Alison Doyle’s article, published
March of 2018, “Strategies for Women to Negotiate a Higher Salary: Tips to Help
Get A Better Job Offer” is one of the thousands of pieces published
electronically on The Balance. This
online magazine claims in their mission statement that “The Balance is home to
experts who know what they’re talking about, but don’t assume that you know
your dividends from your distributions...The
Balance. Make money personal.” Right away, the website is establishing a
comforting and personal relationship with the readers by implying that each
article is written specifically with them in mind. The website then claims that
their content is tailored to “today’s millennial.” Using information found on
this website is 100% free and no subscription is required to read the material.
The Balance is the venue of over 60+
contributors who have published over 34,000 pieces. A majority of the website’s
funding is through advertisements placed
sporadically throughout the articles.
Doyle’s article alone had eleven separate advertisements. In order to increase
their advertising sales, The Balance
provides the image shown above as their “Media Kit.” By telling the potential
advertiser the reader demographics, the overall website growth rate, and the
amount of content generated each month, the authorship/editorial team aims to
convince companies/organizations to advertise with them.
In
addition to hyping up their own website to advertisers, the authorship/editing
team definitely hypes up Alison Doyle’s credentials in her “Author Bio” on the
website. Her profile on The Balance
explains that Doyle is cited/mentioned in over thirty different “major online
and print publications” and that she has also been a part of eleven different
talk radio programs. Now, keep in mind that you don’t find this information
directly in the article, but in her author biography on the website. Despite
having to search for her information on the website, the motives behind listing
all of her accomplishments/achievements are clear: If we (The Balance) have a really qualified and achieved person (Alison
Doyle) working for us, then the information provided to you (the millennial)
must be accurate, credible, and dependable – therefore, our website is
accurate, credible, dependable, and overall really great. Her bio information
is so long-winded and immense that any reader would feel silly to question
whether or not the information and advice found within Doyle’s article is
actually any good. This is just one of the larger issues when looking at
opinion-based information and advice columns… what advice and information do
you actually listen to? Despite it being
advice, the article is likely to be perceived as credible. A majority of Doyle’s
articles, including the one I analyzed, are published to provide information to
a previously untapped market. Those who write similar texts may also do so because
it is something they have learned over time and then realized that they never
had the advice or information available to them as a young adult starting out in
the job market.
After
taking a closer look at the specific sentence structure and stylistic variants
within Doyle’s article, I was not surprised to see multiple elements of the
Plain Style and a variety of rhetorical devices. I did not see any indication
of Doyle using the Official Style in her article. The most common elements or
indicators of Plain Style are the use of headings, simple diction, and shorter
sentences; all of which can be found within this article. Alison Doyle’s
article is broken down into seven major sections: The Gender Pay Gap, If You’re
Not Comfortable Talking About Salary - It’s Not Just You, When (and When Not)
to Negotiate Salary, How to Determine If a Job Offer Is Negotiable, When to
Negotiate a Counter Offer, Tips for Women for Asking for More Money, and The
Key to Salary Negotiation Success. The second to last section is also broken
down further into eight subsections. Each section or subsections contains no
more than 5-6 sentences; all of which are fairly simple in structure. These
three elements also impact the readability statistics as documented in
the
chart to the left. The benefit to small sections/paragraphs, short sentences,
and simple diction is that is opens up readability and comprehension of the
article to a wider audience. It also allows the message to be clear and
concise. The downfall is that the information provided does not always seem to
be 100% reliable, causing certain readers to become skeptical. Even though Plain
Style elements are used to establish clarity, it can often appear that the
author has made the message too simplistic, reductive, and even childlike.
A
recurring Plain Style element that I found throughout the article was Doyle’s
use of steps or instructions in order to inform readers of different paths of
action they can take in order to achieve their previously set goals. This,
combined with the use of active voice, is relevant and important because it
allows readers to imagine themselves following the advice and taking the
recommended steps of action. With this pattern, I was surprised to count
roughly thirty different steps of action or instructions; this seems like a lot
for one article. Another rhetorical device that aids in understanding and in allowing
the audience to see themselves following the advice is through the use of an
informal tone (1st/2nd/pronouns). Variations of “you” are
used throughout the entire article more than 75 times. This pattern allows
further universality because it tricks each individual reader—the intended
target is a female millennial—into thinking that the advice is tailored right
for them.
Three
other rhetorical devices that are used to establish clarity and increase reader
accessibility include but is not limited to: Distinctio (giving a definition in order to avoid ambiguity), Exemplum (providing a specific example),
and Metabasis (stating what has been
said and then telling the reader what is coming next). Exemplum is explicitly used
in the following section of a paragraph in the article:
For example, a candidate was
offered a terrific comp package by her dream employer. Even though she would
have taken the first offer, she inquired as to whether there was any
flexibility. The company offered her more base pay and a bonus. If she hadn’t
asked, she wouldn’t have known there was room to make a better deal.
By providing this specific example,
Doyle further elaborated on what she meant when she wrote “Know that it’s
acceptable to ask.” The reader then understands that even if you’ve been
offered what you were hoping for, there could be room for the salary to increase.
By using all of the strategies stated thus far, the article adopts a reliable
and down-to-earth tone that offers comfort for the reader in knowing that they
are not alone.
The
overall structure of the article was designed to guide the reader through it
and promote understanding. The layout design of the article page uses several
different elements to put off a fun and inviting tone for potential female millennial
readers. The title is highlighted in a soft pink color; the font has soft edges
and is the lettering is curved just enough to make for easy reading and a more
feminine feel; there is also a link on the left-hand side of the screen leading
readers to seven other articles on “How Women Can Get Ahead.” In addition to
this link, there were eleven other Balance articles linked throughout Doyle’s
piece in order to offer more information to the readers.
Plain
style is typically used for an audience of “outsiders” or newcomers; In this case,
it is used to introduce female millennials as newcomers into the sphere of workforce
salary negotiation. Because the article talks about the gender pay gap, another
sphere potentially includes those who are researching the glass ceiling and/or
interested in writing similar articles on work advice or salary negotiation.
Alison Doyle, the author, does not seem to conceal any bias or hold ulterior
motives because this is just one of her many advice articles. She also upholds
an informational/professional tone throughout the article while still keeping
the diction, layout/design, and length inviting to a variety of readers. Overall,
I think that this article provides a solid foundation of advice for anyone who
is searching for information on the following topics: how to prepare for an
interview, when it is okay to negotiate a salary, how to negotiate a salary,
etc. Prose style strategies in this article such as shorter sentences, simple
diction, Exemplum, Distinctio, clear headings, small sections, and Metabasis
make a difference, no matter how small, when used in this context because it
increases accessibility and understanding of the text to a wider audience of
newcomers or regular people in the job market. An implication of using Plain Style to write
articles such as these is that, while the diction is clear and offers easy readability,
the author risks losing credibility and trust from its readers. So how do
authors continue to write in Plain Style while remaining credible and target a
large audience? Maybe someone will write an article about it.
- Lindsey M.
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