Rhetorical Analysis of the Impact of Social Networking

Al-Harrasi and Al-Bad begins to write the article with a description of the impact of online networking on students. The authors use the description techniques to introduce the readers to what the social networking involves. For instance, the authors describes how the different use of social networking such as Facebook, MySpace, You Tube, Twitter and Academia have become an important part of communication for the college students. Also, there are other techniques that the authors have used to convince the readers such as the use of different evidences, literature review, comparison and contrast and different study reports. All these techniques make the essay to be strong and convincing to the reader.

Al-Harrasi and Al-Bad have used a lot of study reports to back up their thesis. For instance, they have used a survey report that was conducted on students at Ball State University to show that more students were using smartphones than before. The study report indicated that the number of students who own smartphones at the university had increased from 27 percent to 69 percent (Al-Harrasi and Al-Bad 129). The survey report was used to provide evidence on the increasing use of smartphones as the new channel of communication by the college students. There are also many other survey reports which have been used to make the article to be very convincing to the reader. Throughout the essay, the authors’ intention is to develop valid arguments that can convince the reader that the work was based on empirical findings.

Abir S. Al-Harrasi and Ali H. Al-Bad has also used literature review to help the reader understand the meaning of the term social networking and why many types of media such as the use of smartphones have become important tools of communication for the college students. Literature review is intended to provide adequate supporting evidence about the topic by relating to numerous studies which have been done by different researcher. In this article, literature review does not only show smartphones as the most preferable devices that are being used for communication, but it has also developed comparisons with the other forms of communication. For example, the literature review has indicated that smarphones have been mostly preferred by many people today because they have many features compared to an average computer.

Furthermore, about midway through the article, Al-Harrasi and Al-Bad make a transition from comparison to contrast. For example, the article establishes a comparison between students who use smartphones and those that use laptops. The article shows that both computers and smartphones have improved communication of students and at the same time, have being a source of destruction when student concentrated on online games instead of academic work. Moreover, the article contrasts smartphones and computers by arguing that smarphones are mostly preferred because they are relatively small compared to the computers. Al-Harrasi and Al-Bad has used comparison and contrast techniques throughout the essay. The main reason why they have used comparison and contrast techniques is to show the reader why smartphones have become the modern devices for communication among the people and the college students (Al-Harrasi and Al-Bad 130-131).

Most important of the techniques that Al-Harrasi and Al-Bad have used is the survey reports and studies. For example, the survey report at different academic institutes in Oman has been used to show that students spend a lot of time net working using Smartphones. Although the authors have use contrast and comparison techniques as well, use of survey and studies approach have helped the authors to present their ideas clearly.

Works Cited

Al-Harrasi, Abir S., and Ali H. Al-Badi. “The Impact Of Social Networking: A Study Of The

Influence Of Smartphones On College Students”. Contemporary Issues In Education Research – Second Quarter, 7.2, (2014): 129-136