Invention exercises for Assignment 2: Comparative Analysis

1. In 2-3 sentences, summarize in your own words each essay. Remember, a summary is a condensed version of the source text. It does not include any opinion. It does include the title of the piece and the author’s full name. Don’t worry about getting the wording perfect right now—just try to capture the essence of the readings.

a. Dobb’s “Beautiful Brains” talks about the reason teenagers are doing dangerous and impulsive things. The essay touches on human brain development, adult versus teenager point of view, and teenage habits. Although she does bash teenagers by saying that our decisions can be poor and we don’t have the greatest understand, she later goes on to support us by saying that the “bad traits” the come with teenagers are also the traits that make us be more social, have more energy, and look for more exciting things to do. Teenagers have a thirst for adventure that adults have lost.

b. In Barbara Smuts’ “Apes of Wrath”, male to female human relationships are being compared to those of primates. She states that many human behaviors in response to aggressive males are similar to those of the apes, and that male dominance is shown in both societies.

2. In 2-3 sentences, paraphrase in your own words a particular passage from each essay of not more than a paragraph. A paraphrase is different from a summary in that it is used with short passages—usually a few sentences—and doesn’t necessary shorten/condense the original. Choose a passage that you feel is important in each essay. After each paraphrase explain why it is significant.

a. Teenagers have a thirst for thrill. Researchers Steinberg and Casey believe that in the case of cost versus reward, those who take the risk for the reward gain higher adaptively.

Success comes from stepping out of your comfort zone. This, in turn, is similar for satisfying the taste for thrill.

b. These dangerous traits are what makes us adaptive. They show up in every single human alive, but it’s shown that most people only recognize these traits in the adolescent years; where we have a thirst for excitement, adventure, and company.

The dangerous traits that people associate with teenagers is actually in everyone, but its association with teenagers is so strong that people think that only teenagers have it, when in reality, everyone has that craving for something new and exciting.

3. Choose a direct quote from each essay. After each quote explain why it is significant. What textual tools does the writer use to persuade the reader?

a. Quote: “The biggest risk takers use the same basic cognitive strategies just as well as adults.” This is significant because it shows that even though teenagers may seem as if they’re wreckless and do dangerous things, they’re full aware of it, and they know their limit. Teenagers aren’t stupid, they think things through just as well as adults do. The writer uses logos to persuade the reader by using facts from a recent study.

This is persuasive because: it has research backing up this claim, it isn’t just a fake statement made up by the writer.

b. Quote: “Teens take more risks not because they don’t understand the dangers but because they weigh risk versus reward differently.” This shows that teenagers have a different thought process than adults. They’re more willing to take the risk for the bigger reward, while adults are much more conservative. The writer is using logos to logically reason with readers that teenagers and adults don’t think similarly. They’re not stupid.

This is persuasive because: adults and teenagers don’t often see eye to eye with one another. This is just another reason (supported by scientific evidence), that supports the idea that teenagers and adults have different mindsets.

4. What are some common themes of these two readings?

5. What are some common textual strategies of these two readings? (Think about rhetorical modes, persuasive appeals, organization, diction, etc. Identify at least 3).

5. Imagine the two authors of these texts are sitting in a room together. Write the conversation they are having. What do they agree on? Where do they disagree?

Beautiful, Yet Dangerous Brains

David Dobbs’  article ‘Beautiful Brains’, is written to inform the public of new scientific discoveries about the brain, how it develops and why adolescence is such a difficult time period for most parents to handle. What Dobbs writes is that through experiments and images of brain activity, many scientists realized that the brain takes much longer to develop than most people thought. He goes into details describing the way stronger links develop between the hippocampus and that this causes humans to become better at decision making. Throughout his article, Dobbs gives examples of how his son was in his adolescent years and how this research helped Dobbs realize more about why his son was put into jail for driving at 113 mph for instance.

Dobbs mixed in anecdotes with science discovery very well and made it flow. I enjoyed being able to relate to science on an easier level than if Dobbs were to just write a science journal will all its technicalities and scientific lexicon. Dobbs was able to clearly state the people who worked on these experiments and what they did. The experiments that were run on teens were explained thoroughly and given a reason for why this kind of experiment was given and what it uncovered. Not only was science a main part of this article but so was the way in which this science relates to every day life and socialization, for example when Dobbs talks about how teens usually search for approval from their peers and how this is seen through brain activity and development. Dobbs allowed avergae people to be able to understand complex scientific discovery and be updated on the current flow of what is going on in science.

Response to “Beautiful Brains”

David Dobbs, an accomplished writer and common author for The New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, and the Atlantic, really takes an in depth look at the teenage brain and mind in his piece “Beautiful Brains.”  He leads off by introducing a situation that he had to deal with regarding his son.  Dobbs recalls the time that he received a phone call from his son who was in prison for reckless driving, and although he was willing to accept the charges and understood his misdoings while speeding, his son did not enjoy the title of being a “reckless driver” placed on him.  This got Dobbs to thinking and leads into his main point which deals with the conflict that teenagers face in which they knowingly understand the risks they take, yet do them anyway.  The essay overall is a large psychological review of the teen brain verse an adult one and the differences in the two.  In reviewing a study done by University of Pittsburgh professor Beatriz Luna, where children, adolescents, and adults were told to resist the urge to look at a blinking light, it is noted that teens, “…used certain areas of the brain less often than adults and more readily gave in to the impulse to look at the flickering light…” (159).  However when a reward is offered for their efforts they more readily use these areas and will score higher.  Dobbs uses this to explain the reason as to why teens moods and behaviors are often inconsistent throughout the day and vary over time.  He explains how risk taking will often increase in teens and adolescents that can affect them later in life, and uses examples, such as, alcohol experimentation and drug use.  But contrary to what people may think teens actually understand these risks fully and just as much as adults do, but the reason as to why they do it is because “…they value the reward more heavily than adults do.” (162).  Whereas adults won’t change their habits or try to impress their friends while they’re in their presence, teens do, and this is where the trouble branches from.  Teens want to look cooler and better than the people they’re with and therefore make stupid decisions in the process.  While they do enjoy trying to impress their friends, they find equally important the information and experiences that their parents have to share with them, and that’s why it’s important that parents talk to their kids to help improve their brain development.  In his closing Dobbs leaves his reader with a request to take advantage of the prolonged development of the frontal lobe region  “…when a brain area lays down myelin a sort of crucial period of learning…” (166).  That it’s better off that we don’t smarten up sooner in life because if we did then we would “…end up dumber.” (166).

I found Dobbs’ essay to be very interesting and I was able to learn a great deal from it.  I always knew that the teen and early adult brain was still developing, just not the the degree in which he explains in his piece.  When reading about the case study where Beatriz Luna reviewed whether or not teens would be able to resist the urge to look at the flashing light I began to think about myself.  I wondered if I was given this take if I would attempt to look at it or not.  Then on the topic of how teens are often more likely trying to impress their peers while in their presence I began to review my own driving habits.  Thinking about whether or not I’m found speeding more and driving recklessly when I’m in the car with my friends verses my parents or family.  That I shouldn’t really have to prove anything to them and try to impress them because they’re already my friends and I shouldn’t risk their or my life just to gain some extra brownie points.  Overall the essay was very informative and helpful in understanding why some of my peers act the way they do and do the things they do.  That maybe my front lobes are developing more rapidly than their’s are and it’s not so much that they’re acting foolishly for no reason, but simply because their brains are still developing and need to get some last minute immaturity out of their system before that becomes a wrongdoing.   That I shouldn’t be so critical of my peers, and should learn to be more accepting of their acts…to a degree of course though.