Rhetorical Analysis What's the Matter with Kid's Today by Amy Goldwasser
Guinevere Pendragon
Professor Yino
English 112
19 February 2013
Rhetorical Analyses
“What’s the Matter with Kids Today? “What’s the Matter with Kids Today,” composed by Amy Goldwasser, is a strong argument against the assumption that Internet and other new found technology is worthless. Goldwasser begins her argument by giving you examples of the opposing view. For instance, within her first three paragraphs she gives many negative views against Internet use, one being a survey conducted by a research organization called Common Core. “A phone (land line!) survey of 1,200 17-year-olds… researched Feb. 26, found our young people are living in “stunning ignorance of history and literature.” (Goldwasser 666) This survey led to the acceptance speech of Doris Lessing, a British novelist and playwright, for winning a Nobel Prize in literature, where she referred too many as “a fragmenting culture,” and states that, “young men and women… have read nothing, knowing only some specialty or other, for instance, computers.” (Goldwasser 666) While the reader may think he or she is reading an opposition against the Internet, Goldwasser lures her readers in by quickly doing a 180, and questions Lessing’s belief about the Internet and modern day technology. “The Internet, according to 88-year-old Lessing (whose specialty is sturdy typewriters, or perhaps pens), has seduced a whole generation into its inanities,” (Goldwasser 666) Goldwasser replies, “Or is it the older generation that the Internet
has seduced — into the inanities of leveling charges based on fear, ignorance, and old-media, multiple-choice testing?” (Goldwasser 667)
Amy Goldwasser seems to have two intentions in her piece: One, to persuade the older generation to believe in the endless potential of the Internet—to make them believe the Internet is not “the villain,” “… stop presenting it as the enemy of history and literature and worldly knowledge, then our teenagers have the potential to become
Professor Yino
English 112
19 February 2013
Rhetorical Analyses
“What’s the Matter with Kids Today? “What’s the Matter with Kids Today,” composed by Amy Goldwasser, is a strong argument against the assumption that Internet and other new found technology is worthless. Goldwasser begins her argument by giving you examples of the opposing view. For instance, within her first three paragraphs she gives many negative views against Internet use, one being a survey conducted by a research organization called Common Core. “A phone (land line!) survey of 1,200 17-year-olds… researched Feb. 26, found our young people are living in “stunning ignorance of history and literature.” (Goldwasser 666) This survey led to the acceptance speech of Doris Lessing, a British novelist and playwright, for winning a Nobel Prize in literature, where she referred too many as “a fragmenting culture,” and states that, “young men and women… have read nothing, knowing only some specialty or other, for instance, computers.” (Goldwasser 666) While the reader may think he or she is reading an opposition against the Internet, Goldwasser lures her readers in by quickly doing a 180, and questions Lessing’s belief about the Internet and modern day technology. “The Internet, according to 88-year-old Lessing (whose specialty is sturdy typewriters, or perhaps pens), has seduced a whole generation into its inanities,” (Goldwasser 666) Goldwasser replies, “Or is it the older generation that the Internet
has seduced — into the inanities of leveling charges based on fear, ignorance, and old-media, multiple-choice testing?” (Goldwasser 667)
Amy Goldwasser seems to have two intentions in her piece: One, to persuade the older generation to believe in the endless potential of the Internet—to make them believe the Internet is not “the villain,” “… stop presenting it as the enemy of history and literature and worldly knowledge, then our teenagers have the potential to become
Cited: Goldwasser, Amy What’s the Matter with Kids Today (2008) Print.