Parker-Pope (2015) mentions in her article “Writing Your Way to
Happiness” that writing down thoughts and problems improves physical and mental
health. It can change people's perception of life positively which makes them
happier. Parker-Pope quotes a study performed on 40 Duke University freshmen which
demonstrated that those who engage in expressive writing achieve better results
and are less likely to quit college. Also, expressive writing allows people to
identify obstacles and tackle them. The author cites a story of Siri who
discovered the actual cause of her failure in achieving her fitness goal.
The author’s claim on how writing down thoughts
can help people identify their problems and obstacles and tackle them, is
highly reasonable as identifying problems and obstacles is necessary in order
to solve them. Writing thoughts and feelings down can help to clear people’s
minds of the problems and obstacles they are facing. By writing problems down,
it can also help people change the perception they have of their problems and
obstacles, from negative to positive.
Expressive writing allows people to pour out their thoughts and feelings that are disturbed by the problems and obstacles they face in their daily lives. It is often that when people are burdened with problems, they tend to hide them which can lead to emotional instabilities. Expressing thoughts and feelings by writing them down can clear people's minds from the problems and obstacles they face. To strengthen the point on the ability of expressive writing to clear people's minds and to make way for solutions, Park, Ramirez & Beilock (2014) as cited by Power (2014) in his article, demonstrated how “Writing can also alleviate students' anxiety about mathematics”. Students with high anxiety on mathematical problems and often perform badly in mathematics were made to pen down all their thoughts and feelings before the following test. The results proved that students who expressed their anxiety on the paper did as well as their peers who were not anxious before the test and in some cases, outdid their peers. From the study above, researchers suggested that students became completely focused to working math problems. As a result, the students’ working memory becomes available for “more of the transitory information students need to apply” to solve the problems.
Writing down problems and thoughts can positively
change people's perceptions of the problems and obstacles they face. Problems
are commonly looked at as negative. As problems are being written down,
negative feelings will be relieved which makes way for the positive ones.
Klowsowski (2014) mentioned a quote by a “Mr Wilson” which goes, “Some
researchers have developed a method where they say, if something is nagging at
us, write about it in the third person so we can look at it as objectively as
we can as opposed to immersing ourselves in a negative experience.” This will
distance people from their original perception which help them look at their
problems in a new and a more positive way. For example, problems will be
seen as a challenge by people to improve themselves instead of looking
at them as a burden. Also, a study (Lyubomirsky, Kennon & Schkade, 2005)
have shown that those who often reflect on their lives were more positive and
motivated in their lives. The positive spirit may give people the strength to
tackle their problems and obstacles easily.
[566 words]
Reference:
Klosowski, T (2014, June 20). Recalibrate your reality. [Web log post]
Retrieved from
http://lifehacker.com/5891564/recalibrate-your-reality
http://lifehacker.com/5891564/recalibrate-your-reality
Lyubomirsky, S., Sheldon,KM., Schkade, D. (June, 2005). Pursuing
happiness: The architecture of sustainable change. Review of General Psychology,
Vol 9(2), 111-131.
Park, D., Ramirez, G. & Beilock, S. (2014). The role of
expressive writing in math anxiety. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 20(2), 103-111.
Parker-Pope, T. (2015, January 19). Writing your way to happiness. [Web
log post] Retrieved from http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/01/19/writing-your-way-to-happiness/?hpw&rref=health&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0
Powers, S.K. (2014, August 7). What writing does. [Web log post]
Retrieved from http://www.scottkpowers.com/2014/08/what-writing-does.html
Content
ReplyDeleteSome points to take note:
- Italics the title for Reference.
- If possible, paraphrasing the examples from the references will value add to your Reader response
- A lot of outside references. Maybe you can add some personal thoughts to your reader response
-
Language wise
One mistake that we identified was in the first paragraph. You should use past tense when mentioning the example brought up by Parker- Pope
In Paragraph 3, the anxiety should be in plural form
A study (Lyubomirsky, Kennon & Schkade,2005) have shown
The results proved that students who expressed their anxiety on the paper did as well as their peers who were not anxious before the test and in some cases, outdid their peers.
Last paragraph, their original perception should be changed to their original perceptions.
Organization
Clear structure. Topic sentence then evaluation followed by the examples and evidences. Finally linking back to the topic sentence.
Thanks for this effort, Hazwani. You provide what seems like an accurate summary. You also make a fairly clear thesis (though the wording can be changed). What seems more problematic to me is when you makes various assertions in the 2nd paragraph of the response without enough substantiation with evidence. You do connect some of these statements to Parker-Pope's ideas, and others to other studies in subsequent paragraphs. Maybe you can simply make your thesis more prominent and then work directly to support it with the the research-based evidence you've found.
ReplyDeleteOther issues to consider:
--- Parker-Pope quotes a study performed on 40 Duke University freshmen which demonstrated that those who engage in expressive writing achieve better results and are less likely to quit college. >>>
Parker-Pope quotes a study performed on 40 Duke University freshmen which demonstrated that those who had engage in expressive writing achieved better results and were less likely to quit college. Do you understand the tense changes?
--- Siri >>> Who is? Give some info to identify her.
--- By writing problems down, it can also… >>> Writing problems down can also…
--- The author’s claim on how writing down thoughts can help people identify their problems and obstacles and tackle them, is highly reasonable as identifying problems and obstacles is necessary in order to solve them.
>>>
The author’s claim THAT writing down thoughts can help people identify their problems and obstacles and tackle them is highly reasonable as identifying problems and obstacles is necessary in order to solve them.
--- Park, Ramirez & Beilock (2014) as cited by Power (2014) in his article >>>
???
--- Students with high anxiety on mathematical problems and often perform badly in mathematics … >>> (sentence structure: use a relative clause to express who performed badly)
I look forward to your next draft.