Child Neglect Raises Taxes

Is it really necessary for such a drastic increase in government expenses due to child abuse and neglect? Because the needs of abused and neglected children have grown, te Journal and Courier on September 12, 2006 explaining the proposal and reasons behind it. The article “We all pay the costs of child abuse, neglect,” contains many different rhetorical approaches to help explain the Tippecanoe County proposal. This analysis will break down the author’s key strategies used to effectively write this article. I believe that the article was effective because it makes the main ideas clear by backing them up with data.

The data in this article helps explain the reasons behind a possible increase of local property taxes in Tippecanoe County. Furthermore, the author’s call to write is to inform or announce to local and future homeowners the predicted tax increase for 2007 as well as the growth of child abuse. While trying to announce the ideas to the audience the author chooses to keep his or her name unknown. Because the name of the author is not given, he/she has more freedom in the sense that he/she does not have to hold back personal opinions in fear of the audience disagreeing with the article’s main ideas.

The concern for more child services, an increase in child neglect, and future increases in local property taxes are the main ideas of the article. Most of these main ideas are combined with inductive reasoning. It is evident in the article that the author presents and defends these ideas with researched data. For example, the author presents the main idea of increased taxes by explaining how the increased expenditures will lead to an average of 2.2 percent tax bill increase (“Pay”, par. 4). Furthermore the author uses an emotional and surprising tone while explaining his/her ideas. This leads me to believe that the author is also being affected by the main ideas being presented in the article. And because the author may be affected, he/she shares a relationship with the locals in the audience.

After reading this article, the audience would mostly react with either disappointment and/or sorrow. The local tax payers would be disappointed due to the possibility of taxes increasing. However, those who are not affectedof readers with soft, caring hearts. The author used this following sentence to appeal to readers’ emotions: “The sad fact is more and more children are being separated from their homes due to abuse and neglect.” (“Pay”, par. 6). Clearly this statement was directed towards the emotions of the audience. This statement does offer support to why there is an increase in child neglect. Its sole purpose is to engage in the readers’ feelings and hearts. It is clear that the author’s goal is to attract the readers’ attention by appealing to their emotions and convincing them through facts and data.

The facts and data represented in the article seem to be well supported. This gives the author credibility in the sense that he/she did their homework and caher, more credibility is developed from the idea that the author most likely has a substantial amount of writing experience because once again his/her article was chosen or allowed to be published. Not many un-experienced writers can have their ideas and writings published in a big local newspaper such as the Lafayette-West Lafayette Journal and Courier. Specifically in this article, I