Comparative Commentary on Global Warming

“Taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions” (“Text A”), an international newspaper advertisement from Exxon Mobil and “An Agenda for Climate Action” (Text B”), a speech by Eileen Claussen, the President of Pew Center on Global Climate Change were both written in 2006 with the focus on global warming. The author in both commentaries strives to bring out the message that as human beings, we must take action to stop the worsening of climate change. Text A is a published article by a company that emphasizes that everyone in the world should be able to take part in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and that illustrates the range of actions, in particular technological advances the company has taken to address the problem. As for Text B, it is a speech delivered to university students that identifies the ultimate cause of the problems of climatic change the world is facing now. Even though the message of the two texts is the same, the way they convey it differs, in terms of the structure and content, language usage, purpose, and narrative perspective.

The structure and content of the two texts are very similar even though there are some obvious differences. First, the introduction of the two texts is very similar in terms of the message their text strives to bring out. Text A starts with “We’d like to use this space to share our thoughts on actions to address the risk of climate change” while Text B is slightly different as it opens with a courteous introduction first but what follows is this, “I am here today to talk about what climate change solutions might entail”. This clearly shows that even though the two introductions i.e. the words used and the focus area are not the exact same, but without doubts, they are intended for the same purpose, to persuade people to take action.

As for the sentencing and paragraph style, both are written in small paragraphs with long sentences, each having a specific point to make. In Text A, the 4th paragraph is