Transcript work

What do you notice about the use of proper nouns and/or pronouns in referring to people and events concerned
In this transcript the Barrister holds power over Mr Neil, when Mr Neil is speaking there are lots of short pauses, filler words and constant repetition of words. This can imply that Mr Neil feels quite unsettled when speaking to the Barrister. When addressing Mr Neil the Barrister calls him by his title 'Mr Neil' this can set the level of formality at this event as he is not using a personal pronoun.

Which parts of dialogue seems prepared or part of a courtroom conventions and which seems spontaneous
Throughout the transcript the Barrister is constantly asking Mr Neil questions that he has prepared, it is implied that he has prepared the questions from the lack of short pauses he has. Whereas when Mr Neil is answering his questions it suggests from the time taken to reply to his questions. When the Barrister says 'The rear of your car (.) now (.) did anything happen to you (.) as a result of driving your car that day?' Mr Neil takes 2.5 seconds to reply with a one word answer and straight after with no delays the Barrister replies, when the Barrister constantly does this it makes Mr Neil feel unsettled as he feels the pressure from the Barrister.

Who seems to have the most power in the dialogue and why?
The Barrister has the most power in this transcript as he is the more confident speaker. When Mr Neil speaks he has lots of repetition 'no i can't remember 'em seeing me no' he has lots of fillers 'er i accidentally (.) bumped it slightly with er' and he has lots of short pauses '(2.5) no' all this can suggest is that Mr Neil feels unsettled by the questions that the Barrister has asked him.

What else seems puzzling/interesting/unusual and why?
I do not find this transcript interesting or unusual, i find it very conventional as it is just a court examination. In this transcript it is just Mr Neil asking yes/no questions it is dominated by the Barrister asking questions, given the context this is exactly how i'd expect it to be.

Controversial articles on legalizing marijuana

Article 1 university student age 19 cannabis user

Okay first things first, cut the crap about the news calling weed a ‘dangerous’ drug. Today cannabis has loads of medicinal uses such as relieving muscle spasms, helping glaucoma and appetite loss in HIV or aids. I mean it even kills cancerous cells! People always feed me this rubbish about how cannabis is addictive, the only time weed becomes addictive is when people abuse the substance, I mean hey if you’re a university student like me looking to have fun with it every now and then, this will be no problem for you. Besides the average age for any drug user in England is 16-18, people this age just want to experiment, nothing too serious about it.

Okay if you want to get into the politics sides of things about legalizing weed then you should know that by legalizing weed taxes could be reduced by £900m every year, I mean I don’t study politics but I know that’s good. More money would even be saved as policing cannabis would be gone approximately £400m would be saved and 10,000 new jobs would be created for growing weed. By the looks of things there are more positives than negatives if marijuana gets legalized.

I’m fed up of hearing all this bull shit about how cannabis should be illegal and alcohol legal, cannabis is way safer! I mean let’s look at the facts; alcohol causes violence and induces crime, all weed does is make you really hungry and chilled out. I mean I’m not a scientist or anything but cannabis sound’s way safer to me.

Legalizing dope will not encourage young people to smoke it, in Colorado legalizing cannabis has actually lead to a drop in the number of you people using it. I mean I’ve had tons of experience using cannabis, I see it more as a social thing rather than just getting high. All my friends who have used have never gotten addicted to it; I mean coffee is more addictive than cannabis, what does that say about it?

I mean don’t get me wrong cannabis can have its issues such as causing schizophrenia, but nothing is perfect every great thing has its problems. But by the looks of things legalizing cannabis has more positives than negatives, it would be stupid not to legalize it.

Article 2 Old man age 67 non user

Recently a petition has been sent to parliament about legalizing cannabis; over two hundred thousand people have signed this petition. I my whole life have been against any drug use and think that all drugs that are not used for medicinal purposes should be illegal. I have never really understood what is so great about the drug, why not do a legal high? I’ll never understand kids.

Cannabis is just as dangerous as alcohol, it affects your ability to drive, it causes damage to your lungs and can affect your mental health, can someone please tell me what is fun about it? Using cannabis for non medicinal purposes can bring you into contact with the illegal drug trade, making it more likely to be exposed by other drugs; cannabis is just a gateway drug to becoming a Heroin addict. 

Lets use Colorado as an example,  since they have legalized marijuana 10.47% of Colorado youth ages 12 to 17 are considered marijuana users compared to the 7.55% nationally, Not only that drug-related suspension increased by 32% from the school years 2008-2009 and 2012-2013, the majority of these suspensions were marijuana violations.

The legalization on cannabis will impact the youth massively, and not in a good way. If you do not want your children to experiment with drugs then i strongly advise you to not sign this petition.

The drug laws on marijuana right now are perfect, there is no need for change. Legalizing marijuana is not the answer, it will not improve the economy, it will not reduce drug related crimes and it will not reduce the numbers of youth using it!

Bibliography

http://dailysignal.com/2014/08/20/7-harmful-side-effects-pot-legalization-caused-colorado/

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/104349

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/oct/05/-sp-drug-use-is-rising-in-the-uk-but-were-not-addicted

http://www.nhs.uk/livewell/drugs/pages/cannabis-facts.aspx

(Just to put it out there, i am not a cannabis user nor do i care whether it is legalized or not)

Article 1: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34131911
Article 2: http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/603511/Migrant-crisis-refugees-take-selfie-photo-Greek-boat-Lesbos-Syria-war

Both articles are on the same subject and have statistics and pictures in them. Article 1 is more factual than article 2, article 1 has all the facts and figures about migrants migrating. Whereas article 2 is about the migrant who have escaped their country and how they are dealing with it.