Checklist for analyzing interaction in

print
This outline is intended to help you with analyses of advertisements for the
assignments. It often refers to the Oxfam letter discussed in the lecture; at the end of
this checklist that letter appears with some features underlined. It is just a list of
features that are often worth looking at; you need not try to look at all these features
for any one text. The best essays are likely to focus on a few aspects, such as
pronouns, pointing, and pictures, or speech acts and layout on the page, or the
relations between words and picturs in a series.

The print
• typeface
• layout
• bold and underlining

Consider first the obvious features -- just how the print looks on the page. In the
Oxfam letter, there is the use of bold, underlining, and a P.S. The meanings of these
devices aren't fixed; for instance, underlining and bold are used in tabloid newspapers
to suggest stress, giving leader pages the sound of informal speech.

Pronouns
I and you can obviously be used to suggest a sense of interaction, but so can he, she,
we, they, because they draw on some sense of shared knowledge between writer and
reader, and on a sense of social categories. For instance, pronouns used without an
introduction of who they refer to can give readers a sense they are involved in the
situation described -- like the opening of the Oxfam letter.

Pointing
Words like here, there, today, now, Wednesday, then, come, and go all have their
meaning relative to a particular place or time (the technical term is deixis). We didn't
see them in the Oxfam example, but they are a powerful device in some texts. Is the
place and time assumed that of the reader or that of the writer?

Verbs and meaning

You don't need to use the lingustic terminology of tense (say vs. said), aspect (said vs.
was saying) or voice (say vs. is said). Just keep an eye out for the way shifts between
two ways of saying things can affect the meaning. For instance, in the Oxfam letter, I
pointed out that the present tense (works) can be used to suggest facts, while they use
a continuous aspect (is working) to suggest something on-going. Like some pointing
words, tense positions the reader at a particular point in time.

Speech acts
Speech acts are the actions one can perform by speaking: requesting, blaming,
promising, inviting. In the Oxfam leaflet, I pointed out the different ways of making a
request:

• I have to ask you if you can possibly increase the amount of your donation . . .
• Please could you consider increasing your donation . . .
• if you could find an extra £7 a month it would be a marvellous help

Often these acts are done indirectly; for instance ads rarely tell youdirectly to buy the
product.

Words from others

Most written texts include some quotations or reports of what others say or think:
references in students' essay, testimonials in ads, sound bites in newspapers. In the
Oxfam letter it was in a cassette, not quoted in the text. But there is also a slip saying:
"Yes, I’d like to help the people of northern Tanzania"
This is attributing words to us, the readers.

Puns and rhyme

I didn't have any examples of this in the Oxfam letter -- such poetic play can make the
message seem unserious. But there are examples in the "Lola" ad used in the seminar.
Look for puns (double meanings for the same word or phrase, like enlighten), rhymes
(repetition of end sounds, like forget and yet) alliteration and assonance (repetition of
consonant or vowel sounds). There is a chapter on this in my book Words in Ads.

Listing
This feature is interactive because it requires us a readers to see how the parts go
together into a whole or a series:
The town is suffering
Local government can’t cope
The threat of disease becomes ever more menacing . . .
Together we're tackling the lack of clean water,
improving hygiene,
helping people towards self-sufficiency
and supporting schools
I have a shirt that says ROME, LONDON, PARIS, BOISE. You are supposed to be
able to guess the odd one out.

Inferences
Note how many statements require us to infer some meaning beyond what is literally
said:

• Every penny of your increased gift will go directly to helping the suffering
people of northern Tanzania.

They don't have to say why we might suspect otherwise.

The pictures
The three pictures on the Oxfam letter show different ways the people in pictures can
relate to the viewer: posed facing us, as if aware of our gaze, in the distance working
at something, close up intently studying, as if unaware of us.

Composition
For the discussion of analyzing pictures as interaction, I referred to the J17 cover:
It illustrates well the issues of

• Distance (medium)
• Framing (close)
• Angle (off vertical)

The visual excitement of her challenge is conveyed, not only by her expression and
posture, but by this composition.
 Gaze
In the J17 picture the gaze is at us, but in other pictures it can be at other objects of
people, or into the distance.

Meanings
Denotation is what the pictures show; connotations are the associations we have with
what is shown. So the denotation of the right most Oxfam image is a picture of three
Afican boys; connotations include their studiousness, seriousness, determination to
get on . . .

Words and pictures together

• words first vs. pictures first
• anchorage - text fixes meaning of the image
• relay - text and image complementary
• illustration - image fixes meaning of the text

The key here is to go back and forth between words and pictures as you would
reading. Note how the Oxfam series makes three pictures into a story of progress.

The physical text

Sometimes it helps with texts to think of them as physical objects: who gets them,
how much to they cost, what do they feel like?

• how was it delivered?

• where does it occur?
• what associations do we have with it?

Main points
• Printed texts can also convey interaction
• Language can project an implied author and implied reader
• Words and pictures can work together to shape the interpretation

Example: The Oxfam letter

1. Dear _____
1. You're sick and it's lasted two days now. You've no money to buy
medicines and you can't afford a doctor or hospital treatment. You can 't
work, so there's no money to feed your family. You haven 't the strength to
fetch water and you 're getting weaker and weaker
2. In Shinyanga northern Tanzania thousands of people face a constant
struggle against disease and death. Many thousands died in a single
cholera epidemic in 1995. Worst of all they have to suffer without help, not
knowing whether they and their loved ones will be the next victims
3. Liz Clayton, an Oxfam worker for 20 years, has just returned from northern
Tanzania. You can listen to her experiences on the cassette enclosed. She
has seen first-hand the courage of people struggling to survive, but she's
also seen how much people can achieve when given some practical help.
That's why she knows more help is urgently needed
4. I know you already make a generous regular donation to Oxfam,
money that has made a real difference to the lives of many
struggling people. But I have to ask you if you can possibly
increase the amount of your donation. However much you can
give, even an increase of just £7 a month, will go directly to
helping fight poverty and disease in this stricken area of northern
Tanzania
5. Oxfam is working alongside local people in the area to support their efforts to defeat disease
and overcome a range of problems. Together we're tackling the lack of clean water, improving
hygiene, helping people towards self-sufficiency and supporting schools, so children can
receive an education that can help them shape their own future.
6. One of the largest problems the people of Shinyanga face is the threat of
disease from polluted water. No-one is safe, but babies and young children
are especially at risk. And every drop of that water carries the potential to
kill. One of the most important areas of Oxfam's work in northern Tanzania
has been to help local people fight the threat of disease by sinking deep
wells into the earth to draw clean, safe, water
7. But .much more needs to be done. Over 50% of Shinyanga's residents still
have to survive on contaminated water and a third are forced to live with
no sanitation.
8. The town is suffering from drought again and the population continues to
grow rapidly. Local government can't cope with the needs of so many
 people and sanitation and hygiene suffers. The threat of disease becomes
ever more menacing, the possibility of another epidemic more likely . . .
9. Please could you consider increasing your donation by just £7 a
month. Every penny of your increased gift will go directly to
helping the suffering people of northern Tanzania help
themselves.
10. We urgently need your extra help to continue our programmes
working with the townspeople to defeat poverty and disease. There are so
many people still at risk and every penny you give will go directly to
projects saving lives in and around Shinyanga.
11. Please listen to the cassette, it will only take about seven minutes
of your time. Please also give what you can to help the people of
Shinyanga to build a better future for themselves.
12. Yours sincerely
13. David Bryer Oxfam

PS You already help Oxfam in the best possible way with a regular donation, but if
you could find an extra £7 a month it would be a marvellous help to our work with
the people of northern Tanzania.