ENG2602 - Genres in Literature and Language: Theory, Style and Poetics (ENG2602)
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ENG2602 Assignment 1
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ENG2602 - Genres in Literature and Language: Theory, Style and Poetics (ENG2602)
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University Of South Africa (Unisa)
If you study English through Unisa, you would know that all the English modules are extremely tough. I worked very hard on this and received a good mark. Please don't only copy my work. Rather use it as a framework.
ENG2602 - Genres in Literature and Language: Theory, Style and Poetics (ENG2602)
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QUESTION 1: PERSUASIVE PROSE
In the article, “Surely there are better ways to deal with school violence” authored by
Nuraan Davids, she addresses the seriousness of violence in schools. The article is
characterised by using subjective, emotive, formal and persuasive language which
will be discussed in the analysis to follow.
The text is a community-based newspaper article. It is non-fiction as it deals with
factual news such as violence which is an everyday reality. It is formal writing as it
contains no colloquialism, contractions or first-person pronouns such as ‘I’ or ‘We’.
Formal diction is the use of sophisticated language which is very prominent in the
sentences used throughout the article. It alienates the situation. The purpose of the
article is to make the reader aware of how serious violence in schools have become.
The aim at the end of the day should be to reduce violence in schools and to create
an environment where learners feel safe. The intended audience are parents and
teachers, but also the community as this type of violence; “bullying, assault, rape,
and murder” tends to feel close to home.
Davids uses several persuasive techniques to engage the reader. Firstly, the
heading of the article says: “Surely there are better ways to deal with school
violence?” When the word “surely” is placed at the beginning of a sentence, it usually
means that the writer thinks something is true, but is looking for some form of
confirmation. The use of the question mark at the end of the sentence stirs confusion
and persuades the audience. The sentence as a whole can also be seen as a
rhetorical question which is not meant to be answered. It should be obvious that
violence in schools are a problem and something should be done about it.
Secondly, the reader is drawn into the article with personal pronouns such as “us”
and “we”, which aids in persuasion. It gives it a personal voice that makes the
audience feel they can relate to something and it establish relation between the
writer and the reader. The use of these personal pronouns indicates that this is a
communal problem and not just the teachers and parents’ problem. It seems that the
government is failing at protecting the learners, so it is important for everyone to play
a part to solve this problem. The writer only speculates and gives her own opinion
regarding the involvement of the government. She says: “school violence has
become worse over the years.” No actual facts regarding how the violence got worse
over the years are given, only her opinion. By only giving her opinion, persuades the
reader even more. Sometimes it is easy to get the audience to feel involved when
only an opinion is given. People tend to be driven by someone else’s opinions before
looking into any facts to make a decision or to feel they feel regarding a specific
topic.
In addition to the personal pronouns, the writer incorporates emotive language and
collocated words such as, “bullying, assault, rape” and “murder” all associated with
violence, to evoke emotion from the audience. This could also be an appeal to
pathos, which relates to the audience, to hook them and to make them accepts the
beliefs, values and understanding of the writer. The word “bullying” to “murder” is a
gradual increase of how serious violence in schools can become if nothing is being
done to solve the problem or to create a greater awareness of something so serious.
1 ENG2602, Assignment 1
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