Textuality » 4ALS Interacting
Rueing the waves
Britain is a world leader at something rather dubious
Why would anyone read this article? Who is the ideal addressee?
The article above is taken from "The Economist", a weekly paper with informative articles from all over the world, published in London by The Economist Newspaper Limited. The topics of greatest interest in The Economist cover news, politics and international affairs, even if it contains regular columns dedicated to science and technology; it emphasizes also the new publications and other sectors of culture.
The title of the article is very short, consisting of only three words, and does not allow the reader to understand the central issue of exposure in the immediacy: it leaves open a wide range of possibilities concerning anything that might spoil the image of the sea and the waves. The approach of the enigmatic title does not allow to establish what kind of reader would be more attracted to read the article, because it is not possible to guess the point of view (literary, economic, artistic, scientific) by which the problem, whatever it is , is discussed within the text itself. The field to which the exposure belongs is made clear by the subtitle "Britain is a world leader at something rather dubious". The article's topic is not even mentioned, but there are two elements that allow us to narrow down the possible ideal readers of the text:
- The quote of Great Britain, which attracts the attention of a reader especially of British nationality;
- The assertion of supremacy "world leader", set in favor of Great Britain, which implies a writing conducted by an economic point of view (in terms of economic well-being compared to other countries) or scientific one (if the case are cutting-edge technologies).
From reading the title of the article, it can be presumed a reader educated in the economic sphere or in the scientific one, with a high ability to concentrate and to decode text with tools that involve the mastery of the specific language of the two categories.
As regards the general structure of the article, we can say that it reports several characteristics common among the articles generally published in the newspaper:
- It do not bear the signature of the author who wrote it or the signature of the director but is only attributed to the country of origin;
- It consists of short paragraphs, each of which addresses a specific thesis closely related to that reported previously and subsequently to it;
- Each section is structured through the use of short sentences.
These details can be seen at a first glance focusing on the frequency of full stops and quickly reading the incipitale part of each paragraph. Regarding the use of a particular type of language is necessary to dwell on the items exhibited in the article. The passage taken into analysis speaks of: the use of renewable energy in Britain; in connection with this general topic are exposed, more specifically, the situation of renewable energy in the UK in 2012, the future goals, the obligations of the state in term of renewable energy, the extension of the plants, plant costs to individual companies and to the state (construction and maintenance) and energy production by the plants already in use.
The reading of the analysis also allows you to determine the type of language used, in general, the periods are structured in a linear way and are easy to understand. Often throughout the drafting of the article are provided specific data in the form of costs (expressed either in pounds and in dollars) and percentage of energy production. This kind of data assumes at least a partial knowledge of the field that it is going to treat, to the eyes of an ordinary reader would be just meaningless numbers. Another element that suggests the presumption of a reader knowing information about the field of energy production is the frequent comparisons between the establishment of sustainable production and the production of energy from nuclear power plants. If the reader does not know the standards of production of a nuclear power central he would not be able to get an idea of the amount of energy produced by a wind turbine system. A knowledge greater than that provided by school education is also provided by the use of specific terms such as "boondoggle."
While the language used includes a reader belonging to the field of industry and possessing specific knowledge necessary for the understanding of the data provided, the immediate presentation might suggest an article pertaining to a medium reader. The first image in this article might suggest an artistic interpretation of the theme of "waves damaged" and therefore attract the attention of a casual reader. The second image, however, consists of a graph, the meaning of which is totally understandable only by a person with knowledge at least of the basic level on the subject of various sources of energy.
Reading the article requires, because of the multiplicity of information and actual data inside of it, a high level of concentration which confirms the hypothesis of an ideal reader to be found in a cultured person who is interested in economic issues and of scientific progress. An average reader that come across in this article would not be able to supplement its reading as the subject would not satisfy his curiosity only referring to a particular field of study, and the article would also be long and tedious in the eyes of those who usually does not look after the energy issue or does not work in the industry of production.
It can be concluded that, as suggested the analysis of the title and subtitle of the article, as every text published in a magazine in specific theme such as "The Economist", it assumes an ideal reader as a person of scientific / economic high knowledge, fitted with a high level of interest in the subject and of concentration and possessing the right tools to decode text (knowledge of production data and specific terminology).