FACULTY OF BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

BACHELOR OF OFFICE SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT (BM232)

ENGLISH FOR CRITICAL ACADEMIC READING (ELC501)

NBSA5C

Pair Written Article Analysis

PREPARED FOR : Sir Gopighantan Mylvaganam

PREPARED BY : Muhammad Firdaus bin Hashim (2019832928)
Nor Halida binti Ismail (2019845232)
Article Analysis

Should Mobile Phones Be Banned from Schools?

In the article, “Should Mobile Phones Be Banned from Schools?” Stephen Moss addresses the
divisive question about whether mobile phone should be restricted from schools to build a
quality discipline among the students. The author argues by including several opinions from
school teachers about using the mobile phones during teaching and learning environment. Word
such as potent, wreak havoc, consensus and confiscation shown that the author tone of neutral on
mobile phone be banned from school. In the article, it comes out that some of the teachers do
agree that mobile phones provide some benefits to their students. On the other hand, some of
them said that restriction of mobile phones among their students has improved their behaviours.
In particular, the author has provided credible argument regarding to this issue. When he met,
Jo Debens, a geography teacher at Priory School, Portsmouth, a detailed with a diverse
enrolment, dashed out more to take 30 students to orientate. Students checked whether it would
be simpler to be using an OS map or processing software on a cell phone. The school drawn up a
"mobile device policy" in order to improve learning throughout this year. In education, cell
phones are tolerated that are used in classroom only at convenience of the teacher, with a
specific set of penalties enforced for misuse. Just 1.4 percent of unpleasant students’ behaviour
has been attributed to mobile phones since the policy was implemented.

A different claim made by Nasim Jahangir. Nasim Jahangir is one of the teachers from
Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College, Leicester, teaching business and economics. She
introduced smartphones into lessons many years ago, though, when she "started learning to
educate in a unique manner" with a focus on self-education. She acknowledges that it is probably
better to make sure that her A-level students use devices productively, but she feels that attitude
has changed. The author shown moral argument when she said, “The whole atmosphere in the
class has changed," and this is due to the misuse of mobile phones. This statement has a support
by Ian Fenn, head of Burnage Media Arts College in Manchester. He said that, “"Mobiles rather
crept up on education and in our experience, it was a nightmare.” Fenn has prohibited students
from making phone calls or sending messages to school premises and, and according to Daily
Mail, the effects have indeed been remarkable in exchange for better attitudes and decreased
bullying and harassment.
The types of supporting details that used by the author himself, mostly are from the testimonies
of school teachers. Some of them do not agree to ban mobile phones in school due to some
factors. Usually, they have policy or legislation to allow students use their mobile phones at a
specific time only and stored their mobile phones back into their locker. Some of the teachers
agreed to ban mobile phones in school to improve learning environment and attitude behaviours.
This supporting detail has inductive reasoning as the author provides all specific support as
should mobile phone be banned from schools as the teachers giving their testimonies. Paragraph
V, VIII, IX and XIII was an example of inductive reasoning. The author needs to highlight the
percentage of students’ attitude performance when they are allowed to use mobile phones in
schools and not allow to use it. Therefore, these numbers will make this article has its own
validity and credibility for audience to understands more on the issue. Throughout this article, all
opinions are relevance to the issue but there are no objectivity and completeness of those
supporting details. Thus, this article has less validity and credibility in prospect.

Throughout this article, the author’s purpose is to discuss whether mobile phones should be
banned from schools or not. From the arguments, the results are balance. Several of them agreed
to ban mobile phones from schools, but some of them are not. The author’s tone in this article is
neutral and he is not being prejudice. I admit that the author has put his focus completely on
other’s opinion on this issue. The author’s intended audience are teachers and students. From his
writing, the author has pressured a lot on the teacher’s opinion and what would they do to
overcome the situation to reduce the students’ behavioural issue.

In conclusion, there are several arguments that has been made by the author. Those teachers that
agreed to ban mobile phones is because they want to improve the students’ discipline
performance in learning environment. On the other hand, some of the teachers do not agreed to
ban mobile phones because it can provide several benefits for the students, but they will make
build policy to control the usage of mobile phones in schools. This article also has less validity
and credibility due to some reasons. This article has less potential to contribute in the prospect
and need some improvement on the supporting details.

(815 words)