Debunking Media Violence (formal tone)

I liked the opening of this persuasive piece, the author used to introduce the topic violence in the media by using the example of “Tom and Jerry” to catch the reader’s attention. The essay was well structured and used effective diction yet the essay wasn’t as strong as I expected it to be. The author tried to support both sides. At first the author starts off by presenting how media violence has an influence on youth which makes them violent but the author carried on how the media doesn’t have an influence the youth and that it’s the parent’s responsibility so the media shouldn’t get blamed for. I felt that the author wasn’t clear with what he was trying to prove since he was trying to point out facts for both sides.

The essay needed stronger facts to support his points. Although the author used opinions from professionals, they weren’t facts; they were opinions so the author didn’t research the right facts to support his/her argument. Therefore, the author used base rate fallacy just like one of the previous persuasive pieces because he/she used weak evidence to make a judgement. The author should have gotten information from various different experts to see if there is any difference in their opinions.

I found some errors which didn't make this piece very efficient, for example "Even if you don't believe the argument that violence in the media doesn't cause any problems with our children, you need to take matters into your own hands. Watch what your children are watching". Henceforth the author didn't take his/her time to edit and use the right techniques to make it formal than informal.

The editorial could have had combination of long and short sentences to make it more interesting. Even though this editorial was written in a formal tone, the author still used abbreviations. Instead of writing the full word of a number, it used numbers for example, “This is just one incident that has occurred over the past 10 years that groups are concerned about”. What made this article somewhat effective was because it had couple of rhetoric questions which made the reader think about the issue. Overall, the author organized the essay well as it flowed nicely, used appropriate vocabularies, and few techniques but it was lacking facts.

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.

Media violene (formal tone)

As a reader, I didn’t find this persuasive piece of writing very strong. In fact it sounded more informal than formal simply because it didn’t use suitable techniques, high-quality vocabulary and tone. Though it used some rhetoric questions, the author could have still used more techniques and devices to make it more effective. The main idea of this piece was that violence is an issue that our society has been facing for years. In addition, there were errors such as at times the author would use the word “television” but at other times the author would use the short term “t.v.” , “Violence on t.v. is very common today as it was 30 years ago”. Also the author wrote numbers instead of writing them as words, “For example, boys ages 10-14, who saw "parental discretion" advisories”. Although the author provides supporting evidence that television can cause violent behavior for children, then it focuses on the idea that “for the most part, most television is neither helpful nor harmful”. Thus, it was very puzzling and it confuses the reader and doesn’t make this piece very convincing since the bias gets taken away.

This piece could have been better if the author used better facts, evidences, example, and structured the essay properly. It shows that the author doesn’t know what he/she is talking about because the facts used weren’t in-depth, he/she could have gotten into it more details and explained it more. The reason why I find this piece more informal than formal because the author used this sentence, "As you can see this conclusion is quiet vague, and does not give a lot of crucial information for us to correct and improve” and “There are also a number of other factors that influence the way television affects people such as: attitudes, knowledge, interests, how much t.v. you watch, etc”. As a reader, you can tell that the author did not edit his/her work properly or put much effort into this writing.

The author could have used combination of short and long sentences like the editorial on media which was informal. The main idea of the essay wasn’t clear which means that the author failed to get his/her point across to the reader. What I found really irritating was that first the author states an evidence that supports the idea of media violence influencing teenagers but ended up by stating that there are other factors that lead to violence other than the media. Thus this editorial includes hasty conclusion and base rate fallacy (uses weak evidence to make a judgment without taking into account known empirical statistics about the probability). It confuses the reader about which side of the argument the author is trying to support. The author also used red herring (an argument that is not related to the central discussion) for example, “boys ages 10-14, who saw "parental discretion" advisories, PG-13, and R ratings on programs found these more attractive”. It is not a relevant point, because it doesn’t support the author’s central point on media influencing the youth.

This persuasive piece lacked many techniques, contractions, reader’s inclusion, and use of proper vocabulary which could have made this piece much clearer. The way the essay was structured was poor as well, it didn’t flow adequately. Although it had an introduction, body paragraph, and a conclusion, because of the lack of various techniques and elements of writing, the whole essay sounded weak.

Media Violence (Informal tone)

The editorial, “A Few thoughts on Media violence” by Henry Jenkins was overall extremely well written. The author managed to get his main idea across to the readers. The editorial included convincing and significant points as well as important facts which made the persuasive piece very efficient. The author used evidences that proved every point he made by using facts from other articles, research studies and statistics. For example, when he used a news story from the New York Times, “...Old Boy as an obscure cult film which appeals primarily to those who are interested in excessive violence. While the film includes some of the most disturbing violence I've seen on screen in some time, that's precisely the point: the violence is meant to be disturbing”. One of the techniques the author used to make the editorial effective was by supporting all his arguments with proofs that are confirmed by reference he includes. Henceforth this is what makes the essay well-organized and efficient.

The author states many examples of various countries such as Japan, England, Singapore, and the U.S with different time periods which helps to make the argument very well proven and convincing. The editorial is written in an informal tone, yet it doesn’t address the audience much. Compared to other informal editorials, the author didn’t use the word “you” a lot, the only sentence he used “you” was in “Talk about damned if you do and damned if you don't!”. The tone used in the editorial was very effective because he used few rhetoric questions like “Why is violence so persistent in our popular culture?” which allows the readers to connect with the write and relate to it. In addition he used comparisons, contractions, and reader’s inclusion. The way the author structured the editorial really flowed well which was very effectual.

We discussed in class how too many repetition or short sentences can get irritating for the reader when analyzing Obama’s speeches. In this case the author managed to use number of short and long sentences effectively. The use of vocabulary was very brilliant which helps the reader understand the author’s point of view. On the whole, with the combination of amazing evidence, facts, use of vocabulary, the tone, literary and rhetoric devices is what made this persuasive writing competent. The variety of techniques and devices used to get the reader into thinking about the issue was fantastic. The conclusion had a very strong meaning as well, and the author stated few solutions in regards to his thesis. For example, “What we need is more meaningful violence -- representations of violence which incite and provoke us to think more deeply about the nature of aggression, trauma, and loss, representations which get under our skin and make it hard for us to simply sit back and relax in front of the screen”. Overall this piece of writing is very brilliant and it shows that the author knew what he was talking about because of the number of evidences he included continuously to prove every point he made. The main point was that he believes violence in the media does not take control over teenagers to the point where it should get blamed for violent behaviors.

Reflection

A persuasive piece is complicated to write because it takes a lot of effort to prove a point of an issue. It’s quite difficult to support your point of view and find strong facts. It’s always important to know what you are talking about thoroughly. Sometimes students just mention the general stuff about a certain topic and don’t mention the actual background information. Also when students research on their topic, they usually get biased facts or opinions from the internet, so it’s always good to research on the topic you are doing on with different types of sources. A persuasive piece can be well written if the writer knows everything about their topic and get the right facts to support their thesis.

There are many things that can be done to improve in writing persuasive pieces. First of all reading different types of books, articles, editorials, newspaper, or just reading in general will help to gain knowledge. By reading, students can gain different kinds of writing skills which can help them write such as a persuasive piece, a research essay and etc. It’s important to brainstorm ideas and to look for the right facts (not opinions) that are strong and used from various sources. By having an outline before you write a persuasive writing can help just like how people draw a sketch before they make the final piece of cake. It’s all about how you follow the steps, and if you follow them correctly, you will certainly write a great persuasive piece. Writing is all about organization and the type of techniques you use so it’s important to study all the logical fallacies, rhetorical devices, literary devices and etc.

The only way to improve these skills are by reading various types of writing and mostly persuasive writing since that’s what we are focusing on right now. Since our school has semesters, we don’t have the whole year to learn everything little by little. It’s important to just write blogs or journals or do any kinds of writing on a daily basis. Also by writing by hand and typing on a computer can make a difference, so if we do both, students tend to gain more skills. For example I think I am more creative when I write by hand because I think more and also my brain works differently. However when writing on the computer such as blogs, we have the ability to use spell check so we don’t use our brain as much since the computer does everything for us. I’m afraid that since people are relying on technology so much that they won’t even bother to use their brain and think their own just like when we calculate, we tend to use calculators rather than doing it in our heads.

Obama's Speech Analysis 3

Because it was an Inauguration speech, this speech seemed different than the previous two speeches that I analyzed. He was basically stating all the issues that the United States faced in the past, and stated all the solutions to them. As usual the techniques that Obama uses when giving a speech such as by pausing, and using a strong tone of voice makes every speech he does very remarkable. The use of vocabulary, rhetorical devices were very efficient and well-organized. I also noticed that the audience didn’t applause after every time he said a phrase or a sentence. However, since it was an inauguration speech, people didn’t cheer as much and gave him lots of respect as the new president of the United States.

There were some differences between the two previous speeches and the Inauguration speech such as he states for facts and statistics and as usual they were very strong facts. The speech included many examples when it talked about the economy, and the high unemployment rate, the issues in the atmosphere. He used many similarities with rhetorical devices such as rhetorical climax, anecdote, reader’s inclusion, repetition, and chiasmus. One of the most effective rhetorical techniques that he uses is reader’s inclusion; it always creates a bond between him and the audience. Another similarity is that Obama mentions reasonable situations that have been happening in the American economy so the audience can relate to what he talks about.

Taken as a whole, all his speeches are effective because of the rhetoric devices used in the speech. In addition by the tone and attitude of voice he uses. This speech was more serious than the previous speeches because it was an inauguration. This speech was different to the U.S especially because he is the first black president.

Barack Obama's Speech Analysis 2

I really enjoyed watching this video and I am starting to notice several patterns that he uses that makes his speeches very efficient. This speech uses a lot of reader's inclusion, which creates a special bond between him and the audience. Usually repetitions can get annoying in a speech but the way he uses them makes it very effective. When he gives a speech, he uses rhythm and the timing very effectively which is why it’s interesting when you hear it rather than reading it. Lots of cause and effect are also used in his speech to indicate what his main idea is. I really like how he uses lots of facts, stories, and background history to prove a point. The pattern that he uses in both of the speeches has to be reader's inclusion; it's almost in every paragraph. When I read the speech and listened to it, I noticed how the tone of his voice and the way I read it made such a big difference.

The vocabulary he uses also makes every speech he does very effective. He doesn't use long words that are hard to understand but something that will make it effective for example "tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope". His speeches include anecdotes as well which draws the audience to pay close attention. He says "yes we can" a lot, it's a saying that gives Americans hope. The major techniques he uses are reader’s inclusion to create a bond with the audience uses excellent vocabulary, uses repetition, and rhetoric questions. I am starting to learn a lot from watching his speeches. I wish to gain more skills in how to make my writing creative and effective especially with speeches. I am looking forward to analyze more of his speeches in class.

Barack Obama's speech

The video is almost an hour long yet I did not get bored listening to his speech. The way Obama gave his speech sounded very strong, clear and the tone he used was so brilliant that as an audience I wouldn't mind listening to him for another hour. Everything he said had a purpose and a meaning behind to the message he was trying to send to America. He used effective vocabulary such as compassionate and every time he wanted to emphasize a word, he would say the word louder. Also for example "eight in enough" even though he didn't explain too much of what he meant, the audience knew it right away because of the tone of voice he used. He used metaphors for example " ...John McCain, has worn the iniform of our country with bravery and distinction..".

Everything Obama had said was very meaningful and something people won't forget so easily. Watching the video was a lot more interesting than reading the speech simply because when I read it, I didn't use the same kind of tone of voice he used. When reading, it's very important to read with a certain tone that goes along with the written piece or else it wouldn't be interesting. He uses lots of rhetoric questions which makes his speech very effective because he gets the audience thinking for example "a nation of whiners?". People get into a speech more when the author uses anecdote simply because they can relate to an issue or think about it. Another thing that makes his speech very effective is that throughout the whole speech, he kept the same style and tone of voice. Everything he said, he made sure to prove his point by giving examples of his past experiences and current issues that the economy is facing.

The way Obama described what is a promise was absolutely miracullous, he stated the definition of it and how a promise should be kept. Obama's speech was also well structured, he used the phrase "Now is the time.." a lot which made the speech sound stronger. I really liked his conclusion, he stated his points and wrapped it up very proffessionally. Overall, I don't like listening to political speeches much but when it comes to Obama it's a different story, simply because of the choice of words he uses and all rhetoric devices which makes it effective.

Obervations and Concerns

This is my first blog in this English class and by observing these terms Ms Cornotopolous had posted, they all are very important in the field of literature. I remember learning about rhetoric devices in one of my previous English classes but I ended up forgetting about it. Now that I reviewed over the meaning of it, it is a very good technique to evoke an emotional response in the audience. The usage of rhetorical device techniques can give a back up of support of the meaning, idea, or feeling to the literal or written. In literature it's very important to cite everything that you got off of a book, internet or through any kind if research and MLA citation seems to be the fastest way to put the information together as works cited. There are different ways of citing depending on the source which makes it easier to look bad and see where you got the information from. When writing an essay it's important to look at the way you structure and support your argument. You have to have strong evidences to support your argument and it has to be logical and clear to the reader. Without strong facts your thesis is not well supported which makes an essay weak as a whole. We use literary devices to express ideas through language, which readers can recognize, identify, interpret and/or analyze. It's one of the five elements in fiction along with plot, character, theme and setting. Dramatic devices is what makes a story effective and interesting for the audience/reader because they use dialogue, rhyme, description, soliloquy, aside, metaphor and so on are all devices used by writers in their work. ALso like what the teacher mentioned in our class about dramatic irony (when the audience knows something the characters on stage don't) and soliloquys, monologues,asides (giving us inner thoughts of the characters). These are just a few of the more common dramatic devices used. Overall I have learnt a lot by learning these new terms which will help me for the future with any kind of writing.