Excerpt from "A Cooking Revolution: How Clean Energy and Cookstoves Are Saving Lives" by Chef José Andrés, June 7, 2016
Cooking: it's a simple act that has brought families around the world together for thousands and thousands of years.
As a chef, I can think of few things more beautiful than that. However, I also know how deadly such a simple act can be , not only to our health, but to our environment.
Think about it: For Americans, turning on the stove means simply turning a knob or switch. For people living in developing countries, particularly women and children, it means hours of collecting fuels like firewood, dung, or coal to burn in a rudimentary, smoky cookstove or over an open fire.The result is a constant source of toxic smoke that families breathe in daily, causing diseases like child pneumonia, heart disease, and lung cancer , not to mention taking a child away from her education.
In fact, diseases caused by smoke from open fires and stoves claim 4.3 million lives every year. That's more than AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined.
How does the author's use of language and word choice affect this passage?
Contractions and first-person pronouns make the passage seem conversational.
Phrases such as "Think about it" and "As a chef" give the impression that the author takes himself too seriously.
The formal tone indicates that this article would most likely be found in a scientific journal.
The use of statistics and technical vocabulary means that the passage is interesting mainly to experts.