English Language Commentary

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For my coursework piece, I decided to a newspaper editorial which had been published online. The piece was written as if it had been published in The Daily Telegraph, a right-wing middle class newspaper. I chose to do the piece because I am interested in current affairs and newspapers, and I am a very opinionated person. I thought that a newspaper column would be a good place to share my opinion on the topical story of waterboarding.

        For my style model, I went onto the Telegraph’s website and found a newspaper column by Boris Johnson, the Conservative Mayor of London. As a Conservative, his column had a slight anti-Labour bias, although it was very subtle and often humorous. I attempted to replicate this when I mentioned that waterboarding is classed as an ‘enhanced interrogation technique’ and quickly quipped that that was “more spin in one phrase than Alaistair Campbell managed in an entire dossier” – a reference to the controversial September Dossier which ‘sexed up’ claims that Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction.

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        From that quote, we can see some of the writer’s persona, seeing immediately that they are critical of the Iraq War, despite later making it clear he is a Conservative (“thankfully, I’m a son of Thatcher”). We can see more of the writer’s persona throughout, by writing with a high register, we see that they are quite sophisticated and maybe slightly arrogant.

        The piece starts with a graphic description of what would happen to a victim of waterboarding, but as it features direct address, it makes the reader feel like that it is happening to them – “you have a bag ...

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