Biographies position readers to respond to people, places and events in particular ways. Anna's Story, written by Bronwyn Donaghy, is based on the short life of Anna Wood and the tragedy of her death, due to the ingestion of a single ecstasy tablet. Donaghy positions her readership, Australian parents and their teenage children, to respond with horror, sadness and outrage at the realization that a precious life was needlessly lost as a result of drugs, the scourge of our society and that her death would have been totally avoidable, if there had been a greater awareness and education of the consequences of taking drugs. Donaghy achieves her purpose through her selection and structure of detail and choice of language.

Donaghy manipulates the structure of the text in order to gain maximum involvement of the reader. The foreword of the text is written by Dr, David Bennett, the Head...