Oaxaca - Non fiction analysis

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Oaxaca is a piece of travel writing, which reviews a location called Oaxaca in Mexico. It appeals to those who are interested in travelling, which would more likely be a slightly older audience who would be financially able to visit the location. The fact that the article is written in The Guardian newspaper, suggests that the target audience for this piece of writing is those who are more mature and educated. They would more likely be interested in culture as the text reflects their interests. The purpose of the text is to persuade the reader to visit the place, and advise them of activities that they could get involved in and places they could visit. It also informs them of the opportunities in Oaxaca and gives them the benefit of O’Connor’s visit.

The tenor of the text is semi-formal for the reason that there are phrases which are quite informal, such as ‘Time for a quick lunch’ and ‘If that hasn’t put you off’, but there are also more formal words such as ‘indigenous’ which wouldn’t be used in everyday language. The informal phrases make the text more chatty, and the over-all semi-formal tone helps the reader to build up a level of trust with the narrator, making the writers view of Mexico seem more reliable, yet still being formal enough for her view to be taken seriously by the reader.

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Proper nouns are used for detail, and make the writers writing seem more genuine, as well as statistics and numbers such as ‘...who lived here from about 500BC to AD600.’ This gives the text authority, making it stand out to the reader, resulting in the response desired by the writer, in this case, interesting the reader to visit the place and take part in the experience.

O’Connor also uses foreign terms in her article, such as ‘quesillo’ and ‘Zócalo’, which suggests that the reader should already have some level of familiarity with the place as it is subject-specific jargon. It ...

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