Explorers or Boys Messing About?

Either Way, Taxpayer Gets Rescue Bill

Summary
Explorers or Boys Messing About? is an extract adapted from a newspaper article published in The Guardian on Tuesday, January 28, 2003. It is about two experienced explorers , Mr. Brooks and Mr. Smith, referred to as boys in the title, who make a stupid decision to try to fly their small, 4-seater helicopter 100m off shore in the hostile environment of Antarctica. Their helicopter fails and they are forced onto their life raft where they are later rescued by a naval ship.

 A lot of excessive measures were taken to rescue the explorers like the involvement of different countries military and ships to rescue two men. The article describes this event and gets a bit of background on the two explorers and close quotations from mostly Mr. Brookss wife about the event. Throughout the article, lots of sarcasm has been used to mock the two men because of the actions they made making the article humorous and emphasizing how unreasonable their decision was. The writer has engaged the audience slightly, referring to them as taxpayers making readers feel that they have to pay for something.

 The extract is quite biased as only quotes from Mr. Brookss wife are taken and the writer has expressed his views mainly about how they failed their previous expeditions and how they arent fit to be explorers. Targeted the taxpayers or people interested in adventure. The main ideas are to mock the foolishness of the men, to make taxpayers (audience) angry or to inform the general public. The story takes place in fairly modern times (published in 2003 The narrative voice is in the third person (they, their).

Purpose:inform,explain and describe

Key Features: Bold title Combines objectivity and subjectivity. Use of irony to criticise the men. Factual. Interviews and quotations from witnesses. Expert opinions.

Structure
This is a newspaper article-editorial. It is Informative. Title: Explorers suggests bravery but Boys Messing About implies that they are irresponsible, immature and amateur. Leaves words out to make it more memorable and more hard hitting like a newspaper article should be. There is a small sub title which tries to summarize the article. The first few paragraphs introduce the article and give you the 4 Ws; Who, what, when and where? Who: Steve Brooks and Quentin Smith. What: Helicopter crashed. When: Yesterday (the day before the article was written (28/01/2003)). Where: Off the coast of Antarctica.

 The body of the article explains the other two questions which are how and why. How: The engine of their helicopter failed forcing them to plummet to the sea. Why: They took a 4-seater helicopter which has only a single engine to navigate the hostile environment of the Antarctic. Quotes have been used but mainly from one person, Mr. Brookss wife, making this article biased. Only a few quotes from other experts which makes the information slightly viable. The piece starts off with the fact that they failed the mission and the writer criticizes them making it biased.

 Time connectives have been used like yesterday and meanwhile which help give the reader an understanding of when the event happened and give the story a chronological understanding.Help to create textual cohesion. Used quite a few quotation marks to emphasize sarcasm like trusty helicopter or for quotes. Fairly long sentence structure with commas to help describe people and events. Mr. Brooks, 42, and 40Mr. Smith, also known as Q, The writer has redeemed the men, making them look good. Both men are experienced adventurers but has then balanced it by counter arguing this, Despite their experiencethe wrong reasons.

 Ends in humor: Theyll probably have their bottoms kicked and be sent home the long way. Undermines the explorers making them look bad and emphasizes the title and the immaturity of their actions.

Language and Literary Techniques

Title:Initially positive connotations, quickly undermined by the derogatory use of boys and the demeaning messing about. The word explorers makes the men seem skilled but the word boys that follows undermines the men making them look immature. Taxpayer addresses the audience directly and makes the whole idea change from the explorers to the idea of the audience paying for something childish theyve done making the audience angry and urges them to find out what they are paying for. The title on a whole creates a question in the readers mind as to whether these men are experienced expeditionary explorers or as criticised, irresponsible, immature, boys.

 He has made the two men seem childish and pathetic. One word to support this would be plucked as if they are helpless. It makes it more comic The writer has used commas to isolate certain details or certain people whom he wants the reader to pay attention to. His wife, Jo Vestey, . The writer has used a list of triads separated by commas: The Royal Navy, the RAF and British coastguards which shows how much excessive help was needed just for these boys messing about.The effective use of listing creates a multiplying effect to show how many powerful forces were required to rescue them. Sarcasm has been used in plenty to mock the two men. This is shown in trusty helicopter suggesting that the helicopter was in fact very dangerous and it was a very senseless idea to take the helicopter with a single engine.

Presentation of Characters
Men:
Immature and Irresponsible Mr. Smith has a nickname Q which is pretty childish. They take a single engine 4-seater plane into a hostile environment. Despite their experience, it is not for the first time they have hit the headlines for the wrong reasons. Experienced Explorers Both men are experienced adventurers. Mr. Brooks has an emergency watch which shows he was prepared. They wore survival suits. Prepared.

Make excuses like the weather conditions were excellent and no one couldve predicted that this would happen.

They have good credentials in exploring and flying. Shown in the few paragraphs highlighting their achievements.

 British Navy: They were diverted from an important task surveying unchartered waters but they were well prepared and are contrasted to the explorers immaturity and came steaming to help them. Rescuers: Professional Passed onto the rescue coordination center. Highlights how professional they look compared to the men. Ms. Vestey: Passive and patient as all she has to do is sit at home and wait for a distress call. The fact that her wedding gift is a distress signal shows that the accident they had was expected. She is not supportive referring to them as boys messing around on a helicopter.

Themes and Purpose

The theme is to be prepared and the writer uses this example of how immature and foolish and unprepared these men were to help portray this theme. Another theme is to think before you take action. Main idea is to anger taxpayers and to ridicule these two men for the stupidity of their actions. Informs the public by retelling the story.