How to Write Better Essays

To test it in this way you need only take some simple, but quite

deliberate steps.^1

1 Borderline cases

First, with your structure in front of you try to think of a borderline

case, an example of advertising that doesn’t fit comfortably within your

structure. Then analyse its characteristics to see if, in fact, it does fit

after all. You may find there’s more to this form of advertising than you

first thought and it does, in fact, fit within the structure. Alternatively,

after thinking through all the possibilities it may become clear that it

doesn’t fit and you will have to adjust your structure to take account

of it.

For example, take a form of advertising that appears to be wholly

informative, say a bus or railway timetable. This is just a list of routes

with times for arrivals and departures. There may be no enticing

message at the top inducing you to ‘Come to sunny Bognor, children

travel free!’ There may be no catchy jingles encouraging you to ‘Let the

train take the strain!’ It might be just a simple notice containing travel

information, erected in a prominent position in a bus or train station.

So, the question we have to ask is, does this suggest that advertise-

ments can be just informative after all, or are we right in assuming that

behind all of this information lies the covert message that we ought to

travel by train or bus because it’s more convenient and easier, and

therefore less stressful than the alternatives? We could argue that in

putting out this sort of information, the intentions of the managers of

the bus and train companies are not just to give us information, but to

so impress us with their efficiency and convenience, that we will travel

this way more frequently.

2 Contrasting cases

If this is the conclusion you come to, move to the second stage and

test your analysis again, this time by imagining an example that is the

complete contrast to this – one that is composed of nothing but factual

information, where the intention of the advertiser seems to amount to

nothing more than to inform the public.

For example, you might be travelling through the countryside one

summer afternoon, and you come into a small village. At the centre of

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