Essay about Comparing: Writing and ‘mail Online

Submitted By elissa_whelan
Words: 1115
Pages: 5

English Draft

Both of these texts are written to two different target audiences but are both trying to reach the same goal. To persuade. I am writing to compare two different texts on the theme of Travel.The first text is a story from the ‘Mail Online’ talking about ‘Bus ID cards for over 60’s’ in the form of a Web post. The second text, however, is a flyer from ‘Southeastern Railway’ promoting train journeys around England. The ‘Mail Online’ text mainly communicates biased opinions to the reader. The target audience for the ‘Mail Online’ is mainly adults which are fairly educated. The writer has aimed this piece to an older audience, we know this because of its sophisticated language such as ‘It is deplorable to use such underhand methods to foist identity cards on people’. It is a formal piece but there is also vocabulary that suggests a slight informality such as ‘axed’ and ‘sneaky’ .The ‘Mail Online’ is known to be a very right winged newspaper (Conservative Party). The evidence to show this is when quoting the ‘Home Office Minister’ of the labour party they made their opinion very against the story therefore making the reader angry. These ideas can be seen in assumptions made by the writer about the reader, thus creating a target audience. The writer assumes that the reader may support the Tori party so they continue with the biased opinion. The writer also aims to create an atmosphere of anger towards the Labour party. You can tell that this piece is not aimed at teens or families because of it’s layout and main use of political stories. The ‘Southeastern Railway’ text highly differs in target audiences, they are persuading families and young people to use their railway service and to visit their selected locations. We know they are targeting families and young people because of the chatty, kind and informal tone the writer uses when writing. They want the reader to feel that the company are less concerned about themselves as individuals, and care more about the reader’s needs. They use bright colours and fun cartoon images to draw customers in, as well as selling the image of freedom and happiness. The used a variety of adjectives and rhetorical questions to create a calm and charming atmosphere. They could also be targeting older generations with the historical monument they have to offer, therefore making the target audience a very wide variety. The writer’s perspective in the ‘Mail Online” text is persuasive, the purpose of this is to sell the story/newspaper. By talking about controversial topics it leaves the reader with an opinion which may or may not have been altered by the way the writer has written his piece. In this case the way the piece has been written is very biased. The writer’s perspective in the “Southeastern Railway’ is also persuasive, yet it contrasts with the ‘Mail online’ the purpose of this is to sell railway tickets but to also promote the different locations. The writer wants to make the reader feel as comfortable and relaxed as possible, by selling the theme of freedom and happiness. Presentation is not very effectively used in the ‘Mail Online’ text, it is simple and plain only trying to tell the story. The layout of the page is very standard, the picture is not very captivating, it is only there to relate to the story rather than draw in the reader. They have used a bold heading to clearly state what the article is about, they have used a rhetorical question to make the reader what to find out the answer. The small caption under the image is again very biased making the reader angry ‘Elderly people could be forced to carry ID cards’. Presentation is very effectively used in the ‘Southeastern Railway’ text, since it is a leaflet, so it has to provide a high-impact and direction effect on the reader to grasp their attention immediately. Possibly the most concentrated device used by the writer in this piece is colour. this is used in a consistent scheme to aid the reader,