Drafting of Comparative Analysis

I am going to look at Beeland’s “Saving Ethiopia’s ‘Church Forests'” and Nijhuis’ Conservation Triage side by side. Both of these articles offer similar messages, but deliver each differently. They both are an attempt to persuade the reader to conserve the environment in any method they can and to also pay attention to the world around them.

Comparisons:

1. Both use a biblical metaphor- Beeland uses the Garden of Eden, Nijhuis uses Noah’s Ark

2. Both focus on conservation

3. Both appeal to ethos. Beeland refers to researchers and conservationists and Nijhuis refers to conservation laws, as well as environmentalists.

Differences:

1. Beeland’s article is focused on Ethiopia while Nijhuis’ article does not focus on one particular area.

2. Beeland’s article plays with irony. while Nijhuis uses humor and addresses the reader by making them make decisions.

3. They both introduce their topics differently. Nijhuis makes the reader make a decision, while Beeland refers to tradition and religion. Both are meant to develop a sense of understanding in the reader.

Comparative Analysis

Scientific America’s blog post entitled, “Man discovers a new life-form at a South African truck stop,” by Rob Dunn speaks about a new species that recently discovered. The article begins with establishing ethos to gain some credibility since this is a blog post. He speaks about German biologist Oliver Zompro who has an impressive resume. He found his first species at age twenty and and by the time he was thirty he had named many more. He has made it his goal to study the world and discover all the hidden species that are still out there to be found. The appeal to ethos in the beginning helps make the reader aware that this post is much more than just something on a blog, but is actually factual. This helps with the context of the article and by providing background about Zompro’s studies and his adventures in Africa, the reader is able to see how important this finding is.  By making the struggle to find this insect appear difficult, Dunn also appeals to pathos, giving the reader a feeling of hope and adventure, as though he or she is on the trip with Zompro. While the discovery by a man at a truck stop of a species, Mantaphasmatodes, that has never been discovered before is remarkable, Dunn’s purpose in the article is not to just speak about that. His purpose is to stress to the reader the importance of paying attention to his or her surroundings, no matter where they are, because with observation comes the discovery of new things.

Plos blog also published a post related to the conservation and discovery of new species. This article, by T. DeLane Beeland, entitled “Saving Ethiopia’s ‘Church Forests'” is about the struggle to maintain the environment based on tradition and conservation in Ethiopia. This article speaks about how the forests are viewed as holy and the people who live among them view them as a “home for all of God’s creatures.” This viewpoint has made the coptic forests spiritually protected. This article begins with explaining the forest’s spiritual significance for the reader, appealing to pathos to make the reader relate through a sense of faith. This sense of faith connects the reader to the people living among the forests and makes the reader more able to understand the importance of the forest not only for the environment, but also for the people, who view the woods as “church forests.” Beeland then appeals to ethos by explaining the significance of the article through the eyes of Alemayehu Wassie Eshete, an Ethiopian forest researcher with a PhD in his country’s coptic forests. By using a credible source who is very knowledgeable and works with the country to educate the younger generation Beeland proves to the reader that her post has a great amount of significance, especially when speaking of preserving the forest that many use as a spiritual awakening.

Both posts act as attempts to persuade the reader to pay attention to the surroundings and protect them because everything one encounters has worth. Both posts, published in blogs utilize ethos to establish a sense of credibility so that the reader will trust what the author is saying. Credibility is completely necessary in the cases of both these blogs because a reader is aware that not everything on the internet is true, especially when dealing with sources where one doesn’t know who exactly the author is. Also, by backing up their points with knowledgeable people, both Beeland and Dunn are able to be trusted. Both blog posts make slight appeals to pathos to generate a response from the reader. The fact that both speak of the new discoveries within and the conservation of the environment relates to the reader and encourages them to help preserve their planet. By utilizing species that are relatively new to society, like the dung beetle that are specific to human feces and the Mantaphasmatodes, the authors show the reader that protection of the environment is necessary because there are still so many things left undiscovered. Both authors utilize different methods to grab the reader’s attention and relate to them to convince him or her to pay attention to the world. In an age where the environment is getting destroyed on a daily basis, it is important to show people that we need to protect it because there is still so much that is undiscovered.

Comparative analysis on Saving Ethiopia’s “Church Forests” and “Man discovers a new life-form at a South African truck stop”

After reading the Saving Ethiopia’s “Church Forests” and “Man discovers a new life-form at a South African truck stop”, they are basically talking about the similar topics, but differs in some of the way of writing.

“Saving Ethiopia’s “Church Forests”” is written in the mode of modes of Description and Problem-and-solution. The whole essay is describing the forests the surrounding the church in Ethiopia and asking people to protect the forests. In the middle paragraph of the essay, the author illustrate the biggest threats to there forests, which is the church members and clergy who use the forests for firewood. Then in the later paragraphs, the author gives the solution which is raising the productivity and establish the infrastructures in the forests. For the essay “Man discovers a new life-form at a South African truck stop”, the author uses Description and a little bit Biography. The essay describes how the German biologist Oliver Zompro find the unknown order of species and encourage people to learn something from the experience of Zompro and try to pay more attention to the life’s detail around us. The main purpose of Saving Ethiopia’s “Church Forests” is to educate, enlighten and persuade. The author try to persuade us to protect the forests and educate people there how to protect it and the enlighten them the way that they damage the forest which they do not even realize. For essay  “Man discovers a new life-form at a South African truck stop”, the main purpose is to enlighten people to learn the way of discovering new order of insects and persuade people to do what people in the essay do.

For the Knowledge gap, both essay give many background information for audience to know what the author is talking about. For most obviously, they give images and videos during the text to show us what they are talking about. For the language part, instead of professional language, they use the simple word to describe what they are trying to say. For example, in the essay “Man discovers a new life-form at a South African truck stop”, author says “”Man discovers a new life-form at a South African truck stop””. He typically gives a simple version of explanation in order for audience to understand.

In order to raise the interest of audience, the easy-understand language, the images, the videos and the length of the essay can all help.

Appeal also used in both articles. First, the logos are used in essay. In Saving Ethiopia’s “Church Forests”, the describing specific number of surrounding forests of churches, the biggest reason that threats the forests are all examples of logos. For  “Man discovers a new life-form at a South African truck stop”, the experience of the German biologist Oliver Zompro is logos, they provide the truth of process of finding new species. For ethos, as biologist, Oliver Zompro is authority of the insects. What is more, during the journal of discovering, the funding organization, Conservation International is another authority. In  Saving Ethiopia’s “Church Forests”, the use of multimedia also makes essay persuasive. For pathos, at the end of “Man discovers a new life-form at a South African truck stop”, he says “”Man discovers a new life-form at a South African truck stop”, the humor really make people relax and willing to do what he persuade us to do.

The application of wonder appeal is that both essay make us feel that we can all be the one who discover the new species and become the one who save our forests. The humor language and the interesting videos all make us find interesting to read the essays. Moreover, the solution he gives in the Saving Ethiopia’s “Church Forests” teach us how to save our forests at the same time, which provides the practical value to the essay we read.

Who gets to board your ark?

Through analyzing the conclusions of both articles provided by Michelle Nijhuis, emphasis is placed on the role of the human race’s existence in regards to the detriment as well as preservation of species and surrounding ecosystems. She implies the idea of the reader having an effect on the endangerment of species world wide simply through our daily actions within “Conservation Triage.” She emphasizes the general, yet major, affects triage has on not only people directly related to the decisions made as a result of preferences for certain  methods, but also how distinguishing between which animal or ecosystem could even cause voters and taxpayers to feel the weight of where their support lies. Utilizing a quote from John Nagle, Nijhuis suggests the usual reaction one would portray if faced with such a life – or – death situation and yet ignored it to further cause the latter of a species to occur. This allows the reader to truly be wary of their decisions when confronted with the last question of the article, “Who gets to board your ark?” as they  take into account the severity of the situation and the lives that may suffer as a result.

The alternative article “Which Species Will Live? ” includes a conclusion which discerns the utilization of triage as overall the wrong choice for the world and its resources despite its popularity. It acknowledges this topic more so in the light of political actions being done in hopes of relieving the stress of this method on species that are not deemed worthy of aid.  With the analogy of “Just as a battlefield medic works unstintingly to save lives, even while knowing that he or she cannot save them all, societies should still aspire to the Noah Principle—and stuff the ark to the brim.” in place,  she provokes the idea that although its not logical that every species will be saved, it is not the place of humans as care takers of Earth to decide which survives and which does not. Rather, it is the human race’s role to actually try and save as many species as it possibly can, instead of deliberately choosing to omit a few species off the preference list.

“Conservation Triage” and “Which Species Will Live”

Both “Conservation Triage” and “Which Species Will Live” wrote by Michelle Nejhuis ,introduce how  conservationists use triage to determine which species to save and not. Even though these two articles have the same topic, their styles are distinctly different due to different audience and platforms.

“Conservation Triage” was published on the website which means that it is mainly aimed for ordinary people who might don’t know a lot about scientific knowledge. In order to make the article easy to understand for them, he employs plain language and simple examples rather than complicated scientific terms. In the beginning of the article, he throws a hypothetical question to the audience:”Say you have an ark. Which species do you save?” The question catches the audience’s attention and leads to his topic which is about saving endangered species. In addition, he also asks questions in the body paragraphs. For example,he uses “So how to make these life-and-death decisions?” and “Sound great,right?”as transition between paragraphs.On the other hand, the use of “we” and “you” makes readers feel that the author is in front of them and discussing the question with them. In popular and concise language, he does not portray himself as a superior,but reduces the distance between the audience.

Another article “Which Species Will Live” was published in Scientific American which is an American popular science magazine focus on science issues that matter including earth and environment. The intended audience is likely to be educated and interested in science, such as science scholars. Compared to “Conservation Triage”, the structure of “Wich Species Wii Live” is different. It begins with a scientific example. The author comes straight to his point by telling the story of the ashy storm-petrels which are almost endangered. For body paragraphs, he uses subtitles to divide the article into four part.The first part is about the concept of conservation triage and political pressure .The second part and the third part are about the forms of triage conservationists use to decide which species to try to save or not save. The last part is to evaluate the conservation triage. The use of subtitles increase accessibly of the article.Unlike “Conservation Triage”, this article employs more serious tone and scientific language, and gives us more examples. For example, both articles mention the strategies for protecting endangered species. However, the article “Conservation Triage” simplifies the definition and examples, and “Which Species Will Live” details that how the strategies develope and what their advantages are. He defines them as”function first”,”evolution fist” and “hot spots” which are more professional. What’s more, he demonstrates his scholarly credit by employing more expert quotations and scientific source compared to the first article. Also, he uses the third person ,so he successfully establishes a sense of authority throughout the article. Therefore, “Wich Species Wii Live” is more persuasive and academic  than “Conservation Triage”.

After reading, I felt that “Conservation Triage” is an abbreviation of “Which Species Will Live”. It includes the main idea which”Wich Species Wii Live” also has, but lacks detailed examples. The article “Wich Species Wii Live” is like a tree that has a lot of leaves and branches, and “Conservation Triage”only leaves the main trunk.

Conservative Triage Vs. Which species should be saved?

“Which Species will live” and ” Conservation Triage” by Nijhuis both send the same message using different tone and language. While “Which species will live” seems to be more formal and directed to audience members who seems to know a lot about the topic, ” Conservation Triage” seems to inform people that are not really fond about this particular subject about the decisions behind which species should be saved.
According to Nijhuis on the “Conservation Triage”, people are directly or indirectly involved in the decision making when it comes to which species should be conserved and which ones should not be, every time they decide “what to buy, where to build, or who to put in charge of spending our tax dollars.” ( Conservative triage). While this decision making might mot affect us directly, it affects other species because their habitats are taken away from them due to the increase of the human population. Since the human population is continuing to increase, more and more species are losing their homes and possibly on the verge of becoming extinct. This article raises awareness on how our decisions affect the lives of other species and how certain species are chosen to be saved while others are not.
The article, “Which Species will live,” makes an argument similar to the to ” Conservation Triage” but uses a formal tone. I feel like this article is directed to that are involved on making the decision of which animals should survive and possibly people with power( politicians…) while ” Conservation Triage” focuses more on the general public who needs to be educated about this particular topic.
Both articles are persuasive in their own way. People who don’t really like to read or don’t have time are more likely to read ” Conservation Triage” due to its easy read and shortness. People who would like to have more details available to them and enjoy reading about animals are more likely to read ” Which Species will live” due to its detailed and informative analysis.