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British stereotypes: do mention the war, Please!

G- This text is an extract from a newspaper article which answers why there is neither a date nor by-line present due to it being the opening paragraph. Not all the stereotypical connotations of a newspaper are present within this extract, along with a strapline which is usually placed under the header. This implies that no one with a high authority or status has a strong opinion on this topic as stereotypically, a strapline consists of a quote from someone of power.

R-Due to the graphology of this extract being black and white which is the style of a hard copy newspaper, I expect someone who buys the guardian regularly will come across this article. This is with reference to the use of the ripped style edges indicating that this extract was torn out of a newspaper. However, this appears to be for appearance purposes which therefore suggest this article may be from online. In that case, someone looking for information or are interested in this topic will come across it, as they will manually have to go onto the internet and search up this article.

If this extract is online, the reader will have to be hooked from the start due to their being many other articles and information on this topic at easy reach. The use of an exclamation mark at the end of the header may entice the reader to read on as it gives a sense of importance as the adverb ‘please’ is almost begging people to ‘mention the war’.

1. Due to the abbreviation of the word Britons, the contraction ‘Brits’ implies that the target audience may be people who are educated with British people due to the author not using the collective noun ‘Britons’. Although ‘The Guardian’ is a British newspaper, the language used indicates that the article is not aimed at ‘Brits’ themselves. This is because the author is describing what ‘Brits’ are like and the 3^rd person term ‘are’ suggest that this is aimed to educate people on British people. On the other hand, the audience could be British people as the author could be trying to persuade the people of Britain to change their stereotype of ‘class-conscious binge-drinkers’ as the verb ‘binge’ with the concrete noun ‘drinkers’ implies we are senseless and anti-social people. This suggest that all ‘Brits’ who are at the legal age to drink have no self-control. The collective noun ‘class’ implies unity yet with the adjective ‘conscious’ it suggests the British community is aware of the differences between groups of people, and so keep to what they know. Therefore, do not mix with everyone forming unity amongst all. Jonathan Freedland  however does not feel this is the case as the verb ‘portrayed’ implies ‘Brits’ are just described in this way but it is not specifically true.

 

P- The primary purpose of this article is to inform people about what British people are like in relation to ‘Frenchman’ who ‘wear a striped shirt and beret’ and ‘ruddy-faced Germans’. On the other hand, another purpose of this article could be to inform ‘Brits’ that others will have their assumptions  of you due to stereotypes but this does not define who you are. This is shown when it says ‘the European image of the Brits’ as the abstract noun ‘image’ implies a made-up picture of Britons.  When the author writes ‘ we know precisely what all those Europeans think of us’ gives the impression that he is bias towards ‘Brits’ as the 3^rd person term ‘us’ implies he is from Britain. By relating other European countries as ‘those’ suggest no individuality between them and that he sees it as some rivalry between Britain and other countries. This relates to when Freedland describes Britons as being ‘utterly obsessed with the war’ as this implies we are always looking for a fight.

E-When reading the Header of this article ‘British stereotypes: do mention the war, Please!’ you expect the content of it to be “taking the micky” out of British people as the use of the punctuation of: a comma gives a space to breath, which in this form implies that people are bored and fed-up of Britons pleading all the time, the colon gives a sense that Britons mentioning the war is the start to a list of things we do which are “annoying” and the exclamation mark suggest urgency and as though this command is being shouted.   The commanding verb ‘do’ also implies urgency as it gives the impression Britons always ‘mention the war’ referring to us as being aggressive.

However  when you read on, you get the sense that all these assumptions are just abbreviations and quick thought stereotypes of Britons due to the concrete noun ‘thumbnail’ along with the verb ‘sketch’ implying  a thoughtless  image. Because of the author now “sticking up” for Britons, you do not know how this controversial article is going to end. Therefore the audience may be shocked with the ending as it concludes that not only does the author think that these stereotypes are ‘not the whole picture’, but that the author is also a fellow Briton. This shows that Britons know that these stereotypes are made of them.