Paragraph practice, Refer to Exercise 19, pp 30-33
Mr Albin Toffler, Chief, CloseConnect
(Tone and view) In a tone that ranges from solicitous and assertive to upstanding, Mr Toffler commends the Toddler Tag to parents, whilst simultaneously attempting to deflect criticisms of bias. (purpose) Evidently, he/she seeks to gain financially from parents’ support and he uses a range of persuasive devices that pander to parents’ desire to protecting their children in the best possible manner. (technique and purpose) For example, the real-life example of Madeline McCann is designed to evoke parents’ worst nightmare – the kidnapping of their children and thus reinforce the Tag as the “ultimate safety weapon”. (technique and purpose) Mr Toffler also uses a generalisation to infer that “all children are mischievous” and disobedient in order to allay parents’ concerns about the tag as being intrusive. (tone and purpose) Then a high-minded tone enables the author to adopt the high moral ground in order to reassure parents and encourage them to see the Toddler Tag as affording parents both “peace of mind” whilst exercising the requisite duty of care – the subtext is that parents should feel guilty should they not rely on such a Tag. This is a clever ploy to conceal notions of self-interest that are connected with their attempt to coerce parents.
Taking it further: paragraph practice, Ms Crossways, p. 32 (Build a paragraph)
(View/tone) In a practical tone, and from her disinterested perspective as Parents’ Watch chief executive, Ms Crossways believes that parents’ unhealthy obsession with security is counter-productive to sound parenting. (language choices/ technique and position) Using generalisations and an appeal to responsibility, she shames parents into recognising that an obsession with security is absurd and is curbing children’s growth opportunities. Simultaneously, she exhorts parents to see the practical consequences of their obsessive behaviour. (Link between language choice and impact/purpose) Her rhetorical question – “Has the world gone so mad? — hyperbolically suggests that they are acting likely “security guards”, which challenges parents to see the folly of their excessive control and implies that they are absurdly anxious. This claim is reinforced by the metaphor of “panic-stricken helicopter parents” that carries negative connotations and once again impugns their parenting style which has a tendency to “swoop and hover” to the detriment of their child’s development. She reinforces her claims with evidence from the manufacturer, Bluelinea, and its reluctance to use Tags to show that she is not biased.