John Barry

Group#2

4/16/15

Argument Essay: for Language Arts

Topic Sentence:

What does the word violence mean? Webster defines it as behavior involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something. Or strength of unpleasant or destructive natural force. So tell me does this event seem violent?

Evidence:

Every year at St. Anne's private school high school students lock into an annual combat; with water-pistols. Each team must pay 20 dollars, and the winning team gets all the money that the teams put in to pay for entry. In 2009 there were 8 squadrons that were put against each other to win a total of 360 dollars  for themselves to keep.  The object of the game is to get each person on your list exterminated with a water-pistol, so you, or your team is secure for another year.

Explanation

This game is clearly harmless for two reasons. One of them is the high schoolers agreed to it. If they hadn't agreed to the game then their would be no game. Plus it is an annual ritual. Also they have a 17 point rule book that they must follow in order to stay in the game, or be automatically eliminated. Finally the only reason they wanted to enter is, because they wanted to win the money for ridiculous reasons.

My second reason is, because they were using harmless weapons. Water-pistols none the less. They used water guns for the safety of the students, so no one gets hurt, dies, or sued. Also they used something called a “squirt fish,” which is a rubber toy that squirts water on you when you squeeze it. Finally they only get soaked; they don’t die from bleeding, or drowning  they just got their shirts wet from water pistols. The worst thing that could happen is that your favorite t-shirt would get soaked.

CounterClaim:

My counter argument is that the game is just too dangerous for students to play. My reason is that it is just as dangerous as Grand Theft Auto 5. From the article “Do Games Like ‘Grand Theft Auto V’ Cause Real-World Violence?” the text says, “the shooting has already sparked calls for censorship of video games.”(Erik Kain,2013,pg1) Censorship it’s saying that the things that happen in the game need to be blocked, and so do things like the violent rituals of the school water-pistol combat.

Rebuttal:

That has nothing to do with the fact that they’re using water-pistols and not actual guns to fight each other. They are simply going against one another in a fun and safe event that has a reward of $360. The students only do this to keep the ritual alive and to win the most exterminations as possible. If no one signed up for this ritual then they would no longer have it;  thus causing students to use all their energy in their last attempt of having fun before the school year ends. Which would end up causing them to get in a strenuous amount of trouble with the school.  

Conclusion Paragraph

My conclusion is that the event is harmless towards the students. No student got hurt from the event, so there were no consolation to the ritual. The worst thing that could happen is that some bodies clothes would get soaked. The only that happened after the ritual was that one of the senior teams soaked 21 students, won, and had a spaghetti dinner for their victory. Since nobody was injured the event in safe and secure for the next year of competitors to play. That is why the water-pistol ritual is not a threat towards any of the students at St. Annes high school.

About The Author: John Barry is a 5 foot 9 8th grader at Premier Charter School from St.Louis, Missouri. He likes anime and speaking his mind even if it gets him in trouble with teachers, administrators, or principals. He is going to Gateway STEM, which he had been accepted in. He mainly talks/complains about local news and politics. He writes mainly argument essays and a book call “Quadricorns vs The Cyclops” (it didn't get published) Still he stands to his morals.

1. Eat 4 meals a day
2. Watch only anime or shows on FOX ( ex. Bob’s Burgers, or One Piece)
3. Talk about what you want to talk about.
4. Be annoying