Examining Arguments about Persuasion, Voice Recognition Software, and Enduring Romantic Relationship

Option 1: Examining Arguments of Persuasion from Lowrey, Spicer, and Tufekci

Note that there are three options here. For the first option, you may choose any one of Lowrey, Spicer, or Tufekci, since each of these short articles is making an argument they can be examined using similar criteria. The second option applies to the Vlahos article only, and the third applies to “Hang the DJ” only.

 

 

1. In each of the essays from Lowrey, Spicer, and Tufekci the author is making a specific argument. In other words, each author is trying to persuade you, the reader, to agree with their point of view on the topic, and, possibly, take action based on their recommendation. For this topic, your task is a straightforward one. You are to write an essay discussing the effectiveness of one of these arguments (you may choose which one, but please choose only one). How do you go about this? You’ll want to quickly identify a few things:

 

· What topic is the author discussing?

· What argument is the author making? How do you know it’s their argument?

· How does the author support this argument (i.e. what kind of evidence are they using? What kind of language are they using? (by this I mean, are they appealing to your emotions? to logic? to authority? How can you tell?) How do you know what authority they have on this topic? Is there something specifically that they do that makes their argument more convincing?)

· What is the author asking you, the reader, to do? Do you feel compelled to do it?

· Have you changed your mind, or thought more about this topic? Why or why not?

 

Once you’ve answered these questions, think about how you will organize your paper. For this topic, a thesis statement is going to be rather simple (this article is/is not persuasive because… or something to that extent). From there, what you might want to do is give a brief overview of the article’s topic and argument, then get into your own argument. In terms of organizing your paragraphs, there are a few ways you could go about it, but here are some ideas:

· If you’re arguing that the article is persuasive, have two or three paragraphs that focus upon what makes it so persuasive (for example, use of supporting evidence, appeal to the reader, demonstration of importance, etc.). For each paragraph you’ll want to have direct quotations from the article you’re discussing and you’ll want these quotations to support the point you’re trying to make.

· If you’re arguing that the article is not persuasive you can do something similar to the point just above, but focus on what about the article is not working. Note that your goal here isn’t to tell the author what to do instead, but to focus on what has been done and why it was not effective.

· If you’re arguing that parts of the article are persuasive and parts are not you probably will want to devote one paragraph each to the “pro” side and the “con” side. Again, make sure you use direct evidence and make sure that evidence supports your position.

 

2. In the Vlahos article, “Alexa, I Need Answers,” there is a suggestion that voice recognition software is not just a new way of searching for information, but a potential drastic change to the way we use the internet and to how the internet itself works. For this question, you are asked to:

i) Give evidence that shows how Vlahos is making this argument (i.e. that voice search is changing the internet as we know it)

ii) Explain whether or not you find Vlahos’ argument convincing. Again, this is not meant to be opinion-based, but rather an examination of the evidence presented. For both i) and ii) here you will need to provide direct evidence from the text to support your analysis.

3. In the episode “Hang the DJ” of the TV series Black Mirror we are presented with a young couple who have, apparently, signed up to participate in some sort of technology-aided system of matchmaking. But as much as the initial focus might be on the technology aspect, or on the strangeness of the system itself, a major focus of the episode seems to be about what makes for an enduring romantic relationship. As such, this question asks you to look at this idea of an enduring romantic relationship as the episode’s argument. Your task, then, is to come up with a statement (thesis) for what the episode is telling us makes for an enduring romantic relationship. You will then back this up with direct evidence from the episode itself. As it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to insert clips into your essay (but if you figure that out do go ahead) what you’ll want to do is to describe the specific scenes you’re wanting to discuss, with an APA reference (just last name of the director and year the episode first aired) for each scene description. You will need to analyze the scenes you describe and explain why they support your argument.