False Stories lead to Doubt in the “Undercover Parent”
In Harlan Coben’s essay, “The Undercover Parent” he argues that if putting spyware on a child’s computer is morally acceptable. The article starts with Coben showing how at first he was “repelled” by the idea. Coben reflects about how even the name “spyware” would repel parents. Coben’s thoughts change on this issue as the essay continues. Coben makes the point that most parents will not be spying on what their children are doing, but instead overseeing their activities to make sure they are not getting into trouble. Coben addresses the fact that it would be a hard choice to decide to do, your child may be upset with you for “spying” but in the end when they are older they will understand you were just trying to protect them.
Coben uses many different persuasive techniques to argue his case, including: loaded words and analogies. The loaded words used to argue Coben’s side are found immediately in the essay and he uses the word “confessed.” He also uses other loaded words throughout the essay including, “negligence,” “hardcore,” and “knee-jerk reaction.” Coben uses these is a way to help the reader agree with Coben’s side of the argument.
Coben’s also uses analogies to persuade the readers. For example one analogy was: “little key-locked diary of the past.” The analogy referrers to a computer as a child’s diary, which is something a parent should never read. Coben was making this statement to help strength his argument by giving a view point from the other side. He brings this analogy in to the argument by saying this is an argument typically made by the side, then he disproves the analogy be trying to show the idea that of putting your secrets under the bed compared to on the Internet are two very different ideas. He tries to tell us that parents need to teach their children to put their secrets and thoughts in a key locked diary, not on the Internet.
In this essay, Coben has a very...