Exam Stress Leaflet - Commentary
Whilst producing my text, my most important considerations were audience, purpose and genre. The audience aimed for is all GCSE students, and the purpose is dealing with exam stress. Due to my purpose and my audience being a potentially broad intellectual field, I tried to keep the linguistics informal, friendly but relevant. By doing so I haven’t excluded any students who may not be as apt with language as others. I have taken into account that although all of my audience would appreciate a text that is informative and helpful, it should also succeed in being presented in fun and lively way, to give a relaxed impression. This is what influenced my choice of genre. From prior analysis, I became aware of some conventions associated with leaflets, and wanted to stick to these in order to ensure that the content, and the way in which I presented it were easy to follow, informative, and useful.
I gave the leaflet the main title (‘Exam stress!’) and have then followed it with some simple sentences in traffic light colours. The use of traffic light colours in the heading and subheadings gives the connotation of stop, get ready and go; the negative point is elaborated by the colour red, and the advice to read on is emphasised by the colour green. This is too appeal to the audience, and to persuade them to read further. I have also emphasised the purpose by including an image of a smiley face beneath the heading. This is a well known icon that teenagers will recognise, and relate to.
The order of the leaflet is very specific and deliberately divided into appropriate headings, going from the most important to the more obvious, allowing the reader to still get necessary advice from the text straight away. I was aware that the first page would be the initial text that would be seen so I have included the most important aspects that address the purpose instantly. It has been divided into a list of ‘Do’s and Don’ts’ to make it both...