A bed among the Lentils

From the opening stage directions it describes Susan as 'thin and nervous' this connotates the impression that she is frail and vulnerable, perhaps from prior experiences we may learn in the monologue, it could also highlight that she is ageing or ill healthed. The added 'and probably smokes' is indefinite which could underline that she always seems stressed or weighed down with worry and needs an aid to help her relax. Another part of the opening stage directions tells us she is in an 'upright chair' which could repeat or stress that she is unable to relax and be comfortable.

Susan speaks with clear sarcasm and bitterness, this reflects her attitude to being the vicar's wife. The bitterness highlights her sour attitude to attending church every time "why is the vicars wife expected to go to church at all" shows this. She also dislikes how people assume she believes in God just because she fits the stereotype. Her sullen attitude could reveal that is of an older age as she sick of constantly living by what is expected of her. However the monologue shows she is of a higher social class as she uses complex language showing she is well-educated and a she speaks with standard English dialect and accent.

To make the monologue seem like spontaneous speech Bennett has used a slightly informal tone with sarcasm "I'm glad I wasn't married to Jesus" could show a quick after-thought that is just spontaneously announced in a short sentence. Also the monologue includes a lot of long sentences where the text flows like normal conversation as you would naturally speak, however there are also parts where she is thinking where there are more pauses as someone typically would whilst in thought "But no. Not a word. The subject's never discussed." The repetitiveness is additionally an aspect of spontaneous speech as it isn't thought over as if they are going over what they are thinking out loud.

Armstrong and Miller

This sketch shows two RAF pilots speaking in received pronunciation but the phonology of the speech is stereotypical British teenagers slang which is very contradictory to the accent in which they are using. This creates humour in the piece and the writer of the text assumes that the audience is British and/or understands the sarcastic use of the teenage slang. 

The language includes slang such as 'two-faced' and 'vexed' which the older generations most probably didn't use and, along with the old time setting of the speech, the pragmatics of the piece could be to show how language has changed through generations. Slang words are used very often in the speech, exaggerating the conflicting accent and therefore causing a comical piece. 

The lexis of the text it uses a lot of fillers such as 'like' and 'right' which are very common amongst natural speech of teenagers nowadays and also highlights the fact that this piece is meant to be informal, the exaggerated use of them causes humour and once again shows in a comical way how different typical British teenagers speak. 

Graphology

The Article written by Charlie Brooker uses some visual elements such as a picture of the judges off of the TV show 'The Voice,' this links to the text as it talk in detail about the show, particularly the judges. The picture is effective as it breaks up the writing and makes the article look less daunting than an article with nothing but text causing more people to be drawn to read it as the purpose of an article is to gain readers and for them to enjoy the text. There is also a title which has been written in bold writing which draws your attention to read that first, I think this is effective as it stands out and entices you in to the article with the use of negative language, 'die,' making readers feel obliged to read the article to find out what is so un-enjoyable about the show, also, making readers read this first gives a good impression of the text as humour is used showing that this article isn't serious. The text is paragraphed so the writing is split into long and short paragraphs which makes it seem more interesting to read, this can attract readers to be more likely to read it as the differentiation makes it visually less boring.

An Introduction To Me

I've only ever broken one bone in my body. Not a toe or a finger, not my ankle or my foot but my arm; I was three nearing four years old and my dad had just set up a new swing in our garden, he had trekked up to the shops to cushion the floor with bark and ensure it was all safe to go. Like a usual three year old a new swing was easily very exciting and i was straight on it.

From what I remember after a few goes I decided to pluck up the courage and stand up on the swing, obviously that wasn't exhilarating enough as I made a split second, in the moment, choice to jump off. It would have been gymnastic award winning if only the swing wasn't beginning to swing backwards as I jumped causing me to fly in an almost horizontal position leaving one of my arms tucked underneath me. Through shock, at first I didn't feel much of the pain so I jumped straight up and began to cry. Due to my lack of age my mum thought I had just taken a fall and bruised my arm so she sat me in the lounge to calm down. After an hour I still found it very difficult to move my arm as whenever I tried to an intense pain would shoot up it, that's when my mum decided I should go to the hospital.

My grandad offered to drive me and my mum to hospital so we could get dropped off rather than batteling for a parking space miles from where we need to be, whilst my grandma came over to look after my six year old brother as my dad was at work, however following a phone call he was quickly in the car to meet us at the hospital.

One of the things I can remember about the hospital, after waiting around for a while, is getting the x-rays. Placing my arm palm down was ok and those x-rays were taken with ease but then the doctor asked me to turn my arm over and that hurt more than anything so those x-rays, to my delight, were never taken.

A small break was found on my right arm so then I was taken to a small room where I sat on my dads lap and had a cast added to keep my arm in the same position until it healed, it was like paper mache going from my hand up to just past my elbow.

A few days later I had to return to get another part of the cast, this bit could be in all different colours and there was a room full of them in which you could pick from. Due to me having to be a bridesmaid at a wedding in a few weeks my mum passed on her verdict that I should get a light colour or white to go on top but despite that, much to my mums misery, I picked a bright neon yellow which obviously wasn't very suitable and was probably the worst colour to pick!

Luckily when the day came a beige cover was made to disguise my neon yellow cast and everything went smoothly. You can see that in all of the photos my arm is either behind my back or hidden behind whoever I was standing next to!

After a few weeks my arm was fully recovered and the cast was removed with big scissors, nowadays you wouldn't even be able to tell it was ever broken!