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SPEAKING TO SINGLETONS
There are some things for married couples to consider when speaking to single women in their 30’s.
INTRODUCTION
Despite huge advances in women’s equality and empowerment in modern British society, we can still find discrimination against a specific group of women. They are the Singletons. They are single, professional women in their 30’s. They are economically independent, well paid, own their own homes and are enjoying single life to the full. That is until their role and status is called into question.
FACTS - '1 in 3 marriages end in divorce'
There are some things for married couples to consider when speaking to single women in their 30’s.
INTRODUCTION
Despite huge advances in women’s equality and empowerment in modern British society, we can still find discrimination against a specific group of women. They are the Singletons. They are single, professional women in their 30’s. They are economically independent, well paid, own their own homes and are enjoying single life to the full. That is until their role and status is called into question.
FACTS - '1 in 3 marriages end in divorce'
Nations young men unmarriageable
1 in 3 marriages end in divorce
1 in 4 households are single
Most of the Royal family are single
Alternative ways to live one’s life
DON’T’S - 'have a little humility'
- Stop asking sensitive questions about a single person’s sex life. Asking personal questions can be mark of good friendship. However this is only proved in the quality of the answer you receive. Before you ask singletons, consider carefully how you would feel if you were asked such personal questions in public.
- Stop being self-satisfied about your marital status. There are many different ways to live as an adult in Britain today. You may think your life choices are the best that anyone could have. But have a little humility and accept that this is your opinion only.
- Don’t be patronising to single women. They are not children. In fact it is likely they are more informed and better read than married couples.
- Don’t force singles artificially together. It is best not to make the same assumptions or have expectations that you have on marriage and family. It can be awkward and uncomfortable to be paired off with random single people no matter how eligible you think they are.
- Don’t live vicariously through single people. Singletons have made a lifestyle choice. They are not a form of entertainment or an escape from your married enslavement – full of children, mortgages, home improvements or dull sex life.
DO’S - 'be cautious and thoughtful'
- Consider that being 30 and single is a vulnerable and delicate time in life. We don’t usually really know the circumstances that have led to a person being 30 and still unmarried. So it would be better to be cautious and thoughtful when talking to single women.
- Treat single women in their 30’s as intelligent, sensitive and caring human beings. Speak to them with great respect.
- Acknowledge that some women chose their careers or lifestyle over marriage
424 WORDS
Commentary
Audience
As this is a weekend newspaper, readers are generally more relaxed. They want to catch up on news issues covered in the week but also read material that is diverting and entertaining. As this is a broadsheet newspaper I expected readers to be well educated, professional and fairly sophisticated. I used low frequency lexis to reflect this with the phrases such as 'economically independent' and verb 'empowerment'.
Purpose
The main purpose of the guide is to be informative. I do this using short simple declaratives such as '1 in 3 marriages end in divorce'. There is also the intention to entertain and this is done using short simple imperatives. These orders are intended to be humorous - slightly ironic. Such as 'Don’t be patronising to single women'. I've also used repetition in the verb contraction 'Don't' This is done to emphasise the simplicity of the text.
Genre
I wrote this guide as an embedded article within a Sunday broadsheet newspaper. I used a simple and easy to read structure that included a main heading, sub heading and headings. The main heading uses alliteration to help make the guide pleasing and the headings include quotations from the text to make the text attractive to readers.
Each bullet point begins with a short declarative statement. Such as 'Don’t live vicariously through single people.' This is followed up with longer more complex declaratives. Such as, 'They are not a form of entertainment or an escape from your married enslavement – full of children, mortgages, home improvements or dull sex life.' These add detail to the headline statements. I also used here asyndetic listing as a way of giving impressions of a life style rather than lengthy details.
I used the second person pronoun 'your' as a rhetorical device as a way of engaging and involving readers.
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8 quotations
19 language / literary terms
