Comparative Commentary
Comparative Commentary
The two texts ‘Daddy, what did you do in the war against pollution?’ (text 2a, written in 1995) and ‘Stay Cool’ (text 2b, also written in 1995) are both dealing with the problem of global warming. While text 2a is an advertisement and text 2b is an excerpt from an editorial in the magazine ‘The Economist’, the texts are both for mass communication; the texts are available for everyone. I will analyse these two pieces in terms of content, point of view, structure and imagery.
The content in both texts is about global warming. In text 2a it is more about ‘we’, the people need to cope with this problem: ‘People start pollution. People can stop it.’ Even though text 2b is about global warming as well, this text says the government should do more against it: ‘Governments should also continue to finance research into the science of climate change.’ The titles of the texts have a different function as well. ‘Daddy, what did you do in the war against pollution,’ contains a metaphor: ‘war against pollution’ and has an excusing tone, it is a bit childish. ‘Stay Cool’ has a double meaning: it means the world should stay cool. But it also means people should stay cool; they should not worry about the climate or about global warming problems.
In text 2a the author uses involvement: ‘So like it or not we’re all in this one.’ This is a psychological use and is often done in advertisements. The first text shows emotional language and shows numerous reasons how we could solve the problem of global warming. However the other text is more objective: ‘One of … energy needs.’ It gives you a lot of information and shows no emotions. Just as text 2a, this text gives a lot of reasons to solve the global warming but the text does not directly apply to the society: ‘Why should people make such a sacrifice for a problem whose extent and cost are so uncertain?’ In text 2b the government should come with ideas to solve the problem of global warming.
The layout of
The two texts ‘Daddy, what did you do in the war against pollution?’ (text 2a, written in 1995) and ‘Stay Cool’ (text 2b, also written in 1995) are both dealing with the problem of global warming. While text 2a is an advertisement and text 2b is an excerpt from an editorial in the magazine ‘The Economist’, the texts are both for mass communication; the texts are available for everyone. I will analyse these two pieces in terms of content, point of view, structure and imagery.
The content in both texts is about global warming. In text 2a it is more about ‘we’, the people need to cope with this problem: ‘People start pollution. People can stop it.’ Even though text 2b is about global warming as well, this text says the government should do more against it: ‘Governments should also continue to finance research into the science of climate change.’ The titles of the texts have a different function as well. ‘Daddy, what did you do in the war against pollution,’ contains a metaphor: ‘war against pollution’ and has an excusing tone, it is a bit childish. ‘Stay Cool’ has a double meaning: it means the world should stay cool. But it also means people should stay cool; they should not worry about the climate or about global warming problems.
In text 2a the author uses involvement: ‘So like it or not we’re all in this one.’ This is a psychological use and is often done in advertisements. The first text shows emotional language and shows numerous reasons how we could solve the problem of global warming. However the other text is more objective: ‘One of … energy needs.’ It gives you a lot of information and shows no emotions. Just as text 2a, this text gives a lot of reasons to solve the global warming but the text does not directly apply to the society: ‘Why should people make such a sacrifice for a problem whose extent and cost are so uncertain?’ In text 2b the government should come with ideas to solve the problem of global warming.
The layout of