My Journey

As my eyes prized open at the slither of light that was escaping through my blinds, I knew it was again another day of manic rush and panic at that place insane people call school. We normal people would refer to it as a madhouse. My alarm clock ticked calmly at me, reading 6:45am…

5 more minutes wouldn’t do anyone any harm. Slowly, my eyes glued themselves back together in wondrous sleep.

7:32am.

Oh. My. God. My body fell out of bed, with a rather unattractive ‘galumphing’ noise, but truthfully with only twenty minutes to spare, I didn’t care. My legs fled me downstairs, accompanied by the noise of ten elephants stampeding through my house, and rushed me to the bathroom; within the speed of light my teeth were brushed, glinting against the harsh light of the stark bulb, blinding my tired eyes.
   Next thing I knew, my hands were unscrewing the tops of various items of make-up and slapping them violently onto my face, and quite possibly making me look like a drag queen, but time was of the essence.

Stepping on various things, such as my sister’s toys, Mum’s clothes and most likely my almost invisible dog, Ollie, the miniature Jack Russell, I ran back upstairs, quickly checking I wasn’t leaving holes in the floor where I was pounding down hard with my feet…
   Frankly, I might as well have been in a jungle, my room was that messy. Wading my way through numerous skirts, blouses and tops, I shoved on a pair of jeans, t shirt and cardigan; and back down the stairs I ran,  then running back up to change my cardigan. I’m a pedantic person.

   With a heart rate of almost a billion I ran down another flight of stairs, to be greeted with a breezy ‘good morning darling’ from my Mum. Was it a good morning? Really? Nevertheless, sweeping up an apple, my lunch and a quick kiss from both mother and sibling, I pounded out the door, to then sprint for my bus which had already gone past my stop. Eventually reaching the bus, I clambered on with an unfriendly grunt from the bus driver and the intimidating stares of three other younger children, I shuffled to my seat, sat down, wiped off the forming beads of sweat and plugged in my earphones and let my body recover from its state of shock.

Analysis of a Guidebook to Florida!

The purpose of a guidebook is generally to inform a traveller about the place they are planning on travelling to, however, there is sometimes an element of wit, humour and entertainment in the introduction.
In the guidebook to Florida we are first presented with a quick introduction labelled 'Practical Information.' This provides a very formal yet humourous verview of what Florida is like. Unlike the rest of the information, the introduction contains opinions instead of facts, for example, 'The only complaint a child is likely to have is the line to see Mickey Mouse is too long...' Of course, this statement may not be true, a pure example of a persuasive opinion. However, at the same time, the introduction has key factual information about the times of peak seasons and more; 'The peak season runs from December to April...'

The graphalogical layout of this guidebook is very clear yet simple, making it easy for the reader to read and understand. The writing however, is very small and there is a lot of it! The use of subheadings in this literature make it easy for the reader to find the topic they are trying to look up, for example if someone was trying to look up appropriate dress wear when in Florida, they could skip straight to the paragraph with the subheading, 'Etiquette.' The use of subheadings in a guidebook give the reader the option to skip to what they want instead of having to plough through realms of information which are no use to them! Generically there are pictures in this guidebook, making it more enjoyable for the reader; also with persuasive captions to make Florida a more desirable place to go. For example, underneath a picture of a smiling young boy it says, 'A boy enjoying a ride in a dolphin stroller, for rent at SeaWorld.' These captions persuade and ensure the readers of the amazing time they'd have in Florida, also with advertisement opportunities, for example 'SeaWorld' in the last caption.

The language used in a guidebook is mainly factual, to perform the purpose of telling the reader exactly what they need to know. Very rarely is there any opinion in the information part of a guidebook, because if there was opinion the guidebook would not fulfil it's purpose! The language is a moderate level of difficulty, due to the audience of this literature being older, around 18 - 65+.

Guidebooks are puropsefully made fun, quirky and snappy yet informative because the readers are not interested in reading about traval but making sure they can find that 'ultimate destination' all travllers crave!