CAPE 2009 Communication Studies Paper 2 Module 1

CAPE 2009 Communication Studies Paper 2 Module 1 was a tricky passage as it required students to think harder than usual. I predict this is the new path of Communication Studies, no longer are students going to just read the extract once and see the language techniques and strategies jumping out at them but now they will have to read and read again.
Fear not students, as usual a writer always uses strategies and language techniques/devices to achieve the purpose or to make the main point...always. A writer cannot write without these three things re. Strategies/techniques, a specific purpose and a main point!Back to 2009 Module 1, many students were caught looking only for language devices and techniques and when they did not uncover any they became desperate and wrote the first things that came to their mind. They were right in believing that there must be some tools in the extract but they were wrong in believing that this tool was only language techniques. In this case there were mainly strategies hardly any of the former.
Rule No. 1 when there are none or few language or literary devices or techniques look for strategies as it was in this essay.
Rule No 2. A writer always uses the techniques and strategies to make and emphasise the main point and secondly a writer always use techniques and strategies to achieve the purpose. Identify the purpose and main point correctly and more than ever you will be able to identify the techniques and strategies used to help achieve the purpose.
Your main idea should mention that the only way women can break away from the vicious cycle of illiteracy, poverty, repeated childbearing is by becoming educated. The important thing here is to realize that there is a strong correlation between education and illiteracy.
Remember that the main idea and the writer’s purpose are connected; so if the main idea is that education is the key to breaking the stranglehold of that illiteracy, poverty, lack of a political voice and a voice on the hold then the purpose of this piece is to make readers aware/ to sensitize them/ to persuade them of the main idea. So anything that says something like the purpose of this piece is to sensitize readers to the fact that education is the only means for women to escape/break away from the clutches of poverty, illiteracy, repeated childbearing/unplanned pregnancy etc.
So CAPE always asks for you to discuss strategies and language techniques and most times the language techniques are easy to find but in CAPE 2009 you looked and looked and some of you only saw ...repetition of “education” and “illiteracy” and if you looked really hard you would have seen contrast of the effects of illiteracy and then you saw nothing else...and you were stuck.
Listen in a case like this CAPE is not mad...they won’t ask you for something if it wasn’t there but you need to be smart...go back to the question. If you look you will see what are always there...strategies and language techniques...never language techniques alone! So if there are no more language techniques then you need to identify and discuss strategies...it’s as simple as that!
And so in this particular question students needed to identify and discuss strategies such as the way the information was laid out. It was done as a list providing the benefits of education; there were examples of the effects of illiteracy from around the world, statistical information/data, use of non emotive/academic language, the use of a reputable institution as UNESCO, and the presentation of factual information.
Another BIG CLUE can be as it was in this case... if there is a lot of statistical data from a serious institution such as UNESCO believe this it most likely will not contain such things as hyperbole (if the organization is as reputable as this one is then the organization will not exaggerate the information!), it hardly will have emotive word (the language is academic..can you imagine those staid, serious statisticians writing in emotive words?), hardly likely to have all those easy devices as simile, personification and metaphor.
Seriously though don’t panic in the first essay, to panic in module one essay is most likely going to set off a negative reaction in the next two essays. So keep your cool, use your head and think!