Language Analysis of the Dredging of the Great Barrier Reef

831 Words4 Pages
In Janet Rice’s letter to the minister (11/11/11) which is aim to appeal to her reader to take action against the dredging of the Great Barrier Reef to accommodate for the coal-mining industry. The tone used was questioning yet demanding at the same time, and this positions the reader wonder if dredging the Great Barrier Reef is something worth doing as well as wanting to take action. Rice began her letter with hyperbole describing the dredging as ‘so 19th century, so destructive, so short sighted, so unnecessary, and so economically disastrous…’ This exaggerates that dredging will cause much worse consequences just like the 19th century where there was no awareness of humans action might have done to the planet which caused bad environmental impact such as global warming that we are suffering from now, which Rice mentioned in her letter. She then went on to appeal to the reader about the safety of their children in the future by stating that ‘….to be sure of having a liveable planet for our children, let alone our grandchildren and future generations we have to drastically cut out carbon pollution.’ Then she again reinforces her argument that dredging of the bay for coal extraction cannot help toward making a clean future. This will likely to shock the reader and this evokes the feeling of fear and the sense of security about their future generation and thus more like to agree that dredging is a no go. Throughout Rice’s letter, first person pronouns were used. By using inclusive language to include her audience into her letter such as ‘our grandchildren’, ‘we can’t allow this to occur’, and ‘we, you, I, peoples and governments…’ will elicits the feeling of taking sides, such that they are on the right side if they support her argument and encourages them to fight against those who supports the dredging. Rice ended her letter with loaded language by implying to
Open Document