America's Gun Epidemic

In Orwell's essay, "Politics and the English Language", Orwell states that there are at least four guiding questions that authors should ask themselves about their writing: What am I trying to say?What words will it express? What image or idiom will make it clearer? Is this image fresh enough in the to have an effect? One heavily debated topic at the moment is whether gun control should be implemented or not. On December 4th, The New York Times published an editorial regarding this topic. The editorial board was able to utilize a few of these questions that Orwell believes makes a good writer. The board established what they were trying to say by writing, "It is a moral outrage and a national disgrace that civilians can legally purchase weapons designed specifically to kill people with brutal speed and efficiency." This section emits an emotional connections that also answers "What words will express it?" since the board uses phrases like "moral outrage", "national disgrace", and "brutal speed".  This helps to paint a clear pictures in the readers minds about the violence the board wants them to see in the gun epidemic.  By ending the article with "What better time than during a presidential election to show, at long last, that our nation has retained its sense of decency?", the editorial board leaves the matter in the hands of the reader.  By closing in a question, the authors place the audience into two categories: those who are decent and support gun control and those who are not decent and want gun violence.  With no in between, this lasting statement attempts to persuade the public and prompt them into agreeing with their side of the argument by going to the extreme with these categories.  Despite the fact that not everyone may agree with Orwell's guiding principles to being a good writer, that doesn't change the fact that since this article does use Orwell's techniques a significant amount of people who read it are being influenced by this media source.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/05/opinion/end-the-gun-epidemic-in-america.html?ref=topics&_r=0