In order for a story to be affective it must engage the audience. To engage the audience you must use certain ideas and features. The Lady's Maid written by Katherine Mansfield, Samphire by Patrick O'Brian, The Sound Of Thunder by Ray Bradbury, The Watertower by Gary Crew and Ballad Of The Totems by Oodgeroo Noonuccal are successful texts because they all engage the audience.
             The Lady's Maid attracts the readers attention because it involves the reader in the text. We see through out the text that the maid is being asked questions, symbolized by the elipse (three black dots), this is affective because the reader has to work the questions out for themselves involving them and making them think that they are the person talking first hand to the maid. The characterization of the of 'the lady' also attracts our attention, 'the lady' is first portrayed as a very holy, kind and unselfish lady. But we later discover that this is untrue, not because of the way the maid is describing her, but because of the things we pick up through the antic dotes the maid tells us, for example when the maid was going to get married, 'the lady' was manipulating the maid, she was faking to be sick in order for the maid to feel sorry for her and not want to leave her. This is also an example of dramatic irony as the maid thinks 'the lady' is nice, but we can see that she isn't. This story keeps the audience thinking and keeps them involved in the text.
             Samphire attracts the readers attention through characterization. We feel sorry for Molly because Lacey is characterized as being in control of her basically. Rhetorical questions such as "Molly, it is samphire. I said it was didn't I?", makes us feel as though his just gloating and rubbing it in about him being right. Lacey patronizing Molly such as "Molly would be a clever girl to be nice to them" and "
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