Newspaper article about possible war with Iraq Essay

The newspaper article I have written is about the possible war in Iraq which expressed my opinion. It is an article that is totally against war and is to inform the readers the main objections by persuading them that it is right not to have another war. I’m sure I am not the only one opposed to war in Iraq! The newspaper was aimed at teenagers and students alike. I felt that it was much easier to aim at this age group because I am a student myself so it’s like talking to your friends instead of addressing for example an older generation. The main points I want to get across were the American push for war in Iraq is illegal without UN backing, the Iraqi people have suffered enough, and the last thing they would want is another war. In this article, I am sometimes asking the reader a rhetorical question. Questions like ‘Why would the training be so intense if there wasn’t a war? ‘ It seems a bit obvious answer of yes because there were around 150,000 soldiers in the region at the time. As you read throughout, it seems like I ask the readers some question. I ask these questions because I want them to think about certain topics like America. For this topic I asked ‘Would you believe them? ‘ when I was referring to America is saying Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. The article was aimed for teenagers and students so most of the article’s language was easy to read and understand. The sentences were short and words were basic because if I put it too technical, they might not carry on reading it. I am a teenager myself so writing something aimed at them was easier than if I was writing for say a middle aged audience. You could say that it is more of a tabloid newspaper than a broad sheet one, this article is free and would be handed out to students who could pick them up from the college library maybe? The main theme for this article is against another war in Iraq so this is why I used in big and bold letter that reads out ‘Don’t attack Iraq! ‘ I did this so that it can catch the reader’s attention too. For example if they walked past and saw the title, they would be more likely to pick it up and see what it is about! In order not to confuse the reader, I have split the article in sections, the main article is about Iraq but some of the other sections include other threats, real reason etc. This layout makes it more easy to read and easier to understand than if I put everything under one subtitle. Plus I want people to know that behind the scenes America is trying something which they may not know so this layout would suit me getting that message across. When I did the first draft and got it handed back, I realised I made some mistakes with me going off the point. The main point was not to attack Iraq but I sometimes talked about other countries. This might have confused the readers and one more thing is that on the title it reads ‘Making you be heard’ but this isn’t true as I am expressing my own personal opinions so I changed that title to ‘Getting the Point Across’ instead. The article improved much from the first draft I did, the sentences were longer and had around 1600 for the last one which was way over the limit so now I have nearly halved it. I also made it more newspaper like because the last design I had lacked an attractive heading. The structure of this article was made to set out more like a newspaper as possible. I gave the newspaper a big title along the top, the writing was all in columns, some relevant pictures were included and so were the dates and price. I gave the reasons not to attack in bullet points at the beginning and rounded it all up with a conclusion which was called ‘Real Reasons’. The pictures used were there to make the newspaper look more colourful instead of having just text in there. One of the pictures was some soldiers but you could only see their shadows with rifles in the arms which look un-welcoming, another is a picture of Osama Bin Laden. He is the most wanted man on Earth and a lot of people recognise him so the article would stand out more. Word count: 772 without header and footer