 Assalamu alaikum, welcome to virtual university. In today's lesson, today's lesson like your previous lesson will be in two parts. We will begin by looking at how fiction writers, they bring their characters to life by employing different techniques and one of these techniques is description. In the second half of the lesson, we will go back to practical texts which are related to your field of studies which is computers. Almost every example of imaginative writing deals with people in some way or the other and today we are going to look at some of the ways in which a writer is able to translate his vision of the people he is writing about and transfer it to the people who are going to read and he does it through his words. Now in some ways a painter or a photographer, they have an easier task because they are able to present their ideas directly in visual terms though of course interpretation is necessary here too. You have to interpret in every way. Now how does an author achieve the same effect by using only words? Your painter or your photographer does it in another way. Your author does it through words. Now there are six ways in which a writer can create the same effect and he does it number one through action. He shows his characters in action, they are doing something. Number two he can use words, he can put words in his character's mouth and it is from those words that you form an opinion or a picture of the character. Number three the writer can make a direct statement and number four the writer can compare and associate with other things and in that way he can help you form a picture. And number five the writer can associate one particular point of view or action by which the character can easily and quickly be identified. And number six he can choose words and it is his choice of words that he picks out a particular feature or detail that recalls that character vividly to mind. Now we will look at the first one in action. One of the ways a writer does this is by showing the character performing some action which is typical of him or performing an action which in a particular way performs an action in a particular way that reveals the kind of person he is. And if you read stories you will notice that this is a very common way that writers use. I wonder if you have read the story by Charles Dickens it is called Great Expectations and the writer gives a description of Mrs. Gargory who is Pip's sister and if you notice the way he describes Mrs. Gargory's action she is cutting bread and the way the writer Charles Dickens describe the way he describes the cutting of the bread somehow associates with the character of Mrs. Gargory. When you read the description you form a picture of the lady and the words are my sister had a trenchant way of cutting our bread and butter for us that never varied first with a left hand she jammed the load loaf hard and fast against her bib a bib is a piece of cloth that one wears over one's clothes so that your clothes do not get dirty first with a left hand she jammed the loaf hard and fast against her bib where it sometimes got a pin into it and sometimes a needle which we afterwards got into our mouths then she took some butter not too much on a knife and spread it on the loaf in an apothecary apothecary kind of fashion now apothecary is an old word for the medicine man as if she were making a playster using both sides of the knife with the slapping dexterity this is the way she went about putting butter applying butter on the loaf and trimming and molding the butter of the crest then she gave the knife a final smart wipe on the edge of the playster and then sword a very thick round of the loaf which she finally before separating from the loaf hewed into two halves of which Joe got one and I the other now this is a simple description of a lady cutting a loaf of bread and she gives one piece to her husband and the other to her brother pick but notice the way this is described it brings a vivid picture of this lady mrs. gargory there she is he says he jams she jams the bread onto the table pushes it down then she uses the knife to cut it and after she is cut it she applies butter to it not too heavy not too thick just slightly and then she wipes off all the extra butter and she hues the word that is used is Hugh here is to cut and she cuts the bread the loaf into two halves now what does this account of mrs. gargory cutting the bread tell us about her it is the words that the writer uses in these words lies the picture words like trenchant jammed slapping dexterity a final smart wipe and then he uses words like sword and hewed these are words that one uses for cutting wood and you get a picture of a well built lady cutting as if she is cutting a piece of wood you know actually she is cutting a loaf of bread now write your answer to these and the following questions in your notebook it will be good practice what is the impression that the use of words like trenchant jammed slapping dexterity a final smart wipe sword hewed what do these what kind of impression is built up now that was how a writer shows action through his choice of words now the second technique is and that is through speech and in this way the writer can indicate character through the words that he puts into his characters mouth now this is of course an important in fact the most important element of the of the dramatist drama writers this is their craft it is the words that they put into their characters mouths that tells you what kind of a character is being described what kind of character the writer has in mind and it reveals the characters through their speech it is not only dramatists who use this technique other writers novelist short story writers they also use this technique now I will read out a short extract from another novel it is by P. G. Woodhouse and the name of the novelist thank you jeeps you have come across it last time in your in your previous lesson this is a conversation taking place between the master and jeeps jeeps is the servant a very close confidant of the master notice the conversation how it takes place jeeps I said do you know what no sir no sir do you know what I saw last night no sir J. Washman stalker and his daughter Pauline indeed sir awkward what I can conceive that after what occurred in New York it might be distressing for you to encounter miss Stokes sir but I fancy the contingency needs scarcely arise I wait this when you stop when you start talking about contingencies arising jeeps the brain seems to flicker and I rather miss the gist do you mean I ought to be able to keep out of her way yes sir avoid yes sir now if you look at jeeps answers apart from one speech that is a bit he says a few sentences the rest of his speech is very very economical that is few words he is a man of few words it is either yes sir no sir yes sir no sir now what can we learn about jeeps what kind of a person you see from the words that the writer puts in his mouth what can we deduce about the kind of person jeeps is and his attitude towards his master from the economy of his speech from what jeeps actually says and what is implied now write down on your in your notebook what you think the writer has in mind anything it's your opinion now the third way the third technique is by making direct statement some writers tell us about their characters directly instead of showing them and allowing us to draw our own conclusions writers build detail on detail until we have a clear picture of their appearance their habits their opinions their life history now you will see on your screen an account of a character called miss orc right miss orc right I shall read it out and you read silently and you notice the kind the kinds of words that are used to describe miss orc right and a picture will form in your mind about this character she was in no way a remarkable person her appearance was not particularly distinguished and yet she was without any feature that could actively displease she had enough personal eccentricities to fit into the pattern of English village life but none so absurd or antisocial that they could embarrass or even arouse gossip beyond what was pleasant to her neighbors she accepted her position as an old maid with that cheerful good humor and occasional irony which are essential to English spinsters since the deification of Jane Austen or more secretly miss Austin by the upper middle classes she attempted to counteract the inadequacy of the unmarried state by quiet sensible and tolerant tolerant social work in the local community she was liked by nearly everyone though she was not afraid of making enemies where she knew that abroad but deeply felt religious principles were being opposed any socially pretentious or undesirably extravagant conduct to was liable to call for to call from her an unexpectedly caustic and well-aimed snub she was invited everywhere and always accepted the invitations you could see her at every tea party quietly but well-dressed with one or two very fine old pieces of jewelry that had come down to her from her grandmother she would pass from one group to another laughing or serious as the occasion demanded she listened with patience but with a slight twinkle in her eye to mr. Hodson's endless stories of life in Dar es Salaam or Myra Hopps breathless accounts of her latest system of diet John Hoppe day in his somewhat ostentatiously gentleman farmer attire would describe his next novel about East Anglian life to her before even his beloved daughter had heard of it Richard Trelawney just down from Oxford found that she had read and really knew Dunn's sermons yet she could swap detective stories with Colonel Wright by the hour and was his main source for quotations when the Times crossword was in question it was she who incorporated little missus Grantham into village life when that underbred suburban woman came there as Colonel Grantham's second wife checking her vulgar remarks about the lower classes with kindly humor but defending her against the formidable battery of Lady Vernon's antagonism yet she it was also who was first at Lady Vernon's when Sir Robert had his stroke and her unobtrusive kindliness and real services gained her a singular position behind the grim reserve of the Vernon family she could always banter the wicker away from his hobby horse of the Greek right when at parish meetings the agenda seemed to have been buried forever beneath a welter of Euclidia and Manania sorry and Manaya she checked Sir Robert's anti-Bolshevik phobia from victimizing the county librarian for her fabianism but was fierce in her attack on the local council when she thought the class prejudice had prevented Commander Osborne's widow from getting council house she led in fact an active and useful existence yet when anyone praised her she would only laugh my dear she would say hard works the only excuse old maids like me have got for existing at all and even then I don't know that they ought not to lethalize the lot of us as the danger of war grew nearer in the 30s her favorite remark was well if they've got any sense this time they'll keep the young fellows at home and put us useless old maids in the trenches and she said it with real conviction now that was a fairly long a fairly long passage and read it again read it a couple of times it is very very English you don't have to bother about it just read the text and see what kind of picture you get in your mind about Miss Arkwright's character we know one thing she's an old she's not married she lives in a village and she is very active so just jot down in your notebook what kind of picture you got when you read the text now that was the third technique the fourth technique is by using comparison and associations sometimes writers tell us about their characters by comparing them to something else which calls up an image in our minds or by associating them with some idea or object that is related or that is significant you maybe you are familiar with Miss Birdstone she is a character from Charles Dickens novel David Copperfield and see what kind of picture comes into your mind when you read her name and her description you will notice a few things you will notice that Charles Dickens uses some words again and again so that an association is built in your mind with Miss Birdstone now here is a description of Miss Birdstone it was Miss Birdstone who was who arrived a gloomy looking lady she was dark like her brother whom she greatly resembled in face and voice and with very heavy eyebrows nearly meeting over her large nose as if being disabled by the wrongs of from wearing whiskers she had carried them to that account she brought with her two uncompromising hard black boxes with her initials on the lids in hard brass nails when she paid the coachman she took the money from a hard steel purse and she kept the purse in a very jail of a bag which hung upon her arm by a heavy chain and shut up like a bite I had never at that time seen such a metallic lady altogether I had never at that time seen such a metallic lady altogether as Miss Birdstone was now read the passage again it's a shorter passage and you pick out the words or objects words and objects that directly suggest metal which words in the description of Miss Birdstone suggest characteristics of metal how is this association with metal appropriate and look at the lady's name birdstone what kind of picture comes into your mind now the fifth technique that writers employ is that of associating the character with one particular point of view or action by which they can easily and quickly be identified now there is another short description of a character from the same novel Uriah Heap if you haven't read this novel so far see if you can get hold of a copy and read David Copperfield that's the name of the novel and the writer is Charles Dickens there is this description of Uriah Heap and if you read the description you will notice that there are certain words that have been used and long after you've read the novel you will remember you will associate Uriah Heap with certain words there is a phrase ever so humble ever so humble and this gentleman Uriah Heap he keeps rubbing his hands all the time and he keeps using the phrase he uses the phrase ever so humble again and again with the result that they are associated with him forever now I'll read this and you notice these words it was no fancy of a mind about his hands I observed for he frequently ground the palms against each other as if to squeeze them dry and warm besides often wiping them in a stealthy way on his pocket handkerchief now there is another description I'm reading out these descriptions for you to notice how writers use words to associate how they use certain words which form an association in your mind whenever that character whenever you read about that character whenever you think about that character there is another character from a book called hard times again written by Charles Dickens and it is Mr. Thomas grad grind grad grind a name Thomas grad grind a man of realities a man of facts and calculations a man who proceeds upon the principle that two and two are four and nothing over and who is not to be talked into allowing for anything more Thomas grad grind sir prematurely Thomas Thomas grand grind with the rule and a pair of scales and the multiplication table always in his pocket sir ready to wait and measure any parcel of human nature and to tell you exactly what it comes to it is a mere question of figures a case of simple arithmetic get some other nonsensical belief into the head of George grad grind or Augustus grad grind or John grad grind or Joseph grad grind all suppositions non-existent persons but into the head of Thomas grad grind no sir now underline the words that reinforce the idea that Thomas grad grind is a man of facts and calculations and what is the use of the word sir what does the use of the word sir add to the passage read it a number of times and just see what kind of picture you get in your mind and the last technique that I shall discuss today is the choice of words and picking out a particular feature or detail that calls the character vividly to mind now this is from a novel by Edward Blissions a cack-handed war he was a tiny fellow with a leathery white face and the black hair and tied to the case he brought were the most enormous gumboots I had ever seen Mrs. Goss was a widow a neat little woman of over 70 and witch like he was a deeply depressed man this farmer who always wore a white coat and cloth cap and was always peppered with a white and black bristle he was a tall silent dark man very gentle he who would talk over his machine as if it was some moody woman on the straw stack was boy a short stout boy with the kind of naked partners about his eyes and a very running nose now notice that these are descriptions of five characters the writer has described five characters each one different and when you read you notice that for each one you have a different picture in your mind now try to make them alive by the way you see the words by the way he has used the words notice he gives each one a particular descriptive detail a detail that defines the character him or her clearly and individually read these character five again and see how they have been described by the writer now that was the first half of our lesson in which we talked about fiction writers using different techniques to show their characters now we shall look at factual texts and texts that are related to computers in this part of the lesson the second half we are going to look at examples giving examples how you use examples to explain a point or to illustrate an idea that is commonly used now in texts when the primary objective is to teach the order about some subjects it is important to differentiate between the idea or ideas presented and the illustration of the idea with examples writers often use often say explicitly or very clearly which things are examples right they use connectives and you will see a few connectives in the table it is words like for example examples of for instance instances of exemplifies an example of this cases of shows as an example illustration of illustrates that is exemplified by a second or third such as illustrated by like seen in namely these were all the words that I have read they were all words used by a writer to show to indicate that he is going to illustrate that he is going to give you an example first he stated something now he is giving you an example look at the sample sentences you have a few sample sentences on your screen look at them and notice the words that are used to illustrate the switches number one the switches like the cores are capable of being in one of two possible states that is on or off magnetized or un-magnetized it's the phrase that is that is over here a signal for you that the writer is illustrating he is going to give you an example so instead of using the word example he has used the phrase that is number two computers have circuits for performing arithmetic operations such as addition subtraction multiplication and exponentiation now here it is the phrase such as such as is an indicator to you that he is going to illustrate the writer is going to illustrate with an example number three the computer can only decide three things namely is one number less than another are two numbers equal and is one number greater than another and in this sentence it was the word namely the word namely signified was a signal for the reader that an example is following number four computers can process information at extremely rapid rates for example they can solve certain arithmetic problems millions of times faster than a skilled mathematician and here it is the phrase for example here the writer has very clearly used the word for example number five using the very limited capabilities possessed by all computers the task of producing a university payroll for instance can be done quite quickly here it is the phrase for instance which is used instead of the word for example for instance tells you that he is going to give you he has already given you an example very limited capable of by all computers it is that of producing a university payroll can be done very quickly easily now notice in this last example the marker follows the example came earlier because the example is is of producing a university payroll and the example came before and the writer used the marker for instance after using this now all texts all texts present examples explicitly some exemplifications are given implicitly in which case implicitly not directly in which case the markers would not be used now with this we come to the end of today's lesson in today's lesson we have looked at how writers use characterization how they use their characters in literary text to convey meaning and how they show how they bring their characters alive through the use of their words and how writers in nonfiction text in factual text in practical text how they use illustrations and examples to make their writing more concrete and less abstract in today's lesson we looked at the different techniques that writers have at their disposal of creating live characters and we looked at five six techniques number one just a recap of what we did today was the technique of action of using action and we read and extract describing Mrs. Gargrey from the novel great expectations you read about the lady cutting bread and it was through those actions that you associate that lady it is that hard actions of us how she is she is cutting bread but the way she is cutting bread it seems she is cutting wood the second technique that we looked at was the way character writers put words into their characters mouths and we looked at the character of jeeps in the novel thank you jeeps by miss by P. G. woodhouse and you notice that the writer that jeeps has very little to say it is either yes or no yes sir no sir yes sir no sir and the third technique that writers use fiction writers use is the the technique of using direct statements and you had a long paragraph describing miss are right she is a lady who is who is not married a lady who is very popular in her Sifia she lives in a village and she leads a very active life you will notice that she is very happily settled and she has a certain sense of humor and you notice that the writer directly states these characteristics you do not have to think very hard it is through the words that are used by the writer but in a very direct clear way you can get a picture of this happily amiable well settled old lady going about her village where she lives number 4 we looked at miss mudstone we looked at a novel by Charles Dickens David Copperfield and the writer describes this character and he uses certain words which one begins to associate with this character and it was it was words like steel and hard that cup that kept recurring again and again so that was another way that the writer uses of bringing his characters to life one can imagine miss mudstone tall dark lady very harsh very hard everything about her has a metallic ring miss mudstone her very name has a certain harsh quality about it and the fifth technique that you learnt today was the technique of associating one particular point of view and it was Mr. grad grind from a book a novel by Charles Dickens the novel is hard times and we get a picture of Mr. grad grind he seems to be a man with a very with very fixed views and notice how the character is described grad grind and it is you associate facts with his name all the time you have words like facts factual and then he then notice how the writer uses so many other names Augustus grad grind he says all these people are different it is only Thomas grad grind who is of this particular point of view and it is the point of view that is being associated with the name grad grind you identify grad grind with a particular point of view and then the last one you notice that in this was a description of five different characters and each character is described in a different way there is a description of a little boy description of an old lady description of a farmer five different characters are described for you and they come vividly to your mind now read those texts again maybe the text about miss arc right it is fairly long you will have to read it a couple of times when you read these five character in fact all these characters that have been described in your notebook just jot down what comes into your mind what kind of picture and especially for number six where the five characters are described you have a piece of homework in your own way in your own writing describe five characters use certain words write those characters and you can phone in to our station and tell them read your status in your email the five characters these characters can be anyone that you have seen in life you have come across them I am sure you meet lots of people daily and this could be as a short writing exercise just in a couple of words in a couple of sentences describe five characters you do not have to copy please do not copy from the text that you have read keep it as a model use it as a model and create five characters use at least two to three sentences for each character and send us emails and let us know how you have how you have fed and if possible we would like you to read David Copperfield and hard times Dickens was a very popular writer in Britain and he even here in Pakistan people love to read stories of Charles Dickens he is very popular with our children some of the characters especially Miss Merge Stone and Mr. Merge Stone and Mr. grad grind they are always children love to read about these characters and do write and let us know send us emails if you can if you have any problems getting hold of these books write to us and we will see if we can give you addresses from where you can get these books you get them in you do not if you cannot read the original text which would be excellent if you could read them but there are in the market there are books abridged versions available so just read it for the sake of pleasure you do not have to look up meanings even if you do not know the meanings never mind just keep on reading so that you begin to you will develop a fluency in reading and it is only through reading for pleasure that you develop fluency and we hope to do write and let us know how you fare and see you with that we will wind up today's lecture see you next time Allah Hafiz.