Final Reflection

Over the pass three weeks, we have been looking at persuasive texts, mostly articles and cartoons, and analysing them. All of the articles are somewhat related to the Australian Education System and some of them talks about the Gonski Review. We discussed which persuasive devices were used and the intended effects for them. We also looked at a couple of political cartoons and interpreted them to see the underlying messages. All of the articles use a wide range of persuasive devices, especially connotations and appeals.

I think the reason the authors decided to use lots of connotations is because the author is seeking to persuade the audience and he/she does this because making an implication. By reading the article, the reader is not forced to accept the implication, but is encouraged to at least agree with it.

In nearly all of the articles, an appeal was used. This is because all of the articles were discussing the issues about education and the audiences of these articles will be primarily parents. Every parents would want they child to succeed to by using these different types of appeals, the authors are able to trigger an emotional feeling of fear, happiness, satisfaction and shame. The authors are able to target the parents concerns for their child, manipulate their feelings and in turn, persuade them.


All articles and cartoons were taken from:

http://www.theage.com.au/
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/