Analysis of Blinking Hell, a Sight Savers International Campaign Essay

The article 'Blinking Hell' is written for the purpose of informing a number of audiences about an eye disorder existing in economically developing countries. The title of this extract, 'Blinking Hell' carries a double meaning. The Statement 'blinking hell' traditionally serves as an exclamatory comment. For the intention of this article, the author has changed the exclamation to a verb and a noun and the semantics of it become literal. The graphology of the text is like that of a newspaper article, set out in columns with an emboldened title and graphic image. Presumably, this was done in this fashion as it may have featured within a newspaper. Equally, the reasons could have been purely to draw attention to the text. 'Blinking Hell' opens with an exposition giving no clear meaning as to what it's putting across to the reader. By using this short phrase, the author has encouraged the audience to read on and discover its significance. No noun is present in this opening statement and, is instead, immediately substituted for a pronoun. 'At first it's not too bad' In the next paragraph, the writer goes on to describe the behaviour of a child in relation to their eyes. The noun child is used along with the description with average child-like behaviour for certain readers to identify with. The writer is writing this on the basis that most adults have seen a young one perform this action. At the end of this section, verbs and a noun are used within a simple sentence to reveal the main subject of this text piece. 'And that's all it takes to spread trachoma' Throughout the rest of the text, the writer has gone into explicit d... ... written in a biased and un-scientific way as if it was a tabloid article. 'scarring the child's eyelid a little bit more' The noun child has been used to inform the reader of which type of people fall into the category of Trachoma sufferers. The author has chosen only to tell the audience that children are the victims, despite it being a disease that does not discriminate. This device was most probably used to persuade and emotionally involve which is a vital skill for fund raisers of any form. At the end of the article, the author uses persuasive language in the form of a complex sentence as a last attempt to convince the prospective donater. 'Â £5 is all we need for the operation' The verb 'need' is used to show the importance of the operation, thus the importance of the reader donating money to the cause.