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 …show more content…

In ‘Barking Blondes’, the writers portray their opinion on ‘animal communication’, used by animal lovers to communicate with their late pets, by using sarcasm. A quote in the ninth paragraph, a point in the article where hyperbole and sarcasm has been widely used to gradually mock eccentric dog owners is particularly humorous and sarcastic, ‘We have yet to be persuaded that they really are looking down on us from above. Molly appeared unconvinced and focused all her heavenly powers on hunting out a sausage from behind the tea urn’. The first sentence clearly tells the reader the writer’s perspective on the matter, and the second sentence backs it up with sarcasm aimed to manipulate the reader into thinking the same way. The fact that the words ‘heavenly’ and ‘sausage’ were coupled has humorous appeal and the use of the word ‘heavenly’ used to describe a dog that had no interest in communicating with past pets is sarcastic, which again makes the quote humorous and entertains the reader, eccentric dog owner or not.
Similarly to ‘Barking Blondes’, Chris Pascoe also uses sarcasm to have a humorous and entertaining effect on the reader in his article. One quote that includes these factors is this, ‘…the obvious requirements of cat sitting (from my own point of view: a cat, somewhere to sit it, and an absent owner)’. The quote is a triad, almost set out like a step by step guide in this instance in brackets that indicates it is extra information. The quote has a