Artists Against Fracking - Article Analysis and Comparison

In the article Artists against Fracking, the author explains the meaning and the whole process of fracking. He puts this into perspective by showing its effect on humans health by stating its effect on the drinking water in the water table and also pollution of the environment at large. He also goes ahead to show the legality of this issue in the New York State in comparison with other states and countries, aiming to persuade his audience to stand against the initiative of the governor of the New York State who wishes to approve this controversial issue. On the other hand, the article Fracking, which also speaks about the process of hydraulic fracturing, has also explained well the whole process of fracking and tried to support it with the working principles that were used by the inventors of the idea and other scientists who tried to work on it to bring more light on the process. The author states categorically that there is a lot of supporting literature in the same field which has not been tested experimentally to prove the viability of this process. Therefore, the purpose of the article itself is to bring to light to the principles behind the whole process of Fracking and open a window for more research.

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The author of Artists against Fracking has written from a whistle-blowers point of view. He tries to educate his audience, the general public of the New York State, of the whole process of Fracking and the consequent hazardous effect that the process may have to their health. He therefore aims at mobilizing them to stand against the move by the state governor who seeks to approve the initiative. On the contrary, in the article Fracking, which was extracted from an academic scientific journal, is a work of a scientist who is analyzing the basis and scientific principles behind the process of Fracking. The scientist reviews the literature of other scientists who have worked in the same topic and thus tries to pick out the supportive facts. All this information is mainly targeted to other scientists who may be having interest in the same topic of study with the purpose of revealing to them the proven and unproven facts about Fracking. This may therefore give ideas of more areas to do research on. From the above features, we realize that both articles are expository in nature.

As a whistle-blower, the character of the author of Artists against Fracking comes out very well in the article which therefore wins him the ethical appeal in the minds of his audience. This is also topped up by the mastery of the subject where we see the author has facts and figures to support his argument. However, the statement of these figures, like the number of hydraulics fracturing products and those that contain harmful chemicals, may not be that relevant since the audience is the general public who may not really appreciate them. Emotionally, the author connects with the audience very well. The careful choice of words that will therefore guide the audience towards his standpoint is his main stronghold. Here, there is the use of words like dangerous while relating to the chemicals released and precious source of water while referring to the water table. This word choice has appeal to ones emotions since they will be easily get scared of the whole process therefore reject it. From a logical point of view, the author tries to explain the whole process and how it will finally lead to hazardous effects. Also, he states categorically that other states like Vermont, New Jersey among others have rejected the initiative. Also with reference to the Safe Drinking Water Act, the author shows how this initiative had been exempted thereby putting its citizens in danger.

The scientist who wrote the article Fracking has also used the rhetorical strategies quite effectively. First of it all, the article being published in an academic scientific journal gives it ethical appeal to the audience since it has to have passed a given criteria to prove its credibility in order to be published in the journal. Also, with reference to other former scientists who had done research of the topic and statement of facts like explaining the scientific principle behind the process shows his mastery of the subject thus giving him more appeal to the audience. This also gives the logic behind his article. The use of words like however and although in his text acts as the main area that should catch the eye of the audience since these words mainly show the contrary. In this text, they have been used to expose the part of the topic of study that has not yet been proved experimentally. This being a part of a scientific journal, and scientists work being discovery, these words therefore appeal to them emotionally.