Exercise 16, p. 27 (Orange Workbook)
Write your base sentences (summary-style); see p. 38.
Mr Leaves recommends pill testing at festivals because it is the best way, currently, to prevent death from overdose.
He believes that given the current political and legal context – decriminalisation is not an option; in this case, a testing kit is the best way to prevent health complications.
Mr Leaves criticises the pill manufacturers who are brewing drugs with harmful cocktails of toxins. He states, “it is a lucrative business with devastating results”.
(Evidence) Mr Leaves quotes an expert, doctor, who suggests that pills are necessary in order to test the “designer drugs”.
(Evidence) He refers to comparative international examples to suggest that the tests can prevent overdoses.
Embedding persuasive techniques: using adverbials
- Tone: Adopting a concerned, logical; forthright; adamant; assertive; dispassionate; phlegmatic;
- Argument base: referring to both a doctor’s advice as well as international examples;
- Argument base: based on the assumption that the manufacturers are ruthless, the author…
- Argument: Presented as a problem-solution style of argument, Mr Leaves recommends/promotes …
- Appeals/audience: targeting parents, young adults, festival goers, doctors, lawyers, government policy officials, concert organisers.
- Appeals: health and safety appeals; duty of care appeals ; appeals to common sense; some common-sense reasoning is evident in the reference to the “best course of action” is to “minimise risk” (responsibility issues)
- Attack: alerting politicians to the shameful practices of manufacturers; exposing, referring to the “lucrative” business as one that is unregulated,
- Appealing to health and well-being issues related to overdoses … (and poor production of pills)
- Attacking techniques: the new designer-drug market shamelessly exploiting the youth festival goers who are taking party drugs
- Comparison with other countries such as Portugal– by making comparisons with other international models…
- Emotive language: the “sickening and regular occurrence of overdoses”
The Why: how authors “try to persuade”
- Mr Leaves seeks to impress upon
government officials that pill testing is the best option under the
circumstances which may prevent overdoses - Example – seeks to reassure the wider
public about the positive benefits of testing - Example – seeks to alarm politicians and
health officials about the unscrupulous activities of the drug manufacturers.
Putting it together: Your paragraph – interweaving the metalanguage
Adopting a pragmatic tone, Mr Leaves endorses on-site pill testing at festivals because, he believes, it is the best way to minimise the risk of overdoses. Basing his argument point on the assumption that manufacturers are pursuing a “lucrative business with devastating results”, he encourages all policy makers and the wider public to recognise that new and radical solutions are necessary. For example, his emotive and horrifying descriptions of drugs that are “brewed in kitchen sinks”, seek to shock festival goers who are unaware of the “cheap toxins” and the “bad batches” that they may be ingesting. Accordingly, parents, too, are likely to be alarmed at the extent to which the health of these youngsters is being compromised. Referring to quotes from the doctor, he impresses upon all festival goers that tests can detect “just a trace of the new .. compounds” may well save lives. Furthermore, to assuage /reassure those who may be sceptical or worried about the possibility of encouraging drug use, Mr Leaver also uses a comparative examples with international models such as Portugal. This comparison – which shows that the testing “has provide effective in reducing complications — is designed to reassure all those who recognise the need for another approach to minimise deaths.
Different ways of quoting and embedding metalanguage
(Technique) Use of emotive language: For example, his emotive and horrifying descriptions of drugs that are “brewed in kitchen sinks”, seek to shock festival goers who are unaware of the “cheap toxins” and the “bad batches” that they may be ingesting.
(Technique/appeal) Common sense: He states that “best course of action is to minimise risk”
By appealing to common sense – that the “best course of action is to minimise risk” – Mr Leaves highlights to all policy makers that testing for dangerous chemicals is preferable than more overdoses.
Return to Summary Page: Orange Workbook: Arguments and Persuasive Language