Australian patriotism at its finest

A response to this article ; http://www.australianmade.com.au/why-buy-australian-made/

This text has a functions to persuade the reader to purchase Australian goods and services through informing them about how simple it is what the consequent benefits are for both the Australian economy and the consumer.

The title is a rhetorical device in the form of an irregular interrogative clause. In order to provide a short, concise and attention grabbing title, the author has omitted something along the lines of “Why should we all buy Australian Made products” and relies on the audience's ability to understand that it is referring to goods and services which are Australian made or owned. To compensate for possible confusion, the “m” in “Made” has been capitalised. This renders the fact that “Australian Made” is an an adverbial group (“Australian” describes the place in which a product has been “made) more explicit.

This text systematically addresses the question asked within the title. The graphological feature of a larger capitalised heading followed subsequently by a smaller declarative sub headings (Eg: It's good for you, It's good for Australia”) functions to differentiate the topic markers from the related information. This assists in coherence as it immediately informs the reader of the subject and domain of the following text. Each question functions as a subheading and these also facilitate textual coherence as they clearly outline the specific features of the following prose. Another similar cohesive device is the structuring of the economical effects generated for every “1 million dollars of new or retained manufacturing business in Australia”. A dot point format is employed to present the numerical information and a clear and concise manner for the reader.

The use of parenthesis allows the clarification of a previous statement to optimise comprehension and facilitate textual coherence. This occurs when the Australian Made / Grown is mentioned. The author not only describes the logo “the green triangle with a golden kangaroo” but provides an underlined hyper-link (which when clicked, presents an image of the logo) and explains what it means. Another example of parenthesis occurs in the explanation of what a consumer actually is. The author takes the liberty of defining the term as “the people and businesses that buy things every day”. This makes it easier for the reader to identify themselves as a “consumer” and therefore realise that they should be held accountable for their actions and choices to buy Australian or international.

The author consistently manipulates the information flow of the text to grant focus to the benefits available to the consumer and how convenient it is to purchase Australian goods. For example, in the first paragraph, end focus is granted to the fact that the consumer gets “great products and produce” and in the second paragraph that “the supplier is just a phone call away”.

The texts under each of the subheadings are each ended with a concluding statement which reiterates the point made in the text and links back to the framing idea of the benefits of Australian made products. The first and last ending statements begin with conjunctions “so” and “that means” which serve a dual function in transitioning from old ideas to new ones and facilitating textual cohesion. The second and third ending statements employ “it-constructions” where a dummy subject using the pronoun “it” is placed in the position that would normally be occupied by the subject noun phrase, thus giving the information “to buy things that have been made right here in Australia” and “to consciously purchase Australian” more prominence.

The register of the text is relatively casual. The author maintains a conversationalist tone throughout the entirety of the text through incorporating cohesive, transitional phrases such as “so” and “that means” when linking ideas. They also lessen the social distance between themselves and the reader through employing the second person pronouns “you” and “yourself” when referring to the reader. Utilising the collective pronoun “our” (in reference to our farmers, fisherman etc.) and deictic pronouns “right here in Australia” has a similar effect.