AIL2506 STYLISTICS
Summative 1 assessment: An exploration of a particular stylistic theory, framework or method.
Word limit: 1500 words. Weighting: 40%. Deadline: 16th February 2015
The first summative assessment for this module requires you to explore a particular stylistic theory, framework or method of your choice. To complete this assignment, you will need to read as widely as you can about the theory, framework or method you are interested in. This will include reading about research that other people have done using the theory, method or framework. Therefore, you will need to read a variety of texts, including journal articles and book chapters from edited volumes, as it is in these specialist publications that you will find the very latest research. The formative assessment for this module was designed to help you prepare for your summatives, so hopefully you should have already made a start with reading more widely about an area of stylistics that you are interested in.
There are a few rules:
You need to be reading published materials from, for example, reputable journals – not just something you have found on the internet.
Choose a theory, framework or method that looks like it is going to be useful to you in your own work when you come to do your second summative, which will be an analysis of a text of your choice.
Don’t just describe the theory, method or framework you have chosen (although you will need to do that!). You need to assess the value of it, which is why you need to find out how it has been used by different researchers. How does the theory, framework or method help with stylistic analysis? What does it buy you analytically? Are there any problems with applying it?
You need to reference properly, using the APA referencing system.
You should write up your work in the form of an essay and submit it via Turnitin.
Some texts to consider
There are many texts you might consider using for this assignment. You can start with the course-book and any of the other books on MyReading. There are also a wide variety of journals that publish research in stylistics. The most prestigious is the journal of the Poetics and Linguistics Association, Language and Literature. Additionally, you could try any of the following: Journal of Literary Semantics, Style, English Text Construction, Journal of Pragmatics, Language and Cognition, Metaphor and Symbol, Journal of Politeness Research, Pragmatics and Cognition, Text and Talk and Poetics Today. You will find most of these journals available on Summon. If not, you can always ask the library to get hold of a particular article for you via the inter-library loan service. Similarly, if there are books that you need but aren’t in the library, use the inter-library loan service. It’s free for students!
The reason for this assessment
It’s a good thing to get used to