Taking it further: writing paragraphs : Exercise 16, p. 23
Community News: Why you should vaccinate your children and A healthy life without MMR
- Viewpoints and tone
- Reference to the author’s most important appeals/values and their impact
- Reference to the evidence; what is the link to their views: reasoning strategies and purpose
- Specific words relating to key stakeholders and purpose
(Viewpoint and tone) Adopting an emphatic and authoritative tone, Ms Halleway draws upon her professional experience to suggest that all parents, including “anti-vaccine activists” must immunise their children for the health and well-being of all citizens. (Reference to her most important appeal/value and its impact) Most importantly, parents must, she believes, act in good faith; accordingly she shames those parents who “stubbornly” fail to prioritise the needs of a healthy community. (Reference to the evidence/ reasoning strategies and purpose) Relying on the real-life examples from the documentary, Jabbed, Ms Halleway depicts the traumatic suffering endured by some children who are not immunised. (purpose) She expects readers to empathise with their suffering which also would instil a sense of fear in parents who have not immunised their children. (Specific words relating to key stakeholders and purpose) Ms Halleway channels our anger towards the activists by depicting them as “stubborn” who act “in the most selfish way possible” and ignore the common good. They are also misguided because they do not realise that logically, their health depends upon the fact that the majority of the community have been immunised. She also refers to the real-life consequences in Britain where there was an “epidemic” because of their failure to immunise.
Contrastingly, Mr Spencer Trackey, adopts a confident tone to defend the stance taken by the activists who he believes are prioritising the health and wellbeing of all children. He relies on the shared views among activists, (“we believe that”) it is important to let children “grow up naturally”. He refers to Dr Jefferson’s evidence that shows a link between MMR and autism to instil a sense of fear in parents who worry about their children’s health. He reasonably expects that parents should protect children by exposing them to germs. Finally, he reinforces the fact that a “healthy life is a happy life” to reassure all parents that it is preferable to stop immunising children for their sake; and that they should be entitled to their own freedom of choice.
Or: (second example)
As editor of the Community News, Ms Sally Halleway adopts an upstanding and concerned tone to impress upon parents that it is important to vaccinate their children to protect community health standards. Relying on her professional experience as the editor, the author uses the high moral ground to garner the trust of the majority of vaccinated community members and to sharpen the attack on the anti-vaccine campaigners. She uses shaming tactics by depicting them as selfish and irresponsible. The fact that they are jeopardising the health of the community, especially children, is like to provoke anger and frustration among all concerned people. Specifically, the documentary reference to the program “Jabbed” uses emotive examples to focuses on the suffering of the victims who have not been vaccinated. Also the references to the activists as misguided, complacent and probably selfish shames all those who do not respect community health standards. This shame is reinforced by the comparative reference to the British example which ….
Contrastingly, Mr Trackey adopts a defensive tone to justify the decision taken by many such activists. In an attempt to counter an image of the activists as stereotypical self-indulgent “hippies” he suggests rather logically and very practically, that they are reasonable and “intelligent”. Likewise if the editor taps into a sense of fear owing to the spread of the disease, Mr Trackey plays on our fear to suggest that injections can in the worst case scenarios lead to autism. Thus, by spreading the seeds of distrust of modern medicine, these campaigners deliberately stimulate fear among parents concerned about the welfare of their children. He also seeks to overturn any biases or misconceptions by presenting them as very concerned defenders of children’s healthy and natural lifestyles. His final defence, “it’s our right to choose” reflects their individual stance.
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- Return to Exercise 16, Community News, p. 23
- Return to Now Turn to Summary page
- Return to Green Workbook Online Study Program