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Importance of academic writing skills
Television violence effect on society
Importance of academic writing skills
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Sara Sharif English 112 Megan Bushar 03/26/14 Violent Media is Good for Kids Gerard Jones' essay, "Violent Media is Good for Kids," has an epic tone that is straight out of the comic books that he writes. It is a passionate, well-written appeal to pathos that should be very effective at grabbing the attention of his readers. In the course of developing this appeal, he also includes appeals to both logos and pathos, making his argument something more than a simple tug on the heartstrings. Though not without its problems, this essay presents a strong argument in favor of the benefits of violent media such as comic books. Recent events have driven the debate over violence into the center of the national attention once again. There are many arguments …show more content…
It will speak most to people who suffered from similar problems themselves, or who know somebody who does. In other words, it will establish the most sympathetic bonds with those who are most inclined to agree with his argument already. This approach is not as likely to sway those who are already inclined to hold the opposing point of view as much. The fact that the author has a strong bias in favor of such violent media is obvious: he establishes it in the first paragraph. This does not invalidate his argument, as his argument is partly a description of how he arrived at those views in the first place. However, it will cause some people who are instinctively inclined to disagree with him to dismiss the entirety of his argument out of …show more content…
Although it is not intended to be a logical argument, the logical problems that it suffers from provide easy fodder for opponents to use to tear it down. Specifically, the essay seems to commit the fallacy of the lonely fact. Although the conclusions that he draws are sweeping, applying to all children, the sample he uses is actually very small. He relates a few personal stories. He relates the opinions of people who have studied the subject. Compared to the size of the group in the conclusion, all the children in the world, this is an incredibly small sample. It can easily lead to accusations of cherry picking by opponents of his thesis. His argument would have been much stronger if he had been able to include the results of some analysis of relevant statistics taken from large sample populations. These facts could easily be incorporated, via summary, without interrupting the overall flow of the essay or its emotional
Violent Media is Good for Kids, by Gerard Jones, is an article which makes many claims to support the argument in which a controlled amount of violence could be beneficial for a young, developing child. Even though the topic of this article can be controversial, the claims serve to support the argument in many noteworthy ways. It is written in such a way that it tells a story, starting when the author was a child and works its way to his adulthood. In this case the author uses, what I believe to be just the correct amount of each rhetorical strategy, and fulfills his goal for writing the article. This argument is interesting and at the same time, effective. Throughout the analyzing process logos, ethos, and pathos are searched for and scrutinized.
To summarize, the use of emotion, credibility and reasoning by Sally Thomas clearly and successfully argues that a boy is rough by nature and not violent given a war toy. The sequential use of reasoning, range of authority, and use of emotions in the article made the readers get into the character of a boy and truly understand the points Thomas was making. It is important to study the true cause and effects of violence on boys and act accordingly for fair and peaceful society. Thomas writes the article in order to make the readers realize the true fact behind the violence of boys so maybe people might make the right decision against the roughness.
In “Violent Media is Good for Kids” Gerard Jones introduces us to his fearful and lonesome childhood. He lived in a world where he was taught to be the violence fearing, and passive boy his parents wanted him to be. But, when one of his mother’s students gave him a Marvel comic book, his fearfulness was transformed into inspiration. He found a way to escape these discouraging feelings through the “stifled rage and desire for power” (Jones 285) that he had newly found. The popular comic book hero “The Hulk” freed him from his passive and lonely persona. Throughout the article he cites his testimonies and the testimonies of others as examples; and shows how they used violence as a positive realm for “overcoming powerlessness.” (Jones 287) Ultimately, Jones is trying to convey the message that violent media can provide kids with psychological tools for coping with the problems that they face as they grow. Although there are slight hints of biased evidence, “Violent Media is Good for Kids” should be considered for the top prize for persuasive essays.
In “Violent Media Is Good for Kids,” Gerard Jones states that violence is good for children. Even with all the bad things people have said about the media and the effect of violence on kids, it has helped many kids reveal their feelings and their fears. In Jones article, he uses his own experience as an example of himself when he was a kid. Also, he uses his son and other kids experience as an example. Most kids use their imagination to pretend to be a protagonist they like. From reading this article it has helped me understand more that not all media violence are harmful for children. Violent media have helped kids express their feelings in a good way. With my own experience as a kid, I can relate to Jones experience. In his essay he uses diction, tone, organization and examples.
Jones, Gerard. "Violent Media Is Good for Kids." Mother Jones. 27 June 2000. Web. 16 Feb. 2014. Rpt. In Current Issues and Enduring Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking and Argument, with Readings. 9th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2011. 195-99. Print.
Initially, the speaker takes up an example about a child who has witnessed how his mother has been mistreated by her husband. Meanwhile, the folks fought, the boy attempted to evade caring by holding his ears and listening to very loud music which made his parents annoyed. By highlighting this example, Mr. Wade clarifies that children do not elect to be in the role of observers in such situations. They harness their approaches instead in order to intervene and protect
The video hosted by Bill Moyer that we watched in class on March 4th involved violence in the mass media and the effects that it may have on children in modern day society. Video games sometimes display graphic violence as well as violent verbal messages that often convey a message of appeal to children. Movies often combine humor, violence, and/or sex in order to be more appealing to the audience. Usually two or more of these factors are used. Whether it is through these sources or as something as simple as the evening news, violence is everywhere in the media today and displays messages of approval that American society may not realize.
...ionally prescribes that folks don't believe their kids' judgment. He asks, "How would we be able to hope to prepare a free, thinking individual who can settle on his own choices, comprehend his society, and live mercifully with his individual man when we edit key components of his society and human encounter”? Another enthusiastic request or impact may happen, as well. Some individuals may be offended by the article, feeling that controls are a more terrific peril to social order than the works they assault.
Wilbur shows a good effort made to protect a child from fears because the fears are irrational. On the contrary, Collins juxtaposes a history teacher’s efforts to protect his students from historical truths and their ensuing behavior to show that the time he spends misguiding his students could be better spent teaching children to mature. Wilbur and Collins both demonstrate approaches to calming children; however the approaches differ in terms of protecting the children verses outright lying to them. Theses passages attempt to answer the controversial question of whether it is better to shelter children or expose them to the harsh realities of the world.
Violent media has been proven to cause a child to become aggressive. Media such as video games, television and internet all contain violence that is shown to the public for entertainment. Younger children have cartoons on television that contain explosions and they look up to these animations wishing they can duplicate the cartoons actions. Older children have a tendency to want to play video games and most of these are full of violent media. The most popular games are fighting and shooting games. These older children might have siblings that want to be just like their older brother or sister and begin to have a negative impact caused by the type of media they watch. The internet contains unlimited data,
James, A. (1998). From the child's point of view: Issues in the social construction of
As censorship of the American media has broken down over the years, the amount of violence allowed to be shown in movies, on television, and in video games has skyrocketed. From coast to coast in our nation, this saturation of hostility in our media has caused many contentious debates between scholars, parents, students and government officials alike. In this controversy, the central argument revolves around the effects violent media has on our society. The question that most researchers strive to answer is this: does watching or participating in violent media cause violent or other harmful behaviors? There are those who would say yes, it does promote destructive behavior in real life. On the other hand, there are those who argue no, violent media is simply a reflection of what is already occurring in our society.
... growth where a child is forced to start looking for solutions for everything that is wrong instead of simply being a child. This analysis prove that children have their own way of seeing things and interpreting them. Their defense mechanisms allow them to live through hard and difficult times by creating jokes and games out of the real situation. This enables then to escape the difficulties of the real world.
If reality was a picture, it would be a small, malnourished, beaten, violated, hopeless, poor, devastated, oppressed child. There are many more like this child, sitting in the corners of the dirty cities around the world witnessing all the oppression that has evolved from this reality. This realism is the life of a child being destroyed by the ways of the world. This child, along with countless others, has had their freedom to a healthy life stolen by the restrictions of authority. Therefore, the oppression of children is a result of restrictive authority that limits what the world has to offer adolescents.
Levine, Madeline. "Media Violence Harms Children." Media Violence. Opposing Viewpoints. Ed. William Dudley. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. 28-36.