Bart Simpson: The Prince of Irreverence

Bart Simpson: The Prince of Irreverence, written by Douglas Rushkoff, stars off immediately with what his entire essay is about, "The Simpsons is the closest thing to a national media literacy program." To start out with his thesis immediately is a good thing mostly because the thesis itself is very interesting. This is good for his argument because it instantly draws readers in. The structure used in the essay also strengthens his argument. To begin he tells who the Simpsons are and how they began, useful for anyone who is unfamiliar with the show. Another stylistic choice that Rushkoff makes is to use certain episodes to back up his points. For example, Rushkoff claims that The Simpsons satirizes certain aspects of media and uses an episode where Bart drops a radio into a well and fools Springfield into think a boy has fallen down there instead. Citing episodes is especially helpful to the point of this essay because it shows that Rushkoff really know what he's talking about. If he can identify specific episodes, out the very many that have come out over the past 20 years, to prove his argument, then he shows that you can trust what he says. All of these choices in style help to provide an overall effective argumentative essay.