You can access the text here.
How and to what effect does tone express the author’s opinion in this text?
KEY
Arguments (Thesis & Claims - Idea & Justification)
Evidence (Context & Quotes)
Analysis (Level One - Level Two - Level Three)
The text is an op-ed on Vox News entitled “Youth tackle football will be considered unthinkable 50 years from now,” written by CTE expert and former football college player Chris Nowinski. It is aimed at American parents or guardians of children who play tackle football and similar physical sports as it portrays the dangers of the sport, particularly in regards to its impacts on cognition in children. The author, Chris Nowinski, believes that the sport is dangerous for children and provides justifications for this, with evidence and statistics from reputable sources. Nowinski is able to effectively express this opinion through his concerned tone towards the sport in its current practices, an urgent tone in response to acting on making necessary changes, and a matter-of-fact tone when providing supporting justifications.
The author employs a concerned tone in order to communicate his opinion that children should not partake in impact sports like football, expressing fears for its effects. For instance, the author mentions that he believes that in “50 years, we will look back and be horrified that we allowed young children to play tackle football and other collision sports.” The author’s lexical choice of “horrified” evokes feelings of fear and is consequently effective with the primary audience of adults who allow children to partake in collision sports, which are dangerous. Therefore, the author’s concerned tone is highlighted where he strongly opposes combat sports, even feeling “horrified” by their effects. In addition, by using the first person plural pronoun “we” in conjunction with “allowed,” the author elicits feelings of guilt in the audience, as it places the collective to blame. This adds to the author’s concerned tone as it is implied that he similarly feels guilty and so feels a strong need to make changes as a result of such concerns. This impacts the author’s opinion that children should not partake in collision sports by the usage of a personally concerned tone. In addition, the author also asks audiences; “Think of the last time, outside of sports, you allowed your child to get hit hard in the head 25 times in a day. Better yet, when was the last time you were hit hard in the head?” The alliteration in “hit hard” emphasizes the powerful and damaging impact the sport has through the repetition of the hard /h/ sound, which underscores the author’s concern for young children playing the sport. Moreover, the rhetorical question similarly creates a concerned tone as the implied answer is obviously that most adults do not regularly get “hit hard in the head,” thereby evoking feelings of shock in parents who would empathize with children playing the sport, causing them to feel similarly concerned. As a result, the author’s opinion that children should not be playing contact football is strongly affected through this emphasized concern which he attempts to pass onto parents and other guardians of children.
In addition to his concerned tone, the author achieves an urgent tone in order to strongly convey his opinion that children should not be playing impact sports like football. In his address of parents, he communicates the steps that need to be taken as they “need to change some rules. Change youth tackle football to flag football. Stop asking players to ram a flying soccer ball with their foreheads.” Moreover, the author later continues to call on parents as they “have to ask hard questions when their child wants to play tackle football.” The imperatives here create a sense of obligation for change, thereby achieving a sense of urgency in conveying the opinion that children should not be engaging with the sport in its current physical state. Additionally, the audience, who might have children playing the sport, feel a sense of responsibility, especially as a result of the phrase “have to,” which creates a sense of priority and urgency. As a result, the author is able to create an urgent tone through his depiction of the cruciality of change. Furthermore, the parallelism and short sentence structures evoke the idea of a set of instructions and, therefore, convey urgency as it reads comparable to a list of steps with which one must take action. Through this, he expresses his opinion on the topic that children should not be allowed to play football, which is why he calls upon urgent change from parents, strengthening his argument.
Finally, when conveying statistical information to support the author’s opinion, the matter-of-fact tone aids the article by establishing reliability. When justifying his opinion, he notes that “an analysis of the first 211 football players diagnosed with CTE at Boston University found those who started tackle football before age 12 could have a 13-year-earlier onset of the cognitive, behavioral, and mood symptoms associated with CTE.” The use of statistics achieve a logical appeal; yet, the academic and scientific diction in terms such as “analysis,” “diagnosed,” and “cognitive” create a neutral, matter-of-fact tone as the author conveys his opinion that young children should not be playing contact football. Moreover, the author adds to his justification by including the fact that “athletes who played contact sports for more than nine years had a six times greater risk of developing Lewy body disease, a cause of Parkinson’s, than those who played eight or fewer years.” Again, the inclusion of statistics and academic lexical choices help to achieve a logical appeal as well as a matter-of-fact tone. Specifically, this helps to convey the author’s opinion as it does establish credibility given that audiences are more likely to receive unbiased and academic information with less judgment. Consequently, it is via the inclusion of this matter-of-fact tone that the opinion is strengthened.
Thus, the author is able to effectively express his opinion that children should not play impact sports such as football via his achieved concerned, urgent, and matter-of-fact tones. His concerned tone, achieved predominantly via personal pronouns, strong diction, and alliteration, works effectively as it helps to convey the opinion to parents and guardians of children, encouraging them to feel similarly concerned. Furthermore, his urgent tone, attained through imperatives, works well in conveying his opinion as well as the need to make change. Finally, the author’s matter-of-fact tone, accomplished by the inclusion of statistics and academic diction, aids in effectively conveying the author’s opinion that impact sports should be banned for children as it makes this opinion more credible.
Important Notes: