Key Genre Conventions of an Interview

Thursday 8th October

Meryl Streep Interview 

http://www.timeout.com/london/film/meryl-streep-on-feminism-family-and-playing-pankhurst-in-suffragette

Key Genre Conventions of an Interview

• Intriguing headlines

• “feminism, family and playing Pankhurst” = alliteration, along side “Suffragette”, a fricative noun = gives more impact due to repetitive sounds and harsh vowels 

• Subtitle summary sentence to further inform the reader of content/ blurb 
• Name 
• Date 

• Picture

• Smiling
• Relaxed 
• Approachable = someone you want to know more about 
• T-shirt as mentioned in title 
• Paints positive, quirky picture of her 

• Current events

• Streep in a new film, public more aware of her in media
• Feminism = controversial topic, debated more often recently, given historical context with Suffragettes 

• Begins with inspirational topic = very influential woman, successful, interesting 

• mottos, background, advice, personal relationships 

• Quote to introduce new topic of discussion (“Being lady like is underrated”) = readers want to know reason and context

• Swaps between easy, mild questions and quite invasive questions to keep reader interested 
• Questions and answers range in complexity, avoids monotone 
• Controversial, intriguing topics e.g feminism, imposter syndrome 
• Satisfies morbid public interest = questions that fans and general public would want answered, sense of uncovering secrets

• Simplistic layout, gaps between each question = easy to digest, doesn't drag
• Different shades of font = alternating between faded and bold to avoid confusion as to what is the question and what is the answer
• Answer in quotations marks = direct speech, not reported 
• Formal questions, elevated lexis
• Jargon appropriate for acting field of work e.g “colleagues”
• Passive voice, only expressing interviewee’s opinion 
• Interrogative sentences e.g “What…?”  and imperative sentences e.g “Describe…”
• Ends with a humorous comment from Meryl Streep, a sarcastic, rhetorical question that leaves the reader on an amused, open note

How does the Interview inform and entertain its reader? 

The text is initiated with an intriguing headline and an interesting insight in the form of a summary subtitle, which offers slightly more information to entice the reader but not give everything away.

Alliteration and a fricative  noun are used in the title, “Meryl Streep on feminism, family, and playing Pankhurst in Suffragette.”, which is a clever dynamic of linguistic techniques used to deliver the most impact with repetitive and forceful sounds. This creates a punchy, to-the-point effect, engaging the reader with a direct approach.

A picture is used as a representation of the interviewee; in this case Meryl Streep is shown smiling and relaxed, wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with a powerful quotation from the movie ‘Suffragettes’, as promised in the subtitle. This presents Streep in an approachable light, further drawing in the reader with her pleasant and characteristic image.

The author entertains the reader with up to date information, circulated around current events, straight from the horses mouth, as it were. A simplistic layout is used to keep the information quick-fire and therefore keep the reader engaged, using alternating colours to avoid confusion between the interviewers questions and the interviewees answers.

The questions range in complexity and topic in order to capture a wide scope of interests, with information on her home life mixed in with her innermost opinions and views. The questions are kept at a heightened lexis, as a planned script, whilst the answers are more free speech and humorous in some cases, as expected from an interview.

Article - Gabriella Parker

Article - Garbiella Parker

70th Wonder of the World 

When people say "city life", you think the big apple. You think New York, Seattle, Vegas.

It's hardly surprising that Bristol doesn't appear in the immediate foreground, alongside the greats. But maybe it should.
Maybe Dismaland and the SS Great Britain should be on your Bucket List, right underneath the Taj Mahal and the Empire State Building.

Alright, I admit it, @Bristol is no Seventh Wonder of the World. It might not even be the 70th, if I'm being completely honest. But that's besides the point. The point is Bristol tends to be swept under the carpet quite a bit nowadays. A sort of footnote in the Great Big Book of Sightseeing, as it were.

And, I mean, fair enough. We're not the friendliest bunch, and the weather tends to suck nine times out of ten. There's pigeons and chewing gum and litter...but I'm getting a bit carried away.
Pushing all of that aside, there's a heart to this place.
No, no, I'm serious. It might be a little slow at times, a few beats out of place here and there, but it still works. Under the commuters and cars and the slice of cement, it pumps culture into the very outskirts. The creative scene alone is enough to inspire, if you know where to look.
With art and music and film pouring out of the very cracks in the pavement, it's hard to hate this place. It's hard to hate anywhere if you look hard enough.

Yes, I know what you're thinking. 'But Bristol always has so many tourists!'. I know, I know. I'm getting there, I promise. Because when I think of tourists in Bristol, I think packs of people in caps, snapping pics on their iPhones. I don't think it's quite the same experience in other cities; the overwhelming intensity of New York, the playfully scandalous atmosphere of Vegas. When I visit somewhere, I want to experience it, not just have a picture of me pretending to push the Leaning Tower of Pisa back into place.

For me there's a line between being a tourist and being a visitor, and it's about as thick as my arm.
I'm not asking for the same emotion you'd get at the top of Everest having gotten to the top of Parks Street. And I doubt you're going to have the same epiphany you'd have in Tibetan Monastery in the kebab shop on the corner. But a little enthusiasm would be appreciated. Just go that little bit further, you might be surprise at what you find. 

Though, maybe I'm biased. I have lived here my entire life. I know the record store my friend's grandfather works at, and the book shop up the road wherein I stumbled upon my love of words.
I know the cafe my friend showed me, tucked between a tattoo parlour and jewellery store.
I know the bus stop where I will spend half my day waiting, and where I pierced my ears, and where I bought my first guitar. I've gone to birthdays and festivals and going away parties. I've had some of my best memories here.    

All I'm saying is, the outside is fairly unappealing. Even the next layer down is pretty dull, in all fairness. But if you take the time to explore, find your bookstore, and your cafe - maybe you'll find that "city life" was here all along.

The History Boys - Notes

Introduction to The History Boys

• Written by Alan Bennett 
• Premiered in 2004, 18th May (Lyttleton Theatre)
• Set in grammar school, North of England, 1980s
• Centred around 8 sixth form boys who are applying to Oxford, 3 teachers and Headmaster
• Have to sit extra exam besides A-levels to get in ( reason it's set in 1980s)
• When applying to Oxbridge - in 80s students return to school for an extra term
• Alan Bennett went through this process 

Posner

• Quiet, small
• Jewish 
• Loves singing show tunes, hymns
• Revealed later on in the play that he is in love with Dakin
• Struggling with emerging homosexuality

Dakin

• Attractive, very aware of it
• Posner and Irwin interested in him
• Headmaster secretary, Fiona - in relationship 
• Enjoys indulging in Irwin's interest 
• Inspired by Irwin, tries to impress him
• Gets close to Irwin, compliments him  
• "Never wanted to impress anyone the way I do him" (about Irwin) 
• Likes to flirt with Irwin 
• Uses subjunctives as sexual subtexts towards Irwin 

Scripps

• Predisposed with explored Christianity 
• Budding writer
• Records events in his notebook
• Posner confides in him 

Rudge

• Star rugby player, ability surprises everyone 
• Finds Irwins teaching style difficult 
• Unassuming but only person to be authentic in practice interview 
• "If they like me they'll take me"
• Stands up to the system 

Akthar

• Muslim (often brought up)
• Happy to get involved in the teasing of Irwin

Crowther

• Keen actor
• Friends with Lockwood 

Timms

• Joker of the pack
• Struggles with poetry 
• Often hit by Hector for his humour
• Enjoys teasing Irwin

Lockwood

• Shrewd film buff
• Interested in politics

Headmaster

• Typical 
• Focused on good results/ making his school look good/ reputation
• Quite corrupt - lecherous towards Fiona 
• Limited understanding of the arts 
• More of a pantomime character - inauthentic, swearing 
• Utilitarian 
• Only good if you can use it - doesn't see any value in the way Hector teaches 

Mrs.Lintott

• Traditional History teacher 
• Teaches plain facts
• Gets excellent results 
• Does not allow emotions to interfere with her teaching 
• Only woman on staff - overlooked, frustrated with gender inequality 
• Facts and figures
• Gives first human response to Hectors abuse, didn't know - shocked, dismayed 
• Tells it straight 
• Describes history as men's incapabilities 

Irwin

• Young History teacher
• Innovative approach to education
• Teaches boys to find original and interesting arguments, flare
• Believes in presentation and history as a performance
• "What's truth got to do with it"
• Students tease him 
• Interested in Dakin
• Motif or ruins and ruination is associated with him ( ruined church, underlying meaning) 
• Disabled 
• Thinks about education as a game - how to win it 
• "Not clever enough, not anything enough actually" 

Hector

• Eccentric English teacher 
• Close to retirement 
• Teaches students to learn by heart
• Believes in the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake
• Allows emotions to affect his teaching 
• Life lessons, not information for exam 
• "All knowledge is precious, whether it serves a purpose or not"
• Free, liberal, open, no clear path
• Sexual harassment of students
• Crosses line between student/teacher 

General

• Boys act like a pack, respect each other, celebrate each other's achievements 
• Respect Hector and Mrs, Lintott ("a nickname is an achievement")
• Headmaster doesn't want to fire Hector because what he was doing was morally wrong, but because he doesn't want a scandal - reputation 
• Hector tries to defend what he was doing with historical reference - doesn't excuse what he's done (Hodge, Thomas Hardy - talks about characters who can't help themselves from meeting a tragic end "a saddish life, thought not unappreciated"
• Posner relates to Hector - "unkissed", "unembraced"
• Hector and Irwin have two opposing views
• Students don't know where to stand in shared lesson 
• Students treat the sexual harassment like its a joke
• Posner knows Irwin likes Dakin - catches him looking 
• Plays on "what ifs" of history and life (subjunctives)
• 80s boundaries with abuse were blurry, only morally correct person is Mrs.Lintott

History 

• Henry VIII - took wealth and power from the church ( took timber and lead, smashes up artwork from churches) 
• "No better way of forgetting something than commemorating it." - in reference to WWI, desensitised, bitter political point - was our fault
• Posner has connection with Holocaust - Jewish 
• Irwin - "This is history - distance yourselves" 

Language Differences

My Unique use of Language

Gabriella Parker

1. I'm often told I use a lot of American words, pronunciations and spelling. (e.g using 'z' instead of 's' and saying phrases such as 'high school' instead of 'secondary school' - probably due to the terrible American TV shows I watch)

2. Like most people, the way I speak depends heavily upon whom I'm speaking to - my friends often tease me about how eloquent I tend to get around adults in comparison to when I'm speaking to them - the more comfortable I am, the more casual I tend to be.

3. I've noticed I tend to use more complex words in conversation after reading or writing for long periods of time.

4. Sometimes I accidentally refer to hands as 'donnies' because my mother comes from Birmingham.

5. My family use spoonerisms a lot because they find them amusing, so I sometimes do the same.

6. A lot of the jargon my friends and I use comes from the comics we read or the TV shows we watch.

7. I pronounce the word 'apparatus'  differently to my friends and family and they usually tease me for it (the way I pronounce it sounds like more of an obscure spell from Harry Potter than an actual word  but I find it difficult to pronounce it any other way).

8. I often get similar sounding words mixed up. (e.g terminology and termination, implies and implicates e.t.c)

9. I refer to my mother as 'Mama G' because my fathers friend spent some time in India and told us about it (how it is part of their culture to add 'Ji' to the end of someones name to convey respect), and I found it fitting simply because my name begins with 'G'. I also refer to my grandmother as 'Gram Gram' and my late grandfather as 'Pampi'.

10. I get personally offended when I see the wrong use of the words 'their', 'they're' and 'there' and 'you' and 'you're'  even though I'm sure I've made the same mistake many times before, and will continue to do again without realising.