The Persuasiveness of Purposeful Reasoning
Heather Yi
Radford University In “Naturalistic Observations of Peer Interventions in Bullying”, Hawkins, Pepler, and Craig present an experiment where peer intervention related to bullying are studied in school classrooms and playgrounds. The author’s objective was to describe the bullying frequency of boys and girls, the nature of peer mediation, and the effectiveness of it. Analysis of this article reveals the bullying threat presented on school grounds and gives evidence to show the need for attention from peers to prevent them. To persuade the audience of their point, the authors use clear examples of logos, ethos and pathos. The article explores the effectiveness of peer intervention …show more content…
“Therefore, bullying has been recognized as a widespread, persistent, and serious problem occurring in our schools.” (Olweus, 1991,1993;Pepler, Craig, Ziegler, & Charach, 1993; Tattum & Lane, 1989 p512). The use of pathos here is established early on in the article so that the readers are drawn in and feel attached to something closer to home, not just anywhere, but “in our schools”. This suggests that the article is reaching out to local communities of parents and teachers. It is further proven when it says “the findings of this study suggests that children need to be taught how to intervene in both a prosocial and efficient manner to reducing bullying on school grounds.” (Hawkins, Pepler, Craig.2001.p522). When it says “children need to be taught”, it implies that it is the parents’ and teachers responsibility to take action and teach their children something new. The audience is clearly for adults that work with children because the authors assume that those are the type of people that will support their beliefs. The organization of where certain statements are placed has an effect on the reader as well. The statement “They (children) need to be taught the appropriate conflict mediation skills, particularly for direct interventions with children who are bullying others.” (Hawkins, Pepler, Craig. 2001. p523) is placed at the end of a paragraph to add motivation for its audience. …show more content…
Some of the good things include the heavy amount of references placed throughout the article. This boosts the power of ethos and credibility of the study overall. There was also a “limitations” section where it states the weak points of the study. This makes the argument good because counter arguments show that although there are flaws, it does not change the conclusion of the research. At the same time, those flaws in the study could very well be the reason why the conclusion could be wrong. One factor mentioned was that “It would be beneficial, however, to utilize self-and peer reports of peer intervention, along with naturalistic observations to determine the degree of consistency between children’s reported and actual intervening behavior within the same school population.” (Hawkins, Pepler, Craig. 2001. p523). The bad thing about putting that information in is that it may put doubt in the audience’s mind about the accuracy of the study. However, it is a minor detail and overall, the article leaves the readers with a spurred-on type feeling. There were many strategic points that the authors used to make their point clear, and convincing. Not only did they use logos, pathos, and ethos, but also organizational techniques and counter arguments. The audience that the article was reaching out to was straight-forward. All these factors help the reader understand what the authors were trying to express about student’s
Heather Yi
Radford University In “Naturalistic Observations of Peer Interventions in Bullying”, Hawkins, Pepler, and Craig present an experiment where peer intervention related to bullying are studied in school classrooms and playgrounds. The author’s objective was to describe the bullying frequency of boys and girls, the nature of peer mediation, and the effectiveness of it. Analysis of this article reveals the bullying threat presented on school grounds and gives evidence to show the need for attention from peers to prevent them. To persuade the audience of their point, the authors use clear examples of logos, ethos and pathos. The article explores the effectiveness of peer intervention …show more content…
“Therefore, bullying has been recognized as a widespread, persistent, and serious problem occurring in our schools.” (Olweus, 1991,1993;Pepler, Craig, Ziegler, & Charach, 1993; Tattum & Lane, 1989 p512). The use of pathos here is established early on in the article so that the readers are drawn in and feel attached to something closer to home, not just anywhere, but “in our schools”. This suggests that the article is reaching out to local communities of parents and teachers. It is further proven when it says “the findings of this study suggests that children need to be taught how to intervene in both a prosocial and efficient manner to reducing bullying on school grounds.” (Hawkins, Pepler, Craig.2001.p522). When it says “children need to be taught”, it implies that it is the parents’ and teachers responsibility to take action and teach their children something new. The audience is clearly for adults that work with children because the authors assume that those are the type of people that will support their beliefs. The organization of where certain statements are placed has an effect on the reader as well. The statement “They (children) need to be taught the appropriate conflict mediation skills, particularly for direct interventions with children who are bullying others.” (Hawkins, Pepler, Craig. 2001. p523) is placed at the end of a paragraph to add motivation for its audience. …show more content…
Some of the good things include the heavy amount of references placed throughout the article. This boosts the power of ethos and credibility of the study overall. There was also a “limitations” section where it states the weak points of the study. This makes the argument good because counter arguments show that although there are flaws, it does not change the conclusion of the research. At the same time, those flaws in the study could very well be the reason why the conclusion could be wrong. One factor mentioned was that “It would be beneficial, however, to utilize self-and peer reports of peer intervention, along with naturalistic observations to determine the degree of consistency between children’s reported and actual intervening behavior within the same school population.” (Hawkins, Pepler, Craig. 2001. p523). The bad thing about putting that information in is that it may put doubt in the audience’s mind about the accuracy of the study. However, it is a minor detail and overall, the article leaves the readers with a spurred-on type feeling. There were many strategic points that the authors used to make their point clear, and convincing. Not only did they use logos, pathos, and ethos, but also organizational techniques and counter arguments. The audience that the article was reaching out to was straight-forward. All these factors help the reader understand what the authors were trying to express about student’s