Language Analysis - Should the Voting Age in Australia Be Lowered to 16?
Language Analysis - Should the voting age in Australia be lowered to 16?
A debate has surfaced regarding the legal voting ages in Australia as to whether the voting age should be lowered to the age of 16. In response to this issue, Melissa Young, a 17-year-old girl, contends that the voting age should be lowered to 16 in her post on the website, youngpeopleunite.com. She conveys her message in an easy-going, colloquial manner but simultaneously presents her argument logically and systematically in her endeavour to appeal to teenage users of the website, most likely to be also part of the youth initiative. Young has posted up a photograph of young people casting their votes for a climate change related matter at Federation Square.
Young begins her article by inviting the readers to picture a world fast-forwarded 40 years. Presented in italics, under the heading, attracts the readers to find out more about what she has to say about ‘[lowering] the voting age to 16…NOW!’ The year 2050 which Young presents is quite depressing – ‘a permanent haze hangs over …Melbourne’ and we even have to wear ‘a face mask to filter the air’ to breathe. In the subsequent paragraph she does admit that the aforementioned scenario is ‘a bit extreme’ but is enables the young people to be serious about their roles in the society which they function in and engages the readers by making the voting issue more relevant. This supports the title of her post as the title conveys a tone of urgency and seriousness – perhaps, the readers are able to start understand why she demands the voting age to be lowered NOW! in capital letters and with an exclamation mark.
In the opening sections, Young ensures the readers see how politics inevitably affects young people. Her use of second person pronoun, ‘If you don’t think that politics plays a significant role in your life…’ immediately alerts young people and positions them to link the politics with their lifestyle, hence, having the power to
A debate has surfaced regarding the legal voting ages in Australia as to whether the voting age should be lowered to the age of 16. In response to this issue, Melissa Young, a 17-year-old girl, contends that the voting age should be lowered to 16 in her post on the website, youngpeopleunite.com. She conveys her message in an easy-going, colloquial manner but simultaneously presents her argument logically and systematically in her endeavour to appeal to teenage users of the website, most likely to be also part of the youth initiative. Young has posted up a photograph of young people casting their votes for a climate change related matter at Federation Square.
Young begins her article by inviting the readers to picture a world fast-forwarded 40 years. Presented in italics, under the heading, attracts the readers to find out more about what she has to say about ‘[lowering] the voting age to 16…NOW!’ The year 2050 which Young presents is quite depressing – ‘a permanent haze hangs over …Melbourne’ and we even have to wear ‘a face mask to filter the air’ to breathe. In the subsequent paragraph she does admit that the aforementioned scenario is ‘a bit extreme’ but is enables the young people to be serious about their roles in the society which they function in and engages the readers by making the voting issue more relevant. This supports the title of her post as the title conveys a tone of urgency and seriousness – perhaps, the readers are able to start understand why she demands the voting age to be lowered NOW! in capital letters and with an exclamation mark.
In the opening sections, Young ensures the readers see how politics inevitably affects young people. Her use of second person pronoun, ‘If you don’t think that politics plays a significant role in your life…’ immediately alerts young people and positions them to link the politics with their lifestyle, hence, having the power to