Analysis for Student Report

The purpose of the text is to inform, specifically informing the students about an agreement between the college and themselves. Therefore, the audience is students, however parents would be considered as the secondary audience. There is a formal and serious tone throughout the entire text and this is presented in the form of an agreement/contract.

 

Graphology is shown by the use of bullet points. Not only does this make the points more concise, but it enables the points to be briefed and shortened. Pragmatically, this may have been done because it’s an assumption made that students may not want to read a huge amount of information, so the target audience is being considered. Secondly, there is underlining of one sentence and it’s also in capitals. Because the sentence is underlined and capitalised it shows that this has to be read, whereas perhaps the previous block of text had been overlooked. Bold text has also been used; it makes those parts of the text stand out but in addition to this, it could be signifying that the statements in bold are what the college previously had issues with. Also, at the bottom of the contract is a form that is required to be filled out. This makes the agreement seem formal, professional and emphasises the importance of the agreement.

 

There is a semantic field of education evident throughout the piece of text. Words such as ‘education’ ‘teaching’ ‘homework’ ‘students’ ‘staff’ ‘projects’ and ‘assignments’ all come under this semantic field. Without the use of this semantic field, the entire agreement would lose its meaning. The general lexis used in the agreement is formal; it has to be formal as the type of document is talking about a serious topic.  However having said this, there is not a great use of complex vocabulary as all students of all abilities have to understand the agreement.

 

Grammatically, there is an obvious use of pronouns, in particular second person pronouns such as ‘you’ and ‘your’. Despite the agreement being aimed at all of the students in the school, the use of these pronouns makes it seem as if it was written simply for you and you only. This in turn makes the college seem supportive and there for your every need. Furthermore, at the beginning of the second passage, there is use of a first person pronoun.  ‘I, the student’; the college are making sure you are fully aware that the following bullet points are your responsibility. There is a repetitive use of noun phrases too, one example being ‘a genuine concern’. The use of the noun ‘genuine’ shows again that the college is caring and the concern isn’t just a token gesture. Similarly, another noun phrase used is ‘careful and comprehensive advice’; this demonstrates that the advice is thought out and not rushed, and once again it’s not just something that the school do because they feel they have to. Respect is a noun that is also repeated throughout the second half of the agreement; it emphasises the importance of respect. Although respect has a meaning, people often define it in varying ways which makes it an effective word choice.