The photographs are also an important part of the presentational features. The large photograph of the dog is used to attract the reader’s attention, and urge them to read the article. The smaller photographs have many purposes. They are used to break up the text and make it look less strenuous to read. This would be particularly appealing to teenagers, who this magazine is aimed at, because many teenagers do not wish to read a lot of text. They are also used to have an emotive effect on the reader, which helps the effect the text is trying to have upon them. The photographs also act as both a reminder and as proof that animal cruelty is a real life situation, and however terrible the article may seem, it is definitely non- fiction.
Newspaper cuttings are also used displaying headlines such as “Sorry I cooked my Cat”. These, as the photographs do, break up the text and draw the eye across the text but they also create an emotive effect on the reader. “Sorry I cooked my Cat” makes the offender seem heartless and so the reader becomes angry with her. This is also sarcastic and suggests that what the woman did was so terrible that you can joke about it.
The are the presentational features of the article and I think they work well because they sufficiently hold the attention of the reader and also create an emotive effect upon the reader.
I noticed three main purposes of this article. The first was to inform. The writer wants to let people know about animal cruelty, and many statistics and facts are used to do this, e.g. ‘the fine for animal cruelty is only £5000’ and ‘new statistics show that 1,175 dogs…’. The informative side of the article contains facts rather than emotive language, however the facts in themselves can be emotive because of the obscenity of them. Also, emotive language is sometimes combined with fact. An example of this is the case studies such as ‘gang attack’, an attack by some youths on a piglet. These portray the facts but they also use many emotive adjectives such as ‘savagely’ and petrified’. I think this is one of the most effective parts of the article
Kimberley Gajraj
because it combines emotive facts and language. The informative facts are providing the reader with a realistic view of the subject they are reading about, proving that the article is telling the truth.
However, emotive language is used. This is used for the second purpose I identified- to interest. This is done not only using emotive language (‘The shameful truth’ or ‘animals are neglected, kept in disgusting, unhygienic conditions, and tortured and killed for pleasure every day’), but also using illustrative photographs, such as the large picture of the dog, or the picture of the cat on the second page as I mentioned before. I think that both of these aspects work well- it is not interesting to read an article of facts, but the writer disguises these facts, which are what the reader is really wanted to know, with emotive language which holds the reader’s attention. The audience for this article would be teenagers aged around 15 – 18, as this is the age group the magazine it was taken from is aimed for. For this reason, changes need to be made to the Standard English language in order to hold the attention of the reader. Colloquial language such as ‘pet – pampering and ‘gory’ are used. This make the article more informal and friendly, which I think works well because it’s easier to read and teenagers are more likely to read the whole article rather than just browse through the pictures. Abbreviations are also used to keep the reader interested for this same reason. Examples of abbreviations are ‘what’s’ or ‘24/7’. These aspects successfully make the article suitable for the intended audience.
The last purpose I identified was to persuade. It does not become clear at first that persuasion is an aspect of the article, but in the last paragraph titled ‘What can you do?’ it becomes clear that the main purpose of the article is to persuade. Of course the writer wanted to inform and interest the reader, but the reason for the writer wanting to do this is to persuade the reader to do something about animal cruelty. After having an emotive effect on the reader, the writer starts to put pressure on the reader to take action against animal cruelty. This is done using three-fold repetition such as ‘can, can, can’ and using reputable organisations such as the RSPCA and the NCDL to show the intensity of the problem. A lot of pressure is put on the reader and it is debateable whether or not this is a good thing- sometimes people can feel insecure under a lot of pressure. However, in this case I think it is effective, because I don’t think teenagers would be worried about such pressure.
Overall, I think this is a very effective article, combining literary and presentational techniques to create an emotive effect on and interest the reader, to inform the reader, and to persuade the reader to take action against animal cruelty.