September 2nd 2014 - Assignment - Read an Article on Halla's blog and comment on it

Observational notes of my chosen article

This is the blog article I chose to comment on here

Text of other colours and fonts

Genre: Online news article
Audience: Adults, Language enthusiasts and students
Purpose: To be informative

Title: The title (ShortCutBlogs) is the boldest text on the article page so it's clear who has brought the reader this article on The Guardian's website.

Heading: The heading is bigger and bolder than the rest of the article because it's purpose is to be what we see first and draws as many readers in from the targeted audience, the better it sounds and more people are drawn in by the heading the more the article will get noticed.

Hyperlinks: Hyperlinks are only a different colour (unless it's a button hyperlink which are just icons) to the rest of the text, the are only supposed to stand out when you're reading the text and something in particular in the article catches your attention as you read so you click it to learn more.

Graphology: The main piece of Graphology in the article is the picture of the lego bricks spelling "everything is awesome", it's such a large scale on the article page because in most cases if the smaller thumbnail version (which could be the same image or different) you may have seen in it's featured place on The Guardian's website hasn't encouraged you to keep reading the reader hopes the larger image will. Graphology is used to attract readers who's attention can be grasped by pictures and other things visual, while the title is there to try and attract readers who aren't attracted by Graphology but with the right worded title can be attracted too.

Lexis/Jargon: Regarding the Lexis/Jargon it's more formal than informal however it does seem rather chatty which I think could be because the reader won't get bored quickly as it's more of a relaxed article compared to a serious, boring, "wordy" one.

Adjective Examples: British English, American influence
Proper Nouns: Lancaster University, Cambridge
Verbs: evolving, appeared, calling, looking
Metaphor: everything is awesome
Power: The writer is more than likely trying to get the reader to agree British English has changed by giving all these examples and research facts that all say what he thinks is right, is correct, so the reader will start to agree with his opinion; giving him power over the reader
Concrete Nouns: SIM cards, squirrels, flapjack
Abstract Nouns: hope
Arcaic Language: Cheerio
Quotation Examples: the writer uses these to strengthen his points of persuading the reader to think about the topic the way he wants you to so you agree with him. Trying to persuade someone's opinion to change can make an article bias and not give you the whole picture of what the article is about though.

My overall comment on the article

As I previously mentioned in my notes I personally think Power plays a big part in the article because of all the facts and knowledge the writer has used in support of what he's saying and what he personally believes in regarding the topic. I think Dowling shares his opinion with his readers at the beginning so they're always thinking and comparing their own thoughts with his while reading. Throughout the article he mentions a few "big name locations" such as Lancaster and Cambridge as both are known for high education so including facts and research from this locations will gain him more points in changing his readers' opinions to be similar to his own. Dowling also uses examples of what some could argue is Arcaic Language, one example being "cheerio". By using Arcaic Language he'll have a more powerful argument because some readers near the youngest range of his target audience because nobody uses "cheerio" anymore as it's been replaced by words such as "later" or "bye"; examples like these are powerful examples of how our language has changed in such a short time frame which is why he's used them.