In order to research well into language techniques, I will look through magazines within the women’s lifestyle genre and identify any language techniques used in a health article. This will give me ideas, helping me write my health article in a way that will appeal to my target audience. Whilst primarily looking at the language used, I will get an idea of layout and colour schemes at the same time.
One magazine I looked at was Glamour: This health article was called ‘What colour is your body craving?” The title is a rhetorical question that is interesting and draws in the audience, underneath the title is a picture of different fruits. There is a kicker: “The easiest way to a healthy body is eating a rainbow of food (and, no, Smarties don’t count!)” this quick sentence summarises the article, giving a fact as well as a hint of humour. The article begins, like the title, with a rhetorical question “You know you’re meant to eat your greens, but what about your oranges, purples and reds?” The use of second person immediately involves the reader, speaking directly to them; this works really well for health articles. The article is then divided up into subheadings such as, “Purple” and “Green” these are each sub divided with “You want to”, “Other benefits” and “Fill up on” this is a simple structuring technique. There are a lot of quotes used in this article to give factual information. The breakout box has a title of “Is white alright?” followed with a “yes” answer and a “no” answer. Overall this article is very factual and straight to the point, it offer valid evidence to back up points and includes rhetorical questions and is written in second person, directly addressing the audience.
Another health article in Glamour is called “Seeing your GP? Don’t hide these 5 facts” again there is a rhetorical question used. This is followed by a kicker: “What doesn’t seem important to you might be exactly that” it’s a contradicting kicker, that is thought-provoking, the audience will want to read on from this. This article is also written in second person and begins with the word “Your” again, giving a personal touch to the article. The article is separated (about half way down the page) into five columns each have a quote as the sub-header. An example of this is “I only drink at weekends...” then in each section there is a quote from a doctor to back up certain points made.
Another article is: “Glamour vs depression” The introduction states that a survey was carried out by Glamour and over “2,000” people responded. This survey is used throughout the article as evidence. It also uses real life stories and interviews. There is a breakout box with symptoms of depression to look out for, there are 9 symptoms listed in a simple way. There is another breakout box on the adjacent page “Five ways to break the taboo” this lists 5 different ways to help. There are quote inserts on the page and some results from the survey are in bold. Overall this is a serious article addressing real life problems, however there are parts that are quite chatty and quite friendly, this is reassuring for the audience.
In Elle there is a double-page article called “the truth about... Vitamin C” The introduction begins with “Fact:” and goes on to summarise the benefits of Vitamin C. There is then a subheading of “less is more” again stating facts about how much is recommended. The article is written in third person “Our bodies...” and “the exact amount we should be consuming” this makes the audience feel involved, and makes the article universal in that everyone is involved. The advice given is written in a factual, but friendly way. There are small diagrams of a bar chart and a pie chart, they give statistical data to back up points. Down the right hand side are more sub-headers that give advice on what products to buy and prices. This article is factual and effective, however it is very text orientated and doesn’t appeal to me through appearance, I will make my article much more attractive for my audience.
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