Grouping Task

Grouping Task

My first group is based on imperatives, which includes texts B, C and D. They all include words or phrases that use imperatives to work towards their purpose.

B is a transcript from a conversation between a mother and a daughter. The audience would be to each other and the purpose is almost primarily to persuade but it's more telling someone what to do.

In the text, 'M' uses a cloaked imperative when talking to 'A', "could you go empty the dishwasher?" It sounds like 'M' is asking 'A' if she can empty the dishwasher; however he's actually telling her to empty it. 'A' knows this and so doesn't answer her with a 'yes' or 'no' but she does argue back. This immediately sounds like 'A' has dominance but when 'M' argues back to her it's clear that the dominance lays in 'M' not 'A'.

Using a cloaked imperative is a politeness strategy which creates a friendly tone towards telling someone to do something. The contextual information before the transcript tells us that 'M' is the mum of 'A'. This then explains why at the start 'M' uses a cloaked imperative as a politeness strategy. As a mother she has to treat her daughter in the way that she would want to be treated and talk to her in that way. By doing this 'A' will accommodate the language from 'M' which is what 'M' wants.

 Text B would be the weak inclusion of this group as it is a cloaked imperative because it doesn't look primarily like it is. It's not immediately conclusive that it's an imperative unlike the other two texts do.

Text C is the back of the board game 'Cluedo' which includes the instructions for the game. The audience I would think the audience is anyone, any gender, over the age of about 10 or 11. I suggest this as around that age, children would gather the understanding of the game and so the ability to play it. I also think that the primary audience would be families as it is travel-sized Cluedo, which suggests it's for when families go on trips like camping. The purpose of the text is to tell the players what to do.

The text is a set of instructions and so it's not odd for the text to include imperatives- in fact it is to be expected. What works is that it is simple and easy to read and understand. The text uses the imperatives, "Move" and "Use". They are both used at the start of the instruction which tell us that it's a command as does the word type. It's expecting the players to do what it says as it explains what to do.

Inside the packaging there most likely would be a set of separate instructions explaining it in greater detail, which brings up the question: 'Why put the instructions on the back?' It is probably for so the person who's purchasing it, most likely the parents, can see if it is appropriate for the child. So they can then see that the use of the imperative 'Move' and 'Use', is friendly enough for their child.

Text D is a recipe from the cookbook by Lorraine Pascale. It is the recipe for a 'steamed chocolate pudding with warm Mars bar sauce'. The audience would be primarily the user of the book as that the person who the recipe is for. The purpose is to teach the user of the book how to create the recipe.

As is expected, like in Text C, there are imperatives that tell you what to do. A recipe is essentially instructions and so needs imperative verbs to tell you what to do. Text D uses a range of imperatives throughout the text both at the start of paragraphs and in between.

One of the constant imperative verbs is "Add". It is interesting that she used this and not a more sophisticated verb like, 'Include'. Her lexical choices depend on the audience and the action she wants to take. For example, she says "Add two eggs," She could have said 'Place' two eggs, but that wouldn’t be right. You can't place an egg, you have to crack it. The imperative 'add' suggests a younger audience like children as they could be baking with their parents.

Another example of the interesting word choice is this: "Pour over the sauce and serve." Instead of saying "Pour" she could have used a word like 'Drizzle' which would be more appropriate for a more mature audience, like adults. However the fact that she used a word so simple suggests the easiness of the recipe which attracts the audience more to create it and so also to buy the book- they will possibly think that due to the simpleness of the words they must be able to make it.

In this group, I could also create the subgroup relating to graphology. Texts C and D could be included with this as they both have graphology within their texts. Text C would use it by the pictures and font type and size which attract the audience.  The orthography is interesting as the text is centred toward the right hand side of the page instead of the centre like a usual piece of text. This difference could be what catches the attention of the purchaser.

Text D also has graphology, although slight. This would be a weak inclusion however significant. The orthography of the texts links to the graphology in the text. The title is in the colour brown which is quite intellectually placed as the recipe involves chocolate and so linking the colours only causes more of a need to have it/bake it. Also the layout of the ingredients and instructions is interesting compared to the layout of other recipes.

 

Texts E and F share the primary purpose to persuade although have different secondary purpose which causes their audience to change.

Text E is the back of an AVON order form which has the audience of people with a love/ interest in cosmetics, stereotypically women. The primary purpose as stated above is to persuade people to buy the products however the secondary purpose could be to inform. This is because it tells you what you have to do if you're not happy with the product.

I think that it would be odd to think that the primary purpose of the text is to persuade considering the form tells you to send the products back if you're not happy with them.  Due to that I would say that Text E is would be the weaker inclusion between the two. However does actually have a purpose to persuade.

The reason behind them telling us to send back any product we don't like could be because they want to build trust between the customer and them. They are implying that it isn't a problem if they get products sent back when in reality it is and could cause them financial problems if everyone actually did that. By having this information on the order form persuades the purchaser to think that it is a trustworthy company and so will buy their products.

Another technique they have used is by putting the information that customers would want to know in bold. "100% happy" Is in bold writing and so creates the illusion that that is what the customers are. Nevertheless it is actually talking about if you're not 100% happy, which the customer probably won't read as the eye catching part of the sentence is the positive bit in bold.

Text F is the back cover of the Oxford English Mini Dictionary. The audience could be anyone but the fact that it is Mini suggests that it needs to be carried in a bag so there is enough room for other things that need to be carried. People who carry a lot in bags-including a dictionary are most likely people in education whether teacher or student. The purpose as mentioned above is to persuade. It could have the secondary purpose to inform but is very unlikely considering there is hardly any information on the back.

The word "Essential" is used which creates the thought of whether you need it or not. The word 'essential' suggests a need for something-like it is crucial. Using the persuasive word adds to the indecisive thought and pulls it towards purchasing it. The phrase 'Easy to use' is great as it entices the purchaser in. The audience/ purchaser may think that if it is easy to use then they will definitely be able use it. The audience might be parents buying the dictionary for their children for school and so the word easy to use will draw them to it and cause them to think that their child will be able to use it.

 

My final group is audience and how it is centred to one individual. The texts I will be including are A, B, D and E.

Text A is a transcript of a text message conversation between two sisters, using mainly phatic talk. The purpose of the text is not really anything main, just finding out what one of them had gotten when out shopping. The audience like I said is to each other  and is the primary and only audience.

The contextual information at the top of the transcript explains that 'E' is older than 'A'. During the conversation there is the typical situation of the younger sister 'A', borrowing the older sister's clothes without asking. Obviously 'E' would be annoyed about that and so is the reason for the sarcastic comment "Thanks for asking!" They don't have to worry about what they say or how they say it to each other due to the audience only being themselves. Even though the sarcastic comment might sound slightly rude or angry, 'A' knows that she's not really angry because she puts a 'x' on the end of the message. Both girls do this and so suggest similarity and/or kindness towards each other.

Text B is similar to this as it is a duologue and so the audience is each other. They don't have an audience, it's just them. This is clear by the way that 'A' speaks to 'M' especially considering that 'M' is more dominant. I feel like 'A' wouldn't attempt to gain dominance like that if she had an audience.

Texts A and B are similar because both texts are duologues with the audience of each other (the speakers). They also use informal speech. In Text A, 'E' starts off by saying "On way home" which isn't technically a sentence. The correct sentence would be: 'I'm on my way home.' In Text B, 'M' starts the sentence with "Because..." This wouldn't be formal language as it start the sentence with the connective because.

I have two weak inclusions in this group which are Text D and E.

When thinking about Text D, you wouldn't think about a specific person as the audience. This is due to it being a piece of writing and not speech to another person. However there is an audience which is the purchaser of the cookbook. This is similar to the Text E. Text E has the audience of whoever purchases the product from AVON. It, like Text D, seems to have a wide audience range before you analyse it.