Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Close Reading Assignment for Sunday, Sep. 23rd
Seth Mullins' article, "An Argument Against Television for Children", I found to be not very convincing, not because I'm an adolescent who enjoys television, but because the article lacked examples and references to specific studies. The structure of the essay was well done, beginning with an introduction paragraph to get the reader to recognize the topic being argued, body paragraphs explaining why the author feels the way he does, and a closing paragraph to sum up the argument and offer a solution to the problem introduced in the beginning. The opening and closing paragraphs were probably the best parts of the work. It begins with, "Studies have shown that in the past few decades, a significant number of American children spent more time in front of a television set than in a classroom" (Mullins). The introduction was nice, however, he didn't really state clearly that the fact was a big issue; he could have even included right in the beginning an example of how this is a thing to be concerned with (use of statistics, for example). The ending summarized the body paragraphs and then stated a possible solution - "The more we can curb our kids’ TV watching time and replace it with active and/or creative play the more their imaginations, reasoning abilities and spontaneity will flourish" (Mullins). Nice way to finish.
The body paragraphs were the main problem, I think. The author states both in the intro as well as in the first body paragraph that "studies have been shown..." and "much has been written about" for the negative effects that television can have on the young mind, but there are no specific examples. Mullins uses diction to convey his point instead, stating that television "demands that they [children] be passive while bombarded with imagery that they can neither respond to nor be given time to think about and assimilate"(Mullins). Then goes on to say that television provides "another reality" for children, so they are not more adapted and responsive to the environment in which they are actually living. I think the wording as well as the structure was done well, telling the audience what his opinion was and why, and then dabbling a bit into how to solve the issue. It's when he states things such as "studies have shown" and "young children learn primarily through imitation and repetition" (Mullins) that examples from outside sources would best accomplish the goal he is trying to achieve - informing, arguing his case - because it is just that, an argumentative essay. One of the best ways to persuade someone who has a differing view than you is to use real-world examples to show how something is good or bad.
http://articles.familylobby.com/287-an-argument-against-television-for-children.htm
^ link to Mullins' article
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I would find it frustrating reading an argumentative article that didn't use many outside sources for examples. I agree that it makes the author's point weaker, and doesn't make you very interested in the article. I also thought it was interesting that you said the diction helped make their point stronger. This shows how much diction can affect writing, and I am definitely going to be more conscious of it from now on!
ReplyDeleteI have no doubt that there have been studies that have shown exactly the result he is talking about, but the fact that he didn't cite any makes me think either he was either too lazy to, or he was trying to appeal to a different audience. A lot of people, perhaps less educated ones, could be turned off by an excess of numbers and figures in an article, and it would therefore be more effective to appeal to them with qualitative statements. It seems more likely to me that this was the case, since as you pointed out, Lauren, he took a great deal of care writing the article and choosing his words carefully.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is interesting that we had to do an assignment about using the five area of rhetoric, but this author here failed to even do that in many aspects of his article. From that lack of details as you pointed our earlier, you can easily see how the article's point weakens, and how its message is not as believable. Even though the author does have strong aspects of the rhetoric included in his essay, it is still not strong. This just goes to show that all five aspects of the rhetoric must be implemented to write a strong article. This author also seems to be trying to manipulate statistics and his language by choosing words selectively, showing diction. Good job locating the weak points in this article! It is good that you also listed alternatives to this author's writing to make it stronger.
ReplyDelete