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Article In:
The Social Semiotic Forum: 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

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 | University of Wollongong , Australia
ORCID logo | University of Wollongong , Australia

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 and White 2005) and Connexion (Martin 1992; Rose and Martin 2012) 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.

Keywords: positive discourse analysis, empathy activism, activism, hortatory exposition, genre staging, stages and phases, families of children with intellectual disabilities, letters to government
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
  • Author queries
  • References
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