When authors use multiple persuasive techniques at once

Note: This post is one of a series of scheduled posts while I’m away for a few weeks.

Some students get a little confused when authors use multiple persuasive techniques/devices at once. Where do you start? Which one do you talk about first? Below is an example: 

‘Whenever there’s something unhappy, or evil, or messy out there, Leunig plops the teapot on his head and retreats into his fantasy land.’
(Eleanor Robertson, ‘Leunig’s anti-vaccination stance reveals the fantasy world he lives in’, The Guardian, Wednesday 19th August, 2015)

There are multiple techniques in this sentence: colloquial language (plops), an attack and a negative connotation (fantasy land). Which one should you talk about first? 

When there are multiple persuasive techniques/devices used at once, it is important to think about which is the main one and which are supporting ones. In this case, the entire sentence is an attack while the colloquial language and negative connotation just contribute to it. So my suggestion would be to analyse the attack first, then bring in discussion about the use of colloquial language and negative connotation. 

I hope that was helpful!

~Shirlaine