Towards a better and cleaner textile industry [Textual Analysis] Written Assignment 4 This assignment is through an analysis of appeal forms, speech acts, move structures, text functions, text types and relevant rhetorical strategies going to determine the genre and purpose of the text ‘Towards a better and cleaner textile industry’, which was posted on Novozymes website on March 30, 2011. Appeal Forms The text consists of a number of logical arguments that promote the use of enzymes in the textile industry, which means the dominating appeal form is logos.

This is supported by the use of numbers (l. 1-3), scientific terms as polycarboxylates, enzymes and molecule and the reference to the special trial method; LCA (l. 18-23). This also strengthens the sender’s ethos in relation to phronesis. Additionally, both direct and indirect ethos appeal is used, when respectively stating that Novozymes’ solutions can reduce water and energy to a great extent and describing enzyme’s many advantages. At last, the mentioning of water as a scarce resource could indicate pathos appeal, but this is well hidden behind the logos appeal.

The excessive use of ethos appeal gives an indication of the text being of a marketing kind. Speech Acts The main part of the text consists of representatives as it contains e. g. statements of fact (l. 34-36), announcing (l. 1-3) and description (l. 27-30). This is also consistent with the dominating appeal form being logos. Moreover, a representative speech act as: “Enzymes can combine processes to save water usage”, could also be seen as an indirect directive speech act, as the purpose implicit is to make the receiver use enzymes.

The text ends with a commissive speech act that promises all the mentioned advantages and also serves as a conclusion. The use of the commisive speech act supports the need for ethos appeal to make the sender seem credible. Move Structure In relation to the general move structure categories, the text can be characterized as the argumentative move structure with the exordium (l. 1-8), a kind of narration (l. 10-15), argumentation (l. 17-38) and at last the peroration (l. 40-45). This is supported by the common known subject i. e. hat Novozymes produces enzymes and the use of both logos and ethos appeal. In addition, the move structure more specifically follows the news-report move structure as it uses the inverted pyramid, where the most important information is in the beginning. The moves are: Event (l. 1-3), then interpretation (l. 4-8) followed by background (l. 10-15), details of the event (l. 17-23), background (25-42) and at last comments from people involved (l. 42-43). As the text comes from Novozymes, it would though be characterized as a press release which often bears resemblance to the news-report move structure.

Though as mentioned in the paragraph about appeal forms, the use of ethos indicates that the text is not only made for an informative purpose. Text Functions At first sight, the function of the text is the informative text function, as it seeks to express something about the referent. This is supported by the dominant use of logos appeal, representative speech acts and the move structure being press release. Though, as the commissive speech act and indirect directive speech acts are also present, there is evidence that the text also has an indirect directive text function as it tries to affect the receiver to use enzymes.

In combination with the use of ethos, this indicates that the text has a character of argumentation. Text Types As stated above the text type can be defined as argumentation, because it gives a number of reasons in support of a point of view or claim. This means that the goal is to conquer the receiver’s doubt about whether or not to use enzymes, through reasoning i. e. the dominant appeal form is logos, but ethos also plays an important role. This is further supported by the use of indirect directive speech acts, the commissive speech act and the indirect directive text function.

Rhetorical Strategies Because the text is argumentation, it is relevant to look at the use of topoi in relation to the warrant. The ‘starting point’ support of why companies should use enzymes is the results from the conducted LCA, which means the topos can be classified as evidence topos. Furthermore, thematic topoi are used, as the arguments are based on economic and environmental aspects, i. e. when using enzymes to save money and spend less of the valuable water resources.

Finally, generalization topos can be found as Novozymes indirectly tries to convey that since Esquel Group can save water by using enzymes, so can other cloth manufactures. This can thereby further be characterized as an implicature, which supports the view of the text being made for marketing purpose, though hidden behind a press release. The use of these topoi makes the argument reliable, because they are based on logic thus relating to logos appeal. But the argumentation is not bullet proof as an important fallacy is made in relation to the use of authority.

The text only refers to trials conducted by Novozymes itself and persons within Novozymes. Thereby the reliability of the statements can be questioned, as these sources would not be interested in giving out information that puts a negative light on Novozymes. Thus it could be classified as a combination of the appeal to authority fallacy and an argument by selective observation fallacy violating relatively the maxim of quality and quantity. The fallacy made can be related to the voice of the text, thus this means that the text has a central receiver-oriented perspective where (almost) only one voice is heard.

Though, is should be mentioned that a rebuttal is made in the end, where an opposing claim is put forward (enzymes cannot eliminate or cut water consumptions in half), but the importance of this is reduced by the focus on the other claims. Another way Novozymes draws attention to itself, is with the use of active and passive constructions. This means that active sentences are made when Novozymes is the agent e. g. lines 17-18 and passive sentences are used when Novozymes is the patient (l. 1-2), so the focus is always on the company. This also supports the claim that the text has been made for a marketing purpose.

Based on the above analysis, one can conclude that the text has several aspects in relation to genre and purpose. This means that the genre primarily is press release, in the form of a news-report, but could secondly be defined as marketing material. This means that the purpose on the surface is to inform the reader about the results of the LCA trial and the effects of enzymes. But at a deeper level one could argue that the real purpose of the text is to promote the use of enzymes and make potential customers buy Novozymes’ solutions. Number of characters: 6. 949