Eliana Dockterman's Argument Analysis

According to Eliana Dockterman, “ By all measures, this generation of American kids (ages 3 to 10) is the tech-savviest in history: 27% of them use tablets, 43% use smartphones, and 52% use laptops.” Eliana Dockterman’s goal in the passage is to build an argument that persuades the audience that there are benefits to early exposures to technology. She uses evidence, reasoning/ connecting claims, and persuasive elements to present her argument.

Docktormen uses a lot of facts and statistics that impacts the reader. For example, one fact that she goes into depth to is testing kids with educational games and it shows a logical growth rate. “ In a recent study by SRI, a nonprofit research firm, kids who played games like Samorost (solving puzzles) did 12% better on logic tests than those who did not.” With this evidence, she is persuading the audience that with technology, the rates in
Dockterman builds up her argument before she even states her opinion. She goes into depth about the positive and negative to education and technology. The thing that she doesn’t do is state her opinion right away. So to me, she is continuing to keep the reader's attention by not stating her opinion. She asks questions that makes it seem like she’s going to state her opinion, but she still continues to build up each side. For example, “ So who’s right-- the mom trying to protect her kids from the perils of new technology or the dad who’s coaching his kids to embrace it”. With the question added in, she is impacting the audience because she is not just stating facts and statistics without some type of hook or catch. Dockterman backs up her reasons and claims with facts and statistics. “80% of U.S. school districts say they are on the cusp of incorporating Web-enabled tablets into everyday.” It will impact the audience’s thoughts because without the facts, the audience wouldn’t believe what the reader is trying to get across because it’s not