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P-Plate Drivers: The Laws Will Not Change

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P-Plate Drivers: The Laws Will Not Change
Year 11 Language Analysis Sample Essay
Laws Will Not Change P-Platers

There is always danger when driving, especially when inexperienced probationary drivers are using the same roads. How to limit their impact on the safety of others is a major issue. Lauren Martella, in her opinion article, Laws Will Not Change P-Platers, published in the Herald Sun on the 17th of January 2008, notes in a calm, informal and rational tone, that no laws restricting the freedom of P-Plate drivers will help.
Martella uses a rational but concerned tone to encourage the reader to agree that restricting P-Plate drivers will not lower road fatalities. This is evident when she uses statements such as, “no restriction law will ever change the maturity and attitudes of drivers.” This calms the reader, and makes them feel that there could be a solution to this alarming problem if we remain logical. There is a lot of colloquial language and slang, even in the headline’s “P-Plater”, adding to this calming and familiar tone, and allowing Martella to appear trustworthy. She is also using an appeal to reason and logic in this example, which appears several other times in her piece. In doing so, Martella demonstrates that while she is young, her opinion is both rational and reasonable, and encourages the reader to agree with her because of this.
Anecdotal evidence is used frequently throughout Martella’s piece, and is combined often with a more casual tone. She notes that “when you take the wheel as an 18-year-old P-Plater, driving is challenging and scary.” She also confesses that she has “had a few ‘close calls’”. By doing so, she is able to demonstrate to the reader that she is knowledgeable in this area, and that her opinion should be trusted. The reader would then be far more likely to agree that more should be done to support young drivers than simply restricting them.
There is a lot of questioning in this piece. Martella asks “would a 25-year-old mother not be able to drive her

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