It is often said that school is out of step with the times. That today’s young people are light years ahead of their professors, obviously not in skills but in those who are extra-scholastic skills. That they know how to do with the computer what their teachers will never be able to do, or that, from “digital natives”, they live the world in a completely different, more modern and dynamic way.

This popular “vulgate” is actually true to a certain extent. Obviously, as always in these cases, there is a generation gap that makes young people a bit more dynamic and the old ones a bit slower. But knowledge and skills are not just a question of speed, but also of depth. And often, indeed, young people show that they know how to use the new multimedia tools, but not in a complete or conscious way. This is why the distance between teachers and learners is often less clear and serious than it may seem at first sight.

Certainly, however, the school sometimes finds it difficult to meet the passions of young people, and to exploit them for the cultural growth of the individual. Think of computer science: for a long time it was looked at with a certain suspicion, limiting it, at school, to purely technical fields. Even today, usually, there is at most only one computer in the classroom, that of the teacher. And the students find themselves typing on a keyboard only at home, and even rarely.

Even more net, however, is the prejudice against video games. This form of entertainment has made giant strides in decades. From simple puzzles or games of skill, the titles have turned into real adventures that lead to fiction. Adventures that in some ways have nothing to envy to films or TV series, since they present elaborate plots, precise aesthetic choices, even in certain cases ethical themes of some importance. In short, video games have become (and will become more and more) a form of art with which we must begin to confront.

Some teachers this new reality seems to have understood. And from time to time, also to stimulate the interest of children, he proposes tasks in class in which students are asked to create an argumentative text on video games. And this is where the kids go into crisis.

Because video games also play a lot, but they don’t always reflect on them. Nor, let alone, are they accustomed to defending their merits, arguing their opinion. If you fall into this category and are looking for some ideas, today we offer you five suggestions for a good video game theme. With lots of ideas, data and quotes.

Choose a valid thesis

Some original ideas

As you certainly know, the first thing to do when dealing with an argumentative text is to choose the thesis you intend to support. And in the case of video games you have to think about it well. If you are passionate about the subject, in fact, the temptation is to set off in the defense of an activity that is often denigrated.

In doing so, however, you risk running into at least two errors. On the one hand, to get carried away by the heat, remaining unclear and talking more to yourself than to the reader. On the other hand, not to choose a culturally relevant, original and interesting thesis. If video games are good or bad, it can also be interesting, but up to a certain point. Today, in fact, the field has expanded so much that you can choose to support some different ideas. And to bring up slightly more original topics.

Want some examples? We give them to you, we are here for this. For example, we can talk about art. Video games were born as a form of entertainment and leisure, like commercial works that only kept bored teenagers busy. But today they are something different.

First of all, today they are increasingly turning to adults too. In the second instance they have a plot, they create an experience, they influence people’s lives. It is no coincidence that certain forms of traditional art have explored the field of videogame entertainment. Think, just as an example, of video art, one of the most interesting currents of the last decades. And then, if art imitates video games, is it possible to imagine a future in which commercial video games will become works of art? After all, if it happened for TV series, why shouldn’t it happen even with video games?

But there are also other possible theses to support. For example, we can talk about sociality. Once playing with video games was a rather solitary experience, and in fact newspapers periodically published articles worried about the isolation of young people. Today the trend has reversed. Island mobile phones, but video games involve and unite people.

Nintendo, for example, has focused its latest consoles precisely on group activity. But even the emergence of multiplaying and many “corporate” titles are heading in this direction. In an increasingly anti-social world, will video games save us and allow us to relate to others?

Find understandable examples

And explain them well

Once you have decided what the thesis you want to support is, you need to organize your arguments. And above all, support them with adequate examples. Here, in this case it is useful to pay some attention. As we said at the beginning, there is often a gap between young people and adults, between students and professors. And very often the examples and references that young people can take for granted are actually not so easy for teachers to understand.

So, for example, it is good to mention a few video games, but it is essential to explain what it is and briefly present the characteristics of that title. Nothing should be taken for granted. Pokémon may be perfectly unknown to prof. GTA an acronym never heard. The Xbox is an enigma. In short, don’t be afraid to explain everything. Rather, try to be precise but at the same time synthetic: you certainly can’t dedicate three columns just to explain how a video game works. So, in a nutshell, look for the right example, because you will have space to talk only about one or two titles in a precise manner.

Obtain data, studies and statistics

Some important articles in favor of video games

Let’s face it: supporting a thesis in favor of video games can be a daunting task. As we have already written, the field is still cluttered with many prejudices, and it is certainly not easy to dissolve them. Therefore it can be useful to read up in depth. Universities and, more prosaically, newspapers in recent years have published numerous studies and data on the use of video games. And bringing some objective data to support your ideas is always a good idea.

You will say: yes, but if it is a task in class, how can I have data at hand? Well, if you’re doing a video game class assignment, what are you doing here right now? Are you using your cell phone under the desk? If instead the argumentative text you have to write is a homework task, then you have the internet and the opportunity to explore and search. Especially if you know English, since the most interesting articles are written in that language.

For example, this article in the Guardian is interesting because it gives many ideas. And above all it presents the links to a series of studies. Studies that analyze how many hours people spend on consoles on average; which TV series were taken from video games and how they were reviewed; what are the new frontiers of videogame robotics.

But there are even more interesting data. For example, this other article explains that some studies show that kids who play video games get better results at school (at least in some subjects). In addition, gamers today would also have better social skills and, compared to what was once thought, would not suffer psychological damage due to excessive use of the vehicle. In short, there can be plenty of meat on the stove.

Prevent criticism

Some probable objections

As always, when extending an argumentative text, we must also learn to prevent any criticism. To think, that is, what a person who thinks differently might object and to counterpoint in advance point by point. It is a fairly elementary rhetorical technique, which however is particularly useful in written assignments, because it gives the idea that the student knows how to problematize his own point of view. And see things from multiple perspectives.

So, once you have outlined the ideas that you intend to support and have found some data to support, you have to stop for a moment to think, precisely, of the possible criticisms of your thesis. What can they be? It also depends on the text you have in mind, of course, but let’s see some more or less universal ones.

For example, one could dispute that video games force the user to spend many hours in front of a television screen, ruining their view in the long run. In this case, you can also admit that the problem exists, but that it is enough to limit it with a careful use of the consoles. And that, in the future, it will become an increasingly less pressing problem, given that we will soon be invaded by virtual reality devices that will probably no longer use screens.

Another sensible criticism may be that video games push kids to isolate themselves from reality, to live more within virtual worlds than real worlds. Although this objection is already addressed by some studies we have presented above, we must nevertheless show that we know it. And to explain that today kids are much more used to distinguishing between real and virtual.

Last objection worthy of note is that linked to the violence of certain titles. It is undeniable, in fact, that some video games are not at all suitable for young people, both for their content and for the immorality of certain situations. This objection, however, does not only apply to video games. Although the latter are very engaging, such problems can also arise with films, TV and other expressive means. And the solution is always the same: to educate children and especially parents to consciously use games. Something that can also be done at school, if desired.

Keep some unexpected quotes ready

A serious and a self-deprecating one

The last advice we give you is, as we see it, the icing on the cake. Once you have found a good thesis, you have identified the evidence and examples that can help you support it and you have understood what objections your ideas can raise, there is just one final blow. That is something that leaves a particular mark. Like, for example, a good quote.

In reality video games usually deal with specialists in particular. It is therefore not easy to find an effect sentence that can be used in a school assignment. However, we have identified a couple that could be useful to you. One is more serious and one more ironic.

The phrase found above was pronounced in 2005 by Hillary Clinton. At the time the former secretary of state was a senator and in reality that quote is taken from a speech in which he said he was worried about the most violent video games. But it is also the best political endorsement ever shown for video games. And you can very well use it at the beginning or end of your text.

Newspapers go bad and lose readers every day, yet the dream of becoming a journalist never seems to fade. This is demonstrated by the large number of aspirants who present themselves to the various editorial offices each year – too many, precisely because of a loss of readers -, but also, more prosaically, the fact that many students choose the type of newspaper article in the Exam of State, the old Maturity Examination.

One of the main novelties of the last few years, as regards the teaching of Italian, was precisely the introduction of this particular type of text to the final exam of high schools. In addition to the usual analysis of the text and the dear old themes (historical, scientific, topical), there is in fact the so-called “Type B”. A typology that offers various traces and documents, but which requires that the text produced be either a short essay or, precisely, a newspaper article.

But how do you write an article? What rules should you follow? At school some indications are given, but not too many, because the article is a genre to which many look with a bit of mistrust. In reality there is nothing transcendental in this type of text: it is enough to know the rules and understand their peculiarities. Let’s try to see the most important ones together.

There is no single type of article

The difference between news and opinion

The first thing to clarify is this: there is no single type of article, but the types are many and also very different from each other. The main distinction, without going into too much detail, is that between a news article and an opinion article. Both find space within any newspaper and both have their own specific dignity, as well as being used in the State Examination of high school students and graduates. But they are as different as day and night.

The main article of the news article is to tell a fact. Or rather, to give news. For this it must be as objective, clear and simple as possible. He must explain and inform, immediately clarifying to the reader the issues at stake and the innovations that have emerged. It is a type of article theoretically simple enough to write, because it does not like frills and doodles, but at the same time it can present pitfalls, because precisely for this reason it can easily fall into banality.

COMMENTS ON NEWS

The opinion article, on the other hand, does the opposite. It is a particular article, which is usually presented in the newspapers in a frame or with a particular character, just to differentiate itself from the rest. The purpose, in this case, is not to inform, but to give the reader the point of view of a commentator, who may be the editor of the newspaper or in any case a prestigious and experienced journalist. For this reason the opinion article does not tell a fact (in fact, most of the time it takes it for granted) but comments on it, providing a thesis and arguing in its favor.

The differences between the two types, of course, do not stop there, also because each of these two genres then has its internal branches (the crime story is very different from the news story, as well as the basic article political is different from the elzeviro). We will try, in the next few paragraphs, to analyze the basic elements of both.

Locate the news

The center of gravity of a newspaper article

The importance of the news We start from the news article. As we have said, in this case the intent is to communicate a news, an event, a novelty that up until yesterday was not there and that today could instead interest our public. This is the focal point of the article, what you need to have in mind from the first moment you start typing on the keyboard (or holding the pen) to the last word you type.

The news must be the center of gravity. It must appear immediately, in the first paragraph, possibly even in the first two or three lines. It must appear absolutely in the title, with great prominence. It must be resumed and explained throughout the course of your text, you must continually go around it. But how do you identify the news? What is news? And how can I decide, in front of so much information, what is the main news and which are secondary details instead?

Here, this is an important issue. Because there are no precise rules, there is no algorithm or formula to tell you: “This is the news and these others are not”. Journalists generally evaluate facts with experience and with the “flair”. You – whether you are a student or an apprentice – have neither one nor the other, so you will have to use some reasoning. In fact you have to ask yourself: who do I turn to? Who will read my article? Because once you have found your audience, you will have also found the news.

Let’s take a concrete example, to understand each other. Let’s say you are a young reporter who is sent to a press conference to present an aspiring mayor of the country. The candidate will talk to you about his plans for half an hour, how he wants to fix the road in that neighborhood, how he wants to invest in asylum, how he wants to manage the problem of gyms and sports clubs and so on. In short, it will give you a series of news. From which you will have to try to find the most interesting one, because an article that proposes, all on par, the mayor’s initiatives would be boring and flat.

As we said, the question you should ask yourself then is: who will read me? If you work for an institutional newspaper, present in the territory for decades, you know well that reading it is not so much the young as the elderly, perhaps in bars. And so you know that the problem of roads – for which they protested for weeks – is more important to them than investments in asylum. In that case, your main news would be easy to find.

If you worked for a school newspaper, you would know that your readers don’t care much about kindergartens and traffic, but much more about gyms, since they do sports. And then you would start from that news. Of course, then you would also give the others, but in a less obvious, secondary position, in the second part of the article. For this reason, when doing the State Exam, it is so important to indicate precisely the destination of your article: because depending on the target audience, the setting to be given to the piece changes considerably.

The 5 W rule

The importance of the attack

As said, in a news article the attack – that is the first paragraph – must contain the news. Possibly it would still be better to give it immediately, in the first sentence. Remaining on the example above, I believe it is clear that an attack of the “” will fix all the gyms within a year of the nomination, “promised mayor Pinco Pallino,” works better than “Yesterday, in the Salone dell’Arci, the candidate for mayor Pinco Pallino presented his electoral program “. In the first case the reader is encouraged to read, driven by curiosity; in the second he falls asleep.

The need to give all the basic information immediately has its historical root. Once, at the dawn of journalism, communications were not so effective. The journalists who went to the place where a fact occurred did not have laptops and internet connections with them and had to make do. For this they wrote the article and then telephoned the editorial office, to dictate it.

Given that even the phone calls were a rarity and uncertain lines, it often happened that communication was interrupted. If those who had received the article had already had the main information in the attack, however, the article could somehow be completed in the editorial office and the newspaper nevertheless went to print.

This system of saying everything at once has nevertheless remained a distinctive element of journalistic style and is one of the first tricks that are learned in the trade. The Americans, from time immemorial, have even formalized it in a rule, called “of the 5 W”. In practice, the journalist who is about to start writing his piece should try to answer, immediately, 5 questions that all start with the letter “W”: When? Where? What? Who? Why? That is: When? Where is it? Thing? Who? Why?

It is clear, however, that the rule should be understood more as a reminder and not as a diktat. In the case of a murder, for example, the journalist does not know, at least initially, the “why”, and it may be that he has doubts about the other questions as well. In short, it is not necessary to answer all five questions by force. The important thing is to remember that one must immediately speak of a fact, of a news story, the main one, and it must be outlined as much as possible. To learn more, there is time in the rest of the article.

Thesis and closing effect

The opinion article changes everything

The rules that we have presented so far change when we move on to the opinion article. There is no need to tell a story, nor to give all the information about it immediately. Rather, there is the need to convince: because it is for this reason that an opinion is expressed. And then to draw up an argumentative text, with a very clear and identifiable thesis and a series of arguments to support it.

For centuries rhetoric has explained what are the best tricks to prepare texts of this kind. For example, you can touch the emotional chords, telling personal stories or taking as an example some people – identified and clearly described – who have experienced the effects of what we want to hurl against them. Or you can prevent any criticism and objections, “disarming” them in advance. In any case, the intent with which you write an article of this type must be clear.

Obviously this intent also leads to stylistic effects. For example, the attack is no longer so fundamental, while the closure becomes vital, that is to conclude the article with an end effect, which moves the reader’s conscience.

Even language can and must be done higher, with the introduction of adverbs – which help to tread one’s hand on one’s point of view -, quotations, rhetorical questions and whatever our abilities allow us to show off. In short, there is more freedom, but this freedom can be a double-edged sword: convincing is not an easy task.

Work for your audience

Locate the right registry (and destination)

The student who for the first time approaches these types of text (but also applies to the most experienced professional) must therefore always keep his audience in mind: this is the only truly golden rule of journalism, and perhaps not only of journalism . A person who writes for himself instead of for his own audience does not have much reason to be in a newspaper that, to live, must sell copies.

Therefore, as we have said, not only the structure of one’s text must be thought of and chosen for this purpose, but also the linguistic register with which one operates. A news article that tells of a murder cannot afford a philosophical and poetic digression on the evil of living, just as an opinion article on a politician can not only report coldly facts without using adjectives or adverbs.

To sum up, a news article must use few adverbs and a dry language. The sentences must be brief, concise but at the same time precise. When one word can be used, it is better to use one than many. Moreover, in certain articles – such as those that tell of crimes or situations of danger – it is excellent to be able to also give a certain rhythm to one’s sentences, through a wise use of punctuation.

In the opinion article, however, the vocabulary and syntax are raised. Therefore adverbs, adjectives and subordinate sentences are fine, which make the reasoning more consequential. If you are able to do so, you can also use quotations in foreign languages ​​(better Latin, also for the authority of the ancients) and less basic sentence constructions.

Over and over again reference is made (but briefly, without ever going into detail!) To the possession of critical thinking skills – and to its effective application, with repeated exercises, to acquire, maintain and improve the quality standards of the set of reasons brought to support an idea, an action or a theory – as a desired result of the acquisition of skills through study.

A young student, immature and inexperienced, writes significantly more effective and appropriate argumentative texts if, before composing the text for delivery or publication, he is officially, institutionally obliged (!) To build and to elaborate a general description or a plan that shows the structure fundamental, not detail, of the text. It is possible to instruct and encourage the young student to plan ahead (or at least make him / her less inclined not to). Learning, assimilating unconsciously, the need for preventive planning qualifies as a way in which the young student comes to make the attitude to control his own thought as an essential part of his own nature as a subject that is in the world.

However, developing effective and appropriate texts is not the same thing as composing a text and then making improvements to it in the course of work or at a later time. It requires a definitely greater effort to instruct the student to improve the text after its composition.

Without the assistance, encouragement, approval of the teacher and peer group, the student, in fact, would not examine or reconsider or even make corrections or changes to the text. He wouldn’t do it, that is, without an external stimulus. To improve the text, it is necessary, therefore, mandatory for the teacher to give the student directives, orders, detailed information on how the review should be conducted. And encourage him to go beyond the external part of the text – the level of words – to come to deal with what those words, woven together, mean, and the disposition and the relationship between the parts of the text. And often, despite external interventions, improvements are not achieved in the ex post revision of the work.

But what are the obstacles that prevent the development of reflection and reasoning that corrects itself, in this case applied to the production of argumentative texts? And why is it so difficult to overcome them?

1- The lack of an action plan

First of all, it may be the case that the student, trivially, does not know how to reconsider or correct the essential structure of the text. The student can experience as less stressful to replace words and sentences with other words and sentences, because he does not have an action plan designed to manage the entire text, because he does not have a more or less established way that makes it easier to arrange the logical sequences of thought differently.

If the main problem consists in not having an action plan to manage the entire paper, in the fact that the student does not know how to evaluate the quality of the topics he builds and reconstructs, that the student does not know how to improve his arguments, the solution should consist in giving him clear and detailed directives and information on “how” to do it. Students must be given explanations that illustrate action plans for drawing up both the outline of the topic and the outline of the revision for the preparation of argumentative texts.

2- Excessive confidence in the quality of one’s arguments

Secondly, another obstacle that prevents the development of reflection and reasoning that corrects itself is the generally widespread sentiment for which one’s arguments are of high quality, powerful, difficult to oppose. From this perspective, confrontation and dialectical competition with others is a useful means to dampen the excessive confidence that the student places in the strength of his own arguments.

3- Confirmation bias

Thirdly, people’s reluctance to reconsider and correct their arguments may depend on their inclination to evaluate the arguments on the basis of their personal beliefs. And this inclination does not depend on the cognitive abilities of the subjects. No one can feel excluded.

4- Dogmatism

Fourthly, people have nothing but the reasons to develop their own argumentative skills, whether they presuppose or that knowledge is something certain and cumulative (such as how to teach so-called scientific subjects seems to suggest) or totally subjective, arbitrary, personal (increasingly widespread post-modern conviction), because in both cases there is no room for questioning. If, on the contrary, people recognize in advance that they can make mistakes and that every argument can be improved, then they would be more willing to reconsider and significantly correct their reasoning.

5- Difficulty managing the cognitive load

Finally, the main obstacle that prevents the development of reflection and reasoning that corrects itself is the inability or difficulty of managing the cognitive load.

The reconsideration and correction of the fundamental structure of one’s reasoning is a cognitive task that requires a lot of effort. And that could overload that part of the short-term memory that deals with processing the immediate and conscious perceptive and linguistic information, above all in the case in which the novice student does not have those cognitive schemes and the routine necessary to make the analysis of the argument. (The learning process should be organized in such a way as to allow the information to be deposited without limits in cognitive schemes and routines that are activated with the memory, automatic and unconscious, of long duration – the method of spaced repetitions has a certain success on this point!).

Certainly, it is advisable to start students learning the automatisms necessary for the development of the analysis skills of the topic using graded exercises, which break down complex procedures into simpler units, both with regard to the analysis of the arguments, and to their construction and revision.

Topics display software

The arguments visualization software are a powerful teaching tool because they help to download the effort of short-term working memory to the extent that they allow us to study the components of the topic and its relationships through their graphic representation. Furthermore, the visualization software of the topics guide the student step by step to the construction of the topics and stimulate their revision.

In conclusion: seriously thinking is an activity that requires a great deal of cognitive energy. And the software for displaying topics helps us make the most of it. And perhaps, institutions should introduce mandatory courses in critical thinking (including document mapping) within the Italian (and philosophy) curriculum from as early as two years if they seriously intend to bet on the importance of enhancing pupils’ argumentative skills.