GENRES IN LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE:

THEORY, STYLE AND POETIC

ENG 2602 ASSIGNEMENT 1

NAME AND SURNAME: NOMBULELO MAPULE

MADONSELA STUDENT NO: 65785762
UNIQUE NO: 896865

NOMBULELO MAPULE MADONSELA

4/6/2023
DECLARATION LETTER

Name: Nombulelo Madonsela

Student number: 65785762

Assignment number: 01

Unique number: 896865

I declare that this assignment is my own original work, where secondary material has
been used (either from a printed source or from the internet). This has been carefully
acknowledged and referenced in accordance with departmental requirements. I
understand what plagiarism is and am aware of the department’s policy in this
regard. I have not allowed anyone else to borrow or copy my work.
A persuasive text often has the goal of convincing the readers or audience to believe
a certain message or point and support the writer's or speaker's perspective or
cause (University of South Africa 2020:45). To successfully persuade the audience,
many writers and speakers employ figurative and literary devices, as well as several
types of persuasive techniques, to persuade their readers to see and do things from
the perspectives of the speaker or writer. In the light of this, this essay will analyse
the provided text by specifically discussing what type of text it is, its persuasive
purpose, its target audience, its producer, and the persuasive techniques used in the
text.

In regards to the type of text that the text is, one would observe that the text is a blog
article. This is observed in the fact that the text is first regarded as a “bi-monthly bi-
blog". Another observed feature of a blog that is observed in the text is that the text
largely consisted of informal phrases and sentences. Some of them include, “... like a
pair of jeans you’ve worn one too many times,” “... without asking—and without you
noticing!” and “We need to tell corporations that ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.”

Lastly, another feature that makes the text identifiable as a blog article is the use of
colloquial language. Colloquial language may be defined as a word or phrase that is
informal or literary and is used in ordinary or familiar conversation. In the text, the
writer used a lot of informal phrases that are common to particular groups of people
when they are communicating with one another. Some of these phrases are “queer
pride,” “straight allies,” “queer-baiting,” and “rainbow-washing.” These are phrases
that would most likely not be found in formal writing or formal context. Also, these
phrases may not be understandable to everyone except few people who are familiar
with the terms, as well as people who are in and support the LGBTQ community,
thus making the phrases colloquial language.

The persuasive purpose of the text is to persuade the readers of the text to boycott
brands that uses creators to hint at LGBTQ+ representation but do not go all the way
with it. The writer believes that this is done to attract a ‘queer’ and ‘straight-ally’
audience while trying not to alienate other type of customers. This persuasive
purpose is identified from the line, “Join us in boycotting the following list of queer-
baiting brands.” To serve this purpose, the writer arranged the diction in a way that
proves this purpose. This is such that the writer subtly hinted at some of the reasons
why the brands that does the aforementioned things to the LGBTQ+ community
should not be supported. For example, in paragraph 3, the writer mentioned that
“...brands are happy to market to us (or on behalf of us to our straight allies), without
addressing or caring about the ongoing struggle that the flag represents.” The writer
also in serving the purpose, explained how the brands do not even spell the name of
the community right, such that they spell it as ‘LGBT’ instead of ‘LGBTQ+.’

It was also added that “Queer children are still being horribly bullied, queer people
the world over continue to be persecuted, queer people are completely under-
represented in positions of influence, and slapping a rainbow flag on an item is not
going to change any of that.” In reading lines like these, the readers are thus
persuaded things from the perspective of the writer and may, on behalf of the
LGBTQ+ community, feel offended at such brands, thinking that the brands are
taking advantage of people in the LGBTQ+ community without caring about them.
The target audience of the text is people who belong to or support the LGBTQ+
community. This is evident in the fact that the text only addressed concerns that
people who belong to or support the LGBTQ+ community would relate. Some
examples of sentences in the text that proves this are “It is officially LGBTQ+ Pride
Month...” According to Richards (2022), the LGBTQ+ Pride Month is a month,
typically in June, dedicated to celebration and commemoration of lesbian, gay,
bisexual, and transgender pride. Therefore, since the writer clearly stated this in the
text, it means that he or she is subtly providing that the target audience of the text
are people in the LGBTQ+ community.

Furthermore, there are many persuasive techniques that the writer used to persuade
the readers, and the most obvious one is the use of inclusive pronouns like, “we,”
“us,” and “our” throughout the text. This is a persuasive strategy that would connect
the writer to the readers and imply a shared experience and goal, implying that
everyone all has the same feelings, concerns, and desires. This will make the
audience more inclined to see things from the writer's perspective. The writer also
used the persuasive technique of pathos, such that they used phrases that appeal to
the reader's emotions. Some of these phrases are “horribly bullied,” “disgusting show
of companies,” “ugly heads,” “inappropriately-named LGBT,” “without addressing or
caring about the ongoing struggle,” and “without addressing or caring about the
ongoing struggle.” These are phrases that would elicit the feelings of anger in the
readers, thus triggering them to boycott companies or brands that are not doing right
by the LGBTQ+ community.

The writer also used the figurative device of anaphora to persuade the readers. This
is evident in paragraph 4 where the writer wrote, “... Queer children are still being
horribly bullied, queer people the world over continue to be persecuted, queer people
are completely under-represented in positions of influence” The repetition of queer
after each comma indicates that the writer is placing emphasis on the need for the
queer community (LGBTQ+ community) to be helped or for the queer community to
do something about the unsatisfactory situation.
In conclusion, this paper highlighted some of the indicators that in the provided text
that showed that the text is a social persuasive text. This was done by highlighting
how the diction and organisation of the text subtly demonstrate the text as a
persuasive one.