Now Turn to Exercise 16, p. 21.
Community News: identifying a range of appeals.
- appeal to community values and the public/common good: parents are endangering their children by not ensuring that they are protected from germs that can potentially harm the community. She refers to the British example to show the dangers that arise should people fail to give their children the MMR injection (editor)
- appeal to fear: there is an “epidemic” in Britain because parents failed to immunise their children in the early 2000s (Editor); the real life stories depict the suffering of children. Accordingly, the editor encourages us to feel a sense of anger at the activists who expose their children to unnecessary suffering.
- Mr Trackey arouses fear by suggesting that there is a link between MMR and autism.
- appeal to health and wellbeing; children are more likely to be health if they have the vaccination (Editor); Mr Trackey believes that it is in the best interests of the children to build up their immune system in a natural way.
- appeal to duty of care and responsibility; the editor suggests that it is the parent’s responsibility to safeguard their children from dangerous diseases and thereby help to protect the health of the community; appeal to morals and guilt; the editor shames all those “activists” who fail to prioritise the needs of the community and safeguard the health of all citizens. Constrastingly, Mr Trackey believes that they are being responsible by letting the children grow up healthy and free of chemicals.
- appeal to common sense: the Editor points out that the children of activists often do not suffer from serious illness because the majority of the population has been immunised. Mr Trackey defends their actions and states that they are “intelligent” people (not “hippies”) and believes that exposure to germs becomes the best protection from diseases.
- Appeal to individual rights: Mr Trackey believes that the activists should be able to exercise their freedom and civil liberties.
- appeal to sympathy: the author states that the “activists” are compromising their children’s safety; she refers to the real-life stories from the documentary program to show how children can suffer if they are not immunised (editor).
Tone:
Ms Sally Halleway: forthright, adamant, terse, emphatic, authoritative.
Mr Spencer Trackey: confident, defensive, inclusive, concerned, decent, caring.
- Depiction of the stakeholders:
- Editor’s opinion: she uses her professional experience to recommend that people must immunise their children/endorse the immunisation of all young children.
Group together references to the activists:
- “anti-vaccine activist”: Ms Halleway refers to them in inverted commas, “anti-vaccine activist”, to imply that they are ill-informed campaigners.
- “they stubbornly cling to their misguided defence”/ “in the most selfish way possible” : This implies that they are narrow-minded and follow their own course of action without any care towards the community.
Mr Trackey: what does he want people to think about the activists?: “intelligent” people and not “hippies”; “we believe that …”; reference to Mr Jefferson and “healthy” children.
Taking it further:
- See Exercise 16: using metalanguage
- See writing paragraphs : Exercise 16, p. 23
- Viewpoints and tone
- Reference to the author’s most important appeal/value and its impact
- Reference to the evidence; what is the link to their views: reasoning strategies and purpose
- Specific words relating to key stakeholders and purpose
- Refer to writing paragraphs : Exercise 16, p. 23
- Return to (Green) Online Exercise Program Page