Writing for unit6 2
The author introduces six kinds of claim in paragraph 9-14. These are: “The Weasel Claim”, “The “Water Is Wet” Claim”, “The “So What” Claim”, “The Scientific or Statistical Claim”, “The “Compliment the Consumer” Claim”, “The Rhetorical Question”.
In paragraph 9, “a weasel word” refers to the word which belongs to the Weasel Claim. And in the next sentence the author shows the source of the expression “weasel word”. If a person doesn’t look very carefully, we can call him or her is a casual observer. The preposition “on” in the sentence “Words or claims that appear substantial at first glance but disintegrate into hollow meaninglessness on analysis are weasels” means “at the time of”, so we can understand this sentence like this. At first glance words or claims appear substantial but at the time of analysis disintegrate into hollow meaninglessness are weasels. Then according to two examples we know this type of claim.
The whole 10th paragraph is written around the “water is wet” claim. In this paragraph, the author introduces this type of claim. Of course, water is wet, so this type of claim can’t stand out the biggest advantage of the products’. In this paragraph, there is a preposition puzzled me. It’s “over”. We always use “in the competition”, but here the author writes “over the competition”. It appears to me that the author wants to express the meaning of “win in the competition”. The complete sentence “Made from grains and water as are other beers” should be: Rheingold is made from grains and water as are other beers. The second example in this paragraph is a perfume named “SKIN”. Any perfume sells differently on everyone. So this claim can’t show this perfume’s feature.
The next type is “so what”. “So what” is used to show that you do not think something that has been mentioned is important. The complete question “but is it twice as beneficial to the body?” would be: but is it twice as beneficial to the body as ordinary supplements are? In the structure “as…as”, the second part of the structure is omitted if you have already mentioned the thing to which you are comparing the amount, measurement or degree.
The sentence “even the weasel “helps” did not prevent the FTC from demanding that this ad be withdrawn” means although the word “helps” is fairly vague, the FTC considered that the claim was precise enough to be called a false claim and thus this ad had to be withdrawn.
The sentence “even if you peer into the refrigerator during televised ads, of close Your Eyes when you drive past billboards, commercials are working on you” means that even if you avoid looking at ads, they still affect you.
