TOW #24-Written Text: Want Green Cities? Lose the Cars

Eric W. Sanderson, a conservation ecologist, has had enough with cars. In his CNN article “Want green cities? Lose the cars,” he pleads to why we don’t need cars in cities. With the context being Earth Day, Sanderson states his claim that in order to have greener cities, we need to eliminate the cars within them.

In order for Sanderson to build his argument based off such a specific claim, he lists the harm of cars on our cities and also how they are detrimental to the environment. By listing the everyday nuisances when it comes to driving, the audience will eventually see what Sanderson is explaining. For example, he lists the negatives of driving such as noise, traffic, fuel costs, and so on. Therefore, the audience (mostly consisting of adults who drive because CNN is a news source for people of all ages) will now realize that they are in agreement with Sanderson because they have had at least one of these issues with cars most likely. After listing the negatives of cars and how they will prevent us from a movement to make cities “greener”, Sanderson now has to offer his plan in order to keep society functioning without cars.

The build up of Sanderson’s argument is effective in that it addresses a claim, why his claim is a necessary problem to fix, the effects it has on the environment, then completes his argument with avenues for us to investigate in order to fix the problem. The author could have simply just rambled on about how cities are not green, however Sanderson addressed an aspect of cities such as cars, and then built his argument towards how cities do not even need cars, so it only makes sense that if we limit our use of cars in regions where we have other modes of transportation, our cities will indeed become greener.

Sanderson also uses informal diction in his text when he talks to the audience on a first name basis, calling his readers “you”. When he does this it builds an audience with a common unity, people of the country who drive and suffer the negatives when it comes to driving. By uniting his audience, the text now more arguable since the readers will collectively agree that cars have a lot of ulcers such as traffic, noise, etc, and by eliminating them we can also make our cities greener. Sanderson’s text was successful in arguing its claim as it strategically builds the argument from an idea to why it needs to be changed and finally the way we should go about changing this; he essentially provides his audience with the full package of his idea. 

http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/21/opinion/sanderson-earth-day-cars/index.html?hpt=op_t1