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Article published In: Moving towards Peace, Compassion and Empathy through Semiotic Enquiry: Special issue of the Journal Language, Context and Text 6:1 (2024)
Edited by Elizabeth A. Thomson, Awni Etaywe, Ingrid Wijeyewardene and Penny Wheeler
[Language, Context and Text 6:1] 2024
► pp. 176–199

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From empathy to activism

An analysis of a letter to the Minister which resulted in successful outcomes for a person with severe intellectual disability and their family

ORCiD logo with link | University of Wollongong, Australia
ORCiD logo with link | University of Wollongong, Australia
Published online: 20 August 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/langct.00069.dre
Abstract
This paper examines how an adult’s letter to the New South Wales Minister for Disability regarding problems identified within the disability service sector resulted in successful outcomes: that is, the changes asked for were delivered. A range of discourse semantic tools of analysis including appraisal (Martin, J. R. & Peter R. R. White. 2005. The language of evaluation: Appraisal in English. Basingstoke & New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) and connexion ( 1992. English text: Systems and structure. Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar; Rose, David & J. R. Martin. 2012. Learning to write/reading to learn; genre, knowledge and pedagogy in the Sydney School. Sheffield, UK: Equinox Publishing.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) were employed in analysing this letter, which can be seen as an example of empathy activism. The analysis identifies how the complex layering of stages and phases that organise the arguments in this letter powerfully drives the point home, which is to convince the Minister to increase the staff ratio at a government-run respite house for children with intellectual disabilities.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Background: Parenting, intellectual disability and challenging behaviour
    • 1.2The role of language in compassion – empathy activism
      • 1.2.1Appraisal
      • 1.2.2Reasoning: Connexion
  • 2.Analysis of the letters
    • 2.1Letter phase: Salutation (greeting) (following Martin 1985)
    • 2.2Stage 1: Thesis (following Rose 2021)
    • 2.3Stage 2: Arguments
    • 2.4Stage 3: Reiteration
    • 2.5Letter phase: Valediction (following Martin 1985)
    • 2.6Letter phase: Authority (why I matter)
  • 3.Concluding discussion
  • References
References (32)
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