The writer acknowledges an opposing viewpoint, then rebuts with clear reasons
and relevant, credible
evidence and reasoning.
Example in an argument for supporting student access to the Internet:
Some people say that the internet
is not helping us learn and not making us brilliant but I don’t believe that is
the case. I’m only eleven years old and I have already learned things off the
internet like how solar power works and how animals like dolphins survive
so that is obviously a myth. Google and the internet gives us ready and free
access to information on just about anything.
The whole essay: http://achievethecore.org/content/upload/ArgumentOpinion_K-12WS.pdf page 87
From another essay supporting the idea of a screen-free week:
Some people may
say that playing a video game or watching a movie with your family helps to bond with family. That
may be true, but you can get addicted and not want to do anything else. “Lily, a second grader, is
allowed only an hour a day of unstructured time, which she often spends with her devices.” This shows that kids are playing on devices and not outside or with friends.
From another essay supporting the idea of a screen-free week:
Now, some people say that we shouldn’t participate because technology
makes you smarter, why stop doing something that’s helping yourself. In an
imaging study by Dr. Small, he found that “Internet users showed greater brain
activity than nonusers, suggesting they were growing their neural circuitry.”
While they may be growing their neural circuitry, they were also changing
a characteristic of the brain that was thought to be unchangeable, the ability to
only process one stream of information at a time. This ability allows humans
to think deeply, an important characteristic in todays society. By changing it,
they were preventing themselves from having the ability to think deeply.
This essay by a high school student acknowledges and rebuts three opposing claims:
I have heard it argued that children “rot” their brains with
video game systems. In the previously mentioned article by Matt
Richtel, he says, “At the University of Rochester, researchers found
that players of some fast-paced video games can track the movement
of a third more objects on a screen than nonplayers…games can improve
reaction time and the ability to pick out details amid clutter.” It seems
that the more people play fast-paced video games, the more efficient
they become at finding important details. These games may not be so
“brain rotting “ after all. They could even be argued as beneficial.
Some also argue that because of new technologies, people limit
how much they associate together, even in the same area. Social media
disproves this argument. Not only can people associate easily with friends,
they can also chat with relatives. They can also show relatives photos,
even if they are states away. People who use social media are more likely
to know more diverse people, according to the article by Keith Hampton.
People still associate with people just as much as before, if not more.
They are merely doing it in a different manner than before social media
was in use.
Cyber bullying has now become an issue. I would like to bring to
attention that all bullying is a big issue. I do not think that technology has
caused bullying. It has just allowed for a new way to bully someone. I have never been cyber-bullied. I personally was bullied in a face-to-face
manner. A bully will take any chance to bully a target. Social media has
not caused bullying.
