Layout:
1. at the start of your answer sate your audience.
2. You should represent your opinion as factual information
3. It should be written in present tense
4. Refer to some theorists but not in too much detail
5. It should be a controlled style of writing and should be engaging for the reader from the start
6. You should add views, opinions and positions to a non-specialist audience.
Go to:
http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/english/as-and-a-level/english-language-7701-7702/assessment-resources
For possible exam responses and examiner commentary and feedback.
An example of a news article that could be related back to this- is: Yes, we are judged on our accents written by Hannah Jane Parkinson and featured in the guardian.
I have altered how I speak to suit situations in the past, but I would never go full Eliza Doolittle and get rid of my Liverpool accent
If a Liverpudlian child had aspirations to be a doctor, would the fact that he or she pronounced doctor as if spelt with four cs and not one be a hindrance? Before even buying the Fisher Price stethoscope, should parents take a surgical scalpel to slice out extraneous consonants and sharpen sloppy vowels?
Esther McVey, the Liverpool-born employment minister, has said that people should not feel the need to “neutralise” their accents in order to get ahead in life.
In a culture as obsessed with class as Britain, it’s a perennial debate. We all know that Lincolnshire lass Margaret Thatcher rubbed out her accent. The Telegraph once presented actual evidence that Cherie Blair had undergone vocal coaching.
Does the taboo still exist? I too am from Liverpool, and the two most significant interviews I’ve had in life were for entrance to Oxford at 20, and the other to work at the Guardian. One was successful, the other less so (I’ll leave discerning readers to work out which was which).
Did I alter my accent during these interviews? At Oxford, I’m afraid to say I definitely did. Especially after the don suggested that as I was from Liverpool I had “come a long way”. I glowered at him and fired back that I lived just around the corner (I did), but I still felt like I’d been picked last for a game of fives.
As for the Guardian interview, well, there’s not much that is more intimidating than being interviewed by Alan Rusbridger. In that instance I was lucky just to get any words out at all.
I have never had a particularly strong Scouse accent, however – the result of a mother who was born an hour away from the city. However, this too can be a problem and has invited accusations of inauthenticity. In Liverpool I will be accused of being “posh” or mocked for saying “yah”. This happened in the girls’ football team I played with before I had even left the city, but it happens more often now as a returning Londoner.
There is also the matter of regional slang. I can go for months down south without uttering words I would frequently use in Liverpool, simply because people will not understand them. I would never say that something is “arlarse” down here, for example.
Words like “like”, used as an ellipsis, are even harder to shake. I’ve sort of replaced this with a Sloaney sounding “ohm” when I need to bide time, but it does sound as though I’m about to go into a Dharmic religious chant.
It’s not just a British thing, however. We may be more gripped than most, but I do remember my stilted Russian being mocked by sophisticated Muscovites. I had learned it in the southern city of Samara, so I basically sounded like a bumpkin.
So are McVey’s comments still pertinent? Yes, I think they are. I am grateful that my pronunciation can’t always be pinned down, and that my vowel sounds slide around like a calf on ice. And that wouldn’t be the case if I never felt as though I was being judged.
I would never go full Eliza Doolittle though, and dispel my Scouse accent completely, because I wouldn’t feel comfortable with fudging such an integral part of my identity (politicians with faux Estuary accents, take note).
Tomayto? Tomahto? I honestly don’t care. In fact, I don’t even really like tomatoes, however they’re pronounced. Let’s definitely call the whole thing off.
This article could be an example of a possible response for section B it is more informal and gives personal experiences that the reader can relate to. Even though this might not hit all the criteria needed in this answer it gives a good idea of the type of content needed like personal stories that the reader can relate to. The chatty language makes it more personal and less formal even though there is still a slight formal boundary.
