A2 English Language Coursework (grade C)

A2 English Language coursework                                                      Victoria Munro

Commentary for travel review.

The piece I have written is a travel review of Budapest, Hungary that would be found either online or in a magazine. Websites such as TripAdvisor may feature my review or travel booklets or magazines may also hold my review as a way of recommending and informing travellers about other people’s experiences.

I used many adjectives, for example ‘leafy’, ‘dusty’ and ‘the restaurant was painted a cheerful orange’, in my review to create imagery for the reader and paint a picture in their mind of the place. It is important I used a lot of adjectives so that the review is interesting and engaging for them to read. I used verbs such as ‘walked’ and ‘shrieking’ to explain what I did and I also used many proper nouns, such as ‘Heroes Square’ to describe place names.  Abstract nouns are used to describe how I felt about places to give the review a more personal style. For example ‘experiences I particularly enjoyed were the Central Market Hall Hungarian market’. Using the abstract noun ‘enjoyed’ adds a positive effect to the review and entices the reader to travel to Budapest so they too can enjoy what it has to offer.

I used a variety of both simple and complex sentences depending on the paragraph types and layout.  The sentences used are a mix of declarative, exclamative and imperative. Orders and commands are made to the reader telling them to go to a certain place; also I declare and exclaim about my trip a lot in my review as a way of creating enthusiasm.   I used conjunctions to join my sentences together ‘the restaurant we ate in twice was a small typical Hungarian restaurant serving Hungarian goulash which is a stew made with meat and flavoured with paprika and tomatoes’. Conjunctions are used to join parts of the sentences together to ensure they are not short sentences.

A lexical field of travel is used in my review as the piece is about travelling so the lexis used is mainly linked with travelling and has connotations of being abroad. I have named the names of places such as the Chain Bridge and Heroes Square so that people can look them up for their own reference.

The review is generally quite informal and chatty as a way of engaging the reader with the text, as are a lot of travel reviews.   I used contractions as my review is generally informal, so ‘could not’ is written as ‘couldn’t’. This is typical of travel reviews as they are informal and engaging texts.  As a general overlook my review is a positive summary of a period of time spent in a certain place. The lexis used is rather informal to create a relaxed atmosphere and encourage other travellers to go to Budapest, a range of language features are displayed in my review to grab the reader, keep them engaged and influence them to want to travel too.