The picture is used very effectively in the leaflet to make the reader be interested in cycling. The size of the picture is big enough to be seen easily for the reader, to have its effect whenever the reader looks at the leaflet. This land again it creates very positive tone towards cycling because the people cycling in the image seemed as very happy, and smiling, which makes the reader think the cycling is joyful and good exercise. The image is also linked with the headline ‘…you’ll enjoy it!’ showing that the reader will enjoy cycling as well as the people in the picture. Additionally, the logos of the organization are used to make the leaflet more factual, and more professional, as the reader would think that such organizations really exist as shown in the logo.
Sub-headings and each information box make the texts more digestible for the reader by dividing it. Each divided information box contains different information, with a sub-heading indicating what each section is about. They break up the text and make it easier on the eye. And also they can attract the reader to read the text as they will focus on certain attractive quotes which are chosen to draw the reader in. Some of the sub-headings like ‘Where to Find Help?’ and ‘What’s In It For You?’ contains rhetorical question, and uses ‘you’ to involve the reader directly.
The leaflet “bike for your life” uses many presentational devices such as headlines, images, and sub-headings with information boxes dividing each section of information very effectively to give interests and information of cycling exercise to the reader.
Question 1.b)
In the article, “Bike-friendly? It’s all uphill” the writer Richard Morrison tries to persuade the reader about his views on the National Cycling Strategy using lots of language techniques.
He uses lots of rhetorical question in the title, and in the text as well. The rhetorical question in the title ‘Bike-friendly? Its all uphill’ asks the reader to think about ‘is the bike friendly to us’, and tells ‘no it is not.’ The writer directly shows his opinion to set the negative tone to the bike. The writer uses three rhetorical questions at the start of the text continuously, to involve the reader to this matter as well as the writer and make the reader actually think about them. The continuous use of the rhetorical questions is very effective because they feel much stronger than just using one rhetorical question. Therefore the writer is able to show his strong opinion about the matter. The writer uses one more rhetorical question ‘how could we forget?’ and the use of ‘we’ makes the reader to be in the writer’s side because this sentence shows that the reader and writer understand each other.
The use of emotive words and puns are also effective to persuade the reader. To give the negative tone for the bike, the writer uses violent words to describe biking, in ‘…are spiked with broken glass or blocked by parked vehicles.’ He also uses lots of strong vowels in this sentence like s, b, g, p, and v to give this violent tone, Therefore the reader would think that using bike is such dangerous way and is not so practical. The writer uses the word ‘you’ very often to involve the reader into this matter. For example, in the sentence ‘you may be sceptical. So am I’ the writer talks as if the reader is experiencing the same as the writer does to get the reader in the writer’s side. Additionally he even uses such harsh words like ‘daftness’ to describe the bike system, to show his negative view towards it.
The writer also uses factual stastics to help him seem as if his opinion is never going be wrong and is professional. For example, ‘an astonishing 150,000 are stolen in Britain each year.’ He uses such fact to give more believable sense to his opinion, but also this fact shocks the reader a lot because the amount of astonishing stolen are actually massive. The comparison of bike system between Britain and other countries are very shocking as well, and the use of factual records adds the opinion’s certainty.
The article ‘Bike-friendly? It’s all uphill’ written by Richard Morrison uses very good variety of language to persuade the reader about his views on the National Cycling Strategy. He gets the reader in the writer’s side by using lots of rhetorical questions to involve the reader, emotive words and informative words to change what the reader feels about the matter, and adds its certainty.