Demographics of the Associated Publication and Assess

¶ … demographics of the associated publication and assess the tone and style of the article as it compares to the demographics given. The author of this report has done this and several things become quite apparent. It is obvious that the words and style used in the article are closely linked to the audience to which it is aimed and this manifests itself in a number of ways.

Style Linked to Demographics

In looking at the demographics of the Wall Street Journal, it is quite obvious that the publication caters to people that are investors, that are more educated, that are more affluent and that are the decision-makers at their jobs. This is quite obvious in seeing that 10% of Wall Street Journal readers are top management personnel, 25% are decision makers and nearly a third of the readership makes more than $100k a year. Nearly a tenth of the readership has half a million or more in invested monies (WSJ, 2013).

Given that, it is no surprise that a number of trends and tactics are clear in the actual article. First, the verbiage and vocabulary uses is clearly not elementary in nature and speaks of people (both the writer and the interviewed people) that are well-educated and are effective communicators. They do not use words that are overly technical and jargon-like in nature but they also are not using very basic words that everyone would understand and comprehend regardless of educational level. As examples, works like "glean" and "derailers" would go over the head of a lot of less advanced readers (Lublin, 2011).

Also, the subject matter at hand is something a person below or otherwise outside of the Wall Street Journal demographic would likely care about. For example, a person that works at Wal-Mart or McDonald's is probably not going to read the Wall Street Journal and if they happened across this article by happenstance, they probably would not read it or be interested in it.

The only exception to the above would be the fact that the paragraphs in the story are quite truncated and short in nature, much shorter than would be seen in academic or similar work. For example, the last paragraph of the story is a scant two paragraphs and many are three or not much more than three. Regardless, people that are in the echelon that is catered to by this article will obviously lap this up and want more. The talk about upgrading one's style to a more professional and forward-leaning image will appeal to a lot of up and comers.

Conclusion