American author Cassandra Clare once said, One must always be careful of

books and what is inside them, for words have the power to change us.
Good morning ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the 2016 International Youth
Forum and our theme this year, A Way with Words. Words have the ultimate
power to change and distort our perception of reality. The words we see
in media, especially in advertisements, often blinds the viewers from the truth.
The words we hear from trusted authorities shape our understanding of the world
around us, while words in speeches have the power to manipulate our view on
reality.
The media tends to hide the truth from society. The media, as Vernon Coleman,
puts it, manipulates language in order to misinform the society of whats
really going on. Coleman reflects the deceptive nature of the media, and I feel
that Colemans perspective of the media is absolutely accurate. One of the
Victorias Secret advertisements, We Keep Our Models Happy, reveals how the
media uses language to convince the viewers that the models are happy with
their career. The advertisement, however, merely hides what is really like to be a
Victorias Secret model. The advertisement does not reveal the hours of harsh
training regimes, mental torture, backstage gossip or the rigid diet which the
models have to consume. The manipulation of language in media misinforms the
viewers, and as a result, changes how one interprets reality.
The words we hear from trusted authorities often influences us to believe things
which arent necessarily true. Jackie Frenchs novel, Pennies for Hitler, for
instance, highlights that trusted authorities have the power to influence and
shape our understanding of outside world, Georg remembered what Professor
Schoner explained at school. The Jews killed babies and they poisoned wells.
Professor Schoner, whom, in this case, is the trusted authority, feeds lies to his
students; not only controlling their perspectives of the Jews but also distorting
the utter truth.
Speeches are used by individuals or corporations to evoke emotions which
change our view on reality. In George Orwells, Animal Farm, Snowballs
bravery during the Battle of Cowshed was admired by others, Snowball, without
halting, flung his fifteen stone against Jones legs. The animals decided
unanimously to create a military decoration, "Animal Hero, First Class," which
was conferred there and then on Snowball. Squealer, however, used speeches
to influence the other animals that Snowballs part in the battle was much
exaggerated and that he was no more than a criminal. The animals, whom
once considered Snowball as a hero, was manipulated by Squealers speeches to
the point where, if anything went wrong, it became usual to attribute it to
Snowball. , and this demonstrates how speeches affect the way one perceives
reality.
The media manipulates language and often spreads false information in order to
prevent the society from knowing what is really going on and what is happening
behind the scenes. The words we hear from trusted authorities are not always
the truth; in fact, it could be misleading information which are far from the truth.
Speeches have the utmost power to twist our concept of reality. Alana Ketler
once said, Words themselves cannot change reality, but they can change how

one perceives reality. Words create filters through which people view the world
around them.
Main weaknesses:
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Variance of sentences avoid repeating the same sentence structure

Grammar plural and singular verbs
o e.g. the student, who wrote the letters, was praised.
Subject of the sentence is the student, not the letters
singular verb
Quoting avoid quoting long sentences by itself
o Integrate quotes into the analysis and in context
Critical analysis dont simply state an example and then explain it
o Give insight into the motivations of the character in question
o Questions to consider:
What was the character trying to achieve?
How did they try to achieve it?
Language
Action
Was it successful? Why/why not?