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Question

Compare how the two writers convey their attitudes towards food and the people they are visiting.

In your answer you could:

• compare their different attitudes
• compare the methods they use to convey their attitudes
• support your ideas with references to both texts

Both texts are about food and people, but one is from the 19th century and the other is a modern text. The first one is written by Alexis Soyer, a food writer. He describes going to a house in St Giles where he is ‘received like a princess in a fairy land’. This simile suggests that he feels welcomed into the house where he is going to teach the owners how to make coffee.

Soyer is uncertain about his hosts and takes his own coffee because he has ‘little confidence in what they would provide’. This shows a snobbish attitude both to food and people. It suggests he doesn’t trust the people he is visiting to provide the quality of food and drink he’s used to. On the other hand, the writer in the restaurant review has so much trust in the restaurant that she even lets the waiter choose for her: ‘I find myself forgoing choice completely’.

Soyer is surprised to find that the ‘little parlour was not only clean, but ornamented’. It is the first time he has visited the house and is not expecting to find it so clean. His surprise reveals an arrogant attitude. However the restaurant reviewer has visited the restaurant before. She knows to book a window seat and makes the point that this is ‘the first time’ her companion has been here. She seems pleased by the way her friend reacts to the views and is happy that she is ‘wowed by the winding lanes.’ Her used of alliteration suggests her companion’s expression of joy.

Feedback - improving

This answer is improving because:

• it compares both texts throughout, and moves from one writer to the other
• it uses embedded quotations
• it focuses on the writers’ methods
• it refers to the writers’ attitudes to food and people

It could improve by:

• using more quotations to support all points
• develop points about the effects of the methods used
• using more varied connectives to link the texts
• focus more explicitly on the writers’ attitudes