Rationale

Video Game Research Paper Outline

I begin the paper by talking about the bad press that video games have received over the years, mentioning a study that has done just that, to show that I have looked at some of the concerns of what video games cause. I continue from there by stating that video games actually provide a number of very helpful benefits. From that point, I begin talking about benefits that will directly go into helping students. I will be making sure to cite sources and point out the credentials of my sources as I am new to this topic, and my word will mean very little without the proper support. Doing this will show that I have looked through numerous sources on both sides of this argument, and solidify my position. After that, I will state my thesis, bringing my introduction to a close, and marking this as an academic research paper. This will help my credibility, as I am matching genre expectations.

My first section will go into what benefits video games could provide schools if they were used there. As schools, and learning in general, is one of the places that readers will least expect video games to assist, starting off here gives me some additional shock factor and help keep my reader engaged. I will be making sure to use enough sources to show that what I am claiming is the truth. I will begin this section with talking about how video games will help keep students going to school, as high school dropouts are a huge problem in the United States. This will also help to keep my readers attached, as many of them may become parents or are parents and may run into this problem further down the road. As my source show that it increased interest in subjects at younger ages, rather than older, I will also attempt to have the reader understand that getting someone to like a certain activity when they are younger, such as sports or cooking, will have them enjoy it for the rest of their lives. After that, I will go into how video games could assist students learn more than from traditional methods. This would again go with me citing from my sources to support the credibility of my claims. This would also be a good time to mention that when a challenge is overcome, it makes the one who overcame it grow more confident in their ability, and help tie this point to my earlier one as more confidence in a task makes the person in question more willing to do more. I will end the paragraph by saying that while it would be nice that this happened, parents must also contribute, as some of my source contribute the contents of media effects the minds of individuals more than how violent they are. I will also mention how any successful video game for teaching must be a collaboration effort that involves programmers and teacher, showing that there must be steps taken to get to where this would be possible.

In the next section, I would begin to talk about benefits that could be gained from the use of video games in everyday life. I will specifically focus on stress relief, metal benefits, health benefits, and social benefits. These will be displayed in this order to help me transition from the first section to the last section. I will be citing many sources in this section, as my knowledge is limited in this area. In stress relief, I will be focusing on how video games provide therapeutic relief and help release pent up anger and frustration (which helps carry use from the first section). From their, the mental benefits are a small jump over to begin looking at how video games affect how someone thinks and reacts to different problems they are given. As many people worry about their minds, this will be a good place to go. After that section, I will begin going into how the health benefits that are provided by playing video games, such as improved vision and helping patients with certain disorders function better. This part is really in here to help me seem like I care about other and want to help them in order to further society. Finally, I will touch upon what social benefits video games provide, as many people seem to think that video games make those who play them anti social. This will help keep my readers interested as well as attempt to shatter some of their beliefs about video games.

Finally, my last section will be about some of the long held beliefs that video games are bad for you, and why they are wrong. Or how to manage them in such a way that it won’t be problem. I begin this section by talking about some of the studies that have been done showing a link between violent video games and increase in violent behavior. I will then talk about some of the other studies that have actually shown that while violent video games are also helpful, and provide a number of helpful skills, as well as studies showing that it also matter if the game is attempting to promote teamwork or not. I will be citing my sources as I have been throughout the rest of this essay. I will then go into the concern of how parents believe that video games will cause their child to fail at school, and refer back to my first section to refute those claims. I will also include a comment that it is up to the adult to make sure that children spend their time on important tasks, such as homework, rather than on games that don’t assist in learning. I will conclude with a small section on what to do if they feel like they are someone they know is spending too much time using video games, and include sources of where I found these methods.

I will conclude this essay by mentioning how video games are a tool, and like any other tool, it must be used correctly to work. I will then restate my main points, and conclude the essay with a brief retelling of my thesis.