The gift of death

Preparation work for live session

The text we're about to read is what's often called an 'opinion piece'. These are articles which appear in newspapers, but which put forward a confrontational stance on a topic on which the writer tells us they have a particular interest. You'll notice that the language in these types of article is challenging, but for different reasons than the dense academic text that we've looked at relating to the obesity crisis. This is because the language here is creative and contains novel structures and unusual word combinations. It is also much more loaded with emotion. For example, in the first paragraph the author talks about a confection of plastics and electronics, dubious entertainment and a hedonic stimulus. This kind of language is designed to make as big an impact on the reader as possible, and to craft specific and imagery that invoke extreme emotions such as disgust. The result is that it leaves us in no doubt as to the writer's feelings on excessive consumerism. However, to fully understand his meaning, we need not just a dictionary but some imagination and creative thinking!