Second Week Summary

Our first article of the week was titled "Gillard's spin way off the mark." The argument behind this was it's not right to inadequately fund public schools.

In the article we saw a variety of persuasive devices being used. The first one was a rhetorical question, The intended effect for this was to encourage the reader to accept the author's answer. By asking a rhetorical question, the author implies that the answer is very obvious, and thus the reader will be more likely to side with the author.

The second persuasive device was an attack. The author quotes  Julia Gillard and then proceeds to criticize her ideas.  Through the author's criticism, Gillard's ideas seem to be very poor. The author then patronizes Julia Gillard by using negative connotative words such as "disgrace" and "disingenuous in the extreme". This further supports the idea that Gillard's ideas are wrong and have not been thought out very well.

In the article, there was only one appeal that was used, and that was an appeal to fairness. By saying that Gillard's concepts are "unfair" and "unjustifiable" triggers an emotional response from the reader. The author targets the reader's concern for fairness and this will aid the reader in siding with the author.

The final device was Patriotism. The author is saying that, all he wants is to help Australian return to a more fairer place. This statement can evoke patrioctic feelings in the reader as the article is published on an Australian news website, and will therefore have lots of Australian readers. The reader will feel as if their country is flawed, and will want to help it and thus, siding with the author.




Our second persuasive piece was a small political cartoon. The cartoon talks about the political parties and how they are only hurting themselves.

On the left side we can see the Australian Labor Party in a big mess all fighting each other. You can see lots of violent acts such as "atomic wedgie", "chinese burns", "punching", "kicking" and "eye gouging". Some of these actions such as "atomic wedgie" and "chinese burns" are very colloquial terms and terms that are commonly used in the school yard, so it is implying that the politicians actions are very childish.

On the other side, we can see Tony Abbott, alone, pinching himself. Compared to what the Labor Party are doing, Abbott is not harming himself at all.The speech bubble coming out of Abbott ("Oww!") almost seems sarcastic, almost as if Tony Abbott is just playing around.

The cartoon overall, is trying to say that the Labor Party are just bring themselves down. All they're doing is hurting themselves, while on the other hand, Tony Abbott is focusing on winning. By doing a playful action such as pinching himself, shows that Abbott has no problems and is doing the right thing.


Our third and final article is titled "A Salutary From The World's Top School System". The main idea that was discussed in the article was that Australian schooling systems are well below Asian schooling systems. In this article, there are lots of connotations being used. With the majority of them being negative. With all the negative connotations, the author subtly implies that the Australian schooling system is appalling compared to the Asian schooling systems. The whole article is also a comparison.

The author of the article used listing as a persuasive device. By listing, the author emphasizes the fact that there's lots of things to worry about and that the magnitude of the problem is very high. Through the use of listing, the reader is more likely to be on the side of the author as they can see there is a multitude of problems.

In the article there were four instances where the author used a negative connotation. This alone tells us that the author doesn't agree with what is going on. The terms, "disturbing" and "ruthless" all have a negative tone to it. This evokes the idea that the idea being discussed is wrong and incorrect. In this instance, the author is saying that the figures are "disturbing" and by using that word, the author seeks to persuade the reader by sharing with them his/her point of view.

A thing to note, is that the whole article itself is a comparison. The author is comparing the Australian schooling system to the Asian schooling system. The inclusion of a comparison may evoke patriotic feelings. Because the reader will be primarily Australian, they will feel as if they are being beaten and are not on top. This will strive the reader to do something about the schooling system as they are Australian and will want to aid Australia in being the top country.