David Shaffer Rhetorical Analysis

The video game industry was a 21 billion dollar business in 2011, according to consumerist.com. Along with the growing industry, the growing number of concerned parents grows as well. Many parents see the video games as harmful to their children’s health. However, other parents see potential in video games as a path to a better future in their baby’s education. Nonetheless, Anderson’s article is written better than Shaffer’s article due to Anderson’s strong statistical evidence, where Shaffer has no statistics anywhere. Anderson begins with statistics relating to the amount of media violence in the United States. They note that the average time spent per week using some type of media is over forty hours, for youths eight to eighteen. This does not count school or homework-related assignments. Anderson’s article most likely uses these facts to prove that children overuse media, which could be destructive to their health. On the other hand, Shaffer’s article consists of hypothetical studies that show how video games and other forms of media affect people psychologically. For example, the document states “the virtual worlds of games is powerful because they make it …show more content…
He does this by balancing his article effectively by resorting back in forth between the educational purpose and the effect it has mentally and socially as well. For instance, Shaffer argues, “Classroom work rarely has an impact outside the classroom; its only real audience is the teacher”. This says that schoolwork does not “spark” a student’s curiosity or the desire to look into more information about their topic. Conversely, Shaffer debates, “avid gamers seek out news sites, participate in discussion forums, and most importantly, become critical consumers of