Rhetorical Analysis Of The Secret To Raising Smart Kids

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After examining Dr. Carol S. Dweck’s article, “The Secret to Raising Smart Kids,” we can use that she makes a compelling argument for her Scientific American audience through the use of rhetorical strategies. The first technique she employs involves strong organizational structure. To start her piece, Dweck used an anecdotal example to pull her readers’ attention and give them a previous view of how someone’s mindset could affect his life. Dweck described that, once there was “ [a] brilliant student, Jonathan sailed through grade schools. He completed his assignments easily and routinely earned ‘As.’ [...] In seventh grade, however, Jonathan suddenly lost interest in school, refusing to do homework or study for tests. As a consequence, his grades …show more content…
[....] As we had predicted, the students with a growth mind-set felt that learning was a more important goal in school than getting good grades. [...] The students who held a fixed mind-set, however, were concerned about looking smart with less regard for learning. They have negative views of effort, believing that having to work hard at something was a sign of low ability” (Dweck 3). By providing the two sides of mindset, a growth mindset and a fixed mindset, Dweck was able to make her audience visualize the differences between the two different mindset and see their effects on people’s lives. Another advice she utilizes would be a more formal yet personable tone created through her word choice. For example, she states, “People can learn to be helpless, too, but not everyone reacts to setbacks this way. I wondered: Why do some students give up when they encounter difficulty, whereas others who are no more skilled continue to strive and

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