19. The Season of Renewal and Suicide

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2012/12/suicide_rate_season_there_more_suicides_in_spring_and_not_during_the_holidays.html

Brian Palmer, author of "The Season of Renewal and Suicide," wrote on December 7th about the mystery behind the varying suicide rates at different times of the year. The author began by clarifying the misunderstanding that "the suicide rate does not peak during the holidays," and stating that suicides are more common during the spring and summer. Palmer provided a brief background of how the issue was studied since the 1800s, and since then, researchers have gathered evidence for such argument. Following this, Palmer explained that the reason why people commit suicide more often during the spring is due to the change in their everyday routines. From a season with less work, less interaction, and less conflict to a time with greater interaction with others and more work and stress, people tend to have more suicidal thoughts. Not only has season thought to have an effect on the suicide rate, but also other factors such as climate, rain, barometric pressure, and even thunderstorms.

Palmer's article was directed to the general public, with the purpose of informing and arguing a very debated issue among psychiatric researchers - what causes suicides to be greater during the spring and summer. The title of the article cannot be fully understood unless one reads the article, which refered to spring and summer. Palmer's formal and informative language, as well as the simple and direct diction was successful in communicating with the reader without any trouble. His tone was unbiased, and he seemed to not be so confident on which side he took. Palmer's unsure tone was evident in passages such as "possibly because," "there's still no consensus," and "although the data are sumilarly tenuous." Providing several examples of people, observations, and studies, the author supported his claims with these evidence.