Eliana Dockterman persuades her readers to believe that early exposure to technology is beneficial to children by presenting evidence and statistics, providing counterarguments to opposing views, and providing trusted and valued opinions.
Firstly, Dockterman convinces her readers that technological exposure is beneficial to children by revealing facts and statistics. For instance, Dockterman shows that "kids who played games like Samorost [solving puzzles] did 12% better on logic tests than those who did not"(Dockterman). This use of factual evidence proves that Dockterman has proof to support her claim that exposure to technology is beneficial. By doing this, Dockterman shows that her claim is based on truths and not opinion; it
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The author reasons that her opinion is correct because reliable intellectuals have supported it saying,"If you look at applying for college or a job, that's on the computer," says Shawn Jackson, principal of Spencer Tech, a public school in one of Chicago's lower-income neighborhoods. Ditto the essential skills for jobs in fast-growing sectors such as programming, engineering and biotechnology"(Dockterman). This shows that Dockterman uses a method of rhetoric, called ethos, in her writing style to convince others that her claim is correct since it is supported by people who interact with children daily. By using the opinion of a principal, a person who is greatly informed of effective ways to cultivate needed skills in future generations, the author tries to convince her audience that she is not the only one who supports her claim. What this reveals is that Dockterman's writing style depends on the convictions of other people in build an argument to support her claim. By using other's opinions, Dockterman gathers support for her cause. Furthermore, the author uses ethos to strengthen her argument saying,"Online, kids can engage with specialized communities of interest," says Mimi Ito, an anthropologist at the University of California at Irvine who's studying how technology affects young adults"(Dockterman). This is significant because it shows that the author uses a writing style that builds on the opinions of others to better her own argument. This proves that Dockterman depends on the valued opinions of others, such as professionals, to gather more supporters. Through the use of professional opinions, Dockterman enhances her writing style and tries to persuade others to support her claim that technological exposure should be encouraged due to its
According to Helen Sword (2012 pg.48), “A carefully crafted sentence welcomes its reader like a comfortable rocking chair” and “helps its reader navigate tricky terrain like a well-hewn walking stick”. Therefore, varying styles and methods of sentences are an important construct in the written language. Hence through examining Julia Gillard’s and Rebecca Sloan’s use of sentence structure and grammar, this rhetorical analysis will attempt to explore how differing mediums and cultural contexts of writers portrays their credibility which are effectively used to convey a particular agenda to their intended audience.
By reading, Anne Lamott’s essay, her writing process is interesting, in my opinion. She explains that her writing isn’t always flawless but rather shitty in the beginning. Anne writes one “shitty” draft and after that she analyzes her draft. By doing this she takes out words or finds a new beginning on the second page or as she says finding something great on the last sentence on page six. I think the process Anne takes is important to her because she not only can say anything in her shitty draft but the freedom she has. She doesn’t have to worry about anyone read that draft expect her.
Since Portia is a Roman woman she must be very careful on choosing what she’s going to say to Brutus. You must take into account that being Roman women puts you at a disadvantage because men would never take orders from their wives. But Portia successfully persuaded her husband, Brutus, to her what is going on, by appealing to pathos by using strong dialect and creating imagery to show strength, logos by using her superiority, their marriage bonds, and definition of a harlot, and finally ethos by showing expertise in being his wife, by kneeling and showing her nobility.
Kenneth Burke, Danielle Allen and Mark Backman’s conception of rhetoric, all view the perception of ‘the other’ as valuable. Not only valuable but an idea that goes beyond the terminology of us and focuses on a collective identity of we. Allen views rhetoric as a sense of trust building within communities and ensuring that differences don’t create a drift between an us and them and vice versa; especially not a situation where you assume due to differences and create a sense of belonging through similarities. Allen focuses on friendship a lot within the reading and allows us to understand the importance of creating a space where differences are put a side to create an environment that fosters the idea of viewing the interests of others, as being connected to our own interests.
The article that I am discussing is "Raising the Screen Generation" by Martha Pickerill. The topic of this article is the increase in the amount of screen technology that children consume. The population that is directly impacted by this issue are children in ant socioeconomic status, but parents are also affected. This issue is very prevalent as the children of today have access to more technology then did previous generations. Throughout the article, Pickerill discusses how smartphone and tablet has increased exponentially over the past five years. Additionally, the author addresses important research and recommendations from clinical pediatricians on the amount of screen use that children should use daily and the pros and cons of screen
Our Lady of the Harbour written by Charles de Lint is a contemporary retelling of The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen. The illustration is based on the idea of the water and land being two different world; shown by the use of color blocking, where the black and white clash against each other as land and water meet. Plus, the mermaid’s mouth is covered as reference to the story about her losing her beautiful voice as a challenge to enrapture the male lover.
The Letter from Birmingham Jail was written by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in April of 1963. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of several civil rights activists who were arrested in Birmingham Alabama, after protesting against racial injustices in Alabama. Dr. King wrote this letter in response to a statement titled A Call for Unity, which was published on Good Friday by eight of his fellow clergymen from Alabama. Dr. King uses his letter to eloquently refute the article. In the letter dr. king uses many vivid logos, ethos, and pathos to get his point across. Dr. King writes things in his letter that if any other person even dared to write the people would consider them crazy.
Technology used for communication was created to save time and make work more efficient. In time the dependency on technology increased into other functions, including television, computers and gaming and so has the efficiency. Parents are aware of the impact modern technology has on their children. They are highly concerned with the effects and hope that they won't' fall into the technology trap. Elaina Dockterman, author of the Time article, "The Digital Parent Trap", goes against the prosaic by persuading readers that if used correctly, technology can be beneficial at an early age introduction. Dockterman accomplishes this by effectively using logical appeals, establishing credibility, and applying emotional appeals. Initially, Dockterman states numerous statistics to her audience to catch their attention.
Where a student once had to travel to the local library or bookstore to find information, they can now find information almost instantly in their “smart” phone. In this technological age “we are raising our children in a multimedia environment. Before writing and books, information was carried in songs, dance, and storytelling. Today, the average person has a cornucopia of information readily available at home.” (Withrow 44). Anyone in possession of a computer, digital e-reader, laptop, or “smart” phone has an almost immediate access to any kind of information they are seeking. In today’s society, a two-year-old child knows how to operate a tablet or “smart” phone before they know how to read. It is this interest in technology that leads to a decline in reading as children age. Where once it would take hours to find information, there is now an almost immediate response to queries. Through the instant gratification technology provides, children begin to lose interest in reading. According to Michael, the disinterest in reading is “because reading takes time, and we have an instant gratification generation who can’t wait to read the book when they can just watch the movie” (Michael). Instead of spending days discovering a new world in a book, a child can instead spend a couple hours in front of a television and watch
We live in a time where technology is at the center of our society. We use technology on a daily basis, for the simplest tasks, or to aid us in our jobs, and don’t give a second thought to whether these tools are actually helping us. Writers such as Kevin Kelly and Clive Thompson argue that the use of technology actually helps us humans; whiles writers such as Nicholas Carr argue that technology affects people’s abilities to learn information negatively.
In the article “The Digital Parent Trap”, written in August 2013 by Eliana Dockterman, she explains the assets of technology for young students. Dockterman uses many strategies to persuade parents of the benefits of technology. The author uses ethos, writing structure, and statistics to persuade the audience.
Many people have a wide range of opinions on whether technology is having a positive influence on our children or a negative, there is a vast amount of evidence to support both of these arguments. Technology can refer to so many things, but there are three main parts of technology that have the greatest effect on our children: video games, television/media, and computers. The modern technologies we have today are so powerful because they attract our genetic biases, that the human brain has a tremendous love for visually presented information. Video games, television, movies and computer programs are all very visually oriented and therefore they attract and keep the attention of children easily. By far the largest concern of technology today is video games.
However, Thompson argues how technology is changing people’s mind for the better and how technology is benefiting us. Thompson tells us that computers are helping us think differently to learn new ways for players. He also tells us how digital tools are making our lives easier by communicating through social media, sharing ideas to everybody, and learning new ways from technology. Nicholas Carr disagrees that technology doesn’t positively change the way we think or could be beneficial. Carr claims that it will change how we process knowledge such as our literacy and he gave a personal experience of how his literacy became poorly along with his friends from technology. Also, the internet spams us advertisements to get people's attention and distract them from processing information. It’s clear now that technology does change how people acknowledge information and it’s what keeps us
The people and tools used around children help define who they are and who they will grow to be. In the past, children have been taught in what we now call the “traditional way”, the children enter the classroom and listen to the teacher talk. A child mind is supposed to expand like that of their parents, yet we find that they are unable because of the vast amount of technology. Concentration is at a minimum so the amount of effort is indistinguishable in the assignments given to them. Lytle’s article discusses high schoolers in an AP calculus classroom who have gained higher test scores that students in the past, “In the 2010-11 school year the students scored an average of 4.11 on the AP calculus test, compared to the 3.59 average among the students who took the test and were taught in the traditional classroom the year before.” The test scores prove that technology betters the student. The children who were taught with technology put forth more effort because the required information was presented in a way that engaged and motivated the students. The teacher got their brain gears rolling in ways that hasn’t happened since video
In the United States in this day in age, technology has become a fighting force that parents and teachers both love and hate. I recently interviewed Cindy Moser about some of these problems and questions that concern technology and kids. When it comes to children right now, they are all engaged in some type of technology. Kids are getting phones at younger ages, they are able to watch more mature television shows before they are of age to watch, and with the easily accessible technology around them, actual human to human interacting has become a struggle to some children. However there are many benefits to the advancements of technology that we have made, the benefits are often accompanied by challenges. It can change the relationship between parents and children, not allow children to learn essential life skills needed to interact with other people, and even jeopardize their future by thinking everything that they post is private. Technology can be very useful for young children, but to a certain point it has to be regulated on what they can do.