Methods of Development & Sources - Bonny AP Eng 2

Draft:

Sheltering our children from offensive content in educational environments, does more harm than good. There are various reasons as to why school censorship causes a negative impact on students. A domino effect is bound to happen when information is censored to meet the approval of parents. Eventually, a plethora information will be removed, as the students' guardians deem more content offensive (Everyday Health, 2017). Additionally, automatically filtering content may lead to the undesired removal of important information. Given the broad and highly subjective definition of "offensive", information like historical events and tragedies may also be wiped for containing sensitive material (The Atlantic, 2016). Moreover, this may direct students to other means of obtaining information, such as untrusted sites that don't contain offensive keywords (Computerworld, 2010). Henceforth, censorship should be completely abolished, and children should be able to access all information necessary in understanding the world around them.

Logical fallacies:

1. Slippery Slope: [Source A] "There are many cases throughout “censorship history” that involve the removal of one or two books or forms of teaching to appease one group of parents, only to have another set of censorship opportunities requested by another group. The old adage “you can't please everyone” certainly rings true in this case, as a veritable “snowball effect” is a common danger of censorship in schools."

This is a slippery slope, because it assumes that the situation will transpire into an extreme result.

2. Appeal to Emotion: [Source C] “We forget [that] when we cut kids off [from social media] we limit their opportunities to succeed, explore their passions, and discover their strengths and talents.”

This is an appeal to emotion because it tries convincing the reader with a pathos.

3. Begging the Question: [Source A] "Many parents feel that by complaining against books that contain descriptions of nudity, occult references, or profanity, they are protecting the children in the school system and upholding the integrity of the community. This makes self-monitoring nearly impossible."

This is a fallacy, because it assumes that many parents feel a certain way, without verifying it. Thus, it goes along with this initial premise based on a baseless assumption.

Looks good. What is the best method of development for presenting the evidence?