Question

I need help learning how to "sugarcoat" teen social media consumption in my writing.

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Task: Write an opinion piece for your peers here at school on a topic of your choice. You must use the book you've been reading in a significant way as evidence or for examples to support your position.

Requirements:
-Choose a topic you and your peers care about.
-The essay must be persuasive.
-The language, content, and rhetorical appeals should developed for your peers.
-Use your book in a significant way to support or illustrate the argument.
-Develop a line of reasoning and employ methods of development (narration, cause and effect, comparison/contrast, etc.) appropriate to your topic, purpose, and audience.
-Acknowledge any outside sources you include.
-Should be between 750 and 859 words.
-Explain how the choices you've made address the rhetorical situation.
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I figured social media consumption should be my topic, but my teacher told me I needed to make it more appealing and sugarcoat it since it's an inherently negative topic and in this particular writing we can't make it seem like the audience is all bad and needs to change. How can I write about this in a compelling light but at the same time get my message across enough to where I persuade my peers?

(My book is "The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains")

Answer 1

You need to include a sentence like,

"Although having several shortcomings, teen social media has improved X, Y, and Z."

And include your points

Answer 2

hmmm so i should put something like that towards the end

Answer 3

"Having considered X, it is also reasonable to look at ...."
Another good way to put it

Answer 4

ok ill see what i can do with that, thanks!

Answer 5

np

Answer 6

I'm kind of tired at the moment but I'm down to help you with this tomorrow.

Answer 7

im down @Shadow

Answer 8

What's your thesis?

Answer 9

oops sorry didn't see this @ me next time pls haha
i haven't drafted anything i initially wanted to see how i could go about writing it or if i needed to switch topics

hmm maybe this:
Excessive social media consumption puts teens at detriment.

that's bad let me draft some

Answer 10

i actually have no idea what im advocating for

Answer 11

Yeah that's what I'm asking. What's your argument? Are you for social media or are you against social media?

Answer 12

If you're doing the thesis that: "Excessive social media consumption puts teens at detriment." Then you are certainly arguing against social media, but you're not advocating for anything. You're simply going to be setting out in your essay to prove that social is in fact a detriment to teens, but there is no next step/action initiated in your thesis such as: "and this is why we ought to campaign for teens to reduce their social media intake."

Now essays rarely call for a particular action. They're mainly meant to prove an argument, then perhaps if you take the professional scene of academia, professors allow politicians to take action for example.

Answer 13

should i list the reasons why its detrimental?

i think i'm going to think about how i can generalize this more to fit some more evidence in the book that i'm reading. ill have something written up tomorrow (or thursday at the latest)

Answer 14

Yes certainly list your reasons. I can take a look once you post.

Answer 15

ok @Shadow i think im just going for teens to be more aware and how it affects our brains

Answer 16

im 500 out of the 700 or so words and am unsure of how to be gentle about approaching the topic of being aware about it

Answer 17

Did you share it with me?

Answer 18

ill send to your email

Answer 19

did u get it? @Shadow

Answer 20

Dun sugarcoat it dey will eat it 😁