An Article in ‘The Australian’ newspaper, ‘Stuff perception, whipping is cruel’ was designed to convince those among the Australian horse racing community that the use of whips on horses in races was not only bad for the image of horse racing but also undeniably cruel. The writer makes use of the convention, choice of language by addressing the reader directly and using emotive language to convey his message to the reader.
By addressing the reader directly the writer is able to speak to the reader more personally then if he were using more generic terminology in his article. The author makes use of this convention by preceding large statements with phrases such as “Ladies and Gentleman,” this gives the reader the illusion that the writer is presenting a speech to them by including such casual comments. This will help to draw the reader into the text and allow them to view the opinions presented in the text in a more empathetic way. This choice of language would be very successful in convincing readers of the author’s opinions as they are made to feel as if the writer is presenting them with this information personally.
The author chooses to use emotive language to help support and emphasise his opinion on whips in horse racing. He achieves this by using very graphic words to instil with the reader how unacceptable the actions of those he opposes are. Use of words such as “barbaric,” and “cruel,” convinces the reader to feel hostility to those who would do such things. This use of emotive language would be very effective in convincing the reader of the writer’s opinion as it creates an emotional appeal to the reader which allows them to respond more empathetically to the ideas that the author represents in the text.
The author of this article is able to, through the choice of language to support and emphasise his opinion, achieve the effects of creating a more