Rhetorical Analysis Of 'Tune Out, Light Up'

American musician, Jerry Garcia, states, “Constantly choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil.” This is essentially the underlying principle of comparing two kinds of harmful effects, as one can try outshine the other but will still be detrimental. In the article, “Tune Out, Light Up”, Dave Kopel is trying to persuade readers in the article that watching television is worse than smoking cigarettes. The article poses an overall unsuccessful argument, as it expresses the views thoroughly with certain support and tries to use various appeals but fails to suggest essential evidence and realistic views. This article is trying to show how smoking cigarettes is better than watching television, as it goes into numerous points of how television can destroy many more years off of lives than smoking, making it less preferable than cigarettes. Kopel uses the classical appeals of pathos,

This article, “Tune Out, Light Up”, by David Kopel poses an unrealistic and over exaggerated argument of explaining why watching television presents greater harm than smoking cigarettes. Unfortunately, this argument is unsuccessful because of the weak execution but it has potential for success if exaggeration is limited and scientific evidence is given. Referencing journals and clinical research can be beneficial for this argument, since health matters are of concern. Kopel paints individuals with the same brush in this article, and fails to acknowledge the unique details of genetics and specific television channels. This article does promote future talks about how simple leisure activities in life could be far more dangerous than expected, especially when compared with a massive threat. Therefore, if the improvements are specifically made and the writing is more formalized in that regard, then this article can be effective in implementation of the overall