How to Write the 2024 CAPE Communication Studies Module 1 Essay || Free Notes and Sample Essay

0:00 Hey guys, welcome back to my YouTube channel. Um, I beg ignore whatever is happening here. I just needed this video to get out really quickly. So, I'm using Zoom to record. So, yeah, that's what we're doing today. So, don't judge. Just uh get the [Music] information. And as usual, the notes for all of this is down in the description box below. If you see me looking that way, that means I'm looking at my notes. And a lot of you have told me that you needed me to show you how to like pick the different organizational strategies and language techniques from the um the extract. So, we're going to look at that as well. So, I found this one quite

0:46 interesting because there was a lot to pick from it and I think I even missed some and I was like, "Oh my god, I missed some." But I I digress. Dr. Alfred does general lac too early. It's too early for this. Dr. Alfred does general laparoscopic and weight loss surgeon. Just off the bat here, the mention of someone with credibility. The author starts starts off strong with the use of authority. This here is an organizational strategy because it's used to frame the argument in a way that we'll think or we me being the readers

1:32 will think that it is helping to structure the argument. Right? So whenever you think about organizational strategies, you want to think about how is this helping to structure the writer's argument. Anyways, as we continue, you'll see where it says a wellressearched and excellently written column in the Gleer. Again, appeal to authority because the Gleer, as you know, is one of the most most reputable popular sources of information for Jamaica. on Wednesday, July 31, 2019, dedicated to the topic of fat shaming. He cited the surprising worldwide and local increase in obesity rates. And you'll see this here throughout the entire article where the author is

2:20 actually using inverted commas to again bring emphasis to the word obesity. So he doesn't do it once, not twice. But here again he uses inverted commas not for the word obese but rather for obese. Again this is to draw attention to the word obesity. And I'm going to get into later what that means for I found a huge theme of connotation versus denotation. So how the word sounds when we use it. to what we what we're implying when we use the word obesity versus what the word obesity actually means. That's what I mean by connotation versus denotation. Anyways, so local increase

3:06 in obesity rates and the attendant health related risk. He was very understanding of the lifelong psychological, physiological, physical and social uphill battle that overweight individuals must face. This here I believe is a form or the use of listing but I didn't include this in the essay because I I didn't think it was such a major point but it is something to consider. So again another organizational strategy here is the use of listing. He decrieded those who make jokes and tease overweight people cause their actions are hurtful and harmful. I want to reiterate several things about being overweight and add my earnest

3:52 desire that the medical community condemn the word obese. So right here the author is actually blatantly telling you his purpose. So the per the writer's purpose here is to tell us or show how the word obese or obesity is harmful and hurtful in the way we use it and to call for us to basically stop using the word right just stop using it overall. Then I found what came next quite interesting because I've never seen the use of this organizational strategy in any of the extracts CX he has given so far where he says the word is derived from the Latin word obesus

4:37 which originally referred to someone who eats until fat and then he says obese sounds like obese. Right? So here the author uses definition and ethmology. Ethmology speaking of the origin of a word and again this I definitely use this in my essay because I'm me. So the use of definition here as an organizational strategy. Then it says the horrible word does not go anyone into losing weight. It is counterproductive to weight loss because the label is oppressive, embarrassing, depressing, and causes some to give up efforts at weight reduction. So, if losing weight were so easy, everyone

5:23 would be thin. Only about 5% of people can maintain weight loss permanently. 5% here is use of statistics. That's a very popular organizational strategy and it's used to add credibility to the argument or make it more believable. So it again helps to frame or structure the argument hence why it's an organizational strategy. So the use of statistics then here use of subheading is another I didn't I don't think I included this in the notes but I'm seeing it now after a week but the use of subheadings here is an organizational strategy helps us to see where the

6:10 author is going with the argument. So, the word obese conjures up images of an extremely large person chowing down on a massive mount of food stuff with a jug of beverage waiting in the wings. This here is a language technique. And this language technique is um an extremely large person chowing down on a massive mount of food stuff. The jug of beverage waiting in the wings. This here is imagery, right? So I'll put LT for language technique and just write it as imagery, right? And if I spell anything wrong, I promise

6:57 you I know how to spell. Anyways, imagery, language technique. These are usually literary devices. I like to say they add flavor or spice to the the the the author's writing because it's just easier that way for me to separate what both are. Um many mistakenly believe that people obese people are dysfunctional individuals with weak minds incapable of exercising a little self-discipline. Again here this is listing he's saying he's telling what people think that that that um obese people are weak-minded and incapable of exercising a little self discipline. Obese individuals are often thought of as gluttonous and

7:43 slothful two of the seven deadly sins. Here is another um language technique. This time you're seeing the use of illusion. Illusion here is where the author is alluding to the seven deadly sins or making reference to the seven deadly sins. So this is a a language technique. They are considered food addicts. So, so far we've seen organizational strategies such as the use of authority, the use of inverted commas, the use of definition and ethmology, the use of subheadings, the use of statistics, and we've seen language techniques such as imagery and illusion. And that's only the first part

8:30 of the the extract. If we go on to look at the rest um you'll see here where they say where the author says um biases against overweight people is common or bias rather they are thought of as undisiplined failures incapable of taking care of their bodies again this is a bit of listing a very short list as a speak a very short list I must say but it's still um it hints a bit at listing As I said, it wouldn't be my strongest argument, but there's an argument there for it. I'm only here to suggest possible arguments because some people believe that fat people are in serious

9:16 imminent danger. They are sometimes denied employment, passed over for promotions, and refuse places for places to rent. Is that legal? again use of listing. Additionally, clothing seats and variable various equipment are still mostly manufactured for slim individuals. Again, listing clothing seats and various equipment. listing other things like diabetes, malitis, hypertension, hyper cholesterolimeia or high blood cholesterol, smoking, illegal drugs, excessive alcohol, a strong family history of some cancers, risky sexual behavior, driving badly,

10:01 involvement in criminal activities and so on. Carry major health risk, but only obesity is easily visually evident. that in and of itself is very stressful. This whole paragraph here was a list. So again, we see where the author uses listing as an organizational strategy. Being overweight or significantly overweight is an extremely complicated affair. Scientists have recently identified genes that make it very difficult for some people to lose weight. easy for easy for them to gain weight and cause cravings for the wrong types of food in the wrong proportions. Again,

10:49 listing some people are programmed to become plus-siz in order to remain within the ideal weight for their height range. So, that's making illusion um not explicitly, but it's alluding to BMI, body mass index. They must exert superhuman willpower throughout their entire lifetimes by eating considerably less than the average human being and remaining very physically active. Aside from or genes a major contributor to weight weight problems, there are numerous factors leading to excessive weight and the author is going to go on and list again. So the reasons for the increasing number

11:34 of overweight people today include the nutritional environment during every early life, socialization, modern society with time compression, fast foods, high calorie foods, expensive healthy foods, positive off um recreational spaces, um poor sleep patterns, anxiety, depression, financial constraints, infrequent eating, rapid eating, the bacteria that colonize the gut, time, stress, and many others. Again, the use of listing and it's pro I guess he uses the author uses listing to provide examples to support the argument. So, we cannot all be slim,

12:22 but we can all reduce health risk with some weight loss. Abandon the count the counterproductive word obese. use overweight or significantly overweight instead. So that's the complete article and I've already told you most of what I found here. Um for language techniques what I have not mentioned that I have put in my notes here is the pathos appeal and the pathos appeal is used throughout the entire extract where even though the the extract here serves the purpose of informing and warranting or calling for action, it presses on people's emotions to consider like is

13:09 this really right? Is this really right to be calling overweight people obese when the word obese actually means eat until fat? And you can consider that not every um person who is overweight actually eats terribly or eats have bad eating habits. It could just be genetics. It could just be them having an illness or something, right? Um he also uses technical jargon and not very not a lot. It's like for example laparoscopic laparoscopic um I don't know why I said laparoscopic it's laparoscopic and um he uses repetition

13:55 as well where he repeat it's the word obese throughout the extract. I did say imagery and illusion. But as I said, the notes are description box below. Yeah. Anyways, so now I'm going to get into the sample essay and how I decided to construct um my essay. I believe I decided to use one organizational strategy and one language technique. the organizational strategy that I chose to use was use of definition and ethmology because I just think that's different. And um the the language technique that I chose was imagery. I wanted to do illusion so bad, but I couldn't develop an argument that had enough words. So

14:42 I'm like, "All right, I'll get my opportunity another time." So those are what I used. As for the speaking about the credibility, I like to say use the crap test if you whenever you're asked to evaluate or comment on the credibility where C stands for currency. So, is the topic timeless? Is it um is the topic something that we're talking about now? How old is the piece that's written? Stuff like that. R is for relevance. So is the information provided in the extract relevant for not only the purpose the

15:29 author intended but also the topic. For example, if you're reading a paper about ice cream or supposedly reading a paper about ice cream and the information in the extract is telling you why the sky is blue, then it wouldn't be relevant to the topic. So that's problematic. A and A I'll go authority and accuracy. Authority is who wrote it. Are they qualified to give you this information? Now, for this specific extract, I would say it gets a a lot of points for um authority because it was written by Gary Ratray and as I said, he's a family doctor. So he would have firsthand experience with overweight people and

16:14 basically inside knowledge of how the word impacts them. So yeah, big major points for authority. As for accuracy, accuracy is the purpose of the information and is there are there any biases or is it biased? Right? I wouldn't say this was biased because it really it has a lot more organizational strategies than language techniques. That's what I found. And it was backed up by plausible arguments by providing evidence through listing and also of course providing definition and basically the ethmology or origin of the word. So telling us how it all fits into how it's used and challenges. Again, as I said, what we how we use the word,

17:02 what we mean when we use the word. So, connotation versus what the word actually means. Denotation and the P for purpose. So, again, is it biased or what's the actual purpose? Was it to persuade or was it to just inform? In a case where it's just to inform, then it's less biased and it's more trustworthy. That's just my opinion though. And going back to accuracy, I think I forgot something. If the information provided is accurate, then it's cohesive with other sources. So meaning if you check or read another paper, it would be saying the same thing. So that's another part of accuracy. But besides that, let me just get into the the essay, the sample essay so that you can see what's up. So the introduction is usually divided into

17:49 three main parts. You have your hook, your leading statement, and your thesis statement. The hook is just something to grab the reader's attention. So, I usually go for a quote depending on the essay that I'm writing to be honest. Or you could do definitions or you could do um surprising statistic or just a shocking statement. Anything is fine for your hook. As for the module one essay, I usually use the leading statement to basically state the writer's main point and purpose and then then the thesis or my argument would be what the essay will be exploring. Right? So if I try to break all of this

18:34 apart, right here to right here perhaps would be considered my hook. The next few sentences all the way to here would be my leading statements. It's usually one, but I use a lot here. And then the final part here to here would be considered my thesis or my argument. So for my hook, I have obesity has remained a significant public health concern among Caribbean people for decades. the extract, the beastly word obese by Gary Ratri. And if you don't know where to find who wrote the the extract, just look at the last part just before the question on the exam paper. There's usually the source listed there. So

19:19 that's where you can find um the the source and who wrote the paper. Anyway, so the beastly word obese by Gary Ratri explores reasons why the word obese is problematic. The main point is that and the Cxc stresses this on the student reports almost every year that whenever you're developing your argument in this case you need what is called the elementary frame. Of course you can tweak this um a bit. I tried my best to change the writer's purpose part because I usually write the writer's purpose is to but again I tried to maintain the elementary frame but state the writer's purpose in a different way for those who would like that. So the main point is that the term is both harmful and

20:06 counterproductive. Then I said that the writer aims to raise awareness about the potential harm the word may cause. Moreover, he calls for the abandonment of the word obese in favor of more co um compassionate compassionate alternatives. Then for my thesis, I said to achieve this purpose, Ratcher uses definitions and ethmology as an organizational strategy. He further uses imagery as a language technique. So I started off my first body paragraph with a transition word or a linking word. So I said firstly and then I started with my topic sentence and this is to signpost so that reader the reader would know what I'll be talking about in this paragraph. That's very important. So you

20:53 need to start off it's like it's usually called a paragraph sandwich where start with a point. Usually you can go example then explain or elaborate. I like to say elaborate because explain is kind of vague but yeah. So point, example or evidence then explain. You could actually go the other way and say point, explain or elaborate. Then give an example or evidence whichever way suits you. But if these three things are not in your paragraph, then something is remotely it's close to wrong. Something is wrong with your paragraph. You need to check it. So but the point always comes first. There's no going around that. So your topic sentence always comes first and it tells what the paragraph will be talking about. So firstly the writer uses definition on

21:39 ethmology as an organizational strategy. Then I went ahead and provided evidence. So I said in the third paragraph he introduces the definition and origin of the word obese. The writer pulls attention to the Latin Latin obesus which means to eat until fat. Then I'm explaining how this helps the writer to achieve his purpose. And that's how you get your second mark, right? That's how you get your your next mark for this thing. You have to tell sufficiently how the writer uses this particular strategy or technique to achieve his purpose. If you don't say that, you can't get the mark. So, Ratcher frames his argument emphasizing the stark contrast between connotation and denotation. By doing

22:24 this, Ratcher highlights that the word obese is harmful as the meaning attached to it is not only insensitive but inaccurate in some cases. Through this he showcases the misalignment between how the word is used and its actual meaning. So I spoke about language techniques but again I used transition or linking word or phrase this time. So the transition then again topic sentence. So my point then I provided examples or an or evidence then the last few sentences here was to explain or elaborate. So it's always the same structure. So in addition to this the writer uses imagery

23:11 as a language technique. So now you know that I'll be speaking about imagery as a language technique in this paragraph and some I've read a few of your papers and a common error that I am seeing is that whenever you do use the topic sentence you you would probably say in addition to this the writer uses imagery full stop but you need to actually tell that you're talking about imagery as a language technique. I mean reading it, I know that you're talking about imagery as a language technique, right? But I think it's safer and this is again, this is just my opinion. I think it's safer to tell that it is a language technique

23:56 that you're talking about so that I can read your first sentence and know right off the bat if you should get the mark for it, if you've identified the organizational strategy or language technique correctly. Whenever markers are marking your paper, they're marking from the perspective of you don't know. So whatever you don't state, we're just assuming that you don't know it. Right? Saying this like I'm a marker, not a marker. But yeah, whenever you teach a marker or anybody reading your essay or your work overall your exam paper, we're marking from the perspective of assuming that you don't know. So even if it is obvious, I beg state the obvious so that we know that you know it right. So that is why I'm saying that it's very

24:44 important that when you're writing your topic sentence, you actually state that hey this is the this is the strategy and it is a strategy or this is a technique and it is a technique. So the writer uses imagery as a language technique in the line extremely large people chowing down. Now that was a very large long sentence. So I just chose the most visual part of it right. So extremely large people chowing down. That's to make an impact. Ratray again juxtaposes connotation against denotation. This paints a picture. So I'm now telling you how this helps the writer achieve his purpose. So actually explain starts here rather than here. So

25:32 this paints a picture of how the word is perceived. Again, it's really me here honing in on connotation versus denotation. So thus the author successfully makes an abstract concept relatively concrete. Ratri elaborates that the image forged in society's mind is a delitrious generalization. Therefore, imagery in this context allows the readers to ponder whether they are a part of the problem and that's how I developed my argument for language techniques. My last body paragraph is speaking about the credibility of the source. So, in terms of credibility of the information provided, I said Ratri

26:17 efficiently establishes his pieces ethos. That here is my topic sentence. Again my pointer pointer and here this is my transition or my linking sentence or phrase rather and rat effectively effectively effectively establishes his pieces ethos. Then I'm going to provide evidence for this. So I think I did the whole crab test but I really emphasize what did I emphasize the relevance and accuracy of the information. Those are the two points that I really um tried to emphasize in this paragraph. So health and obesity is a timeless topic. So in relation to public health, the topic

27:03 remains a current area of exploration. Furthermore, the information provided in the extract is relevant to that should be the topic and remains coherent with the established main point and purpose. Finally the piece was written by oh it his name is G not Gary I am sorry G his name is G. So um written by G Ratri a medical doctor with a family practice. Therefore he has authority and is qualified to speak on issues regarding health and lifestyle. This is particularly significant for a topic such as obesity. Then dun dun dun you're going to wrap up with a conclusion. Now if I read your conclusion and don't know what the hell you talk about essay

27:50 conclusion isn't developed effectively I should say that so given the word limit for even the module 3 essay I usually skip the whole conclusion part just because I would not want to lose marks for not having a properly developed conclusion so I just leave it out completely but if you really want to add it I beg ensure that it's developed effectively If I read your conclusion and don't know what the main points of your essay um were, then you don't have a properly developed conclusion and you did just better without it. That's just my opinion. So, in conclusion, the extract explores the harmful nature of the term

28:37 obese. The author emphasizes a drastic difference between how the word is perceived and its actual meaning. So again, I've linked the main point. I've repeated the purpose. The the piece's purpose was to bring attention to the potential harm that could ensue and urge abandoning the term completely. The piece's purpose was to bring I said that already. The author achieves this purpose through using the organizational strategy, definition, and ethmology. Um, this was instrumental in clearly delineating obesises. Obesity's connotation and the denotation. When I was rereading my essay, I had a lot of issues with the the the me saying obese right there. It's it's weird. It feels uncomfortable,

29:24 but I just felt like I didn't know what else to do with it, so I just left it. Furthermore, he uses imagery as a language technique. This creates or this makes concrete the the makes concrete the abstract concept of a beast forged in society's mind. All in all, Ratray was able to effectively establish credibility through providing relevant information. Finally, since Ratcher is a medical doctor, he would have a lot of experience dealing with the overweight patients and firsthand knowledge of how the word obese affects them. Affects affects them affects them. I promise I can read. I promise. I

30:11 promise I can read. Anyways, that was the essay, the module one essay. I'll be dropping the module 2 essay soon. So in that case watch another