Text Types

Advertisements
A bad watch
KEY FEATURES OF ADVERTISEMENTS
● Problem and benefit: also called ‘benefit and need’, the success of any advert
depends upon appealing to the desires of its readers.
● Image: a major component of modern advertising, images often tell visual narratives,
or employ tactics such as ‘shock value’ or ‘sex sells.’
● Slogan and copy: as the image is so important in ads, text is kept to a minimum.
Slogans should be short, catchy, memorable and should have a relationship with the
image; this is called anchoring. Look for typographical features such as bold fonts,
underlined words and the like.
● Association: ads sell products… but also sell values. You should be alert to
the abstract concepts that the advert is associating with its product and brand.
Understand that objects, settings, people and so on are symbolic.
● Testimonial: adverts often include the satisfied quotations of customers who already
used the product and are delighted with their purchase. Some ads feature celebrity
testimonials.
● Advertising claims: favourites include the use of weasel words, scientific claims,
vague language, or bandwagon claims. There are many more for you to look out for,
and you might also keep an eye out for jargon which sounds impressive, but doesn’t
communicate meaning.
● Persuasion: adverts are always persuasive. Even ads that are not trying to sell you a
product or service might be asking you to think something, change your behaviour or
help someone. Look out for any and all kinds of persuasive devices in advertising.
Charity Appeals
A sub-category of advertising, charity appeals attempt to recruit you on behalf of a
good cause and often ask you to donate either time or money. They are extremely
persuasive, and often rely on similar methods to conventional advertising and
persuasive speaking, tending to have more copy than conventional adverts.
● Adopt a Polar Bear
KEY FEATURES OF CHARITY APPEALS
● Persuasive: the purpose of charity adverts is to make the reader take action,

probably in the form of money or time. Adjacent to this is the need to raise awareness
of social problems. Therefore, look out for all kinds of persuasive rhetorical features in
charity appeals.
● Pathos: charity ads are likely to be more emotive than regular adverts. By appealing
to emotions such as anger, pity, guilt, sympathy, and so on, charity adverts make it
more likely that you will want to respond.
● Hard-hitting: like conventional advertising, charity appeals rely on visual elements to
impact the viewer. An effective approach is to use hard-hitting shock tactics to spur
the reader of this text type into action.
● Credibility: charity appeals need to be even more trustworthy than regular
persuasive texts. Look for information that suggests your donations will make a
positive change, perhaps in the form of facts and statistics.
● Metonymy: social problems like hunger and poverty are too large for one person to
help solve; so charity ads often introduce you to a single individual who represents all
those who your donation goes towards helping.
● Direct address: charity ads will often address the reader with the word ‘you’, striving
to make a strong connection. If a person in the advert is making eye contact with you,
this is a kind of visual direct address.
Recruitment Campaigns
Frequently associated with wartime propaganda, recruitment campaigns can be
used in a variety of contexts to encourage people to support a cause. A hybrid
category of advertising and persuasion, recruitment campaigns would traditionally
have been waged with pamphlets, leaflets, brochures and posters.
● Fridays For Future
KEY FEATURES OF RECRUITMENT CAMPAIGNS
● Persuasive: the purpose of a recruitment campaign is to persuade you to sign up to a

cause or join an organisation. Recruitment drives are almost certain to use direct
address and imperatives.
● Visuals: can be wholly visual, but likely to have some accompanying text (multi-
modal).
● Slogans: text may be minimal or in the form of slogans which are designed to
be catchy. Pay attention to typography, fonts and emphasised words.
● Pathos: the core of a campaign is often emotional, aiming to elicit feelings such
as patriotism and duty on one hand, or guilt if one is not to sign up.
● Card-stacking: a common feature of recruitment drives is they often fail to show the
downsides of joining up! Ignoring parts of the argument that don’t fit your agenda is
called card-stacking.
● Simplification: along with a host of other fallacies, recruitment
campaigns reduce complex issues to simple solutions. They may also
invoke stereotypes.
● Symbolism: elements of the text will connote concepts that are integral to the writer’s
message. Look out for metonymy, where an individual is made to stand for the whole.
Speeches
● Eulogy for Sir Edmond Hillary
KEY FEATURES OF SPEECHES
● Ethos: the speaker establishes his or her credibility and may allude to a moral, social

or spiritual leader with whom the audience cannot disagree.
● Logos: clear, reasonable arguments, facts and statistics and quoting experts in the
field are all ways of establishing a logical appeal.
● Pathos: emotive language and imagery are ways of helping the audience empathise
with the feelings of other – often vulnerable – people.
● Persuasive: the speaker attempts to make his or her listener think in a certain way,
believe something or take action.
● Direct address: the speaker tries to draw closer to the listeners by addressing them
as ‘you’ – look out for the use of ‘we’ or‘us’ to include the speaker and listener on the
same side – and be wary of attempts to compliment the listener.
● Modality: modal verbs are small but important words (such as ‘must’, ‘need’,
‘should’, ‘might,’ and so on) that reveal the speaker’s degree of certainty and strength
of feeling.
● Rhetorical devices: all kinds of rhythmical, structural, auditory and linguistic tricks
can be employed by a skilled speaker. They are too many to list here, but rhetorical
strategies can be studied and learned.
● Logical Fallacies: also called ‘argumentation fallacies.’ Common fallacies in
speeches are glittering generalisations, simplification and slippery slope.
Opinion Columns
Often printed in newspapers or magazines, and sharing many of the features of
persuasive speeches, the opinion piece is usually a thoughtfully considered argument
about a controversial topic in which the writer takes a side or proposes a solution.
Unlike other forms of text for mass consumption, the opinion piece does not pretend to
be straight or unbiased. Although it may contain elements of concession or
acknowledge the other side of the issue, the purpose of an opinion piece is to express
an opinion in a convincing, persuasive or powerful way. SAMPLE RESPONSES:
● Water on Mars
KEY FEATURES OF OPINION COLUMNS
● Perspective: as an expression of a personal viewpoint, the first person is most

commonly adopted for opinion pieces. Look out for ‘we’ instead of ‘I’ – a clever
way of implying the viewpoint is commonly held.
● Solid Arguments: an opinion piece might open your eyes to the reality of an
issue, providing facts, statistics and information to help convince you of the
writer’s viewpoint. Expect to see opinions backed up by studies, research or
evidence of some kind. Keep an eye out for assertion, though, where a writer
presents an opinion as if it were a fact.
● Anecdotes: sometimes a writer will relate a small story from his or her personal
experience in order to demonstrate a thoughtful approach to the topic at hand.
You may find the opinion piece begins with this story, which acts as a kind of
hook into the main article.
● Structure: the writer of an opinion piece is not trying to keep you in suspense
and the opinion is often obvious from the title or first few lines of the article. The
rest of the article should support or develop the writer’s point in a number of
ways. The ending should be strong and certain, perhaps reiterating the writer’s
position.
● Register and tone: you should be especially alert to the writer’s choices in this
regard. Opinion pieces are often formal, but the writer may adopt an irreverent
tone, be passionate, conversational, friendly, challenging, even sarcastic
depending on the tactics used to convince you of a particular opinion.
● Concession: although similar in many ways, opinion pieces are not quite the
same as persuasive speeches, so the writer is not necessarily trying to change
your opinion. In this case, you might find concessions to the other side of the
argument or even an acknowledgement that the writer’s opinion is flawed in
some way.

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KEY FEATURES OF ADVERTISEMENTS

● Adopt a Polar Bear

KEY FEATURES OF CHARITY APPEALS

● Persuasive: the purpose of charity adverts is to make the reader take action,

● Fridays For Future

KEY FEATURES OF RECRUITMENT CAMPAIGNS

● Persuasive: the purpose of a recruitment campaign is to persuade you to sign up to a

KEY FEATURES OF SPEECHES

● Ethos: the speaker establishes his or her credibility and may allude to a moral, social

KEY FEATURES OF OPINION COLUMNS

● Perspective: as an expression of a personal viewpoint, the first person is most

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