Style models analysis for article

Style model 1: ‘Paralysed overnight’ – Linda Hartley (taken from Pick Me Up magazine).

• ·        ‘Paralysed Overnight... A virus attacked Linda’s spinal cord’ – This article has a main heading (‘Paralysed Overnight’) and then a little strap line (‘A virus attacked Linda’s spinal cord’). This lives up to its genre because articles have main headings and strap lines. The main heading is short, and catching. The strap line is a summary of the story, but only a tiny snippet because it draws people into wanting to read further.
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• ·        ‘Cuddling up to my hubby Stephen, then 55, in bed, I needed a good sleep’ – Narrative, and descriptive, gives character of her husband in it. Sets the scene.
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• ·        ‘It was January 2008’ – use of time/when the event occurred. Gets readers’ interested because it is clear she is about to tell the story to them. Past tense is used.
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• ·        ‘I tried to rub it better’ – ‘I’ shows it is written in first person. This makes it more personal, which grasps the readers’ attention because it is a real life story being told from the person who it actually happened to point of view.
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• ·        ‘Within a few weeks, I couldn’t move my legs’ – Use of time scale, shows readers’ how severe it was. Also, the fact that she didn’t go straight into grave detail, it is quite a sudden event. This makes the readers’ shocked, and feel sympathy for her, which grabs more attention from the reader because it makes them want to read on, to find out what happened next.
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• ·        ‘I had countless tests’ – makes the readers’ feel more sympathy, and the word ‘countless’ gives imagery of the idea that there were so many that she lost count. Makes the readers’ feel sad.
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• ·        Within the text, there is a blue box with pink quotation marks around it picking out the line ‘Within just a few hours, I couldn’t move my legs at all’ – this is to capture readers attention when they first look at the page, so they can see that it is an interesting story. They would get this impression because the writer picked out a very vague line that the readers’ could ask themselves a lot of questions about such as ‘why couldn’t she?’ ‘what made them like that?’ and therefore want answers to those questions and so they read the article.
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• ·        ‘Devastated’ – This is an example of one of the abstract nouns used in this personal account article. These are very effective to use because it creates a scene/imagery for the readers’ because it can make them imagine the situation and feel what emotion is stated as well. It makes the readers’ feel sympathy.
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• ·        ‘ “I’m going to fundraise,” I told Stephen and my two children Tracy,29 and Adam,25.’  & ‘ “That’s great!” Tracy beamed’ – these are two examples of dialogue used in the piece. This shows the realism of the story, creates imagery again, and it is told like a fictional story. Also, the fact that she stated about her fundraising shows what she has been inspired to do despite how she is now/because of how she was effected. This is moving to the readers’ because she hasn’t let her disability pull her back, so she is seen as inspirational, and it also may inspire them to want to take up some fundraising in honour of her and her story (depends on the reader).
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• ·        ‘So far they’ve raised almost £4000, I’m very proud’ – Use of statistic, shows the amount able to raise, the fact that they have raised a good amount of money makes readers’ happy, and when she says about being proud it is use of emotion again and makes the readers’ feel like they should be proud of them too/that they agree that she should be proud of them.
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• ·        ‘Transverse myelitis isn’t getting in my way.’ – This is inspirational because it shows she will strive on through life, and makes the readers’ feel proud of her, and see her as a role model in life because she is brave. Also, this is the last sentence of the piece, and she hadn’t actually mentioned the name of the virus that she had until then, she had only described it before. This is effective because if people knew what that was, they would be shocked, putting a condition to its name always frightens people about the seriousness if it, and so the fact she left this until the end works very well. It shocks the reader, and the fact it has a complex/horrible sounding name, makes it sound better and has better impact rather than her typing something like ‘my sore back isn’t getting in my way’.
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• ·        Even though the piece isn’t funny, this piece is still effectively entertaining to the reader. This is because it creates emotion in the reader whilst they are reading it, and keeps them interested.
• ·        The article uses pictures; before she had the virus, when she was shown to be active, and after she had the virus where she was in a wheelchair at a fundraiser. These show determination, and inspiration. It also makes the readers’ want to read the article because it gives them that exact feel about it.
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• ·        Beneath the pictures, just after the final column of the article, is a fact file. This is a fact file of background information about her condition. It uses statistics and facts about the condition, and is separate text to the piece, and it is serious. It again creates emphasis on the condition, which even though she isn’t talking about herself anymore as such, makes them feel more sympathy now that they know more things about it. It also interests the reader in finding out about something they may not have known about before.