It cannot be denied that ever since the rise in popularity of the “Whole Language” approach in the 1980s, teaching phonetics as the primary method of introducing literacy has not been without controversy-
Stella shrieked as she collided with something very large and very solid. Papers flew out of her hand and the lid of her coffee burst off, spilling creamy cappuccino everywhere. “No!” she cried, scrabbling in vain for the lost sheets as they were scattered out into the busy road. Furiously turning round to glare at her obstruction, Stella couldn’t help but give a little gasp.
Tall. Very tall. Stella suddenly felt extremely conscious of her five foot four height (and that was with heels) as she gazed up at the man before her. Dark brown hair brushing his eyebrows, making him appear younger than he probably was. Deep grey eyes that smiled impudently down at her, a long mouth curving into an irresistible smile, a strong smooth chin. He wore a simple navy suit and a crisp dove-grey shirt that was unbuttoned at the top, exposing a tantalising glimpse of olive skin. The only thing that jolted Stella out of her temporarily stunned state was seeing the unknown male with his hands shoved unceremoniously into his pockets. Doesn’t he care?!
“Erm- excuse me,” she began haughtily, sounding more confident than she felt. “Don’t you look where you’re going? I’m going to be late, you made me spill my coffee, and now I’ve lost my papers! And you haven’t even apologised!”
His smile twitched. “I am sorry, miss,” he said, and Stella could hear the traces of an Irish lilt to his voice. “However, are you sure you’re alright? If I were you, I would be more concerned about whether my caffeine-laden beverage has scarred my skin, rather than whether my accidental assailant has apologised or not.” The creasing at the corners of the man’s eyes revealed he wasn’t taking her seriously, which only served to infuriate Stella further.
“Don’t call me ‘miss’, thank you very much,” she retorted, and saw the smile slide off his face. “I am perfectly fine, aside from the fact I could quite possibly lose my job for missing this conference, and you’ve just ruined an £80 dress, as well as my shoes.”
Gerunds frequently dominate sentence starters (“Clutching…Sweeping…Darting”), increasing the pace of the writing and adding to the sense of quick movement echoed by the situation. Sentence structure and length are varied throughout. Longer, more complex sentences such as “Darting past a taxi…on the subject” add to the atmosphere of the scene and help to move the story along, while shorter, simple sentences such as “Right. Time to gen up.” often reflect the protagonist’s thought processes or reflections on her predicament.
The third person personal pronoun is repeated in the second paragraph (“Clutching…on time anyway”), emphasising Stella’s femininity and preparing the reader for the inevitable masculine hero later on in the extract.
Deliberate mixture of tenses adds to the complexity provided by varying sentences types. Although the extract is written primarily in the simple past tense, the frequent usage of the present participle and the present tense used in Stella’s thoughts bring a sense of immediacy to the narration, enabling the reader to identify with her.
To provide a deeper insight into her mind, flashes of verbal aspects of unspoken thought (“My phone!”, “Doesn’t he care?!”) are shown to the reader through the graphology of italics. The first person narration employed allows Stella to seem more realistic, again allowing the reader to identify with her.
Italicisation is also employed to create pragmatic effects which would rely on tone of voice to come across in real life. For example, “excuse me”, “I am sorry” and “Don’t call me ‘miss’” all place emphasis on certain words, letting the reader infer that the characters mean more than the words they are saying. Stella is not asking the hero to excuse her; she is aiming a rebuke at him: similarly, the hero is not offering a sincere apology but is mocking Stella’s haughty manner. The heroine also seems more realistic when her authoritative persona as a teacher comes through when she uses the imperative to a grown man.
Two very short sentences, “Tall. Very tall.” halt the pace of the narration in contrast to the preceding four long sentences. The finite verb and preposition “gazed up” implies adoration and devotion in an almost religious sense. Pre-modifying adjectives pair with the lexis of anatomy, resulting in a triad such as “Deep grey eyes” or “strong smooth chin” which paints a traditional picture of a romantic hero.
An authentic voice is created for the male character as his idiolect is more descriptive than Stella’s, demonstrated through the deliberate alliteration of “scarred my skin” and “accidental assailant”. The overly descriptive vernacular also adds humour and reality to the interaction between the characters.
