In Erica Chenoweth’s “Give Peaceful Resistance a Chance”, and Maria J. Stephan and Erica Chenoweth’s “Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict,” both articles argue that nonviolent protest is more effective than that of violent protests. However, Chenoweth’s article is an op-ed piece which is presented to a general audience while the Chenoweth & Stephan piece was written for an academic journal and is directed towards people who are knowledgeable about the subject. In order to capture the attention of your reader and, more importantly, to relay the point, it is crucial to acknowledge your intended audience and their needs in terms the complexity of the arguments, style and language. It is also crucial to understand
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However, in her op-ed she considerably downsized the information provided and omitted a major portion of scientific and analytical data. In lieu of the raw data and statistics, Chenoweth presents her argument using current events and common civil disobedience occurrences. She does this to create a common ground on which she can build so that her audience understands what she is trying to assert. In the op-ed, Chenoweth uses many examples such as the rebellion that occurred in Libya. In the case of Libya, she questions whether the protestors change from non-violent action to violent action was the right one and then leads to refer to the revolt in the Philippines in the 1970’s and 1980’s. In the op-ed, Chenoweth states that “when the regimes did fall in 1986, it was at the hands of the People Power movement” (Chenoweth 1). She includes this to back her claim that non-violent protest does produce positive results. This same revolt began as violent, however, it “failed to attract broad support.” Those successful in bringing down Ferdinand Marcos where a non-violent democratic group (Chenoweth 1). In the academic journal, Stephan and Chenoweth refer to Philippines revolt more thoroughly. They claim that the revolt is a “useful counterexample to the failed opposition uprising in Burma a few years earlier” and go on to further explain how “a broad-based …show more content…
Stephan and Erica Chenoweth’s “Why Civil Resistance Works” are both focused on advocating non-violent resistance, however, their approach is completely different due to the genre of readers they are attempting to engage. If a text is too complicated, then readers of an op-ed piece will become bored and may not finish it, and even if they do, they may have lost the point. If a text is too simple, professionals will doubt the authenticity of the writing and may consider it to be only the unsupported opinion of the author(s). How a piece is written is determined based on who the author is trying to target. If you are not the intended audience a paper may seem confusing or very simplistic. Directing a paper towards a specific audience, allows an author to achieve the purpose of their
However, in her op-ed she considerably downsized the information provided and omitted a major portion of scientific and analytical data. In lieu of the raw data and statistics, Chenoweth presents her argument using current events and common civil disobedience occurrences. She does this to create a common ground on which she can build so that her audience understands what she is trying to assert. In the op-ed, Chenoweth uses many examples such as the rebellion that occurred in Libya. In the case of Libya, she questions whether the protestors change from non-violent action to violent action was the right one and then leads to refer to the revolt in the Philippines in the 1970’s and 1980’s. In the op-ed, Chenoweth states that “when the regimes did fall in 1986, it was at the hands of the People Power movement” (Chenoweth 1). She includes this to back her claim that non-violent protest does produce positive results. This same revolt began as violent, however, it “failed to attract broad support.” Those successful in bringing down Ferdinand Marcos where a non-violent democratic group (Chenoweth 1). In the academic journal, Stephan and Chenoweth refer to Philippines revolt more thoroughly. They claim that the revolt is a “useful counterexample to the failed opposition uprising in Burma a few years earlier” and go on to further explain how “a broad-based …show more content…
Stephan and Erica Chenoweth’s “Why Civil Resistance Works” are both focused on advocating non-violent resistance, however, their approach is completely different due to the genre of readers they are attempting to engage. If a text is too complicated, then readers of an op-ed piece will become bored and may not finish it, and even if they do, they may have lost the point. If a text is too simple, professionals will doubt the authenticity of the writing and may consider it to be only the unsupported opinion of the author(s). How a piece is written is determined based on who the author is trying to target. If you are not the intended audience a paper may seem confusing or very simplistic. Directing a paper towards a specific audience, allows an author to achieve the purpose of their