Draft #2

“AIDS and India”: How to Make an Audience Care

Living in our busy day to day schedule, we as Americans do not often find ourselves stopping to think about what issues other nations such as India face. This is something author Melinda French Gates attempts to change in her article “AIDS and India”. The article, submitted in The Seattle Times newspaper, is directed to the more liberal audience that makes up the Seattle area. With a more liberal audience, Gates can write to a community that probably is not aware of the certain issue at hand in hope that they try and make a difference once they know about it. Gates writes so that she can shed light on the dark issue that is the AIDS epidemic in India in order to galvanize readers to action. She accomplishes this through strong use of diction, imagery, and relating topics to us to appeal to the reader’s emotions.

The author, Melinda French Gates, is most commonly known by her status of being Microsoft chairman Bill Gates’ wife. Because Melinda Gates already has a well known name, she is not under obligation to establish credibility to the reader. However, Gates effectively communicates to the reader that she is well informed on the topic and is justified in her thoughts and advice. We learn this when she explains that she “recently saw firsthand… an AIDS catastrophe that could undermine the country’s potential for progress” (187). Here the author lets the reader know that she is not making this stuff up, but has actually been there and seen it with her own eyes. The reader is now much more prone to believe what she has to say. Gates also establishes authority when she mentions that during her trip to Calcutta, she consulted with “AIDS experts, community workers and people affected by the disease” (187). Here Gates further strengthens her credibility because now we know that she not only went there and saw these things with her own eyes but also acted on what she saw to better understand the situation. The author also displays her credibility and authority in that “to learn about prevention efforts targeting mobile populations, (she) visited a truck stop in Calcutta” (189). This shows the reader that Gates cares a lot about this topic, enough to go out there and do the research. By establishing her own credibility, Gates ensures that she has her reader’s trust. With a firmly planted trust, her target, more liberal audience will listen to what she has to say and be more willing to follow her advice.

Word choice can make a huge difference in a person’s perceptions on a certain topic. Gates utilizes this particular resource in her writing. Throughout the article, Gates uses diction that inspires readers to act now. One example of this is when the author states, “I learned about three urgent priorities for preventing the spread of AIDS in India” (187). Note the use of the word “urgent.” Such an implication suggests that how important this problem is and that we should take care of it as soon as possible. Another example with the same affect is when Gates affirms “more women must be empowered in the face of AIDS” (188). By using the word “must,” the reader gets the notion that it is absolutely necessary that this action take place. Also, successful diction can be seen in the statement “many of India’s leaders see the urgent need for aggressive efforts to stop AIDS” (189). We see once again the use of the word urgent, which enlightens the reader of the severity of the problem at hand. Another word that has an effect on the reader is the word aggressive. “Aggressive” describes the type of effort needed to stop AIDS. Such a description implies that we cannot control this problem meekly or with little attention. The implication is that this problem is a big one that requires forceful attention. Additionally, Gates reflects “it is so important that nations with emerging epidemics, like India, act now” (190). In this statement Gate gets right to the point by saying “act now.” She has captured the reader’s interest with her word choice and sheds light on the just how important this situation is. By using strong, active words like “urgent”, “aggressive”, and “act now”, Gates shows how important the problem is and the attention that it deserves. This appeals to the reader’s emotions and is an effective tool in inspiring them to action.

Imagery can also have a strong effect on a reader, which is one tool that Gates uses to appeal to her readers. She paints us a picture of an alarming situation as she describes that as an effect of HIV-positive stigma and the inferior status of women, “a woman whose husband dies of AIDS is often blames for his death and thrown out of the home with her children” (189). This description gives the reader an image of a mother helplessly and unjustly thrown out on to the streets with nowhere to go. Such an example stirs an emotion in the reader, inspiring them to want to make a difference to change this sort of thing from happening. Another example of use of imagery is when Gates says “a majority (of truck drivers) report having sex with commercial sex workers… If infected while on the road, they can easily pass on the virus to their wives or girlfriends when they return home” (188). This also touches an emotion with the reader. The reader can now visualize the devastating affect this could have on the unsuspecting wives and girlfriends of these truck drivers and vast number of people this happens to. These descriptive passages evoke an emotional response from the reader that is successful in causing her readers to want to make that difference and want to bring about change.

In her writing, Gates writes by relating information to us that we can connect with in order to galvanize the reader to action. Gates informs the reader that “20 million Indians could be infected by the end of the decade” (187). This statistic fairly powerful on its own, but she creates the biggest affect when she goes on to say “that’s more than twice the population of New York City” (187). Here she not only demonstrates just how large 20 million is, but relates it to us on a personal level by equating it with a popular and loved city in the United States. She reinforces the importance of the problem through appeal to emotion. She also relates to the reader on a personal level through her writing by recounting an experience she had during her visit. Gates tells how she was moved when “several sex workers spontaneously started singing ‘We Shall Overcome’. As I listened to their Bengali-accented English, it became clear that the familiar lyrics were not just a dream to them” (188). The audience she is appealing to, your everyday US citizen, can most likely relate to this anecdote because we all have heard or know of the song “We Shall Overcome”. By telling us this anecdote we see that the people affected by this AIDS epidemic or no different then you or me. This creates an emotional response from the reader and advocates that we do something to make a change. Relating things to us on a personal level is successful in creating an emotional response from the reader.

In looking at the different tools used in Gates article “AIDS and India”, namely diction, imagery, and relating information to the reader, we see that she was successful in galvanizing the reader to want to make a change. Through using active words like “urgent”, using descriptive passages that make us think, and relating things to us on a personal level, we cannot help but feel something emotionally and want to make a difference to change the state that India is in today.