Figurative Language

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The original essay entitled “Why live a life that is not life?” was written for an Advanced Placement Language and Composition course. The piece was written for a defense of a cause assignment wherein the author had to write an essay that convinced her readers that the cause was one they should support and agree with. The piece, though at points very well written, has many of the common flaws that appear with in persuasive writing such as an overuse of “I believe, my opinion is, and I think” statements, and not displaying more than one counterargument and a limited refutation to follow. The author can plainly state that yes, her own views did influence her writing of the original essay. She admits to having a tendency to have a very open …show more content…

Within this paragraph the author showcases many different aspects of figurative language which were not seen quite as profusely within the rest of the essay; therefore, the author loses some of her writing style by not adding a diverse amount of figurative language scattered throughout the essay. “Arguments appurtenant to euthanasia all stem from a wide range of opinions and from a wide range of ideals” (20-21) the author used “from a wide range” in repetition in order to present her readers with the many diverse viewpoints about euthanasia. Another use of figurative language would be the alliteration shown within the statement “die with dignity” (22) which goes along with the author’s thesis as to die with dignity would be to die when a person chooses to not after wasting away. Within this paragraph the author also uses a rhetorical question presented as “why live out a life of unrelieved and pointless suffering” which perfectly coincides with the thesis considering they are extremely similar. In her essay, she addresses the main argument against her thesis, the idea that all pain no matter how severe can be relieved. She refutes this argument by saying “the average percent of terminally ill patients who die from pain comes to about 55% overall” (27-28). Counterarguments and their refutations ultimately allow the author to gain support from readers by exposing the flaws that exist within the author’s main cause and reasoning. The use of figurative language and counterarguments garners an extensive amount of support for the argument as they both compliment and support the

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