The register of the text is informal and the lexis is colloquial. Words such as ‘cool’ and ‘pal’ are examples of non standard terms and probably reflects the speech style of the audience. The tone of the text is instructional and informative as the writer wants to instruct and persuade the reader to loose some of their friends as they have accumulated to many friends throughout our youth.
The text is written in the semantic field of friendship. ‘Pal’ and ‘friend’ are from the same semantic field. ‘Pal’ has more relaxed connotations as opposed to acquaintance and reflect the speech style of the writer and audience. The words ‘symptoms’ and ‘syndrome’ are of the semantic field of illness. The term ‘guru’ suggests knowledge and expertise and is introduced in the opening paragraph as he gives advise in every subsection of the article. The phrase ‘chalk and cheese’ is a metaphor and is used to indicated differences between people.
The structure of the text is straightforward and has a clear layout. It begins with a command verb ‘Clear out’ this implies that the text is going to be informative and instructional. The subheading is a rhetorical question and this shows that before the reader has began to read the article they begin to question themselves. The ‘guru’ is introduced in the first paragraph as he is considered useful. In each paragraph the subheading describes that friendship type ‘firm friend’. This is a good logical structure and is easy to understand and runs through out the whole article.
The image of the three female friends at the top of the article look ‘bitchy’ and uncomfortable around each other. The different style and size of the fonts used for different sections eg; larger headings, this helps break-up the text and make it easier to read and understand.