OUTLINE
Attention grabber: The two texts show a shift in women’s role in a family through
the topic of life insurance.
Factual information: Lowe Howard-Spink is the designer of an Albany Life Ad
distributed in London, 1980s, Finance reporter, Kara Gammell, writes an article for
The Telegraph titled “Life insurance: Don’t bury your head in the sand” published in
2012
Thesis: While both text 1 and text 2 promote a sense of exigency in purchasing
women’s life insurance through appeals ethos, logos, pathos, and diction, they
deviate in tone, layout and structure of the pieces to entice different audiences.
Topic sentence #1: Both texts make wide use of ethos and logos to make a
convincing argument.
Concrete detail:
- ethos:December 3, 2012, EU gender neutral legislation comes into affect on
December 21, prices of women’s life insurance will decrease after come into effect,
right before Christmas holiday
-ethos: quotes chief executive of Consumer Intelligence, “We are starting to see
major brands changing”
- logos: statistics, numbers, “female life insurance rates have increased by as much
as 20pc”, 5 pounds a month to get 100,000 pounds of cover for 25 years)
-logos (“60%”, “Eighty hours of housework a week”, list prices)
Explanation: gives reason for people to listen, substantiate argument
Topic sentence #2: Both texts attempt to instill in the audience a sense of
responsibility through pathos and diction.
Concrete detail:
- alliteration “dim distant”
-diction (“morbid”, “grim”, “reality”, “death”)
-pathos “the children to consider”, “Could you ever devote the sort of time they need
and deserve”, listing daily chores, reading bedtime stories, helping with math
homework, “But for a father, it’s a very necessary duty”
-pathos (Christmas holiday “everything will change by Christmas”, “one-in-20
children” lose a parent before graduation from full-time education)
Explanation: strong emphasis on family right before Christmas holiday
Topic sentence #3: The layout and structure of both texts are different due to the
different tastes of the audience.
Concrete detail:
-imagery, different style text
- syntax, a lot of rhetoric questions --> dark humor, conversation-like, casual
- pictures of potentially lethal household tools (knife, bleach, pillow) captions
underneath are with questions relating to women’s chores after death
-rational “surviving parent would have to leave their full time job”, “extra childcare
needed would become very expensive”, serious “a grim reality”, urgent
Explanation: tone is different
Both texts show a shift in the role of woman in a family through the topic of
woman’s life insurance. In text 1, finance reporter, Kara Gammell, writes an article
for The Telegraph right before the Christmas holiday in 2012, titled “Life insurance:
Don’t bury your head in the sand”, meanwhile, Lowe Howard-Spink is the designer
of the Albany Life Ad distributed in London in the 1980s. While text 1’s audience is
of women, more specifically, mothers of “two-income families”, text 2 is directed
specifically towards men, as seen through its catch phrase “Are you making plans for
your wife’s death?” Gender roles are highlighted through descriptions of daily
household matters, moreover, a change from the 20th century to the 21st is apparent
with the reverse of the targeted audience. Both texts are created to promote the
purchase of life insurance for women, but out of rather different incentives. As the
first is to help the consumer, while the latter is to draw the consumer in. While both
text 1 and text 2 promote a sense of exigency in purchasing women’s life insurance
through appeals to ethos, logos, pathos, and diction, they deviate in tone, layout and
structure to entice different audiences.
Both texts make wide use of ethos and logos to make a convincing argument.
In text 1, Gammell establishes ethos through her title, the “Finance reporter”, which
demonstrates her credibility and trustworthiness to the audience. Since Gammell is
a woman she can also relate to her female readers, giving them further reason to
listen in on what she has to say. Using the same logic, the speaker of text 2 is a man,
therefore he has shared values with his male audience. Still, Gammell goes one step
further when she cites the official circumstance in her article, as she explains the
changes that will take place to the prices of woman’s life insurance after the “EU
gender neutral legislation comes into affect on December 21”. Moreover, she also
quotes the chief executive of Consumer Intelligence, “We are starting to see major
brands changing…across the market”. By mentioning such influential
denominations, Gammell successfully borrows their authority. Meanwhile, logos is
also included in both texts, as the speakers use reasoning and numbers to appeal to
their audience. In text 1, Gammell reports how, “female life insurance rates have
increased by as much as 20pc”. Meanwhile, in text 2, Howard-Spink mentions that
there’s only “a little more than a 60% chance” that the wife will outlive the husband.
He also brings up the fact that woman spent an average of “Eighty hours of
housework a week”, to give his audience a more tangible idea of the amount of time
and effort that is lost when their wives are gone. Both texts also list the prices and
coverage of insurance plans after listing all the factors above to make it seem like a
rational decision While the importance of the wife’s role is emphasized in both texts,
text 1 give greater urgency by emphasizing the EU’s decree.
Both texts attempt to instill in the audience a sense of responsibility through
pathos and diction. In text 1, the words scattered in the piece include “morbid”,
“grim”, “reality”, and “death”. Meanwhile, text 2 continues to conjure this mood
through alliteration, illustrated in one instance by “dim distant”. These choices set
the serious and daunting mood of both pieces. Moreover, it stresses the importance
for the audience to plan for their households in advance of accidents. Pathos is also
effectively employed with the mentioning of children. In text 2, Howard-Spink notes
daily interactions between mothers and their children including “reading bed time
stories” and “helping with math homework”. Moreover, he poses the question to his
audience, “Could you ever devote the sort of time they need and deserve?” And this
serves as a very direct and focused point of matter. Howard-Spink further instills a
sense of responsibility in his audience at the end of the advertisement, by stating
how buying insurance for a father is a “very necessary duty”. On the other hand, the
pathos applied in text 1 is directed to the wider group, which makes it less personal,
but equally stark. Gammell first states how “one-in-20 children” lose a parent before
graduation from full-time education”. And obviously, education is a top priority on
the agendas of many mothers. She also plays on the fact that, “everything will
change by Christmas”. That is to say, there is a strong emphasis on family right
before the Christmas holiday, and so emotions will most definitely run high during
this time of the year.
Nonetheless, the layout and structure of both texts are different due to the
different tastes of the audience. While text 1 is a traditional news article, text 2 is
more of a playful advertisement designed to be eye-catching. The platform of text 1
is the Internet; on the other hand, computer usage was not as prevalent during the
time text 2 was published, and so it is more likely to be featured in a magazine.
Because of this, the imagery involved in text 2 is discernibly greater than text 1.
Visual imagery is conjured through the big pictures of potentially lethal household
tools such as the knife, bleach, and pillow. Further, captions underneath involve
questions relating to women’s household chores, and how they will be dealt with
after their deaths. From this, a sense of dark humor can be derived, which is
potentially powerful enough to leave a mark on its audience, especially with its
satirical nature in treating an issue such as death. Overall, text 2 is more
conversational-like and casual as opposed to text 1. It makes use of short syntax,
and many rhetoric questions to engage the audience, for example, there are many
questions along the lines of “What would happen to you if the unthinkable happened
to her?” and “How would you cope?” that come repeatedly throughout the
advertisement, reminding the husband time and time again, the important role their
wives play in their lives. Meanwhile, text 1 adopts more of a formal tone. Gammell
persuades her audience with her rationale through complex sentences showcasing
cause and effect sequences, for example, she reasons that the “surviving parent
would have to leave their full time job”, and if not, “extra childcare needed would
become very expensive”. The article is divided into two parts, with the first being
the introduction, and the second part under the heading, “the grim reality”, being
the aftermath of the situation presented. Although the two texts have similar
messages, the different audiences addressed require different modes of
communication, as the modern female audience of text 1 are more likely educated
and rational-minded, and the male audience of text 2 would find witty humor more
appealing and stop worthy in an advertisement.
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The natures of the two texts differ along with their audience to show the
change of time. While text 2 is a facetious advertisement directed to men, text 1 is an
informative online article directed to women. This evidently shows a change in
times and gender roles through an increasingly liberalized society that supports
women in the job field, or even as the leader of the houshold. Both texts effectively
paint societal roles and responsibilities through various stylistic features. Moreover,
the important themes explored in the relationships between members of the family
show the indispensible role of a wife and a mother, not to mention, life insurance is
the key to stability and assurance of happiness for not just the present, but the
future.