Bennett Boatyard
Firstly the whole text is an agreement to sign before hiring
a boat, therefore if you sign it then you are completely adhering to the
company and the power is in their hands. The terms and conditions that are used
make it clear that you are liable if any of these are broken, therefore the
company has complete control over the person hiring.
In the text there isn’t much regarding graphology there
isn’t any pictures. This could be down to the fact that the text is a formal
serious document and wants the focus to be entirely on the text. If there were
any pictures they may feel like it’s a joke and the attention will be drawn to
that. However in the text some of the writing is in bold. This makes you focus
on this, and it happens to be the key important information.
Also in the agreement as it goes along there are numbered
steps for you to read the terms and conditions. This could be suggesting that
the producer wants the receiver to read them in that order only. This conveys
instrumental power from the producer to the receiver, suggesting that if the
receiver reads them in order then the producer has the power. Or if the
receiver reads them in any order they like then they have disobeyed the
producer and they have the power as they did what they wanted. Bourdieu’s
theory supports this text because he suggests that the producer has complete
power over the receiver and controls what they can and can’t do regarding the
terms and conditions.
Similarly this relates to discourse structure, it’s
structured in steps with something to sign at the end. The producer has set
this out in a clever way to exert their power, by the terms and conditions
being at the top they are basically making you adhere to their rules before you
can get part that you want which is hiring the boat. By having it set out like
this the reader is more likely to read through all the terms and conditions and
sign it afterwards, which is what they want the receiver to do to be fully
aware of the contract. However though some receivers may look over the text
before reading it and see there is a signature box at the bottom, therefore the
receiver may go against the producers rules and just sign it and not bother
actually reading it breaking the power of the producer. However in this case if
something goes wrong and they haven’t read the terms and conditions then they
will be liable and have to pay for any damage etc anyway. And the main details
about the company are at the top such as; the address for the reader to focus
on first.
Another thing in the text is the formality used for example
the register and the lexis. Perhaps this text is formal because the producer is
demonstrating their power to the audience, and making sure the agreement is
clear and concise to them. Also by using formal lexis such as; ‘non compliance’
this may convey that they don’t know who the receiver is so they feel they need
to use formal lexis. Also relating to lexis there is a few imperative verbs in
the text and key words like ‘responsible.’ This could be to make the receiver
take in all the information and take it seriously. This again shows the
producer taking power and control over the receiver, because these demanding
words mean that the receiver has to adhere to it. And linking to semantics
perhaps if the receiver doesn’t understand any of the formal lexis, they will
initially look it up and therefore have to make it meaningful to themselves.
The semantic meaning of this text is to get you to literally
sign the agreement, because of the legal terms and conditions the company need
to make the receiver aware off. Also semantically there is a semantic field of
safety, this is due to the context of this text. Because it’s an agreement form
therefore the company have to legally include these otherwise they will be
liable.
Pragmatically the text is trying to make you really
understand these terms and conditions, and so you never forget them and follow
them entirely. Of course they want you and need you to sign the consent form,
but the pragmatics implies that they just want you to read and be fully aware
of the terms and conditions.
Also some grammatical features have been used by the
producer to guide the receiver and make them read the text and complete the
form in a certain way. For example brackets has been put round important crucial
information such as; (over the age of 18 years) it seems as if the producer is
using their influential power to remind you of things that are extremely
important. There is another one towards the end of the text which is (printer)
this is next to the signature line. The producer obviously wants the receiver
to do it in this way and nothing else like normal hand writing. Therefore the
producer has power and control over how it’s done, however if the receiver
chooses to do this in some other way then the power is diverted to them and
however they decided to do it.
