Paper 1 (HL) May 2014
Both texts share the purpose of informing their intended reader about parenting
techniques and methods. The first text is an interview with Bernie Ecclestone taken
from The Guardian, a ‘serious’ British daily newspaper and is published in its
‘Saturday Review Column’. The text reveals the consequences of not developing
from an early age, the importance of spending money wisely, regardless of a
parent’s income. The function of this text is not only to inform the reader about the
importance on spending money wisely, but also to entertain. It may be assumed that
the reader may be aspirational and interested in the lives of an extremely wealthy
family such as the Ecclestones.
By contrast, the online article on National Fatherhood Initiative, “Are you trying to rob
your kids?” conveys the significance of emotionally investing in your children when
they are young and being a ‘present father’, playing an integral role in the
development of your children, before expecting any ‘return’. The article develops this
idea through the use of an extended metaphor, using “financial lingo”. Although both
texts share an educational purpose, intended to instruct the audience about
parenting techniques, this purpose is achieved through vastly different means. The
interview in The Guardian is written from a father’s perspective, as he goes into
detail describing the different expensive material goods his daughters spend money
on, like Hermes Handbags, Ferraris, and property. The website article from NFI
describes ill-parenting when it comes to emotional support and describes this
concept through the use of deposits and loans to make it interesting for the target
audience. Whereas the article in the newspaper is multimodal, making use of both
the visual and written modes of communication, the Internet article relies entirely
upon the written mode to satisfy the intended function of the text. Because of the
nature of a traditional website, the text is bare and monomodal using only the written
mode of communication to emphasize the importance of parenting.
Both the texts write for a similar audience, in the sense that both texts assume that
the person reading the article/interview is somewhat interested in parenting
techniques. However the degree to which the texts assume the reader’s passion and
commitment towards educating themselves on parenthood varies. The article on the
National Fatherhood Initiative assumes that readers have an interest in improving
themselves, intending to ‘invest’ through providing early and full emotional support to
their child/children. This articles conveys a simple message, which is, “you get what
you give”, which is a very fundamental and crucial concept to grasp when paying
attention to parenting techniques. By contrast, the article in The Guardian, “My girls
and me”, is used as an example to show the consequences of too passive parenting.
Although this could function as a warning to parents, the purpose of the article tends
to be more entertaining, giving insight into celebrity lives. The NFI article appears to
© David McIntyre, InThinking
www.englishalanglit-inthinking.co.uk
1 be more focused on fatherhood as a topic, and is directed to a very particular
audience. “My Girls and me” is aimed at Guardian readers who have interests
beyond fatherhood.
Time factor plays a large role in the persuasion of the audience. The reader’s of The
National Fatherhood Initiative article, “Are you trying to rob your kids?” seems to
have more time to explore the concept of parenthood, and therefore an article that
goes into detail will serve their purpose better. On the other hand, the article in The
Guardian, “My girls and me”, adopts a very systematic and persuasive approach to
the article, as its audience potentially has an interest in parenthood, or “the art of
spending money wisely”, or are simply interested in celebrity gossip. The interest of
the reader of the NFI article is more assumed, but there is more chance that
Guardian readers lack time (given the cultural practices involved in newspaper
reading), and may lose interest if the article is not immediately interesting. This ties
in with the next argument that the mode of obtaining this article/interview suggests
something about the lifestyle of the reader, which in turn reflects on the type of
approach (descriptive or systematic) used to educate the readers. The article from
The National Fatherhood Initiative can be obtained mostly through a search engine.
Therefore, the reader must have the time and incentive to research fatherhood and
parenting. It can therefore be concluded that the readers of the article evidently have
more time on their hands to research and therefore a detailed and a very descriptive
approach to a review, like the one of NFI discussing the investment and returns
policy in a father to child relationship satisfies their wants and incline their incentive
to be educated on a concept such as this. In contrast, the readers of “My girls and
me” probably purchase a copy of The Guardian on the way to work/way back from
work and may have limited time to read the magazine. Evidently, there is a lack of
time to thoroughly research and therefore a short, brief, stationed and interesting
approach to an article, allows it to entice the attention of the reader who is in a hurry.
Therefore there is dynamic relationship between how the article caters to the needs
of the reader and their lifestyle.
The tone and the stance the writer takes in writing the article/interview can
significantly affect the intention of the entire work. Both the writers of the texts have a
dominant stance and say in the article, which puts them in a position of power and
authority. This, in turn, makes the reader seem a little inferior to the writer and
increases the chance of blindly accepting the facts and figures given by the writer.
However, the tone of the author should go under careful consideration, because it
may altogether demotivate or reduce the incentive to parent at all. In the article, “Are
you trying to rob your kids?” from NFI shows some positivity as, emotional
investment and commitment will be returned in the long run. However, if you do not
deposit any commitment, expecting a return or a loan is not acceptable and is
unlikely to be possible. This concept can be grasped in two ways: The audience may
© David McIntyre, InThinking
www.englishalanglit-inthinking.co.uk
2 adopt investing emotionally as a policy and adhere it to their day-to-day life, or they
may get overwhelmed and the argument may backfire on them and end up with
confusion and misunderstanding.
The structure and layout of the texts have a major impact on the degree to which the
texts are persuasive and informative. The interview, “My girls and me” in The
Guardian is “bounded” by a rectangular portrait frame, which encourages the viewer
to focus on the content at the center. Hence the functions of the frame are to remove
any peripheral distracting detail, and ensure the viewer is directed to the text’s
intended focus. On the other hand, the article on NFI has a clear and easy layout
plan with a title, and two main paragraphs describing the importance of the
investment and returns policy and it concludes with a modern innovation to guide
researchers to other similar pages of interest, called “tags”. The fatherhood admin in
the article from NFI have divided the page into smaller sections using dialogue,
which allows the reader’s attention to be enticed. The text in the dialogue does not
exceed 3 lines and it helps establish the attention of the reader and does not
overwhelm the researcher with information. Both the texts however follow the
dominant literacy practice in the English language, which is to read and write from
left to right and top to bottom. The texts also use bold letters on their titles and
different stages to indicate to the reader where to pay attention and allows them to
skim through the highlights of the texts easily.
Although the two texts are similar in construction, as they both attempt to cater to
their intended audience, but they differ in context, structure and style. The article,
“Are you trying to Rob you Kids?” posted by The Fatherhood Admin on National
Fatherhood Initiative is targeted at an international audience, as it is a site used
universally to research on parenting tips and the allocation of “tags” at the end of the
article, allows more people internationally to have access to this article.
Consequently, the interview, “My girls and me” in The Guardian is also targeted at an
international audience, as it is a prominent newspaper, which is catered worldwide
and the use of influential figures like Bernie Ecclestone and social media, like
Tamara’s TV Show, “Billion $$ Girl” increases the chances of obtaining an
international audience.
Oppositional and negotiated readings are of course, possible. Viewers may reject the
dominant hegemonic reading of the texts. For instance, some people may disagree
with the potential for the interview in The Guardian to be viewed for entertainment,
as it instills fundamental knowledge, about the consequences of ill parenting and still
has the potential to have high educational value, if seen upon as a consequence and
a case study for ill parenting. © David McIntyre, InThinking
www.englishalanglit-inthinking.co.uk
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