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.
