IB Diploma Programme (2021-2023)

Summative Assessment – Unit 3 February 2022

Subject: English A Language and Literature HL / SL
Duration: 1 hour 15 mins

Instructions to students:
Write a guided analysis on 1 of the 2 texts.
The analysis should address the guiding question of the text.
The analysis should address the ways in which the writer uses stylistic and structural features to
construct meaning and achieve his/her purpose.
The maximum number of marks for this exam is 20.
You have 1 hour and 15 minutes to complete this exam, after 5 minutes of silent reading.
Text 1:

-a World War 2 inspired poster published in 2021. The original poster was by the War
Production Co-ordinating Committee in the U.S.A. appealing to women to join the factories.

*NHS- National Health Service, United Kingdom

-Discuss how the language features, both written and visual, aim to persuade readers.
Text 2:

ABOUT BLOG DESTINATIONS SOLO FEMALE TRAVEL TRAVEL RESOURCES CONTACT

Travel Safety: Always Consider the Source

Blog
“You shouldn’t go there. It’s not safe.”

STOP.

As soon as you announce your upcoming travels, no matter to whom, you’ll probably be hit with
at least one person saying, “It’s not safe.”

Whether the person is protesting the act of solo female travel —which is ridiculous — or travel
to a particular destination, it’s important to evaluate whether or not this concern is warranted.

In short, when people voice concerns about your travels, it’s important to consider the
source. Here are some examples of the most common sources that provide inaccurate or
incomplete information.

The Concerned Loved One

“I don’t want you going to the Balkans. That’s not safe.”

You love your family and friends. You don’t want to upset them, but you want to be clear that
the decision is yours. That’s why it’s critical that you walk the line between giving them the
benefit of the doubt and taking their advice with a large grain of salt.

It’s possible that when your parents hear about Bosnia or Kosovo, they’ve only thought of those
countries in the context of war, violence, or ethnic cleansing, when in reality, the Balkans have
been safe for travelers for more than a decade. Likewise, they may lump Jordan in with more
troubled countries in the Middle East like Syria, when in reality Jordan is an extremely safe place
to travel.
You and I both know that these views are not accurate. And while you should do your loved
ones the courtesy of listening to their concerns and discussing how you’ll stay safe, it’s important
not to let their opinions overpower you to the point of changing your trip.

When listening to a concerned loved one, here are things to keep in mind:

Does this person travel?

Does this person travel in my style of traveling (i.e. backpacking as opposed to resort travel)?

Has this person been to this destination?

Has this person been to this destination recently (in the past 3-5 years)?

If the answer to all of these questions is yes, then you’ve most likely got a good source on your
hands and should listen closely if he or she voices concerns for your safety.

Consider the source: while your loved ones obviously care about you, they are likely not the
most knowledgeable source when it comes to your travel destination.

The Scary Government Warning

“U.S. citizens should continue to defer non-essential travel to ________, due to the high threat
of kidnapping of international travelers and violence linked to insurgency and terrorism there.”

Scary, right? It sounds like something out of Venezuela or Yemen.

But this warning is actually for the Philippines.

The Philippines? How is this incredibly safe country on the State Department’s travel warning
list?!

In the United States, a country will appear on the State Department’s travel warning list even if
the nation’s troubles are limited to one small region. That’s the case in the Philippines, where the
terrorist organizations MILF and MNLF have been known to carry out terrorist activity in the
Sulu Archipelago and the south of Mindanao.

That region within the Philippines is small — tiny, in fact. The main island of Luzon is
completely normal, as are the Visayas (Boracay included) and Palawan, which are the regions
visited by the majority of foreign tourists. Most casual tourists wouldn’t visit the Sulu
Archipelago. Mindanao itself is quite large — the second largest island in the Philippines — and
some parts, including the region surrounding Cagayan de Oro, are popular with tourists, but the
terrorism-affected areas of the south are only a small portion of the island itself.

In other words, read through your government’s travel warnings carefully. While your country
could be on the list, your particular destination might not be affected whatsoever.

The problem is that many people take government warnings as gospel — that if a country is on
the list, it shouldn’t be visited under any conditions. But that’s not true.

Consider the source: government warnings are meant to be read in depth and problems in
one region do not indicate problems in the entire country.

The Sensationalist Media Report

“Another day of violence grips the Thai capital as political protests continue to escalate…”

If a country is engulfed in violence to the point of dominating news coverage in your home
country, chances are the troubled country will be covered in a manner that paints a grim image
— especially on the 24-hour news channels that are constantly competing to outdo each other.

Thailand is the perfect example of this. Bangkok has been going through protests since
November 2013, an echo of the situation three years ago. That said, outside Bangkok, things are
100% normal, and even within Bangkok, the protests can be easily avoided.

That’s not the image painted by the media. From what you see on the news, you’d think the
whole city is burning and that people are fleeing in droves, which couldn’t be further of the truth.

Consider the source: the news is not in the business of showing you what it’s like to travel
there.

The Faux-It-All

“What if the Khmer Rouge rise again?”

Believe it or not, somebody said those words to me when I planned my first trip to Southeast
Asia.

You will always meet people who think they know all there is to know about the world and make
wild assumptions without any knowledge or evidence to back them up.
Don’t waste your time and energy arguing with people like this. Smile, nod, thank them for their
concern, and save the eye-rolling for when you get home.

Consider the source: this is not a source.

-In what ways does the writer use language and layout to engage the readers?