Flicking through this magazine
you will see articles and advertisements that use language. It sounds like an
obvious point to make, but the way language is used today is very different to
how it was used 50 years ago. The popularity of a word changes, and just like
the clothes in this magazine, words come in and out of fashion very quickly.
150 years ago women dressed very
formally. Long skirts, tight corsets and high neck lines dictated a woman’s wardrobe
and this formality seems, to us, completely over the top for everyday life. A
pair of jeans and a t-shirt seems much more practical for nipping to the shops
in the morning, but this is just how fashion has changed the way we dress. But
why did it change? Like everything, fashion evolves, and it is for this very
reason that the language we use has changed. Just like the evolution of
fashion, it seems that our language is becoming more, and more informal.
Scientific Magazine:
Language
is constantly evolving. Fortunately, the language we use, and have used in the
past, is well documented and recorded. We can source data from many aspects of
our society, from books or magazines, from ancient documents, or perhaps even
from social networking posts. We are surrounded by language and we can track
how language has evolved. Norman Fairclough, an English specialist, theorised
that language has become increasingly informal.
Two distinctly different voices, so well done. The phrase "nipping to the shops" is the right register but it needs to have that voice throughout the first extract, rather than a formal-sounding intro. Write too obviously 'to inform' rather than 'to entertain' and you will lose your audience. Language information must be disguised! The second piece works better because readers expect to be informed.
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