Paper 1 Question 2 - Andrew M.

 Throughout this letter by Richard Branson, the author guides the reader to a better life and helps the reader be able to find true happiness. Branson does this by using deeper linguistic choices, choosing effective form to get a grasp of his audience, maintaining a strong tone to reach out and speak to his audience throughout the letter, and many other factors that accomplish his main objective of bringing the audience more happiness in their lives. 

The form of this piece of literature is a letter. It starts with “Dear Stranger,” and ends with “Happy regards”. The opening “Dear Stranger” accomplishes two things; it makes the audience feel directly communicated with, while it also applies to everyone in the world which makes the advice given universal. A letter is very personalized and usually meant for just one person to read. With such a serious topic at hand, the author precisely picked the right form of writing to connect with the audience. Since the writer is a famous entrepreneur, he knows how to choose the right form to make his point come across in a successful manner. This makes the reader, especially if they are seeking a happier life, feel personally cared about just by the author’s choice of form. 

Throughout the text the author uses the first person point of view. This makes it easy for the author to personalize his message. By addressing the audience by saying “I hear you…”, “I speak from experience…”, etc., this helps the reader connect with the writer and his words in a deeper way. 

The structure of the text is made up of short paragraphs packed with information for the audience. These short paragraphs align with the form of the letter which strengthens the writing of the author. This keeps the reader interested in what the letter has to say instead of getting lost or distracted by long paragraphs that repeat themselves. While the structure of the paragraphs might be short, the sentences are longer. This allows the author to give good information for the reader to absorb, while the paragraph structure illuminates the attention span loss risk. 

The linguistic choices are greatly crafted to get the attention of the reader’s emotions. In the beginning of the second paragraph of the letter, the author assures the audience that sadness is normal by saying, “It’s OK to be stressed, scared and sad…”. The phrase “it’s ok” or “it’s going to be okay” are common phrases that many people hear from people around them when tragedy strikes so the author’s choice of this phrase makes the audience feel even more assured. The author also addresses the audience by using a bold opener, “You don’t know me but I hear you are going through a tough time…”. This catches the reader’s attention and draws them into the rest of the letter. 

The tone of the author throughout the letter is very calm, encouraging, and consistent. This matches up with the linguistic choices of the author as well. The tone that the author chose to maintain is able to soothe the reader, make the reader consider the advice that the author gives in the letter, and possibly make the reader get inspired to try to live a better and happier life when done reading the letter. 

Overall, this letter is very well written. This is a deep subject matter and the writer perfectly gives examples of common problems and follows them with solutions that anybody can use. The way that the author combines form, structure, language, and tone to convey his message in the most effective way to make a piece of writing with this much depth come alive.