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How could I improve my essay on the impact of television violence, using The Simpsons episode, Cape Feare, as an example?

Research into the media and violence constantly inform that high levels of contact to violence through media like constant viewing of violence on television links to the increased probability of children behaving violently in the long-term. Throughout this essay, the four misleading representations promoted in the episode of The Simpsons, Cape Feare, and the linked consequences on young people will be analysed.

Televisions are a powerful influence in developing values and behaviours of viewers and research have shown that extensive viewing of misleading televisions violence by children will lead them to a concept that violence is justified. An example of this can be seen in The Simpsons, when Sideshow Bob’s parole hearing is held and the courtroom votes on who want to kill Selma based morally on her personality. This scene does not necessarily cause a child to behave violent, but it contributed to promoting the idea that violence is acceptable and fosters greater acceptance of violence as a means of conflict resolution. Furthermore, the repetition of misleading violence displayed in media will cause children to be desensitized.

Quick answer:

To improve your essay, refine your language for clarity and coherence. Correct grammatical errors like "televisions are" to "television is" and ensure episode titles are in quotation marks. Focus on the specific episode of "Cape Feare" by providing more context and analysis. Avoid generalizations by supporting claims with specific studies and evidence, and consider narrowing your topic to make a well-supported argument. Additionally, emphasize the show's satirical nature and its intended adult audience.

Expert Answers

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The words "constantly inform" in the first line probably should be changed to something like "have shown" or "demonstrate." Also, Cape Fear has no "e" at the end. Additionally, since I believe you are referring to a specific episode of the Simpsons, the one that parodied the film Cape Fear, it should be in quotation marks, i.e. "Cape Fear." 

In the second paragraph, "televisions are" should be changed to "television is," and the sentence ending with "who wants to kill Selma based morally on her personality" seems very awkward. I think you could eliminate the word "morally." Finally, you should change "behave violent" to "behave violently." 

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How can I improve this essay on violence in television?

Violence in many television shows is intended to humor the audience, but realistic consequences of violence are not revealed. This fact is another misleading representation the media sends out to children; violence is funny. This is apparent in the episode of The Simpsons, Cape Feare, where Lisa laughs tremendously when a laser beam slices Scratchy to pieces. The fact that violence is humorous is also portrayed in the scene where Homer finds humor in the threatening letter meant for Bart. Such scenes lead children to conclude that violence is not objectionable and it is acceptable to threaten or harm others even as a joke. Also, in some cases, watching violence for entertainment builds a desire to watch even more.

Many television channels advocate violence daily and send misrepresentative messages and concepts about the world revolving around everyone. A message portrayed through media is that violence is everywhere. This can be witnessed in The Simpsons where Bart continues to feel insecure as his communications with people reveal to be threatening to him. This idea is also illustrated in the scene where Bart receives a threatening letter at his home saying, “I’m going to kill you.” Such views create a ‘mean world syndrome’ where children begin to believe that the world is more dangerous than it actually is. It has a victim effect on them where it increases their anxiety and introduces a culture of cruelty.

Violence in many Televisions shows is intended to humour the audience but realistic consequences of violence are not revealed. This fact is another misleading representation the media sends out to children; violence is funny.

Both the above answers are excellent. You need to do lots of writing in order to improve your English. To correct every mistake would require much time and space. I will only focus on your first two sentences.

The first two sentences should read something like this:

Violence on many television shows is used to amuse the viewers, but the harmful consequences of media violence are rarely acknowledged. Television broadcasts the false implicit message to children that violence is funny.

It would be better to focus on television than to switch from television to media and back to television. There are other media that promote violence, but it would probably be too hard and too confusing to try to cover them all in one essay.

You are to be congratulated on your motivation and hard work.

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When writing a persuasive essay, it is important to structure your essay with valid points, beginning with the strongest and moving to the others.  Usually three strong points are sufficient, along with rebuttals of possible arguments against these points. Now, regarding your examples from The Simpsons, it is worthy of note that your arguments about the support of violence in this animated show are not really valid ones because this show is intended for adult audiences, not youthful ones, and the show is predicated upon satire.  That is, the acts of violence, etc., by Homer and Bart are subjects of satire, and therefore employed to ridicule adult behavior, not support violence.

You will be better served if you research violence in television and find other television programs that suggest that violence is appropriate or even necessary in certain circumstances.  Find studies and statistics that you can report as support for this essay.  Statistics and statements from authorities, also, are viable support.  For instance, you will want to include something like this,

A University of Michigan researcher in 2003 demonstrated that watching violent media can affect willingness to help others in need......Desensitization can reduce the perception of the seriousness of injury....

Then quote from the researcher his findings. Use several sources for support to demonstrate that you have well explored the topic. The more documentation you use, the more you will demonstrate that you have researched your topic.

Below is a link to assist you in the revising of your argumentative essay.

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I will focus my comments here on the errors in wording, grammar, and other such things that make this essay a little hard to read.  Some errors include:

“Televisions” should not be capitalized and should not be plural.

The phrase “Homer find humour” should be “Homer finds humour.”

“Objectionably” should be “objectionable.”

“To threat” should be “to threaten.”

“Violence for entertaining” should be “violence for entertainment.”

“Television” should not be capitalized.

The sentence that starts “This can be witnessed…” has a meaning that is not clear at all.  Maybe you should say (if this is what you mean) “…to feel insecure as people threaten him.”

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How can I improve this essay about television and violence?

Another misrepresentation about violence that television programs demonstrate to young people is that violence is often rewarded and rarely has negative consequences. This can be seen in The Simpsons as Sideshow Bob is paroled from prison even though there is evidence that he is still a threat to Bart. This has both the victim and bystander effect on children as they encounter similar scenes while interacting with media. The victim effect causes young people to think of the world as an intimidating and unforgiving place and the bystander effect leads them to callousness and desensitisation over violence and its victims.

If you are going to use an episode about Sideshow Bob in The Simpsons as an example, I think you ought to give a lengthier description of that particular episode. A good percentage of your readers (like myself) would never have seen the Sideshow Bob episode and might never watch The Simpsons. You might even explain who Bart is. (I'm guessing that he is the little boy.) I think it is an interesting and appropriate example and could use a little elaboration.

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I have two main comments on this paragraph. 

First, I would say that it is a little bit hard to justify saying that Sideshow Bob suffers no negative consequences from his violence towards Bart.  First of all, he is in prison even if he does get paroled.  Second of all, he gets caught by the police again at the end of the show and we assume he is going back to prison.  This hardly seems to send the message that there are no consequences to violence.

Second, I think that you should explain the ways in which this show causes the two effects better.  The victim effect is fairly obvious, though you could still give a brief sentence making clear how this show causes young people to feel that way.  But it is harder to see how the bystander effect applies here.  I would suggest that you clearly state how and why this episode would, in your mind, bring about a bystander effect.

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How can this essay be improved?

Research into the media and violence demonstrate that high levels of contact to violence through media like constant viewing of violence on television links to the increased probability of children behaving violently in the long-term. Throughout this essay, the four misleading representations promoted in the episode of The Simpsons, Cape Feare, and the linked consequences on young people will be analysed.

Television is a powerful influence in developing values and behaviours of viewers and research have shown that extensive viewing of misleading televisions violence by children will lead them to a conclusion that violence is justified. An example of this can be seen in The Simpsons, when Sideshow Bob’s parole hearing is held and the courtroom votes on who want to kill Selma based on her personality. This scene does not necessarily cause a child to behave violently, but it contributes to promoting the idea that violence is acceptable and fosters greater acceptance of violence as a means of conflict resolution.

A statement such as "Research into ... demonstrate[s]" must be supported. In other words, you need to cite the specific research studies you have read. You should also narrow your topic so that you can adequately survey all relevant research. Since there is far to much research on violence and media for you to read for anything less than a PhD dissertation, you need to narrow your topic so that you can read the relevant research in scholarly journals, and summarize it with specific citations.

One strength is that you are making an effort to incorporate the terms used in the discipline, but at times this leads to excessive use of passive voice and several agreement errors.

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How can this essay be improved?

Violence on many television shows is used to amuse the viewers, but the harmful consequences of media violence are rarely acknowledged. Television broadcasts the false implicit message to children that violence is funny. This is apparent in the episode of The Simpsons, Cape Feare, where Lisa laughs tremendously when a laser beam slices Scratchy to pieces. The fact that violence is humorous is also portrayed in the scene where Homer finds humour in the threatening letter meant for Bart. Such scenes lead children to conclude that violence is not objectionable and it is acceptable to threaten or harm others even as a joke. Also, in some cases, watching violence for entertainment means develops an appetite effect which builds a desire to watch even more.

Many television channels advocate violence on a daily basis and send misrepresentative messages and concepts about the world revolving around everyone. A message that is portrayed through media is that violence is everywhere. This can be witnessed in Cape Feare where Bart continues to feel insecure as his interaction with people reveal to be threatening to him. This idea is also illustrated in the scene where Bart receives a threatening letter at his home saying, “I’m going to kill you”. Such views create a ‘mean world syndrome’ where children begin to believe that the world is more dangerous than it actually is. It has a victim effect on them where it increases their anxiety and introduces a culture of cruelty.

This analysis of one specific show does support your thesis, but it constitutes a form of false induction, in that one episode of one show is insufficient evidence for a general claim. Many of your claims, although they seem intuitively correct, are very general and unsupported by specific evidence. Part of the nature of academic scholarship is that claims must be proven rather than just asserted. Rather than make a series of very general claims, you might spend more space doing close analysis of the show you are discussing.

The language of the paper strives to be complex, often at the expense of coherence and readability. You might want to work with the Writing Centre at your university on prose style.

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