Adolescents and the media

This particular piece was very unique compared to other persuasive pieces. I liked the fact how it was well structured and organized, it included subtitles and bolded important terms. The author made sure to use facts, statistics, and studies to support his/her point. As an informal tone, the author included techniques like reader’s inclusion, abbreviations and rhetoric questions which made the persuasive piece quite efficient. The author branched off from one topic to other topics such as drugs, sex, eating disorders and so forth. As a reader, I thought about how one thing can lead to many things which made it remarkable than most of the other persuasive pieces. It states all the affects as well as how it can lead to many other things.

The author was clear about his point and readers can find it easier to understand what the author’s opinion was. The author believed that the media does have an influence on adolescence therefore parent’s presence is really important in a child’s life. The author used various facts to support his argument which made it convincing. For example, “the connection between media violence and real-life aggression is nearly as strong as the link between smoking and lung cancer, and stronger than the connections between lead and IQ, homework and achievement, calcium and bone mass, and exposure to asbestos and cancer. Although much of the research has been done in the United States, an Australian Psychological Association position paper in 2000 and the Royal Australasian College of Physicians in 2004 acknowledged the significance of media violence”. As you can see this author uses studies by doctors and pediatricians to prove his point.

I found the editorial much easier to understand than the other three persuasive pieces because of the way it was structured. He uses his own theories and compares with other people's theories which also made it effective. This piece was very straight forward, informative and easier to note down facts. It was somewhat like presenting a PowerPoint by using bullets, subtitles and etc.