Rhetorical Analysis: The Digital Parent Trap

Author, Eliana Dockterman in her article, “The Digital Parent Trap,” exposes the potential benefits of technology use among young people. Dockterman’s purpose is to persuade her audience that there are benefits to early exposure to technology. Dockterman adopts a professional tone in order to get her audience into believing that technology does have its benefits and should be used more. Dockterman uses evidence, reasoning, word choice and tone that adds power to her ideas to build an argument to persuade her audience throughout her article. Throughout the article Dockterman uses evidence to support her argument and persuade her audience about the benefits of technology. Dockterman states that more than 80% of U.S. school districts say they

She states that technology can also be used in school. She addresses that moms are trying to protect their children from technology and there are the dads who are trying to embrace it and tell the kids to use it because it has its benefits. She also mentions that it is a very urgent question when a lot of schools are now adding using technology to a daily basis and that helps prove her argument about the benefits of technology. She uses evidence that states that more than 80% of school districts will start doing that, which shows how technology has a positive impact on schools and education. “Yet, according to the latest findings from the research firm Grunwald Associates, barely half of U.S. parents agree that mobile technology should play a more prominent role in schools.” Dockterman uses this quote to strengthen her argument by showing how parents are also agreeing to using technology in schools and the positive impact it will have and how some parents may not think the same but she used the quote to show how majority of them to think it will have the impact on the children and their education. Dockterman clearly suggests her reasoning on why technology has its benefits in her