detected through a handful of pre-knowledge of the reader who studied the topics of science and atmospheric physics. Most people do not know these research results and hence fully believe and hysterically spread the news around about the last chance and the topic of climate change by referring to the graph on the cover page, which is what the TIME magazine hopes to achieve in my option. Especially if they are not only to inform the reader, but to also get as many viewers as possible to get more money through subscriptions. Yet the magazine is well designed.
What would an examiner take into account when reading these responses?
#1
Is the response a response to the Guiding Question? Is it explicit? If not, and the student has rejected the guiding question, have they established their own question or line of inquiry?
I think the answer to this is mixed. One or two of the responses do take the guiding question into account and frame the response around it. Whether it is explicit enough, though, is questionable. One or two others would be perfectly good commentaries on the full text, but don't really establish themselves as guided textual analyses responding to the question.
#2
It is worth noting that in both examination sessions to date (December 2021, at time of writing), the visual has been an infographic rather than a magazine cover as above.
How would you grade these four examples? Perhaps, instead of marking them /20, consider ranking them in order of quality, to see if you can identify what good things can be taken from each.
How much of Paper 1 - Sample texts and student work have you understood?
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