4.3.6　Call for action

This stage is highly variable and no general pattern is found.The semiotic configuration varies with the semantic content.Two general strategies are frequently used in this stage to elicit response from readers.The first is discount information or other promotional offers and the second is emotional elicitation.

In the discount type，the verbal component is usually as brief as one sentence，and is combined with salient visuals.The most frequently employed visual is images of gifts and presents（see Figure 4.17）.As an immediately recognizable and cross-culturally available symbolic resource，gift/present symbolically invokes a sense of celebration and perhaps persuasively hint at the anticipated success in accomplishing the goal of improving one's English.

Figure 4.17　An example of the gift image in the Call for Action

In the emotional elicitation type，exclamations are the commonest verbal resources and pictures showing happy scenes of learning and playing are the commonest pictorial resources.Figure 4.18 is an example of this stage excerpted from a flyer.

Figure 4.18　An example of emotional elicitation in the Call for Action

The verbal text reads：

为您的孩子占领先机!

给您的孩子创造机会!

让您的孩子赢得成功!

ABC外语学校专业老师助您的孩子成为英语方面的佼佼者!

别让您的孩子输在起跑线上!

Translation：

Seize priority for your child!

Create chances for your child!

Let your child win success!

Professional teachers in ABCforeign language school help your child become top one in English!

Don't let your child lose at the starting line!

Compared to the verbal text which is full of urges concerning practical pressures in life world，the most salient pictorial element is a picture showing a white boy and a black girl smiling happily at the camera with toys in hands.The picture is shown to be shot in an outdoor background.This picture actually has nothing to do with the English learning in China.It is placed here just to elicit positive emotional associations，because internationality，as a desired feature in Chinese society，is almost always inseparable from English language as lingua franca.

This stage takes much less visual space in the pages than other stages and is usually arranged as the last stage before the contact information in the spatial layout.The purpose is obvious：to enhance the effect of persuasion in all the previous stages by trying to elicit responses or actions from the readers through economic or emotional incentives.