Amanda's discourse Analysis #2

House Republican Conference. Educating Children: Opportunity Scholarships for Low-Income Children. Web 23, Feb. 2011.

The overall impression that the viewer receives from the main page is one of professionalism and credibility. The background for the screen is a light grey that makes you feel somber. There are not any advirtisements or other items to clutter the page. This leads the reader to take the information they are presenting to be of a serious nature. There is a row of tabs at the top of the page. They are in blue bold. This makes it easy to navigate and makes the webpage seem very orderly. In the upper right hand corner is a place to login and/or register. In this way it makes it seem anyone can be included and informed about their information. On the top left side there is a fairly large red symbol for the republican party. This adds to the authority of the whole page. There is an animation with three pictures that rotate through: one of a flag, one of a republican, and one saying “a pledge to America.” The flag is at half staff, which provokes emotion in the viewer. The republican gives a face to the information being presented. The saying is in big block letters that are capitalized, which really draws the focus of the reader. In addition to all of this red and blue colors are repeated throughout the webpages. This, with white, characterizes America, and therefore backs-up the overall theme.

When the reader comes to the page where the article is at “policy news” is in capital letters at the top. “News” is in red which really draws the reader to it. This helps to show the importance of the page at hand. The title of the article is big, in blue writing, at the top underneath “policy new.” The blue title then draws the reader to read this. It off-sets the red, and is easy to read. It is a great way to get the focus on the topic. Again the republican party symbol is on the upper left hand side, repeating its intent. There is a little picture on the right of a chess pieces. I feel it does not really add to anything. It does have bright colors, however, so it doesn’t really distract the viewer.

The article beings with a date all in capital letters. This is a great way for the author to bring relevance to the article, with the date being August 24, 2010. It is also an unusual way to begin a paper which brings some excitement to the reader for being able to read something that starts a little differently. The general text is black and medium sized. This is the same as a regular paper, and establishes that this is a reliable article to read. The author guides the reader by inserting headings in bold throughout the paper. This way the reader knows exactly what the main focus is at that point. It also helps to make the read a little easier. Instead of writing out numbers, they are included in numerical form. This is helpful because the reader can easily identify the important statistics within the article. In the results section the author lists some using bullet points. This shows the importance of these findings, and in this article, helps to show compare between a student who did and a student who did not receive a scholarship. At the very end a biased message concerning the republican views is written in italics. This shows that it is not part of the article, but the author felt the need of including it right with the paper. I feel it is a great way for the author to respond to the article immediately above it, without changing the content of the article.