The title of this article ‘Up, Up and Away’ is clearly related to the article and is very effective at linking up to the text. It gives us a sense of journey, up up and away. Like we are flying to a far away land not knowing if we will make it back. This is seen in the article as the man has flown over the English channel in an armchair which is clearly very risky and could have led to the death of the man if anything had gone wrong.
Secondly, the title links to a Disney movie called up in which a young boy and an old man pair up on an adventure in which they fly into the unknown using a house which is attached to balloons much like what the individual in the article has done. The movie is also referred to in the text which again clearly shows a link and is very effective at creating an image of the experience the man had for those who have seen the movie.
The joke in the headline: “the day that armchair travel really took off” is also very effective, it creates a sense of humour around the danger which the man may have faced and how different this ‘new’ type of air travel is compared to the conventional means of aerial transport, the use of a plane. It is mainly aimed at joking at the situation the man is in and creating some humour which it clearly has done by talking about how shocked the French authorities were.
Finally the image is also extremely effectively linked to the article, it gives something to look at and shows what exactly happened, the multi coloured balloons match the humour in the title and gives a feeling of happiness and the iconic White cliffs also show us how much of a grand task this man has achieved. The image has been taken from above to show us how high the man was and also makes everything else feel small due to how high this man was. It looks more dangerous.
February 3, 2013 at 4:41 pm
This is a good discussion of the intention and effect of the title, images and the article. You’ve made a range of good points – and interpreted the intentions of the article well.
To improve your answer – and to keep it as brief as possible, try to refer to more specific features. Use of colour, use of images, particular language features and words in the title, specific sequences in the article that are reflected in the image or title.
For example, the idea of ‘armchair travel’ is usually ironic, so identifying that in this case it’s the adoption of an ironic term, and demonstrating it as literally happening is a clever device.
6/8 – Band 4
I’ll attach the official answer to your blog so you can see what the marker’s guidance looks like.