From a Game of Polo with a Headless Goat Notes
Note Summary
Form/ Text type & Purpose: Travel writing, to inform the reader of unknown tradition and concepts and introducing various issues. Levine chooses to explore this using sports and other traditional forms of entertainment.
Audience: Emma Levine does not specify her targeted audience although she hopes to appeal to travelers. Not only does she write to inform travelers, her writing style suggests that she attempts to fulfill her reader’s general interests, promoting her travels and the choices they have.
Techniques: Levine generally incorporates an informative tone throughout her narrative. Her narrative draws the reader in while providing factual information to satisfy external interest in various aspects of the culture she is exploring.
The extract from “A Game of Polo with a Headless Goat” also consists of a large build up where Levine experiments with first hand pessimism but also includes reassurance.
The extract’s pace is changed to build tension during and after the race.
Paragraph 1-3 / Build up
Paragraph 1 – Optimism, author promotes her own, Yaqoob and Iqbal’s excitement.
‘We’ll open the car boot … we’ll join the cars.’ à Brief description of what will happen and Levine’s expectations. Builds immediate excitement and enthusiasm for race and the reader’s expectation of instant action.
Works effectively with
Paragraph 2 – Contrast in tone between “The two lads…suddenly fired up with enthusiasm” in which Levine narrates the creation of new enthusiasm within locals (her guides) to reflect on the reader and the rest of the paragraph
Use of “eternity” – hyperbole to exaggerate impatience and derived emotions such as boredom
“the only action was … gazed around at us.” Hopeless tone, at the point of giving up, is a let down to the reader
The contrast emphasises the climax in paragraph 7
Paragraph 3 – Alternatively, Levine builds hope and optimism in paragraph three, “coming, coming” the locals replied
Line 12: “I was
Form/ Text type & Purpose: Travel writing, to inform the reader of unknown tradition and concepts and introducing various issues. Levine chooses to explore this using sports and other traditional forms of entertainment.
Audience: Emma Levine does not specify her targeted audience although she hopes to appeal to travelers. Not only does she write to inform travelers, her writing style suggests that she attempts to fulfill her reader’s general interests, promoting her travels and the choices they have.
Techniques: Levine generally incorporates an informative tone throughout her narrative. Her narrative draws the reader in while providing factual information to satisfy external interest in various aspects of the culture she is exploring.
The extract from “A Game of Polo with a Headless Goat” also consists of a large build up where Levine experiments with first hand pessimism but also includes reassurance.
The extract’s pace is changed to build tension during and after the race.
Paragraph 1-3 / Build up
Paragraph 1 – Optimism, author promotes her own, Yaqoob and Iqbal’s excitement.
‘We’ll open the car boot … we’ll join the cars.’ à Brief description of what will happen and Levine’s expectations. Builds immediate excitement and enthusiasm for race and the reader’s expectation of instant action.
Works effectively with
Paragraph 2 – Contrast in tone between “The two lads…suddenly fired up with enthusiasm” in which Levine narrates the creation of new enthusiasm within locals (her guides) to reflect on the reader and the rest of the paragraph
Use of “eternity” – hyperbole to exaggerate impatience and derived emotions such as boredom
“the only action was … gazed around at us.” Hopeless tone, at the point of giving up, is a let down to the reader
The contrast emphasises the climax in paragraph 7
Paragraph 3 – Alternatively, Levine builds hope and optimism in paragraph three, “coming, coming” the locals replied
Line 12: “I was
Links: back to “Yaqoob loved it.” Where the tone was still expressing shared enjoyment and fun, new realization and understanding is born to recreate an adapted impression of the entire extract.