Nathan Henty
Effective Writing
Professor Ulmer
September 5, 2013
One of the
hardest things in writing is keeping someone’s attention. Whether you are trying
to tell a story, convincing someone of something, or trying to convey facts, a
person must have their audience’s attention. In the chapter “Climate Wars and
Climate Peace” from Vandana Shiva’s Making
Peace with the Earth Shiva attempts to cause the reader to want to take
action in regards to climate change. Although Shiva brings many good facts to
the table in her chapter, the bottom line is that it didn’t cause me to want to
go out and change what was going on with climate change; it made me want to take
a nap. The way that the facts are conveyed is, simply, just boring. Although
the facts themselves are not easily made exciting, there is a way to get the
reader interested. Instead of just presenting the facts, she should have tried
to evoke an emotional response. It would have been much more effective in her
attempt to cause action. Granted, the author did address the fact that the
melting of the Himilays could affect millions of people, but it wasn’t personal
enough for me to get attached to it. It made it seem as if she was just
presenting raw facts, and I found it very hard to want to go do something. It
would have been much easier for me to want to go out and do something had there
been an emotional draw.
AUTHOR: “Vandana Shiva is a world-renowned environmental
activist and author. Her many books include Soil
Not Oil (2008), Earth Democracy (2005)
and Stolen Harvest (2001). She is one
of the leaders of the International Forum on Globalization and the recipient of
numerous awards, including the Alternative Nobel Peace Prize (1993). Before
beoming an activist, Shiva was one of India’s leading physicists,” (Shiva, back
cover).
TITLE: Making Peace
with the Earth
DATE OF PUBLICATION: 2012
PUBLISHER: Pluto Press, Fernwood Publishing
TONE, SYNTAX, LANGUAGE: The tone of this chapter was almost
exclusively informative. It was very direct and to the point, and was explained
in very deep detail. The piece was written to try to cause action. How
effective that was is debatable, but it was filled with much useful
information.
INTENDED AUDIENCE: The intended audience for this chapter is
people who wish to act to prevent or turn around climate change. It could
provide many details for a person to persuade a group with to cause action. The
piece itself would not cause action, but it could easily be a catalyst for
someone who would be trying to use the details to inform and persuade an
audience. Another audience could be people who don’t believe in climate change
because the piece provides strait facts that can’t be argued.
CONTEXT: This selection was written speaking about the
possible effects of climate change if the world as a whole does not act on it.
This calls for many of the most powerful and most consuming countries to act in
accordance with a code that would govern the amount of pollution that would be
emitted per year.
PURPOSE: The purpose is to inform people about environmental
threats from climate change due to human carelessness. It showcases important
facts that could come true in the future if we were to not start taking care of
the earth in a more careful way.
AUTHOR’S PROCESS: The author clearly did a lot of research
regarding the topic and it is clear that she was very passionate about the
topic on a whole. Climate change was researched deeply and the author found
extremely specific examples on what could happen if we are not careful.
Shiva, Vandana. Making
Peace with the Earth. London: Pluto, 2013. Print.
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