Comparing Two Texts
The two texts that I am going to compare are The Times broadsheet article and The Guardians blog post both based on the topic of healthy school meals. These two texts have similar targeted audiences to some extent, like for example both are generally targeting parents who are concerned for their child(ren)’s education and health both of which are affected by school meals. Also, the audiences are expected to be an educated people who can understand complicated texts like the Times newspaper. In that article, the perspective of the writer is quite subtle as the text mostly quotes other people’s research but it still blatantly biased because it’s only consists of quotations from research that support the author’s judgement on Jamie Oliver’s campaign. The Guardian’s blog was also biased but unlike the Times, the perspective was very explicit because there was so much display of the writer’s personal insight into the effects of school meals on her son and other school children at his school.
The style of the language that the Times uses reflects that it would only attract a narrower range of audience compared to the Guardian’s blog post which generally appeals to more readers. The Times article is mainly a brief summary of lot of researches carried out by experts but with little or absolutely no interpretation apparently added from the writer. It consists of many facts and statistics about “healthy” meals. Yet this is another way for the writer to subtly implant ideas in our brains of whose fault the failure of the healthy school project was in the first place by letting the facts “speak” for themselves. In contrast, the style of the language that the Guardian uses is quite informal because it was almost writte...
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...s” with the writer. This allows the writer in the next four paragraphs to elaborate more and provide more evidence (base on Freddie’s statement) to back up the short answer they have given at the start in the sub heading. In addition, by writing four paragraphs it is easy to pinpoint where at each stage you are at and not get “lost” within the text.
Both texts have successfully achieved their main purposes, but I think the more successful text at doing so was the Guardian’s blog. This is because the blog is specifically designed to appeal to all kinds of audience so that both serious and casual readers will able to benefit from this article. However, the Times I think lacks effective communication and did not display as much concern to the reader as the Guardian’s does, therefore the audience can get confused or annoyed by the mountains of facts and statistics.
Moss uses more real-life examples and understands how to appeal to readers to prove his point and figures out the perfect combination of ethos, pathos, and logos in the stories to build his case, a great example of this being Jeffrey Dunn’s story. Dunn worked as an executive for Coca-Cola in 2001 whose main goal was to drive Coca-Cola into poor areas and convince “heavy drinkers” of the soda to drink more. On a business trip to Brazil, Dunn realized that “these people need a lot of things, but they don’t need a Coke” and decided to push the company in a healthier direction. This choice led to Dunn’s eventual firing, and the tale ends with Dunn marketing baby carrots as a snack food (Moss, 491-494). This story not only appeals to pathos by getting to readers’ emotions, but also to ethos and logos because Dunn is a credible source and gives an authentic experience that adds to the credible feel of the article. Pollan’s article has a very different connotation than Moss’s article, and reads as an appeal to authority right from the start. Pollan’s primary occupation is described as an author of food and eating books, not food scientist, however, Pollan’s entire article is based off of his opinion of how Americans should eat (Pollan, 420). Pollan’s rules, “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” might be a fine setup for a fad diet, but these rules don’t necessarily provide a reasonable solution for America’s obesity problem. Escape from the Western Diet is littered with logical fallacies that stunt its credibility, such as the False Dichotomy, Begging the Question, and the Hasty Generalization. In Pollan’s quote, “people eating a Western diet are prone to a complex of chronic diseases that seldom strike people eating more traditional diets” (Pollan, 421), the Hasty Generalization fallacy is apparent, as not every person who eats a Western diet is prone to chronic diseases. The quote, “the health care industry...stands to
A testimonial appeal stemming from the article, was taken up by Denmark, who, in 2011 said that “any foods high in saturated fat” were to be taxed, and this was passed into law. A secondary testimonial came from the United Nations, which declared that heart disease and “uncatchable” diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, etc. pose a greater risk now than ever before. Another testimonial taken from the text was this: “Western diet is now dominated by “low-cost, highly-proc...
After reading your article “Don’t Blame the Eater,” I must say that I completely agree with your stance on how the fast food business is making Americans obese but also how it is our personal responsibility to try and stay away from it. You did a great job of making your stance on how people need to prioritize and eat healthy although the process is difficult known throughout the entire essay. I also enjoyed your personal story about your relationship with fast food making your essay relatable, the lack of knowledge we have on fast food as a nation, the health risks that can occur, and how all companies care about is the money they take from us. Within this letter, I am writing to you an analysis of the rhetorical appeals you used to back up your thoughts, your tone of voice, the way you brought the reader in with your witty choice of words and how extraordinarily you were able to persuade me as a reader.
I found the problem with the argument of the article was there was no set argument that was clearly stated. If there was an argument in the article it was not clearly stated and I personally did not catch onto it. Altogether this was a well written article without a clear argument.
In the first article, Some Students Rebel Against Healthy School Lunches, their claim is USDA offering seconds on fruits and vegetables did not solve the conflict. The reporters claim is valid because they give facts and statistics to help explain the argument. Overall their argument was logos and not pathos. The text says, “ The week before, all 111 vegetable containers served were thrown away.” This shows they are trying to reduce the obesity but it isn’t helping because the kids are still going through the container of food fast. This is good evidence because it is logos, it gives good evidence to back up their claim , and it is not opinions it is statistics. Overall , the reporter of the first article, Some Students Rebel Against Healthy School Lunches, did a good job of backing up their argument,
Though writing a certain controversial topic might make the author more money, or attract more readers through clickbait, this can cause severe consequences. The argument mentioned above might have been interesting to read, because it presents a unique take on the topic. By seeing a certain title, a reader browsing through news stories might click on it, simply out of curiosity. In clicking this, the writers would make much more money than writing an article that mentioned boring or dry results. However, these inaccurate articles can have negative impacts on the people reading it. If someone was beginning to make differences in their lifestyle, by exercising and eating better, more nutritious foods, then read this essay, they might stop their efforts, because “a scientist” said that it wasn’t worth it. In this way, this incorrect article would affect this individual’s health in a negative manner. These health reporters must realize that they have an important job—they
Schools are meant to give our children a healthy and nurturing environment, and yet so much of the lunches in schools are fattening; does this stop schools from achieving the aforementioned goal? Childhood obesity in the United Sates continues to be a growing problem despite so any new programs to help combat it, and new research is showing how schools may be playing a large role in childhood obesity. School lunches are showing to be the problem, they encourage poor nutrition in our nation’s students, and simple reform is proving to not be enough to stop the rise in obesity rates.
“More than a third of the county's children are overweight or obese.”(Gustin, 1). As shocking as this is, it's true. One of the big reasons that children and teens are overweight is because of the foods that they eat. They are fed these fattening and unhealthy foods by the school system. Their futures can be changed if we change our choices. Having more nutritious lunches can have a positive impact on the health of American teens.
“The old argument that the networks and other ‘media elites’ have a liberal bias is so blatantly true that it’s hardly worth discussing anymore…No we don’t sit around in dark corners and plan strategies on how we’re going to slant the news. We don’t have to. It comes naturally to most reporters.” (Bias: A CBS Insider Exposes How the Media Distort the News) This example is tremendously important in the author’s discussion because it proves that news stories do manipulate people through bias. Popular news networks are viewed by thousands of people every single day, thus making it have a huge impact on the public since they believe what they see. When news reporters present their news segments, it is natural for them to give their insights due to human nature being instinctively biased. “The news media is [sic] only objective if they report something you agree with… Then they’re objective. Otherwise they’re biased if you don’t agree, you know.” (CNN’s American Morning) In this quote, the readers are presented to current panelists agreeing that news consumers have a very hard time separating their own view of the news from the perspective of the news reporters because they are presenting their own opinions throughout their segments. This problem exists once again because of the bias that is contained in media
There is always going to be the opposing side to the writers ideas and presenting this opposition could either hurt or harm the article. This time, Balko’s team won the race. Balko’s presence of the opposition helped his argument more so than harmed it. The opposition is stated when he says, “President Bush marked $200 million in his budget for anti-obesity measures. State legislatures and school boards across the country have begun banning snacks and soda from campuses and vending machine.” (396) While reading that statistic I thought, “How Awful!”. By stating the opposition it makes the reader wonder, “Who should really take the blame?” This helps enforce the writers argument it doesn 't harm it all. It actually attracts the reader to the position of Balko’s argument due to strong and effective statistics. In contrast, Zinczenko’s article does the complete opposite when he says, “Kids taking on McDonald’s this week, suing the company for making them fat. Isn 't that like middle-aged men suing Porshe for making them get speeding tickets? Whatever happened to personal responsibility?” (391) The writers opposition actually sounds more effective than his initial argument and that should never happen. The writer would 've been better off not stating the existence of the opposition at all. The opposition didn 't help enforce the side of the writer it only made it look less appealing. It leads the reader to
As an average American student walks down the lunch line they might see whole-grain bread or noodles being tossed on their plate. “Who would want to eat this?” A common question asked by the student when they encounter the reduced calorie meal. Believe it or not, the changes, no matter how unappetizing they may be, were made in interest of the health children across the nation. After her husband was elected President of the United States, Michelle Obama took initiative of her own and started a campaign called “Let’s Move!” The campaign was developed to put a stop to childhood obesity through exercise and nutrition. Besides endorsing exercise to the children of America through commercials and advertisements, this movement included new guidelines that schools across the nation had to follow. This caused controversy between the students and schools and the government that will be covered throughout the essay. This paper is about Michelle Obama’s school lunch guidelines and how they are affecting schools and students across the nation.
While learning does not end when school is out, neither does the need for good nutrition (“Benefits”, n.d.). Good nutrition is very beneficial to children, especially school age children. Not only does it provide nutritional benefits to help with their growth process, it also enhances their learning process. Senate Bill 89 (SB 89), passed in the 83rd regular session, ensure that low income children acquire free meals in the summer when school is not in session. Although, SB 89 ensures nutritious meals for children in the summer, the bill does not go far enough. The bill failed to take into account the following; transportation issues, the number of days the program operates weekly and the statutory requirement that only school districts with fifty percent (50%) or more of their students qualifying for the free and reduced lunch program are required to implement the program. Besides the above listed problems, the implementation of the bill faces a major barrier to participation and lack of awareness.
Comparing The Sun and The Times The two newspapers which I am going to write about and discuss are “The Sun”, which is a tabloid newspaper and “The Times”, which is a broadsheet. The newspapers are both dated Monday 10 November, 2003. The first difference is that the broadsheet is bigger than the tabloid. People read tabloids for entertainment and gossip. The broadsheet caters for readers who are interested in hard news and who are professional, such as lawyers, doctors, and teachers.
In contrast to the layout of ‘The Sun’, ‘The Times’ puts this story on page three because it does not think it is newsworthy for the front-page and its style of readers. ‘The Times’ also has a smaller e-fit picture than ‘The Sun’, it is made up of two columns both of which have small paragraphs...
In conclusion, the two articles are similar in what the report. However, both of the newspapers are different because of their approaches to news presentations; their ideologies; and their audiences groups. The broadsheets tend to be very factual and usually have an suggestive angel, and the tabloids are extremely sensationalised and bias.