In Brendon Larson’s paper “The war of the roses: demilitarizing invasion biology, Larson expresses his opinion on the diction used in recent journal articles on invasive species.  Larson feels that the diction used is entirely too militaristic.  The journal articles contains grasping metaphors that are intended to attract attention and cause people to want to take action immediately.  Although this technique is effective, Larson feels that the use of militaristic metaphors is troublesome.  This type of language causes the readers to misinterpret the invasive species problem and to oversimplify the problem.  From this militaristic perspective, the language confuses the reader into thinking the problem that exists is a war-like situation involving the human population verses the invasive species with no other factors involved. 

In my own blog post, I used the militaristic style and oversimplified an invasive species problem.  While explaining the ongoing termite problem in New Orleans, I said, ”If more action is not conducted, the termites will eventually eat away at the building until it collapses causing the city of New Orleans to flood.”  I created a man verses environment problem with this statement by saying that only human control could stop this problem from occurring, which could cause radical ideas and plans to be made,  which could in effect cause even more problems.  Based on the opinion of my own error, I personally agree with Larson’s opinion that militaristic language does not convey the entire picture of the invasive species problem.  This linguistic style does oversimplify the problem and presents opportunities for immediate and impractical ideas to be formed and conducted.  Larson goes on to say that instead of a militaristic analogy, a health analogy would be much more effective.  I agree with Larson’s opinion that the health metaphor is more effective and allows the reader to gain a better understanding of the problem.  With a health analogy, not only is the danger of the invasive species presented, but it is also expressed in a way that the human population is not the only cause of the problem and that the environment also has a large role in the situation.

http://sites.duke.edu/writing20_12_f2010/2010/09/08/termitesfromtoky/