List of Language Devices

Alliteration:

The headline employs alliteration through the repetition of the letter �P’ in order to engage the reader as well as hold his attention.

Allusion:

The writer eludes to the horrors of the Holocaust in the hope of evoking a visceral response that will encourage support for the current Iraq War.

Analogy

The writer employs the analogy of cancer. In doing so, he likens gambling to the infamous malignant tumour as to suggest the devastating effects of gambling on the health of society and our family if it is not cured quickly.

Anecdote

The writer employs the use of an anecdote of Rosemary Cullins, who apparently lost her life under the influence of �party’ drugs. This anecdote explains to the reader that ingesting �party’ drugs may have dire consequences, and the use of a young and lively student as an unfortunately victim appeals to the reader’s sympathetic side.

Appeals to feelings

In the first sentence, the writer appeals to nostalgia. This appeal to nostalgia is used in a positive connotation, through describing the good nature of people during that era, and through using it like this, people will tend to feel envy for goods time like those described by the writer.

In the second sentence, the writer appeals to prejudice and stereotypes, here being the honesty of a used car salesman. The writer likens the Premier’s honesty to the trustworthiness of a Used Car Salesman; this suggests that the Premier is a manipulative and untrustworthy fellow much like the person he is compared to which is a stereotype most people will know.

Authority

The use of authority is used in this paragraph where the Professor of Environmental studies at LaTrobe University, Dr. Ian Taylor, explains that the current bushfires could have been avoided had there been grazing cattle in the area. Through the use of an authoritative figure, being the Professor of Environmental Studies himself, the reader is more inclined to accept the information the paragraph contains, as Dr. Ian Taylor is likely to know what he is talking about.

Bullets

Bullets in this article are used to highlight the key points of the subject; in this article, it highlights the weaknesses of some sort of scheme. By putting the key facts in bullet points, the reader can easily read that the scheme fails to consider the physically disabled, fails to tackle long-term unemployment, and fails to solve the prejudice in the community without the need to literally read a wall of text.

Colloquialisms

Colloquialisms are generally words one would use in informal situations and this can be found in this article. The author uses words like �bludger’, �dole’, and �bloke’ to emphases his point that he cannot fully support his family with what the current dole provides. It is used in this manner to make the writer more accessible to certain groups, with it here being aimed at the working class Australian.

Connotations

Every word has a negative or positive connotation to it, which in turn has an effect on the tone of the article. As an example, �being a fascist’ or �being a right-wing supporter’ mean two very things. People tend to negatively associate Fascism to the Third Reich and Adolf Hitler, while being a Right-Wing Supporter simply means you believe in similar ideals to socialism and the like.

Euphemisms

Euphemisms are simply words that convey a very similar meaning however are worded and arranged in a much more pleasant way. For example, using �old-age pensioners’ tends to convey a message that these people are too old to be useful, while using �senior citizens’ tends to convey a message that these set of people are still as useful as any other citizen.

Irony

The