Comparison of the two texts
Text 1
Text 2
In text 1, one of the first few sentences states, "Uncover to your class how Fairtrade is helping to break the cycle of poverty..." Belonging to the lexical field of assistance and help, the strong dynamic verb of 'helping' relays a message to the reader that the company are doing all they can to help poor farmers in the developing countries; the fact that it is an imperative shows that they want the message to be spread of their good work indicating that they are proud of what they are doing, and the dynamic verb 'uncover' persuades the reader to believe that if the help was to be uncovered it may be an interesting, motivating and appealing subject to talk about. Although text 2 has the same theme as text 1 about the work of Fairtrade, their representation of the company diverges extremely, as in their headline Fairtrade "fails to help poor farmers" the powerful dynamic verb 'fails' indicates to the reader that Fairtrade may not have put in maximum effort to help change the farmers lives who are described by the adjective as 'poor' which may further emphasise to the reader that the company are not trying hard enough or even 'bothered' no matter how poor the farmers are.
The graphology of both texts play a big role in how Fairtrade may be interpreted by the reader when receiving this text; in text 1, the multi modal features such as the pictures indicate that the people being helped seem happy, especially "Thais' story". This multi modal feature may persuade the reader to believe that Fairtrade is doing a good job in helping people in developing countries and consequently making them happier, and the use of the concrete noun 'story' suggests that the girl has been through an inspiring and tough period and Fairtrade have helped her to change her life for the better. However, in text 2 the graphology is of a more dull atmosphere, with the images being used as a multi modal effect to create imagery in the readers mind that the farmers are not being helped and are working in poor conditions, and the caption underneath states "child labour", showing that the work they are doing may be illegal or at least exploitative because of the presumable low pay they are receiving.
Throughout the web page, text 1 uses lexis of positivity, such as strong adjectives like "stunning" and "beautiful" relating to photos being taken of the thriving community, suggesting through declaratives that a lot work has been done in the project to change the villages of the farmers into a positive, thriving and happy village. However, the newspaper article in text 2 states that the social project were "not proved to be equal to all" and "poor workers did not have access to proper facilities" as they were "reserved for managers"; again with the workers being labelled by the adjective "poor" it seems that the company may be discriminating against the poorest workers, as bewildering as it may seem. The adjective "reserved" indicates that the managers are only allowed to use the toilets, again suggesting the scheme may be discriminating against the poorest workers, a huge contrast to the thriving, happy project described in text 1 that seems all of its focus is based on helping every unprivileged worker they can.
REally good in-depth linguistic exploration. Link more to GRAPE in each paragraph - show how the language suits the purposes, forms (e.g. affordances and constraints) and especially the audiences (to achieve the purposes). Cluster quotes to show how a text producer achieves their purposes e.g. look a tthe connotations (use that term) of "child labour" and link with "10 years old, or even earlier" - the comparative phrase "even earlier" is especially powerful - why? Linking to this, evaluate the significance/power of techniques in suiting the GRAPE. I don't think the Mail is suggesting that it is the fair trade scheme that is reposonsible for the discrimination (or only by association, which may be part of the justification for the sensational article) but there is a strong accusation that Fair Trade workers have not prevented it, with the implicature that they have not achieved ("fails") what they set out to do. Don't forget possessive apostrophes (check paragraph 1).
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