Write a review for the Times Educational Supplement of a broadsheet article and a tabloid article on teenage eating disorders.

Mandy Tam

M51

English Media Coursework

Mrs. Alper

October 2004

GCSE English Media Coursework

Write a review for the Times Educational Supplement of a broadsheet article and a tabloid article on teenage eating disorders.

Anorexia is an emotional illness in which a person refuses to eat. It occurs mainly among adolescent girls and young women. The word anorexia means without appetite, but anorexics may be extremely hungry most of the time. They avoid food for psychological reasons. The chief physical symptom of anorexia nervosa is severe weight loss. Other symptoms include low blood pressure, slow heartbeat and growth of fine hair on the body. The start of puberty may be delayed in adolescents. Female anorexics may not begin to menstruate or their menstrual periods may stop. This eating disorder also affects the personality. Many anorexics isolate themselves from family and friends. Most victims seem unaware of their condition. They consider themselves as healthy, or even overweight. Many anorexics can be cured if they receive prompt treatment. However, the disease is fatal in some cases.

The articles I will be comparing are about anorexia nervosa. They both give the readers facts about anorexia nervosa and the victims’ own experiences. The first article is taken from the Sunday Telegraph on 11th February 1996 and the second article is taken from the magazine, Living in March 1995.

Layout is an important clue as to the bias and audience at which the article is aimed at. Article one has a very bold headline. The headline is colloquial, which reads, “How I grew up and filled out”. It draws the readers to attention because the size and the font style of the headline differ greatly compared to the rest of the text. This headline is complex, polysyllabic and there is one thing special about it, it is an unfinished sentence. We can see that it is unfinished because there is not any punctuation at the end of the sentence. The purpose of using an unfinished headline is to keep the readers in suspense and interested, so that they will read on. The headline does not contain a pun or a bias twitch. A subheading follows on which states the basic idea of the article. It reads, “Anorexia afflicts men, too. Montagu Don, a sufferer in his teenage years, explains how becoming a father helped him beat his obsession.” Strong and polysyllabic words are used in the subheading, for example: afflict and obsession. An opening paragraph is then introduced. Here is some parts of the opening paragraph: “it is women who create an anorexic environment within the home; women who project their food obsessions onto their children and anorexic women who teach their children to be anorexic.” There is repetition of words in this paragraph which emphasise it is usually women who are considered as the anorexics, not men. The next paragraph starts with “However, men can be anorexic just as effectively as women.” This provides a contrast. Comparisons are used quite often in the article. Here is another example: “I got thinner. Much, much thinner.” By using the word “much” strengthens the tone of the sentence a lot. In order to make the article looks more interesting, a photograph of Montagu Don accompanies the article on the right hand side. It shows Montagu Don has a normal figure and he is holding a spade. (Montagu Don writes about gardens.) The anchorage illustrates the situation and there is small caption describing what he does now.

This is a preview of the whole essay

The main text is split into three columns as how broadsheets usually are presented. Article one is aimed at adults because the language and word structure is much more intellectually based. The vocabulary is more advanced compared to article two. This article contains a mixture of formal and informal writing. The article goes into great detail on the situation in hand and it gives you more facts than you can handle. The sentences are usually complex, which makes the sentences flow more easily. However, there are a few short and simple sentences throughout the article. Having a mixture of both makes the short sentences more effective when reading the article. Many emotive rhetorical questions are also used in this article, which makes it more effective. There are some very good examples: “Do I, an anorexic male, load my neurosis onto my children? I hope not, try not to.” It is a monosyllabic sentence and it tells the readers how he felt.

The tone of this article is quite serious and informative. The writer tells the readers a lot about Montagu Don’s life, how he became anorexic and how he recovered. Personal feelings from Montagu Don are also widely expressed in this article. He wants to warn the readers that anorexia is addictive and almost impossible to give up by using the sentence, “I got hooked.” (The word “hooked” usually applies to the drugs addicts.) With the intention to make the article more effective when reading, the writer uses a lot of figurative language used in this article. He uses alliterations, repetitions and similes. Here is an example of the above factors: “Unhappiness seems to be at the heart of it: a deep, grinding unhappiness passed on from parent to child like a poisoned baton.”

The ending paragraph of article one is an example of alliteration as well. “There are other, more pressing matters to attend to, like earning a living, loving someone else and raising unobsessive children.” The word “unobsessive” is very effective because at the beginning of the article, words like “obsessive” and “obsession” are used. The writer tries to encore the idea in the end to the beginning of the article. The writer is also telling the readers that Montagu Don has successfully beaten his obsession and he is giving hope to the anorexics that they will recover one day.

Article two is a tabloid article. This article is the same as article one. Although they both talk about anorexia nervosa but they are presented in very different ways. There is a small title at the top of the article saying, “My nightmare battle”. Below that, the main headline is then introduced. It is bold, colloquial and monosyllabic, which reads, “I’ve won at last!” There is a small introduction to the article on the left of the main headline. The writer exaggerates the situation by using words like “battle”, “beaten”, “fight”, which emphasises the situation. In a way, he is saying that the anorexics have to fight against the disease that they are suffering from.

The font of the main text is much smaller than the headline and the introduction paragraph. The text is split into four columns. It is accompanied with a photo of Claire and Caraline. (Caraline is the girl who inspired Claire to set up a group for victims of eating disorders.) The photograph is very effective because it shows that Claire has recovered from anorexia, as she is not that thin in the photo. Article one and two do have similarities in the layout. However, the language in both articles is very different. The language in article two is colloquial, informal and personal. Article two is aimed at very broad audience. It is simplistic enough to reach a wider audience, with short simple facts about the situation.

A lot more opinions are expressed in article two than article one because in order to make it more personal and emotive, the writer has to express the victim’s feelings. Shocking facts are explained as well as opinions, “I began by taking two laxatives each day, but I soon increased my intake to 60.” The facts are unbelievable and readers won’t necessary know whether they are true or not. However, it is very effective to exaggerate situations in this kind of article. The sentences in article two are usually short and simple. The words “I”, “my” and “myself” are used very often throughout the article, which makes it very personal and emotional. The writer also uses a lot of writing techniques to make the article more effective. “It sounds stupid but I thought the smaller I was, the less there would be of me to hate.” Alliteration and comparisons are used in this sentence.

Article two is structured like a story. In this way, readers might have more interest to read about it. Article two is more dramatic and more emotive than article one because this article has more opinions in it. On the other hand, article one is more informative than article two because it is a broadsheet article. Article one is much longer compared to article two.

The ending of article two is very different from article one. The purpose of article two might be an advertisement. It gives the readers information about how to make a donation to Caraline EDA. It also provides the telephone number so that people can get help from them.

In my opinion, I prefer the tabloid article to the broadsheet article because it gives more opinions and it is more interesting. It gets to the point in simple details even in a short article. Article two sounds much more personal, so when the anorexics read the article it would sound like that Claire is addressing and supporting the other sufferers.

Bibliography