Compare Dr Carr-Gregg’s and Professor Markson’s views:
- Authorial voice (See p. 10): Like Dr Carr Gregg, Professor Markson also relies upon his professional background to highlight the health-related dangers of young adults drinking to excess. Accordingly, he relies on his research and experience with under-age drinking to impress upon parents the need to implement more regulations.
- Depiction of adults (See p. 14): Taking a similarly authoritative and high-minded approach, the professor also casts aspersions on parents whose parenting style is problematic. (his tone is more prosaic/ matter of fact) If Dr Gregg exhorts the government to show “strong leadership”, this author also calls for more, “not fewer regulations”.
Practice compare-and-contrast paragraphs: (See p. 56.)
Firstly, write some general comments about the similarities or differences in view points.
Secondly, move to the specific focus on the second (comparative) article/text. Use signposts (to show to your readers) that you are unpacking specific word choices that are typical of the author’s views/argument. For example:
- Specifically, phrases such as … capture his/her point that …
- Accordingly, the reference to … typically reflects the author’s view that …
(Set up your paragraph with some linking comments: compare viewpoints. See p. 56 and p. 63, “comparative paragraph”.) Whilst Dr Carr-Gregg crystallises our attention on the horror of a disease-like phenomenon, this professor exhorts the government to introduce more regulations particularly given the insidious tendency for many in authority to undermine public health issues. In his idiomatically entitled article, “Time to put a foot down”, Professor Markson impresses upon parents the need for greater parental authority because of the increase in alcohol consumption among young adults. Specifically, Professor Markson decries parents who do not set strict guidelines for children and who lack the confidence to resist their children’s pressure for alcohol. By suggesting that they are naïve or ignorant, perhaps for convenient reasons, professor casts aspersions on their parenting style and shames parents – perhaps his main readership-group – for their lack of authority. Their fear of ostracism, he suggests, is a sign of insecurity – a salient point that is likely to rankle with vulnerable parents. The author also casts reproach on the ethical standards of online retailers and their lack of rigour when it comes to checking children’s identification. Accordingly, the professor concludes, inclusively, that we need “more not less regulations” precisely because the parents lack the necessary authority to curb teenage drinking. The judgemental tone of the colloquial comment, “to spout the nanny state … shows the height of ignorance” continues to reinforce his contention that parents’ ignorance and lack of authority are harming young adults.
The cartoonist Tandberg, reinforces Dr Gregg’s view that adults are irresponsible —even corrupting their children. Both authors tend to characterise parents as complicit in the alarming trend. Specifically, the metaphoric reference to the “tamagotchi” style parenting, recalls the parents in the Tandberg’s cartoon who appear to have a “terrible hangover”. When the parents are reprimanded by police after the noisy party, the father concedes that he has been complicit. This cynical reenactment of their interchange highlights the parents’ irresponsibility and seeks to shame those who drink to excess with their children and reveals them specifically as poor role models. As Dr Gregg suggests, such an attitude seems to spring from the parents’ desire for friendship rather than authority.
Primarily, the authors draw attention to the frightening rise of teenage binge drinking in order to shock officials and parents. Whereas Dr Carr-Gregg adopts a serious, and at times hyperbolic tone, it nevertheless is successful in persuading readers to appreciate the gravity of the situation. In contrast, the cartoonist and Mr Mach take a more lighthearted approach in order to ridicule both parents and the easy accessibility of alcohol for teenagers. These texts, coupled with Professor Markson’s views, leave both parents and government officials with the impression that only a forceful and determined approach, such as a change to laws, will be able to dint the steady rise in teenage binge drinking.
Monkey see; monkey do: Unpack language choices:
- “Get off our backs”: colloquial: negative connotations: implies that parents are nagging children; presenting the defender of teenagers in positive terms.
- “society’s watchdogs and do-gooders”: words with negative connotations to reproach those who automatically criticise the victims.
- “responsible parents” in inverted commas to cast aspersions on parents’ authority.
- “look at the example”: simile: (Why?): to cast aspersions on their leadership; to suggest that they lack authority and responsibility:
- typical examples: that a wide audience can relate to in order to suggest that their behaviour is irresponsible.
- “brimming with alcohol”; “showered with alcohol”: parents are perpetuating a harmful binge-drinking culture.
- “confused. Not us”: use of cynical tone to imply that parents are projecting mixed messages and are hypocritical with regards to their behaviour and leadership.
Write a paragraph comparing Dr Carr-Gregg’s and Professor Markson’s views.
Like Dr Carr Gregg, Professor Markson also relies upon his professional background to highlight the health dangers of young adults drinking to excess. By continuing and reinforcing Dr Gregg’s attack on parents, Professor Markson, also shames them for their lack of supervision and role-modelling skills. If Carr Gregg draws upon unsettling analogies, Markson’s status as a professor lends weight to his prosaic (pragmatic) tone that highlights “worrying” community trends. The inclusive use of “we” throughout helps to reinforce his community-oriented perspective and encourage parents to see themselves as part of the problem with regards to access of alcohol. Therefore, parents are more likely to recognise the need for more “not fewer regulations”. Specifically, the professor depicts parents as irresponsible or foolhardy, thus shaming those who facilitate a teenager’s access to alcohol, which is reinforced by the reference to their lack of confidence.
- See Dr Carr-Gregg, Exercise 22,
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