Good Example Of Essay On Comparing And Contrasting Two Writings

Recently we have seen highly differing views on what causes gun violence and a common target has been action-based videogames. Some people believe that they cause violent behavior or at the very least desensitize people to it; in contrast other authors state that video games cannot be blamed as the main cause of violent behavior among our society today. Kristin Bezio wrote an opinion piece entitled “don’t blame video games for America’s gun violence” and John Sanbonmatsu wrote a contrasting article entitled “Gabrielle Gifford and NRA are both right about one thing: US culture of violence” both attempting to convince readers of their explanations for gun violence in the United States. The authors use ethos, pathos and logos in order to bring their points across and convince the reader that they are correct. These two articles use similar and differing methods of accomplishing the goal of persuasion.
The title of Bezio’s article immediately shows her use of ethos by asking the American people to stop “blaming” video games in an attempt to appeal to the ethical side of their nature.(Bezio) Sanbonmatsu almost immediately turned to ethos as well by stating that Every day, mass killings are imagined, rehearsed, and enacted – virtually – by millions of children and young adults, mostly boys and men, in violent video games” in an attempt to make people reevaluate the ethical or unethical nature of violent video games. Both authors mix in elements of ethos with pathos and logos in order to effectively convince the readers of his or her viewpoint on the matter of gun violence.
Ethos is especially effective when closely tied to pathos as it is in Sanbonmatsu’s first paragraph in which he follows the statement concerning the mass killings acted out in games with a more emotional statement: “One segment of Bioshock 2, for example, invites players to kill defenseless, cowering girls (called Little Sisters) or lure them into a trap where they are mowed down by a machine gun.”( Sanbonmatsu) He uses words such as “defenseless” and “cowering” in order to illicit an emotional response from the reader and sway their beliefs. In the final paragraphs of Bezios writing she appeals to the emotions and better nature of the reader while trying to shift blame for violence acts back onto Americans themselves. She states that “As long as we, as a society, condone violence in the name of nationalism, continue to minimize domestic violence and rape, and promote aggression as ideal masculinity, violence will continue to be a problem in our homes, on our streets, and in our schools” (Bezio) She uses repetitive language and includes herself in the “our” pronoun in order to make the reader feel that if she holds herself responsible so why shouldn’t you? It is a good example of the effective use of pathos in writing.
Logos is more prevalently displayed in Bezio’s article than it is in Sanbonmatsu’s. Bezio brings up a number of statistics regarding the amount of video-game players across the world in contrast to the amount of violent crimes committed by those playing the games. She believes that making a link between the two would be illogical and attempts to prove her point through the use of logos. In contrast Sanbonmatsu uses more pathos in his colorful words and passion-filled language and less statistical evidence. However he does bring up evidence of violent shooters having admitted or boasted about playing videogames that were first-person shooter oriented. He states that “At his trial last year, Anders Breivik, the Norwegian extremist who murdered 69 people, most of them teenagers, on the island of Utoya, boasted that he had done his weapons training on the military-style First Person Shooter game” ( Sanbonmatsu) However his logos seems to be used in support of emotion-based arguments whereas Bezio is attempting to prove that there is a scientific reason for why we fear that videogames are causing violence.
Both articles exhibit ethos, pathos, and logos but while Sanbonmatsu’s article is more heavily weighted on Pathos Bezio is more even in her use of pathos and logos in support of her argument. The authors are attempting to persuade their readers to their side of a heated debated among government officials concerning whether or not gun violence can be linked to violent videogames. Bezio believes that videogames cannot be blamed because so few players actually commit violent crimes while Sanbonmatsu believes that violent videogames are directly linked to gun violence and cites cases in which a shooter claimed that he practiced for a mass shooting using videogames. Bother authors use persuasive language and the three tools very effectively in their persuasive arguments.

References

Bezio, Kristin. "Stop Blaming Video Games for America's Gun Violence." The Christian Science Monitor. The Christian Science Monitor, n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2015.
Sanbonmatsu, John. "Gabrielle Giffords and NRA Are Both Right about One Thing: US Culture of Violence." The Christian Science Monitor. The Christian Science Monitor, n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2015.