Advertisement in The Pennsylvania Gazette, January 7, 1742

I picked an advertisement to read in the Pennsylvania Gazette on land for sale. What struck me was how less obnoxious it was compared to advertisements in the modern day newspapers. The writing quality was at the same level of writing as the actual articles in the paper – very distinct and correct. Comparatively in today’s advertisements there is hardly any actual writing at all; Advertisements and commercials resort to the shortest, simplest, words to get the point across as quickly and as flashy as possible (in order to achieve in grabbing the reader’s attention). This advertisement makes it obvious that in 1742 (when it was printed) that the readers most likely read the whole news paper cover to cover; regarding each part of it as important to read as any other.

            In addition, this advertisement seems very honest about what it is trying to sell – there aren’t any over the top promises on the beauty or fertility of the land, just and a modest description and location. Also, the syntax of the writing was interesting since the author seemed incredibly partial to the use of commas and paragraph long sentences.