Rhetorical Analysis: Do violent video games lead to real violence - Essay Example

? Rhetorical Analysis Rhetorical Analysis Rhetorical analysis permits us to understand the link between text and audience illustrated by the author through his/her creative writing skills and permits a discussion over a particular topic in a professional manner. The article we have selected for this paper is related to video games` effect on children written by Julia Layton entitled “Do violent video games lead to real violence?” The author of this article has taken information from the National Institute of Media and Family, and CBS news on the related topic. The author described the negative impact of video games on children through a case study of students who were video game addicts, namely Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris. They were studying in Colordo High School (Layton, 2012). They were deeply involved in playing fighting video games that made them aggressive, and changed their behavior while interacting with other people. These two teenagers killed 13 people; a widow named Linda Sanders, whose husband had died during a shooting by these young boys, had filed a case against them. However, it was revealed later, that these two students used to play violent video games all the time such as Doom, Mortal Kombat and many other fighting games (Layton, 2012). This article does not include a case study on teenage victims, but Layton has included some other case studies as well to illustrate immense impact of video games on kids` actions. Nevertheless, there has been an argument on the issue whether video games can transform children into violent individuals or not. Studies on the effect of video games show that, without a doubt, too much exposure to action movies and shows on television can have diverse effect on kids` behavior, but it has not been proven that their actions turn violent (Layton, 2012). On the contrary, children get more involved in the video games` themes while playing, and the reward system gives them the urge to win the game. It has been observed that immense involvement in video games have an adverse effect on children’s behavior, making them aggressive in nature (Layton, 2012). Nevertheless, this is a crucial topic of argumentative discussion because not all intellectuals and researchers agree on the fact that video games can make teenagers act violently in real life. The author of this article, Julia Layton, is a writer, who completed her bachelor` s degree in English at Duke University and upholds a degree in professional creative writing from the University of Miami. Layton is a credible writer; she includes authentic examples and findings of researchers to compose an effective and authentic piece of writing (Layton, 2012). Her article about effects of violent game on children`s behavior includes evidence from various case studies and findings of the National Institute of Media and Family along with some other media sources, such as news channels. Layton has the target audience of sensible younger kids who are addicted to playing fighting games, and parents who seem unaware of the diverse influences of action video games (Layton, 2012). As it is not easy to convince parents and other practitioners to agree to factual points, she provided witnesses and survey findings of some good researches. She made particular rhetorical choices while putting an argumentative discussion between psychologists who believed that video games are harmful for younger children, and critics who claim that violent actions of children emerge from various distinguishing factors. The most influencing rhetoric choice made by the author in the text is information about the bond between violent video games and children`s aggressive acts in real life (Layton, 2012). Layton included the case study of an 18-year old youngster named Devin Moore. He had been imprisoned for killing a cop, who had arrested him as a suspect for car theft. However, when Moore was brought to the police station, he stole a police gun, shot the officer, stole the car keys and escaped (Layton, 2012). This youngster had no criminal record, but it was discovered that he used to play a game, in which a player has to steal cars and kill police officers. This was exactly what he ended up doing in his real life. This is an online article published on the website “How Staff Works”. It is a credible site, which includes writings of highly qualified and professional writers. All writers and sub-editors of this website are aware of the fact that they have to use credible sources for their publications. As the article “Do Violent Video Games Lead to Real Violence?” has been published on How Staff Works, various readers have read it (Layton, 2012). This website is credible and thousands of people visit it daily to conduct and view discussions. At first, only hired professionals have access to post their articles on this site and readers can share their views. This topic is vast and it needs diversified views regarding impact and non-influential aspects of violent video games (Layton, 2012). Therefore, the publication of this article through this website is, undoubtedly, effective and significant for the readers as well as for the writers. Moreover, this is a recent article and it has been published at the appropriate time to target emotions of the people currently experiencing behavioral changes in the video game addicted children around them (Layton, 2012). Simple language and straightforward statements have touched audience`s emotions and made it participate in the argumentative discussion. Additionally, Layton has mentioned viewpoints of psychologists who have argued that video games have a more diverse effect because of their repetitive reward system. As psychological studies have proven that repetition of any classical condition frequently, affect developing minds of younger children (Layton, 2012). In this way, the author has given credible evidence from scientific sources, along with logistic statements made by professionals, to prove the adverse impact of violent video games and cognitively influential conditions of reward and punish system in the games (Layton, 2012). In order, to target audience`s emotions the author has provided evidence from psychology journals revealing changed behavior of more than 35 young individuals, along with the evidence of hormonal changes in the body of the players, that take place while playing games (Layton, 2012). Not only psychologists evidenced, but also the author encoded controversies on video game violence, arguments made by the critics who do not believe in adverse impact of aggressive video games on children reasoning. The author has coded evidence from the National Institute of Media and Family report made by David Walsh (Layton, 2012). According to his observations, children who are inherently non-aggressive are more likely to get involved in violent or criminal activities than those who inherit aggression and hostile behavior from their ancestors. Furthermore, Layton has mentioned another example from New York Times, in which a survey report showed that children who watch action movies are more antagonistic in nature (Layton, 2012). However, those who are more involved in video games develop in them passion to achieve targets and goals through steady steps and effective self-made methods. The whole article and argumentative discussion posted by Layton comprised of authentic claims and scientifically proved statements. The case studies and witnesses that the author has mentioned in her article have targeted audience`s emotions and motivated them to express their viewpoints as comments (Layton, 2012). Feedbacks from the audience and convincing statements from the people have shown that the message about video games` impact given by Layton has reached many people through credible online websites. The author has used ethos, logos and pathos appropriately to quote authentic information from reliable sources in order to convince and grab attention of the targeted audiences (Layton, 2012). Although, the author has not concluded her article supporting any single statement, she has mentioned dual perception of people regarding impact of violent video games and action TV shows. This effort of Layton has helped the audience to think about possible after effects of violent video games and aggressive movies on children and psychological aspects that contribute to alter children behavior with the people around them (Layton, 2012). The rhetorical analysis of the selected article has shown that, undoubtedly, the author has provided a good and authentic piece of information by using different rhetoric approaches to demonstrate all the statements explicitly. References Layton, J. (2012). Do violent video games lead to real violence? 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