Jessica Reyes

Zack De Piero
Writing 2
WP2 Revised
The Legalization of Marijuana:
From A Doctors, Economists, and Bloggers Perspective
Over the last 40 years, the legal status of marijuana, whether for medical or recreational
use, has been a topic of debate nearly everywhere. Many points, arguing both sides of whether or
not it should be legalized, have been debated and as it currently remains illegal in most states in
the US, the heated debate is ongoing. In this paper the idea will be compared and contrasted from
three different articles/perspectives: a scholarly article called Legalization of Marijuana:
Potential Impact on Youth published by the American Academy of Pediatrics; an academic
journal written by Larissa Flister titled The Economic Case for Marijuana Legalization in
Canada; and last but not least a personal blog titled 101 Reasons to Legalize Marijuana.
Because these publications all discuss the same topic of marijuana legalization, its essential that
readers understand the rhetorical features being used such as exigence, tone, and personal choice
of moves, in order to understand who the specific audience is for each piece.
After comparing and contrasting the rhetorical features presented in each article, you will
see that there are several aspects that contribute to each and every piece of literature, whether its
writing on a cereal box, a movie review, or a personal statement for college admissions. Many
parts of writing build off each other and help you to understand one another. For example, Blitzer
argues There are three parts to understanding the context of a rhetorical moment: exigence,
audience, and constraints (Carroll, 40). As Laura Carroll mentions in her article Steps toward

Rhetorical Analysis, Understanding the exigence is important because it helps you begin to
discover the purpose of the rhetoric. It helps you to understand what the discourse is trying to
accomplish (Carroll, 48). In other words, you can begin to understand a pieces exigence by
asking yourself what the writer is responding to. Carroll also explains that the exigence can range
widely in its complexity.
In the case of the first article mentioned, the question the author is responding to is rather
complex: How would legalizing marijuana impact the youth in society? This article was
written by two doctors and therefore discusses the topic from a healthcare perspective. From the
title of the second article mentioned, you can already assume that it will be discussing marijuana
legalization from an economic standpoint. The exigence of this piece could then be What affect
does legalizing marijuana have on the economy? Lastly comes the blog. As it is from a personal
perspective on the topic, the question the author is responding to may be as simple as Why
should marijuana be legalized? As you can see, all of these articles are similar in the fact that
they are on the same topic, yet differ greatly in their exigence, perspective, and purpose.
This brings us to the next point, who is the intended audience of each piece? As Mike
Bunn suggests, Knowing why the piece was written and who its for can help explain why the
author might have made certain choices or used particular techniques in the writing, and you can
assess those choices and techniques based in part on how effectively they are fulfilling that
purpose and reaching the intended audience (Bunn, 88). As the first two pieces are scholarly
journals, their intended audiences differ greatly from the intended audience of the blog.
Rhetorical features that can help one interpret the intended audience of a piece include
tone, format, and context. For example, in the first journal published by the American Academy
of Pediatrics, the tone is professional and scholarly. By using terms such as Synar Amendment

and developmental trajectory the author demonstrates that he is knowledgeable on the subject
and confident in sharing that knowledge (Legalization of Marijuana: Potential Impact on Youth).
This also shows readers that prior knowledge on specific amendments or medical terms may be
necessary to understand the piece provided. The author makes a specific move in formatting this
piece. He choses to present the article in a very structured manner, having specific titles for each
section including abstract, background, and historical perspectives on drug policies in the
United States. Not only does he choose to use specific titles, he also makes a move by putting
each title in all capitals and bolded. Regarding the format, the author makes another move by
choosing to present the piece in two columns. He also uses footnotes to further explain specific
points, and numerous references and citations. This article also includes a graph representing
data on the risk and availability trends of marijuana and brings up several statistics on the
topic. For example, the author states Among 18 to 20 year olds, the proportion who reported
ever having used marijuana increased from 15% to 44%, and the proportion who reported using
it within the previous 30 days increased from 8.5% to 18.5% (Legalization of Marijuana:
Potential Impact on Youth). All of these features help readers to infer that intended audience of
this piece is any healthcare professional interested in learning the potential impact of marijuana
legalization on adolescents.
The second journal, written by Larissa Flister is relatively similar to the first journal. As
they are both scholarly pieces, the tone of this one is also very professional and the structure is
nearly the same. One main difference is rather than structuring the article into columns, this
author moves to use one column. Because the author uses phrases such as annual health
expenditures and maintaining the current retail prices, you can assume that some basic
knowledge of economics must be known in order to understand this piece (Flister). The article

The economic Case of Marijuana Legalization in Canada has titles for each section including
an abstract, introduction, and conclusion (Flister). Flister makes a move by choosing to
number each section title. The author of this article doesnt use footnotes, but also uses many
references, citations, and statistics to build credibility and gain readers trust. From this, you can
assume that the intended audience is any educated economist concerned with how legalizing
marijuana would effect the economy.
The third and last publication, differs greatly from the previous two. This piece is a
personal blog rather than a scholarly article, and its tone, format, and context is almost
completely opposite of the others. In opposition to the formal, academic tone of the two previous
articles, the tone of the blog is informal and personal, coming from the heart, speaking of the
authors own opinions on the legalization of marijuana. For example, he states marijuanas
fibers are an economical god send and marijuana can create stronger family ties by relieving
stress from the work environment. It uses casual language that people of all ages and
educational backgrounds can understand and even mentions foul language due to lack of
constraints. As Carroll shares, constraints have a lot to do with how the rhetoric is presented
(Carroll, 41). For example, one line says some shit their pants, which is perfectly acceptable
to use in this blog because of the lack of formality and constraints in the blog genre. The use of
informal language makes readers feel like they can relax and flow with the humor of the blog,
rather than having to critically think while reading a formal article.
One could also say that each of the genres of sources use different types of thinking
according to the article Teaching Two Kinds of Thinking by Teaching Writing. Where second
order thinking is planned and logical, first order thinking is intuitive and creative and doesnt
strive for conscious direction or control (Teaching Two Kinds of Thinking by Teaching Writing,

31). For example, the scholarly articles use second order thinking which corresponds with more
conscious planning and logically presenting the information in a paragraph structure, while the
last article uses first order thinking to communicate the information in a numbered list format.
The format of this blog is not in a typical paragraph structure, but as I mentioned above, in a
numbered list of 101 reasons why the author believes that marijuana should be legalized. Unlike
the unbiased nature of the scholarly publications, the author of this blog is highly opinionated
and biased in favor of the legalization. For example, he states that Marijuana will make the US
less materialistic and Marijuana, despite what youve heard, is a lot of fun (101 Reasons to
Legalize Marijuana). There are no references or citations, which may lead readers to believe
that the information presented is not entirely accurate. That being said, readers can understand
that the intended audience of this blog is any person of any age that has the ability to read and
wants to know personal opinions on why marijuana should be legalized.
It is quite difficult when it comes to comparing the effectiveness and persuasiveness of
each of these three articles because each specific piece has a different audience to effectively
provide information to. To elaborate, the scholarly journals both had more educated, specified
audiences of different disciplines and therefore had to use formal tones and provide concrete
evidence, such as data, to support their arguments. In contrast, the blog had a very broad
audience varying in age and level of education, and thus conveyed an informal, conversational
tone and no real use of evidence to support his opinions. Furthermore, there is no real way to
compare the effectiveness of different writing styles and genres, as each specific genre is
effective towards their own intended audience. That being said, the first two articles would be
more effective for an educated health professional or economist than for the everyday person just
looking for simple opinions and likewise, the personal blog would be more effective for an

everyday person just looking for simple opinions than for an educated health professional or
economist. In summation, the intended audience plays a huge role in the development of a piece
of writing as the audience can determine the type of language used, the formality of the
discourse, the medium or delivery of the rhetoric (Carroll, 41).

Works Cited
Bunn, Mike. How to Read Like a Writer. Writing 2 De Piero UCSB Reader. Winter 2016.
Print.
Carroll, Laura Bolin. Backpack vs. Briefcase: Steps toward Rhetorical Analysis. Writing 2 De
Piero UCSB Reader. Winter 2016. Print.
Flister, Larissa Ducatti. The Economic Case for Marijuana Legalization in Canada. Journal of
Alternative Perspectives in the Social Sciences. 2012, Vol. 5 Issue 1, p96-100. 5p. Web.
Legalization of Marijuana: Potential Impact on Youth. American Academy of Pediatrics. Vol.
113 Issue 6, 2005. Web.
Teaching Two Kinds of Thinking by Teaching Writing. Writing 2 De Piero UCSB Reader.
Winter 2016. Print.
"101 Reasons to Legalize Marijuana." Uneedweed.blogspot.com. N.p., 11 June 2007. Web. 14
Feb. 2016.