The Undercover Parent: Why Buyers Won T Save The Planet

There are many ways to persuade a reader: character, logic, emotion, arrangement of the points, and rebuttal of the topic. For an essay to influence the reader, it needs to effectively use at least two of these methods. “The Undercover Parent” by Harlan Coben is more persuasive than “The Locavore Myth: Why Buying from Nearby Farmers Won’t Save the Planet” by James McWilliams because it uses character and emotion in a more effective manner. In “The Undercover Parent,” Coben uses emotion to reach out and grasp the audience. By pointing out that “we’ve all read about the young boy unknowingly conversing with a pedophile,” (66) he pulls at a parent’s natural instinct to protect their children. He wants people to read his essay and feel empathy for the parents that use spyware. He gives an example of a friend who used spyware on his daughter’s computer and found out about his daughter using drugs. By using the spyware to obtain …show more content…
We can learn much about them from what they say about their topic, and how they incorporate their own experiences to help make the topic more relatable. Coben shares his personal experiences with spyware. He has many friends that use it on their children, so he has an inside view to the parent’s reasoning, how well it works, and their children’s reactions. His first-hand experience with spyware makes him more trustworthy and knowledgeable to readers. He has seen it in action, so his opinion has a factual base to it. McWilliams uses character in a different way. He did not reveal much about himself in the essay, but his tone told his feelings towards the topic. By saying “If you want to reduce greenhouse gasses, become a vegetarian,” (90) he shows his distaste for the opposing side. His tone in that sentence could turn readers who disagree with him away because he sounds insensitive to their reasoning. Even a reader who agrees with him can see how he does not believe the opposing