2. HYPOTHESIS
We think that the diary entries will have changed over time.
The modern diary entry will use more slang
We think the modern text will have a range of complex sentences
with multiple clauses.
We think the older text will use different spellings compared to
the modern text.
3. DIFFERENCES
We think that modern and old entries will include differences such
as:
Lexis choice
The way it is presented
The subject
Grammar
4. SIMILARITIES
Even though the pieces will be different there will be some
similarities these include:
A narrative structure with descriptive language.
Opinions of the writer.
The use of first person.
No non-fluency features
5. METHODOLOGY
We used the internet to find our resources because we knew there was
going to be a wide range to chose from. We also used books from the library;
however did not find a suitable resource.
We found that if we searched an explorers name with the words ‘diary
entry’ that it would be easy to find an example.
We selected the text by Edmund Hillary to compare with Captain Cook’s
because it was similar in the fact that it was both about exploring and
adventure and also by a famous explorer.
6. LEXIS
CAPTAIN COOK TEXT (1775)
This was created using
Concordle. We eliminated the
words ‘the, and, is, are, was, had,
it, a, with, for. By doing this is
just made it more precise.
The words which were used
the most were more specialist
lexis for example ‘indignation’,
‘natives’ ‘canibals’.
7. LEXIS
HILLARY’S
This was also made using
Concordle.
The most used words are
specialist lexis again; this is a
similarity between the two texts.
Some words which were used
a lot were ‘ridge’, ‘camp’,
‘summit’. These are specialist
lexis.
11. GRAMMAR
Captain Cook might of not had a great understanding of standard
grammar in 1775.
Both texts use first person pronoun such as ‘I’ and ‘I've’
Both texts use past tense
14. SPELLING
Samuel Johnson’s ‘Dictionary of the English Language’ was first
published in 1755. Captain Cook’s text was written in 1775, so by this
time spelling and vocabulary was pretty much definite. However, there
are some examples in which Captain Cook has used spellings in
which have changed over time.
‘Scul’ = skull
‘Canibals’ = cannibals
15. GRAPHOLOGY
Hillary’s uses an image which links to the diary entry. Hillary is
enable to use a image because he is using a blog meanwhile Captain
Cook is written and he had no way of getting images.
16. PRAGMATICS
In Cook’s diary he may have used elevated and specialist lexis, such
as ‘avidity’ and ‘Natives’
He also assumes that the readers will be familiar with the chosen
lexis.
In Hillary’s diary he also uses special lexis, for example ‘summit’
Hillary also include precise times to begin a new paragraph. For
example ‘at 4:00am’ and ‘At 6:30am’
17. CONCLUSION
The findings supported our hypothesis as it showed spelling has
changed over the years.
However our hypothesis was incorrect as the findings showed that
Cook’s diary included complex sentences as there was an average of 23.65
words per sentence, in comparison of 16.05 in Hillary’s diary.
Hillary’s diary did not include as much slang as what we expected, we
think this is because he knew it would be published and wanted it to
sound professional.
18. EVALUATION
We thought that finding the correct comparison text was difficult
because there is not many new up to date explorers who write diary’s
as they tend to write books.
Once we had found the comparison text we found it easy to see
the similarities and differences between the two texts using the
quantitative resources.
2) We think this is because the language we use in everyday has become more colloquial. As technology has evolved diary entries have appeared on blogs, this also encourages the use of taboo and slang.
4) Because the education system has become much more stable and advanced
There might be archaic language within the old entry which people will not understand today.
One is more likely to be using technology and one is hand written.
will be slightly different because they are written by different people.
The sentences in the modern entry will be more complex
As it is describing events that happen to the explorers
As it is written by one person it will include all their thoughts and feelings
As its written by them
Even though they have errors they are able to correct them and plan what they are going to write before writing it
We chose 5 words from each text. This graph shows the use of the word gentlemen has decreased over time, this suggests that in modern society people are more likely to use address terms such as ‘man’ or ‘men’ which show the formality has decreased. Cannibals was spelt wrong in Cook’s diary, however just before 1750, they did spell it like that shown in the graph. This shows the spelling has changed over time.
We chose 5 words from each text. In 1820 the use of the word ‘north’ was common. However it has decreased since then, this could possibly be because technology has changed meaning the modern society now use satnav's rather than compasses. The modern society are not familiar with these direction terms as they are use very vaguely, for example ‘go forward’
1) Each entry will include separate paragraphs
2) They both share the purpose to explain and describe adventures, they are also used to entertain the reader.
3)Captain Cook’s is hand written which could suggest words are not interpreted correctly, meanwhile Hillary uses a blog layout, this means that the grammar could be different because of spell check.
4) Hillary’s diary uses graphology to match the narrative.
1) We can tell this because he uses incomplete sentences, at the end he doesn’t finish ‘Custom and worthy of imitation by every rational being-’.
3) This is because they are talking about something that has already happened
As shown in the bar graph, Cook’s diary includes more syllables per word than Hillary’s. Which suggests he is more educated and elevated.
This supports the idea of Cook being more educated as he includes more words per sentence in comparison to Hillary.
An example of a misspelled word to us in 2015, is ‘skull’. In Captain Cook’s diary entry he has spelt it ‘scul’. Another example is ‘Canibals’ which should be spelled ‘cannibals’.
1) because he assumed that a big audience would read his entries.
3) as he assumes his diary will be published, which could suggest that he wanted to sound intelligent.
4) By using these precise times it creates a narrative structure