The lexis I have used is non-technical. I have used simple and understandable words, which reflects how simple it is to kill someone nowadays.
“The gun is now a status symbol among too many young people, demanding respect and power.” This is a simple and structured sentence telling the reader that nowadays everything is about self image and bringing power.
The semantic field of youth gun crime is reflected with the use of words such as; ‘beef’ (fight) and ‘shanking’ (to kill with a knife/stab). These words are colloquial language which is used by youth. The use of these words in text reflects some sort of guide to parents, making them aware of the language and terms used. It can also be said to be a translation because in my text in brackets the meaning of the terms are given e.g. ‘beef’ (fight). This indicates that the writer is knowledgeable about these terms. Therefore, this proves that the writer knows what they are talking about, allowing the text to be trustworthy leading into being taken into account by the audience.
I made several changes to my text through out the drafting process. After my 1st draft I rewrote the first paragraph, because I felt that it was awkwardly worded. When it came to my second draft I actually didn’t mention some sentences and reworded other sentences if they were to long.
The sentence structure of the text features many long but simple sentences, which gives the reader a sense of breathless moments of how serious this issue should be taken or the consequence could be the death of other children.
Some simple vocabulary was used so that the text can appeal to a wider range of audience (parents). This was done because I wanted all parents, who may be from a different ethnic group, less aware of these problems, less educated than others; so forth to understand how serious this issue is.
The discourse of the article has been structured so that the text starts negatively with facts about the difficult issues we as Londoners have to face. The negative introduction immediately builds up the tension making the readers want to read on, because the article may actually have solutions for gun crime. The text is arranged chronologically, starting with what the writer has witnessed over the past years and building up on the shocking facts about the rise of gun crimes.
I used a few style models for the text. I researched through the internet and
with the knowledge of friends I frequently asked them what was thought to be the main factors for gun crime. A lot of people had different opinions, where some blamed media, some blamed the family and poor parenting skill at home, and some said that all of these are equally to blame. This was important to me because I could then pick out the factors that where mentioned the most and appeared the most in style models. Using my style models I was looking for graphology, which there wasn’t much, the style, vocabulary and sentences used, and the layout. This was vital for my article because even the type of font you use can reflect how serious the writer is about the issue and to what extent should the audience take it. The style models did not use complicated long vocabulary which must indicate that the text is for a wide range of parents/guardians. The tones of the style models were very straight to point, putting its message across.
The article is brought to a conclusion by discussing what means necessary do we need to take to tackle a problem like this. The exclamation mark at the end puts a full stop to the text and makes the phrase more memorable and emphasises on the end point. Telling the readers no one will ever know who you are.”!