Identifying Analytical Commentary Features

[ema1117]

Hi everyone,

I was just wondering if some of you could help identify some key metalinguistic features in this text. It is an article I wrote an analytical commentary on as my informal written SAC last week. It was written by columnist Danny Katz in response to an entry from a reader (J.F., Thirroul, NSW). What kind of features do you think are the most notable, and which would you surround body paragraphs around? I appreciate any input you have of this piece.

Thank you very much in advance.

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Modern Guru
Danny Katz solves your ethics and etiquette dilemmas

Occasionally I wash my car on the nature strip. It's a job I despise. People walking by often joke that I can wash their car next. It makes me see red; it's the most annoying thing to say. Do you have a suitable reply I can use?
J.F., Thirroul, NSW

Listen here, young fella. I'm old enough to remember the dark days of prohibition, during the Great Drought of 2008, when the whole country was officially dry - those were some tough battlin' water-restricted times, lemme tell you. Back then, car-washing was a criminal activity: we had to secretly wash our cars in the middle of the night so no one would see us doing it - we used to call it "car moon-shining".

My whole neighbourhood was an underbelly of illegal car-washers. Fat Stella the Sponger. The infamous Squeegee Taylor. And there was me, known round the traps as Danny the Chamois.

But you long-haired ingrates today, you don't know how lucky you are: you can wash your cars in broad daylight, never having to sneak around a kerbside at three in the morning, dabbing the duco of your Daewoo, hoping you don't get caught wet-handed. You can wash your cars in front of neighbours and passers-by, without worrying that they'll rat you out to the authorities and you'll get whacked with a very curt warning notice from your water company.

So stop your whining: just be nice to people, laugh at their bad jokes, and appreciate your car-washing good fortune. Bloody hell, if Squeegee Taylor heard you moaning like this, he'd be round your place with a loaded double-barrel pressure-spray-gun and you'd have kicked the bucket by now.

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[friendorpho]

Bump

[Joseph41]

Hi there.

I had a really quick look and noted some linguistic features that may be of note in an analytic commentary. It is by no means an extensive list. The next thing to do would be to write about how each of these adheres (or does not adhere) to the function of the text.

If you want to practise, this would be an ideal starting place! Good luck - why not share your results so that we can start a discussion?

EDIT: My comments are in track changes, so you might have to download the document. Let me know if it doesn't work!

[ema1117]

Thank you for your help, Joseph41. I didn't even think of 'kicking the bucket' as being euphemism! My teacher spoke about the article having many cultural references: to the Australian droughts since the 2000s; the Australian gangster Squizzy Taylor; 'moon-shining' in relation to making alcohol in secrecy; and something about the 'dark days of prohibition' being related to the US. Again, thanks.