Now that you have read and annotated this week’s articles, please use the following steps to complete this assignment:
Step 1: Using the methods you learned about in “Active Reading Strategies,” from the Week 2 Module, type up a summary of each article. Each summary should be one paragraph, 150-300 words, and include the word count. Furthermore, be sure to introduce the author’s name, article title, and source in the first sentence of the summary. Finally, you must integrate and highlight a minimum of 2 words/phrases from the “Templates & Transitions” handout located in the Week 5 module.
Step 2: Using the methods you learned about in the “T-GAP” handout from the Week 4 Module, the Introduction to Rhetoric lecture from the Week 8 Module, and the Rhetorical Analysis packet from this week’s module, type up an analysis of each article. Each analysis should be one paragraph where you identify the author’s tone, genre, audience, purpose, and rhetorical appeals/strategies, and provide your own opinion about/reaction toward that article. Consider putting key terms such as “tone” or “audience” in bold or underlining them so you can make sure you have included all of the required elements. Aim for about 150-300 words. Once again, be sure to identify the author’s name and title of the article in the paragraph. Finally, you must integrate and highlight a minimum of 2 words/phrases from the “Templates & Transitions” handout located in the Week 5 module.
Step 3: Upload your document to this assignment submission area. Your document should contain a total of 4 paragraphs.
There is a grading rubric attached to this assignment link, which you can view before you submit your assignment.
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Templates & Transitions *Using some of these templates (academic sentence starters) and transition words/phrases will strengthen your argumentative writing as well as vary your sentence structure. It will also help you connect your ideas more clearly for your reader. Introducing Quotations Ø Ø Ø Ø X states, “_____________________.” According to X, “_____________________.” In his/her article, “_________________,” X maintains that “_____________________.” In X’s view, “_____________________.” Explaining Quotations in Your Own Words (Summary) Ø Ø Ø Ø Ø Ø Ø Ø Ø Ø Ø Ø Ø Ø In X’s article, “____________________,” he/she asserts that ____________________. X agrees that ___________________. X claims that ____________________. X explains that ____________________. X demonstrates that ____________________. X insists that ____________________. X reminds us that ____________________. X reports that ____________________. X suggests that____________________. X emphasizes the importance of ____________________. Basically, X is arguing that __________________________. In other words, X believes __________________________. X’s point is that __________________________. To put it another way, __________________________. Providing Your Opinion about the Quotation (Analysis) Ø I agree that _________________ because my experience _____________ confirms it. Ø X is surely right about ____________ because ____________. Ø I wholeheartedly endorse what X calls ___________________. Ø X matters because ___________________. Ø X is important since __________________. Common Transitions to Be Used in Any Paper Addition Elaboration Cause & Effect Concession also and besides furthermore in addition in fact indeed moreover so too actually by extension in short that is in other words to put it another way to put it succinctly ultimately accordingly as a result consequently hence it follows, then since so then therefore thus admittedly although it is true that granted I concede that of course naturally to be sure Comparison Example Contrast Conclusion along the same lines in the same way likewise similarly after all as an illustration consider for example for instance to illustrate specifically to take case in point although but by contrast conversely even though however in contrast nevertheless/nonetheless on the contrary on the other hand regardless whereas while yet as a result consequently hence in conclusion in short in sum to summarize Active Reading Strategies Pre-Reading Strategies of Proficient Readers Surveying/Skimming/Previewing: What Proficient Readers Do Automatically ð ð ð ð ð ð ð ð Look for head-notes, biographical information about the author, and other explanatory material. Survey the organization of the text; note the title; look for text divisions, section headings, and subtitles. Skim visuals; note relationship between visuals and specific text segments. Identify author, publication type, and date. Identify target audience. Read first and last paragraphs to identify the topic and the author’s conclusion/thesis. Identify terms that indicate the author’s position on the topic. Note the length of text to budget time for reading sections or entire piece. Drawing Conclusions from Pre-Reading Strategies Making Predictions Based on Textual Clues and Prior Knowledge ð ð ð ð Infer from the title and other external features what information/ideas this text might present. Turn the title into a question and write out a one-sentence answer to the question after reading the text (repeat procedure for any section headers). Based on the previewing of the text, predict the author’s purpose for writing the text. Based on the information gathered so far, predict the position (positive or negative) the author will take on this topic. Annotating the Text Staying Actively Engaged with the Material during the Reading Process ð ð ð Mark the pages and margins, using pens and/or highlighters. o Use symbols, like arrows to connect ideas. o Underline or highlight key words/phrases. o Put a question mark next to ideas you aren’t clear on. o Circle or put a box around words you need to look up in the dictionary. o Write a summary of each paragraph or section. Use post-its or flags to highlight sections or include notes beyond what you can fit in the margins. Aim to highlight about 15-20% of the text for each page. Summarizing the Text Retaining the Material after the Reading Process ð ð ð ð ð ð ð ð ð An effective summary is a briefer version of a piece of writing in your own words. Learn to use a dictionary and thesaurus effectively if you need help thinking of different ways of saying things. Including than 3 consecutive words verbatim from the original source constitutes as plagiarism. Avoid quotations unless there is a very specific phrase that needs to stay intact. Always begin a summary with the title, type of source, author’s full name, and thesis (overall main idea of the reading). Stick to main ideas and major supporting details only. Use present tense and 3rd person point-of-view. Include the ideas in the same order the author did (chronological). Use templates and transitions to connect ideas (avoid a “list” summary). Avoid including your own opinion or misrepresenting the author’s original ideas. Sample Summary According to Paul Insel and Walton Roth, in the article, “Exercise for Health and Fitness,” published in The New York Times on August 4, 2012, physical fitness has many benefits for our well-being and can only be achieved through a variety of regular exercise. First, the authors define physical fitness as qualities which permit the body to accommodate various “demands of physical effort.” Next, the authors explain the many aspects of physical fitness which are Cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility, and body composition. In addition, the authors argue that exercise provides many benefits for people. One example is improved physical traits (better heart functioning, a more effective metabolism, improved body makeup—more muscle and less fat. Another is disease prevention (like Cancer, Diabetes, etc.). And last is improvement in psychological and emotional wellness, improved immune function, and prevention of injuries. Finally, the authors argue that exercise can help people live longer, healthier lives. R HETORICA L A NA LYSIS P ACKET E NGLISH 120 A N A LYZ IN G R H ETO RI CA L S TRA TEG I ES Rhetorical strategy – a particular way in which writers craft language so as to have an effect on readers. Strategies are means of persuasion, ways of using language to get readers’ attention and agreement. Some Common Rhetorical Strategies – • Appeals: Ethos, pathos, and logos • Organizational patterns • Rebuttals (counter-arguments/acknowledging opposition) When analyzing Rhetorical Strategies, remember to: 1. Identify rhetorical strategies. 2. Describe how they work. 3. Describe why they are used – what purpose do they accomplish? Note: When describing why a strategy is used, you may want to consider alternative strategies, and think about how they would work differently. You may also want to consider what would happen if the strategy were left out – what difference would it make to the argument? This may help you figure out why the particular strategy was chosen. Logos, Ethos, and Pathos To Appeal to LOGOS (logic, reasoning) The argument itself; the reasoning the author uses. Types of LOGOS Appeals • Theories / scientific facts • Indicated meanings or reasons (because…) • Analogies • Definitions • Factual data & statistics • Quotations • Citations from experts & authorities • Informed opinions • Examples (real life examples) • Personal anecdotes Effect on Audience Evokes a cognitive, rational response. Readers get a sense of, “Oh, that makes sense,” or “Hmm, that really doesn’t prove anything.” How to Talk About It The author appeals to logos by defining relevant terms and then supports his claim with numerous citations from authorities. The author’s logos appeals of statistics and expert testimony are very convincing. To Develop or Appeal to ETHOS (character, ethics) How an author builds credibility & trustworthiness. Ways to Develop ETHOS • Author’s profession / background • Author’s publication • Appears sincere, fair minded, knowledgeable • Concedes to the opposition • Morally / ethically likeable • Appropriate language for audience and subject • Appropriate vocabulary • Correct grammar • Professional format Effect on Audience Helps reader to see the author as reliable, trustworthy, competent, and credible. The reader might respect the author or his/her views. How to Talk About It Through his use of scientific terminology, the author builds his ethos by appearing knowledgeable. The author’s ethos is effectively developed as readers see that he is sympathetic to the struggles minorities face. To Appeal to PATHOS (emotion) Words or passages an author uses to activate emotions. Types of Pathos Appeals • Emotionally loaded language • Vivid descriptions • Emotional examples • Anecdotes, testimonies, or Narratives about emotional experiences or events • Figurative language • Emotional tone (humor, sarcasm, disappointment, excitement, etc.) Effect on Audience Evokes an emotional response. Persuasion by emotion. (usually evoking fear, sympathy, empathy, anger) How to Talk About It When referencing 9/11, the author is appealing to pathos. Here, he is eliciting both sadness and anger from his readers. The author’s description of the child with cancer was a very persuasive pathos appeal. How Structure Can Further an Author’s Argument To understand structure, consider the overall organization of the essay and how it furthers the author’s persuasive strategies. Examine the various parts of the argument. How do the separate sections of the essay develop the claim? Try not to summarize or simply list the main point of each paragraph. Focus on one or two aspects of the essay’s organization and how it furthers the author’s argument. Authors use various organizational strategies to structure their arguments. For instance, one way that authors might organize their essay is in terms of a problem-solution-justification structure. The opening section typically persuades the audience that a problem exists, the second section offers potential solutions, and the final section attempts to justify the solutions by showing how they help to alleviate the problem. When investigating historical or social arguments, writers typically examine the cause and effect of issues and events to further their claims. Thus, writers will detail the way specific events lead to certain outcomes. These are a just few of the typical ways that writers organize their arguments. Below is a list of common organizational strategies: • • • • • • • • • • • Comparison-Contrast Cause-Effect Definition (defining key terms) Problem-Solution Classification/Division Emphatic (order of importance) Chronological (time order) General to Specific Abstract to Concrete OR Simple to Complex Point-by-Point Exemplification (organizing by examples) Counterargument and Refutation It is important that you can both recognize and utilize the following process for counterargument and refutation. 3-Step Process of Refutation Step 1: Acknowledge (“They say…”) Step 2: Refute Using Support (“But…because…”) Step 3: Conclude (“Therefore….”) Sample Paragraph Using the 3-Step Process Some of the moves have been underlined for you. Advances in medical robot technology have led to improvements in the quality of surgeries, which benefit patients. For example, the daVinci Robotic Surgical System (DRSS) is a technologically advanced surgical system that is used for delicate procedures such as prostate and kidney surgeries. Some patients are skeptical of the device initially because they think the robot performs the surgery on its own. However, the robot is only a tool for a human surgeon. Furthermore, in his article, “Robotic Surgery Benefits Springfield Hospital,” Kevin Stirling emphasizes the fact that “for patients requiring surgery, the advantages and benefits of minimally invasive surgery with the daVinci Robotic Surgical System are plentiful including but not limited to: less pain, shorter recovery times, shorter hospital stays, less blood loss, fewer transfusions, less scarring,…and overall improved clinical outcomes generally” (Stirling). In other words, Stirling believes that the DRSS is an invaluable advancement in medical technology that aids both patients and doctors immensely. I see eye to eye with Stirling in his belief that the daVinci robot is a benefit to society. Therefore, patients should try to overcome their apprehensions about this technology since there are fewer risks and less recovery time. T-GAP T ONE , G ENRE , A UDI ENCE , & P URPOSE *Being able to identify the following elements when reading an article, book, etc. is a useful skill to have in college classes and for critical reading outside the college classroom. I. DETERMI NI NG TONE *Here are just some examples of the kinds of tone an author can take. Pay close attention to the language (word choice) of an author. Tone Angry Biased Candid Casual Challenging Humorous Intellectual Neutral Personable Sad Sarcastic II . Synonyms Irritated, vexed, indignant, offended One-sided, partial Blunt, forthright, frank, abrupt Informal, easy-going Provocative, defiant, questioning Amusing, funny, jovial, joking Intelligent, knowledgeable, thoughtful Impartial, unbiased, open-minded, objective Friendly, good-natured, affable Dispirited, discouraged, unhappy Satirical, disparaging, scornful, contemptuous I D E N TI F Y I N G G E N R E *Below is a chart that outlines the different genres (categories or types) of a text. There are many genres and sub-genres—graphic novels, plays, social media status updates, etc.—and by identifying the genre, we can determine what we should be looking for or can gain from reading that text. Genre Textbook Journal Article Fiction (Novel or Short Story) Non-Fiction (Book, Essay, or Article) Magazine or Newspaper Article Blog Author Scholars or Professionals in the Discipline Scholars or Professionals in the Discipline Audience Students Professional Writer Students, Professors, and Others Educated Specialists in that Discipline General Reader Professional Writer, Scholar, or Journalist Professional Journalist General Reader (Possibly Educated) General Reader Professional or Amateur Writer General Reader III . E S T A B L I S H I N G T A R G E T A U DI E N C E *It is important to look at the kinds of information and the word choices of the author (s) when trying to identify what specific group of people were the target audience. Consider: Ø Is it meant for the general public or a specific group of people? o Are there terms only a doctor or a scuba diver is familiar with? Ø Is the audience expected to have a certain level of education? o Look at the level of vocabulary being used. Ø Is there a specific age group being targeted? o The kinds of examples and stories included in the source can help determine this. IV. CHOOSING ACCURATE VERBS TO DESCRIBE PURPOSE I know what it says…but what does it do? *The following verbs will be helpful when analyzing what an author is doing (the rhetorical moves he/she is making), rather than what he/she is saying. Acknowledges Amplifies Analyzes Argues Articulates Asserts Blends Challenges Clarifies Compares Compiles Concludes Constructs Contrasts Debates Deconstructs Defends Defines Differentiates Discusses Dissects Distinguishes Establishes Evaluates Exemplifies Explains Forecasts Gathers Generalizes Identifies Illustrates Incorporates Inspects Integrates Interprets Introduces Justifies Models Navigates Organizes Outlines Persuades Predicts Presents Proposes Proves Qualifies Questions Substantiates Suggests Summarizes Theorizes Traces Uses Matti 1 Sandra Matti Professor Sarah Martin English 120 17 October 2018 From Wasteland to Wonderland: TV’s Altered Landscape By Jeff Greenfield “The boob tube.” “The idiot box.” “The plug-in drug.” “A vast wasteland.” When I began writing about the television industry in the mid-1970s, these were some of the kinder terms of endearment. To imagine back then a television universe where creativity is unbound; where Hollywood’s most revered writers, directors, producers and actors clamor for the chance to “do TV”; where talk of a new “Golden Age” abounds, would have required a serious exercise in delusion, or the ingestion of controlled substances. But it has happened. Why? For me, the answer lies in one essential fact: When technology replaced scarcity with abundance, every core assumption about TV began to crumble. Everything about the medium — how we receive it, how we consume it, how we pay for it, how we interact with it — has been altered, and TV is infinitely better for it. In the mid-1970s, all TV was divided into three parts, at least as far as almost every American viewer was concerned. Every evening, the three broadcast networks, 1 CBS, 2 NBC and 3 ABC, drew more than 9 out of 10 viewers. The only revenue came from advertisers, which led countless chroniclers of the industry to the same surprising conclusion about the nature of the business. “Remember,” the NBC executive Don Carswell told me, “we’re not selling the program. We’re selling the audience for the program.” The bigger the audience — and the more desirable in terms of buying power — the more the networks could charge. Matti 2 What this meant was that every hour, every half-hour, every moment of prime time had to be devoted to gathering the biggest possible audience. And that meant trying to shape the program to attract as many as possible and, perhaps more important, to avoid offending as many as possible. One prominent programmer of the day, Paul Klein of NBC, had a theory about this. He called it the “Least Objectionable Program” concept. Viewers, he said, didn’t watch a program, they watched TV. They clicked on the set and browsed until they found something reasonably acceptable. This theory drove many in the creative community to distraction. For every All in the Family or M*A*S*H* or Mary Tyler Moore, the overwhelming consensus, as expressed by Stan Kallis of Columbia TV, was that “We’re basically bound, our hands are tied, by the fact that we’re a medicine show. We’re here to deliver the audience to the next commercial.” Further, any unsettling or disturbing fare would taint the mood of the audience — the audience the networks were promising to deliver to advertisers. Set a comedy in a prison? O.K., but as the noted programming wizard Fred Silverman warned, “Stay away from the hard stuff. Don’t scare people away.” Forty years ago, I wrote in these pages that “The enormous pressures which force commercial television into its relatively narrow boundaries are not likely to widen in the foreseeable future.” I could not have been more wrong; in fact, the boundaries began to widen that very year. The key to the old TV world was scarcity. Only so many channels could beam through the air without running into each other. Only three networks had a nationwide distribution system of microwave relays and AT&T “long lines.” Anyone trying to start another network found the logistics and the cost prohibitive. But in 1975, RCA introduced the first of two “Satcom” communications satellites, and the threenetwork monopoly was dead. Now competitors could deliver their fare to stations and cable systems coast to coast. That year, a fledgling pay service, Home Box Office, put its signal up on the satellite. An all-news network? An all-sports network? Networks aimed at women, children, shoppers, movie buffs? Sure, via wire or satellite. Unlike over-the-air TV, there was room for everybody. And for these new providers, a whole new economic model arose. Cable operators paid monthly fees to these networks based on the cable company’s overall number of subscribers, not just the ones who watched that particular network. Cable operators pay CNN a fee of about 60 cents a month for each of the hundred million homes they reach, even if only one household in a hundred actually watches CNN. Even in the face of flagging ratings, the network earned more than $440 million in profits last year, and the laggard MSNBC earned about half that much. (Fox earned a billion dollars in profits). ESPN banks about $7 billion a year in fees before the first ad is broadcast. Matti 3 A more revolutionary impact of abundance came with the arrival of pay cable and in recent years streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime. Since there are no advertisers, the popularity of specific programs is in a sense irrelevant — as long as subscribers send their $15 a month to HBO or Showtime, or their $8 a month to Netflix. Do you need to create a reasonably placid environment in which the audience will be receptive to a commercial? The only ads that would make any sense appearing during Ray Donovan would be pitches for antidepressants or membership in the Hemlock Society. But in this universe, contrary to the TV world of the 1970s, the audience is not the product — it’s the customer. There is no better example of what has changed than the experience of David Chase. The veteran writer had gotten a deal from Fox to write a pilot script about a family headed by a gangster. As he recounted in a public discussion with me after the series ended, the Fox executives had just one small problem with the script: Did Tony Soprano really have to be seeing a psychiatrist? Didn’t this make him seem vulnerable, a bit weak? A generation ago, that would have been the end of the story. In today’s universe, there was a place for Tony Soprano, his panic attacks, his mother from hell, his language and sexual promiscuity, his casual resort to violence — to be shown with no threat of a network researcher telling Mr. Chase that Tony was turning off working mothers in the suburbs. HBO’s programmers could let the Chase vision of the story emerge full blown. In the last decade or so, this has become the working premise across much of the medium, particularly since basic cable networks like AMC and FX followed the lead of their pay-cable brethren. A chemistry teacher turned meth supplier; Soviet spies as the protagonists of a weekly drama? A drug-addicted nurse? A firefighter fighting his own demons? Yes, because the unofficial rules are different. “One thing I truly believe,” says Dick Wolf, the creator of Law and Order, “is that broadcasting is different from cable. And one of the things you can get away with on smaller cable networks is antiheroes. Sorry, they don’t work on broadcast. You can’t have a Walter White. You’re dealing with a different mind-set.” There’s another old belief about TV that has to be seriously rethought: the idea that it isolates us from each other. In 1971, the historian Daniel Boorstein wrote in Life magazine that the age of television created “a new sense of isolation and confinement.” The viewer could see, he wrote, “but nobody (except the family in the living room) could know for sure how he reacted to what he saw.” Today, a viewer can use a second screen — a phone, a tablet, a computer — to connect with friends, strangers and even creators of the shows to dissect a plotline, deride a piece of dialogue and question a twist in the story line, even as the show is being broadcast. When a compelling program like Mad Men, Breaking Bad, or The Sopranos approaches the end of its run, the digital cloud is filled with arguments about what should happen; a line of dialogue, a hair style or a piece of clothing will be analyzed intensely about its possible hints. You can call Matti 4 all this a 21st-century way to waste time, but even if it is, these interactions with television are anything but “isolating.” Is there still a mountain of junk on TV? More than ever. The same cable abundance that brings us Mad Men and Justified brings us the Real Liposuctioned Housewives of Springfield. Still, anyone looking to create a new set of insults to aim at TV is going to find it hard going. That vast wasteland has turned into a dazzling landscape. Summary With reference to Jeff Greenfield’s piece, “From Wasteland to Wonderland: TV’s Altered Landscape,” the author elucidates the evolution of the TV’s landscape from the age of pure commercial television to the notably contemporary TV industry epitomized by cable TV systems. Technology is central in the noted landscape change. At the start of the article, Greenfield presents some phrases that point to or offer an inkling that he is referring to television. In the same vein, the author starts by expounding about the television industry when he began writing about it. The author notes that the grounding philosophy during the mid-1970s was that the commercial TV sector was selling audiences for programs rather than selling the latter. Accordingly, advertisements were the only source of revenue. However, Greenfield identifies how the change in technologies, such as the development of communication satellites and the subsequent watching habits led to an increase in TV programs from the past three dominant networks. The author also evaluates how pay cable has had a revolutionary impact in the 21st century. Accordingly, the central philosophy in the contemporary world does not incline to audience being the product, instead the audience is the consumer. The author then fights the old assumption that contemporary TV watching habits are socially isolating. However, in the end the author concludes by stressing that there is still a lot of junk on TV but that mountain of waste has been transformed into a dazzling landscape, predominantly by technology. 1985: Television Transformed 1.0 By Robert Thompson The telephone gave us a long-distance voice. Radio took away the wires; television added pictures. But the real revolution occurred well before all of that: In one fell swoop, the telegraph allowed messages to travel not at the pace of a man on a pony or a speeding locomotive but at the velocity of an electron. In like fashion, the colossal library of Netflix may be impressive, but the videocassette recorder was a revolution. The rest, which a reeling industry is still trying to sort out, is digital gravy??. It is orthodoxy to say that television is in the midst of radical change. We can watch a bewildering amount of material at will, and portable devices let us do so outside of the home. Matti 5 What’s more, a significant increase of highbrow programming now defies the old idea of television as the “idiot box.” Yet for all the advances that online distribution and digital technologies have brought, the real revolution came about 30 years ago. By 1985, viewers could see a show after it had aired, and their choices had increased greatly. They could watch a hand-held TV at the beach, and some shows had already started to exhibit serious artistic ambitions. The heart of today’s transformation of television is storage. Viewers have access to vast quantities of programming, according to their tastes and schedules, stored on 1 DVRs, 2 DVDs, 3 on-demand cable and 4 satellite channels, and 5 online services. Not so very long ago, if you wanted to see “Citizen Kane,” you had to hope for a retrospective screening at an art house, or wait until it played on television. In 1977, the tens of millions of people who saw “Roots” had no choice but to stay home for eight consecutive nights and watch the broadcast on ABC. The introduction of the home videocassette recorder was the medium’s most important sea change. Now people at home could record and collect movies and television shows and watch them when they pleased. By 1985, more than 20 percent of American homes had a VCR, twice the number from the previous year. In 1985, the first Blockbuster Video opened. Blockbuster was a rental franchise, which, like the neighborhood stores before it, made it possible to watch thousands of movies and TV shows without having to record them off the air in the first place. Setting the timer on a VCR was a little harder than it is on a DVR, and driving to Blockbuster to rent and return tapes was a lot harder than clicking on a title on Hulu, but 30 years ago the big step had been made. If they took the trouble, viewers had control over what they saw and when. Storage capability catalyzed demand for inventory. Although in the mid-1980s, the extensive repertory that online services have today did not exist, radically increased choice was already a property of the evolving medium. Cable television was adding lots of channels and content alternatives. ESPN made its debut in 1979, CNN in 1980, MTV in 1981. Fewer than 20 percent of American homes had cable in 1980. That more than doubled by 1985. Even portability, one of the glories of today’s new media, was making inroads 30 years ago. Although Sony’s miniature Watchman never took off in this country — it could not connect to cable and it could not play tapes — it provided a dress rehearsal of sorts for what it would be like to carry a TV around in a purse. Much has been said about how digital technologies have ushered in a new “golden age” of television, especially now that Netflix and Amazon Prime are offering classy original shows like “House of Cards” and “Transparent,” and now that auteurs like Woody Allen are signing up to do online series. Once again, however, this process started in the 1980s. By fall 1985, broadcast schedules, spurred by cable competition, included a growing number of prestige programs that broke from standard TV fare featuring flying nuns and talking horses. The network lineups that season included business-as-usual silliness like “The A-Team” and “Knight Rider.” But they also included series like “Hill Street Blues,” “St. Elsewhere” and Matti 6 “Moonlighting” — shows that began to present literate, serialized stories in complex cinematic styles. Within a few years, pedigreed film directors like Steven Spielberg, Robert Altman, Penny Marshall, David Lynch, Tim Burton and Oliver Stone were all doing work for television. The TV revolution took a lot more effort to enjoy three decades ago. You needed to check listings, set timers and rewind tapes. And some things — HDTV, social media interaction, cats playing pianos — would not arrive for another decade or two. Many of the required elements of change, however, were already in place. As we look upon images of Pluto or Mars sent from 21st-century spacecraft, we might wonder how we ever got to the moon and back with nothing but the stodgy technology of 1969. We might also recognize that the real transformation of television had already begun in those quaint, analog days before the Internet. Summary According to Robert Thompson’s article, “1985: Television Transformed,” the author’s primary intent is to show how the modern day television trends have their roots in the 1985 technological innovation of the videocassette recorder. At the start of the article, Thompson elucidates the gradual change from telephone, radio and television technologies. While these three technologies were considered incredible, the author stresses that they are rooted in the initial telegraph technology. In line with this assertion, the author proceeds to assert that even the television technology is grounded in innovation of the videocassette recorder, which he argues as being revolutionary. Subsequently, the author proceeds to elucidate the gradual change of technologies from the VCR, DVR, Blockbuster Video, return tapes, to contemporary cable systems. In this case, the author still insists that the needed tools for the TV revolution were already set by previous technologies.