A2 Pilot coursework
I have chosen to base my investigation on dating adverts that have been placed in the Guardian by Guardian readers. It is assumed that they all have similar interests due to them all being a reader of the same newspaper and obviously are single and looking for a partner. I have decided to investigate the ways men and woman describe themselves physically and personally and whether or not men and woman stick to their language stereotypes. I believe that I will find a trend were woman will describe themselves physically a lot more than their personal interests and men will describe their interests. I also believe that woman will seem tentative with how they describe themselves and men will typically get straight to the point. I have found that some of the woman who posted an advert in the soulmates dating page hasn’t always stuck to the language that is typical of them to do so. Various women tend to be picky and decelerate when describing what they want in a man, ‘tall, unpretentious bloke’. This is seen as an uncommon feature of woman’s language due to the fact that they are usually tentative and edge around the point. However, due to the fact they seem to have a word count of some sort the woman will have had to be short and sweet when writing. This meaning they will be bending the ways they speak or write.
I also found that ‘attract’, ‘curvaceous’ and several other adjectives were used frequently. Most women were beginning their advert with usually three adjectives to describe themselves physically. Then would describe what they are seeking in their perfect man. Mainly focusing on what they want in a man rather than what they in fact are. This could link to the theory that woman would rather listen to somebody rather than continuously speak about themselves. Perhaps when woman were writing their advert they felt subconsciously uncomfortable describing themselves, and possibly they would much prefer to list features about the man who is reading and possibly believing that they fit a certain description, in fact giving the man the choice rather than herself.
Whilst looking at the adverts I also recognised that woman use phrases such as ‘perhaps r’ship’ and ‘maybe more’. I presume that the woman use theses phrases to not seem too forward or declarative and they also suggest uncertainty. This is typical of woman’s language. It could be seen as a polite form that Robin Lakoff describes. These phrases show what they want but as a weak directive. This in turn gives the man more choice and decision due to the woman not saying what they want exactly, it also could create confusion.
Woman also tended to stick to the theory that woman use correct punctuation etc. Even though they only had a little room to write about themselves the use of commas and full stops was not affected. Every woman used at least three pieces of punctuation. They also very rarely shortened words and used as little or no colloquial language, which I thought was unusual due to the amount of space they had.

When looking at the adverts men had written I found some similarities and some differences. Men tended to speak about themselves physically and personally a lot more than the woman had. Using adjectives like ‘tall’ ‘slim’ and ‘assertive’. A lot of the men would write how tall they are. Perhaps being a form of power by letting the woman that they are tall and possibly taller than the woman, or could possibly the fact that woman may just simply want to know.
A lot of the men, I found, were straight to the point by saying exactly what they want ‘companionship’ and ‘loyal r/ship’ are examples of this. Unlike woman men are declarative, which is typical of their language, they don’t edge around the point they say exactly what they want and not letting woman have a choice in a sense. I also found that men tend to state what job title they own. This suggests that they are proud of their career or wan to boast. This is seen as a typical feature of men’s langue.
800 words
Rebecca Hoban