Steven Johnson Rhetorical Analysis Essay

The Analysis of Steven Johnson’s Watching TV Makes You Smarter “The best compositions establish a sense of momentum and direction by making explicit connections among their different parts, so that what is said in one sentence (or paragraph) both sets up what is to come and is clearly informed by what has already been said.” This piece of advice that is mentioned in the book “They Say, I say with Readings” is very useful when constructing an elaborate string of ideas and the writer intends to make them flow smoothly and effectively for his audience. The four techniques that are used in implementing this flow are: “using transition terms,” “adding pointing words,” “developing a set of key terms and phrases for each text you write” and “repeating

One of these examples is introduced early on when Johnson is giving the premise of the show 24 in order to show just how intricate the program is. He introduces key terms such as “Muslim,” “torture,” “kill,” “jihadist,” and “terrorist” to emphasize the controversy of the subject matter and narrative. He introduces this in order to present a contrast to the audience of the shows of today that are shown versus the shows 20 years ago that would have never allowed for such elements as this to be shown. The bland contrast between the narrative structure of then and now gives a unique perspective to how the development of story and narrative elements have become more elaborate and complicated for the viewer and audience to analyze. The last example Johnson shows is the various tasks that the viewer has to keep track of within the narrative structure of a show like 24. The viewer has to analyze various parts of the show such as keeping track of the relationships between characters, make certain hypothesizes of what will happen next and most importantly is being very immersive to spot any details within the show which could be important later on. All of these tasks are mentioned by Johnson to illustrate how a viewer won’t just be content to just watch a show without analyzing it further or

The elements that Steve Johnson states are all elements that brings the article together that makes sense to the audience in order to be informed. These elements consist of the different transition terms, the pointing words, key terms/phrases and the reiteration of similar words. The Dialogue is also shown from the author about how complicated conversation has risen between basic and complicated TV shows. He shows that in Woody Allen’s “Sleeper” the dialogue is pretty straightforward where the two characters just point out the obvious while explaining to the viewer what is happening and pointing at the mysteries and revealing them so as to not lose the viewer. However, he transitions this to an episode of E.R where the dialogue feels more realistic in the sense that the characters know what they’re talking about and move on to progress the plot without delay only to stop at certain moments to explain vague things even the audience might not understand but only in the sense of hints rather than full blown disclosure. He transitions all this evidence into why a more smart culture is being developed and why it’s a good thing where more subject matter will be able to develop to cater to a more analytical