Writing and Barking Blondes

Intro: This essay will investigate and explore the similarities and differences between the linguistic and presentational techniques used to have an effect on the reader used in two articles with the shared topic of pets. The first article is by two women who call themselves 'Barking Blondes', the use of the word 'Barking' having two meanings: one relating to the sound dogs make and secondly referring to madness. This may be because they are slightly eccentric dog lovers. The formal online newspaper blog article is called 'Dealing with the death of a pet', and it informs, advises and entertains the two audiences of pet lovers and non-pet lovers; non pet lovers simply just finding it entertaining to read about the extremities that eccentric dog lovers reach. It includes sarcastic and hyperbolic language that progressively becomes mocking which makes the article humorous. The second article is ‘Confessions of a cat sitter’ by Chris Pascoe. It is an informal magazine article that is aimed at cat owners and lovers, and readers of ‘Your Cat’ magazine, which aims to inform and entertain. In contrast, both articles have the same purpose, both have a sarcastic tone at points and both are humorous. The ‘Barking Blondes’ article is formal whilst Chris Pascoe’s writing style in the article is casual and informal.

Language para 1: In ‘Barking Blondes’ the writers use an anecdote, a linguistic technique also seen in ‘Cat Sitter’, at the start of the article when there is a more serious and sincere tone, ‘The day we introduced Matilda, our bulldog puppy, to the vet for her first injections we were brimming with excitement’. The use of the pronoun ‘we’ immediately builds trust in the writers, and a sense of community for the pet-lover audience that now feels they and the writer are part of. This allows for the article to later include hyperbolic and sarcastic language that mocks eccentric animal owners but at the same time makes the death of a pet dog seem more light-hearted