ENG2602 Assignment 1 (QUALITY ANSWERS) 2024 - Commercial & Political Persuasion

This document contains workings, explanations and solutions to the ENG2602 Assignment 1 (QUALITY ANSWERS) 2024 - Commercial & Political Persuasion For assistance call or us on 0.6.8..8.1.2..0.9.3.4...... QUESTION 1: COMMERCIAL PERSUASION Read the following commercial persuasive text closely and answer the question that follows. ASSIGNMENT: 01 THIS ASSIGNMENT IS COMPULSORY ASSIGNMENT WEIGHT: 35% ASSIGNMENT DUE DATE: 13 MAY 2024 6 Write a carefully-worded essay of 1000 – 1200 words (approximately 2 to 3 typed pages) in length in which you critically analyse the content of the advertisement as a persuasive text. Begin your essay by BRIEFLY establishing what the text is about, who the target audience is and what the persuasive purpose is. Your analysis must focus extensively on the persuasive strategies such as persuasive appeals, visuals, and linguistic devices used in the text. Explain how they have been used. Assignment preparation guide Hints for the conceptualisation of your analysis Although the ultimate intention of most advertisements is to prompt their target audience to act and buy a product or service, you cannot, however, keep repeating this fact in your discussion. You need to look at how the reader or the target audience is being prompted to buy something. This means you must be prepared to justify your answer with textual evidence and sound reasoning. In other words, you need to quote from the text in your analysis as you support your argument and present it in a logical and coherent way. In the same way, you should be careful not to stray from the source – only use the given text, i.e. the advertisement, and do not add extra information you may know about the product; stick to the given text. This is because you are being taught close reading in this module. Close reading is a type of reading that requires a reader to pay close attention to a text, reading it carefully, and looking at its details in order to understand its meaning. Also, you need to avoid vague responses; explain the significance of any feature that you identify in the text that forms the persuasiveness of the text. Your analysis of the text should be an illustration of how you have applied the persuasive strategies you have identified in the text. You should critically analyse how the persuasive strategies contribute to the content of the advertisement in making it a persuasive text. Do not make observations without discussing their function in the text. In addition, you may also try to vary your discussion by looking at persuasive techniques according to the AIDA principles. AIDA stands for Attract, Interest, Desire and Action. This implies that in your discussion, you will differentiate between diction, tone, style or other techniques according to how they apply to the AIDA principles. Reading and Pre-writing prompts Before answering your essay, read the advert several times and annotate it by jotting down your notes in an A4 paper under each of the aspects mentioned above. The question already alerts you to the fact that there are persuasive techniques used in the text. To refresh your memory, try re-reading Unit 2 of the Tutorial Letter 501. As you do this, bear in mind what the assignment question requires you to do: critically analyse how the online advertisement uses persuasive techniques. For instance, in this context, “critically analyse” refers to critically probing the persuasive techniques (or language features) used in the text. The phrase persuasive techniques refers to strategies employed in the text to convey a persuasive purpose to the target audience. First, identify these persuasive strategies from the text; and, second, choose the ones you want to focus on which you think will satisfactorily and adequately help you answer the question. Then, provide a critical analysis of these strategies in your assignment essay response. NB: Also, look up the meanings of the phrase (persuasive techniques) in any print or online dictionary (on the Unisa Library portal), and refer to sample responses given in Unit 2 of the Tutorial Letter 501. ENG2602/102/0/2024 7 Please note the following: Topic: What is this text about? What aspects of the text reveal its topic? Target audience: Who is the intended target audience of the advert? What informs your answer? Can you provide example(s) from the text to support your answer? Context: What is the specific or general situation under which this advert often occurs? Persuasive purpose: What is the advert’s intended persuasive purpose? Is this purpose explicit or implicit? Persuasive techniques: What persuasive strategies does the advert use? How are these strategies used? Tone: What is the writer’s attitude towards the subject? What examples from the text can you provide to support your response? Style: What type of language is used in the text? What examples can you extract from the text? NB: Remember to refer to Unit 2 of the Tutorial Letter 501 as well. Self-Assessment: Before submitting your essay, you must proof-read it to eliminate errors and poorly expressed ideas. It is often helpful to read your work out loud to yourself. • If it does not make sense to you, it will not make sense to the marker: so, correct it. • If it does not sound correct, revise it. • If you struggle to identify your grammar errors, upload your essay to to receive assistance that will help you correct your mistakes. NB: Present your analysis in a properly-structured academic essay consisting of an introduction, a body and a conclusion. Avoid using headings and sub-headings in your essay. Revise your draft and ensure that it addresses all of the concerns mentioned above. MARKS: 100 OR 8 QUESTION 2: POLITICAL PERSUASION Read the following political persuasive text closely and answer the question that follows. Former DA leader Mmusi Maimane's resignation speech My fellow South Africans, When I was elected as leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA) in May 2015, just over four years ago, I set out to build a strong, diverse, and authentically South African organisation that could remove the ANC from national government and in turn, work hard in government to free the majority of South Africans from the shackles of poverty, indignity and despair. It was first and foremost my love for this country and a deeply held conviction for justice that led me into the space of politics. I am not a career politician, and I have never sought to be. I have always only been driven by a vision to build a united, prosperous and reconciled South Africa where all citizens have a fair shot in life and where the colour of your skin does not determine your future prospects. In order to do so, it was crucial that the DA evolved and transformed into a party that all South Africans could call home. A truly South African party at the centre of our politics. During my tenure as DA leader, I relentlessly sought to grow the party amongst all South Africans - but specifically black South Africans. I fundamentally believed that if the DA was to become a party of government, it needed to look and feel like a party for all, not some. It needed to belong to all South Africans. […] IOL, 23 October 2019. Available at: (Accessed on 07 July 2023) Write a carefully-worded essay of 1000 – 1200 words (approximately 2 to 3 typed pages) in length in which you critically analyse the content of the persuasive text below. Begin your essay by BRIEFLY establishing what the text is about, who the target audience is, and what the persuasive purpose is. For each of these aspects, your response should not be more than two sentences. Secondly, you have to provide an extensive critical analysis of the persuasive strategies (persuasive appeals and linguistic devices) used in the text. NB: ‘Critical analysis’ in this case, does not necessarily mean to criticise or respond argumentatively to the text. Instead, it means you should probe or examine the persuasive strategies (i.e. persuasive appeals and linguistic devices) used in the text that help the text achieve its persuasive purpose. That is, you should be able to provide some form of critical insight when you analyse this text. Ignore the ellipses […] and do not comment on them! ENG2602/102/0/2024 9 Consult the assignment guidance provided below for instruction on how to approach each of these aspects. NB: Do not use headings and sub-headings! Below are persuasive strategies that your responses need to focus on and critically analyse as used in the text: 1. Persuasive Appeals • Appeal to credibility or authority (ethos): trustworthiness and reliability (e.g., use of a credible figure with a lot of stature and reputation). • Appeal to emotion (pathos): appealing to readers’ emotions or feelings. • Appeal to logic (logos): use of reason or reasoning (e.g., researched facts or statistics). 2. Linguistic Devices • Diction and style: word choice and how the text is organised • Tone and mood: speaker’s or writer’s attitude toward a topic, and the feeling the speaker/writer tries to create in a listener’s or reader’s mind. • Structure: the way in which the text is organised in relation to its topic/subject and its purpose. • Emotive language: the type of emotive language that helps create the mood of the text. • Inclusive language: language use that makes the reader feel included or as a part of the text. • Imperative language: verbs or language employing the imperative mood. • Punctuation and sentence structure: The types of punctuation marks and the types of sentences used in the text. • Lexical cohesion: repetition, synonymy, antonymy, and collocation used in the text. • Figurative language: different types of speech used in the text (e.g., metaphor, personification, euphemism, contrast, juxtaposition, etc.). • And many other relevant linguistic devices.