Persuasive technique essay. Loraine Bennett contends in her opinion piece My son paid the ultimate price (Herald Sun, December 29th, 2011) that police chase restrictions need to be tighter.

The first thing that you notice when you look at the page is the large image on the left. It show Loraine Bennett and her daughter holding a picture of her deceased son. It is quite noticeable that Mrs Bennett and her daughter both have sad expressions on their faces. The picture is also quite dark which is in this case done to represent sadness or anger. The picture has also been taken with Mrs Bennett and her daughter quite close together with the framed photo of her son. This is also done to make the reader not only see that the family were close to each other but it also makes the reader feel closer to the family which in turn raises the chances of the reader agreeing with what the article has to say.

The first section of the article uses two main tones. The article starts with quite a solemn tone but it quickly moves towards a more saddened tone. This change in tone is making the reader take the article serious from the start and then using a saddened tone to bring the readers emotions into play and make the readers really take what is being said seriously and feel they are obligated to agree with what is being said. Towards the end of this section of the article, Mrs Bennett starts to directly attack the police that pursued her son, and by doing so, is not only trying to make the reader see her idea is right, but also that the police are to blame for the accident and that anything they have said in their defence should not be listened to.

The final section of the article starts of relatively the same as the last section finished but instead of just attacking the police who pursued her son, the attacks the whole police policy on high speed pursuits and points out that the policy was not adhered to in the pursuit of her son. She does this to further add to her argument but to also further push the blame of her son’s death onto the police and to almost make us picture them as the ‘bad guys’ which also helps her argument. She also starts this section by using a very serious and professional tone which again makes the reader see that this is a very serious matter and that it is to be taken seriously. The tone then changes again to a very gloomy or dark tone to finish of the article. The article is finished this way to make the reader delve back into their emotions making them feel an emotional connection to the article and then also to the author which is what is inevitably going to make the reader agree with the articles contention.

As a result of Loraine Bennett’s saddened and serious tone, she expects a strong emotional response from the general public, which will in turn, make them see that police restrictions not only need to be tougher, but that the restrictions that are in place now aren’t being followed.