Systematic Text Analysis of Drinking Alcohol to Shrink - Essay Example

?Systematic Text Analysis of Article: Drinking Alcohol to shrink” The source of this article is from Women’s Health Magazine. The magazine is widely distributed in different locations and is a monthly publication. The publication can be purchased off of store shelves or subscribed to by subscription on a yearly or longer term basis. The glossy pages of this magazine exhibit professional and excellent quality in written articles. The magazine specifically caters to the interest and desires of what a female would want to see and read in the format of a magazine. As with most magazines, there are many pages of attractive advertisements for various products and services that generally most females want to see and can gain useful information from whilst they are reading a magazine such as this one. This magazine has targeted its readers to be women in the age range of 18 to 35. The magazines articles are specifically researched and designed by women and for women, to attract readers from that age category and persuade them to buy the magazine because of its informative contents and entertainment value that is relevant to a female within that age division. The text of this particular article was written by a female professional who holds a dietician certification and obviously has the ability to write. The article writer has a related background in the area of the article content and is qualified to make conclusions about information in this topic are. The writer created this article; however it does cite information from other sources including research that has been done in the area of women and alcohol consumption. The cited information is from professional scientific research bodies. The text was most certainly edited by the editor of the magazine whom is also likely female. The editor has the role of deciding how the article will be written and where its placement will be within the magazine. The article is selected for printing during a specific publication time frame so that it is able to mesh coherently in conjunction with the other articles that compose the magazine. The magazine itself likely has claimed sole ownership of the article. All rights to the article may have been purchased from the writer, so there will be no prints of the same article that occupy the same portion of the market as this magazine. As a mass media magazine, the magazine is marketed and sold on a large scale, to women around the world, in different magazine markets. The magazine will retain profit for the sold magazine product and the advertisements that surround the text also remit profit. The intended audience of this magazine is directed to women. This fact is evident by the surrounding information boxes on the magazine pages, as well as the advertisements that pertain to female products on the same page. Images of women and products that are related to women such as health drinks for weight loss, women’s fashion pictures and female specific hair care products are all present on the same page as the article. This article intends to offer information regarding alcohol consumption and its relation to weight and weight loss, specifically focusing on females. However, there is some mention of males and the effects of alcohol in the article used for comparison purposes. The information is presented in a manner that is both informative and entertaining. It attracts the attention of the female reader who may have concern about weight issues and how alcohol consumption may cause weight gain or weight loss. The average female reading the magazine likely has an interest in weight loss and therefore the article title “Drinking Alcohol to Shrink”, immediately attracts the reader to want to learn more about how alcohol may possibly assist in weight loss. Even if the reader is not particularly concerned with weight loss, the article offers other bits of information that any female reader may be interested in such as health advice, alcohol facts and research about alcohol consumption specifically related to females. This article has presented women with the message that alcohol could either help or hinder weight loss. There appears to be no hidden messages in this text as it is presented in a very straight forward manner. The article seeks to be informative and entertaining at the same time. The only element of deceit that appears to be present in this text, is that the title is somewhat misleading. In actuality, the article does not confirm the notion that alcohol does in fact promote weight loss. It neither confirms nor denies that alcohol could be beneficial for weight loss. It only firstly attracts the women who may be looking for weight loss solutions and then goes on in the written article explaining the details about how alcohol may affect a women’s metabolism. It explains that the effect of alcohol may vary in different individuals dependent upon their particular body. There appears to be more text from sources that promote alcohol as a tool to lose weight. One may read the article and finish it with the opinion that weight loss may actually be aided by the consumption of alcohol. There is a smaller amount of text that actually discourages alcohol drinking. The smaller amount of text seems to be cautionary advice to women that may think that is reasonable to consume a large amount of alcohol on a regular basis and yet there will be no adverse effects from the drinking on their body or on their weight. The text does not present the beliefs of one particular group. Different research bodies were mentioned in the article, each with a different view on alcohol consumption and the conclusions that were gained from the research. The article has brought these conclusions together in summary for presentation of an overall view on the topic of women and alcohol consumption. Although there is no definitive conclusion drawn about women and alcohol, the reader does finish the article with the overall impression that alcohol consumption is socially acceptable and may offer benefit in some form to the regular alcohol consumer. The values that are expressed in this article all relate to a women’s health and alcohol consumption. The overriding theme of this article promotes alcohol consumption in terms of possible health benefit, weight loss assistance, and associated lifestyle factors of women who drink. The article does however point out the negative consequences of over consumption of alcohol, making a mention of problems associated with alcohol abuse and the physiological consequences. The part of the story that is not being told is the full list of negative consequences that alcohol consumption can have on the body. There definitely appears to be an imbalance of the presentation of information about both the negative and positive consequences of alcohol consumption by a woman. The tools of persuasion that are used in this article to relay the message that alcohol consumption is acceptable and possibly beneficial - are discreet. The article uses statistics and conclusions which were cited from research gathered by professional scientists and public health organizations. One would feel more comfortable believing in the mentioned facts of the article given that they are taken from a reputable source and have been discovered through scientific study and experimentation. A woman who is able to read information and apply it to her own life by being able to relate to the parameters which were studied in the studies mentioned within the article, is far more likely to acknowledge the information as credible, than if she was not able to relate to it at all. The words and phrases that are used in the article may specifically relate more so to the vocabulary of a female and her train of thought. This is a persuasive technique in itself, as it is able to attract the female reader and hold her attention as she reads through the article in entirety. If she does happen to shift her eyes in her reading, she is able to find something else particularly engaging for the on the same page which somehow relates to the subject of the article. Perhaps the intention of the advertisement placement is to attempt to keep the readers interest on the subject of and information of the article being presented, and at all times to hold the reader’s attention to that page for a longer period of time. The magazine is written in a clear, concise manner, only mentioning details that are both interesting and captivating for the female reader. Each of the bolded subtitles within the article all relate to the title. Even though the content discussed under each of the headings may not fall completely in line with the opinion being suggested in the subtitle, the subtitle always relates directly to the title. The reader is first drawn to the title and then next to the subtitles, and finally to the text. Therefore it is a clever writing technique to attempt to keep the reader’s attention on the page, by having them shift their eyes further down the page to find information in the subtitles that is just as appealing to them as the message of the title. References Ansel, K 2010, Drinking Alcohol to Shrink?, Womens Health Magazine, accessed January 16, 2012 http://www.womenshealthmag.com/weight-loss/alcohol-drinking-and-weight-loss-tips Read More