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Whitley Montgomery

The Perfect Text for Psychology Majors

Nancy C. Andreasen, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist, writes an article called: Secrets

of the Creative Brain. In her article, she explores where creativity comes from and whether it is

heredity or not. Her article is a great text for Psychology majors because it is an easy read for her

audience, well organized, and has supporting evidence neatly woven into her paragraphs.

Secrets of the Creative Brain is an easy article to read and understand. Andreasen does

not use fancy words. Anyone could read this text and comprehend it fully. She also takes the

time to explain things further for non-psychologist readers. For example, London taxi drivers . .

. have an enlarged hippocampusa key memory regionas demonstrated in a

magnetic-resonance-imaging, or MRI, study (Andreasen 1). Anyone who has studied

psychology or the brain would know that the hippocampus is a part of the brain that controls

emotion, memory, and the autonomic nervous system. Andreasen takes out the time to give a

brief and understandable definition for those who may not be familiar with that region of the

brain.

Andreasen writes for a broad audience; her diction, simple so that many if not all can

understand what she is saying in the article. Knowing your audience is important when writing

because the people whom are reading must be able to comprehend what is being said by the

writer. For example, Literacy, Identity, Imagination, Flight by Keith Gilyard is a perfect text

for English teachers, but an awful text for students. How can a text be both bad and good? The

audience is what decides if the text is written well because they are the ones that can give
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feedback on whether or not they understood what the writer was trying to convey. If not, then the

text cannot be a good one for that particular audience. One instance is when Keith Gilyard makes

many references: the Wright brothers establishing a printing company, W.E.B. Du Bois's writing

in 1903, and James Browns There Was a Time. Many teachers of his time would understand

these references but students might need to look up who the people he mentions are and why

they are important in history. Andreasen avoids making references she cannot explain to the

reader. She wants many people to be able to read about her findings so using complex diction

would not be ideal for her broad audience.

Nancy C. Andreasen makes sure to keep her writing organized. She writes using only

short paragraphs and concise sentences. Many pieces in the field of psychology make the

mistake of putting too much information into one paragraph. For those who have just started

their journey studying psychology, it can be frustrating reading over complicated texts.

Andreasen has a lot to say about her study, yet she never is verbose in her delivery. She

organizes her article by first introducing the topic with an anecdote about her most memorable

patient. Secrets of the Creative Brain is written in narrative form. After the anecdote,

Andreasen goes into a mini autobiography informing the reader on her educational background.

Then, she talks about her research and explains how she found evidence for claims. Arranging

her article in this way, gives the reader insight on the topic, on her, and on psychological

concepts while still being well organized.

In research, having well organized content is important. Nancy Andreasen has a doctorate

in literature meaning she knows how to structure the article so that it does not confuse the reader.

There are certain language skills Andreasen uses to effectively communicate with the reader. For
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instance, Shirley Wilson Logan talks about having proper language skills in her writing, Why

College English. Logan talks about how college English courses need to effectively teach how

to analyze rhetorical effect and produce rhetorically effective texts, including those to be read,

those to be viewed as images, those to be heard, and those not to be heard.(pg.107). Writing

effective texts is an important part of communicating. By having a doctorate degree in English,

Andreasen is aware of how to get her point across in a way that the audience can comprehend.

Psychological texts need evidence. Andreasen uses great evidence and weaves it into her

text with ease. When a text does not have enough evidence or it has too much it loses its

effectiveness. She avoids over using examples that are not needed. The Gilyard piece in

comparison uses way too many anecdotes that can confuse the read. The difference between

Andreasens article and Gilyards is the length in their examples. Secrets of the Creative Brain

keeps examples only a paragraph long in length whereas Literacy, Identity, Imagination, Flight

can have multiple paragraphs on the same example. Having lengthy evidence in psychological

texts can be a drag, thus Andreasen avoids having such in her article.

The a purpose of a text can get lost if the evidence provided does not help further the

points of the main idea. Secrets of the Creative Brain has evidence that aids the purpose of the

text. Andreasens reason for talking about her research is to inform her audience of the

connection she found between mental illnesses and creativity. Her interest was in figuring out

where creativity stems from. Individuals like Einstein, Shakespeare, and Picasso all were very

creative, but why? Andreasens research started with the idea of maybe individuals who suffered

from major depression were the ones whom were the most creative; further investigation

showed that creativity could be heredity. The evidence given, like from other texts and brain
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scans helped support her claims as well as helped her realized where her mistakes were.

Andreasen works to give a thorough report with sufficient evidence which is another reason this

text is a good one for those in the Psychology field.

Secrets of the Creative Brain by Nancy C. Andreasen is an example of a great text for

Psychology majors because it is easy to read, well organized, and has great evidence provided in

the text. Texts that are easy to read and have diction that the audience can comprehend will have

the strongest impact verses texts that dont. Organized paragraphs and short sentences will make

understanding difficult topics less painful for the reader. Lastly, evidence is needed, but too

much of it can be detrimental to a text. Andreasens Secrets of the Creative Brain is well

constructed and beautifully written. It should be read by all Psychology majors.

Works Cited
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Gilyard, Keith. "Literacy, Identity, Imagination, Flight." College Composition and

Communication 52.2 (2000): 260-72. JSTOR. Web. 01 Dec. 2016.

Logan, Shirley Wilson. "Why College English?" College English 69.2 (2006): 107-10. JSTOR.

Web. 01 Dec. 2016.

"Secrets of the Creative Brain." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, n.d. Web. 01 Dec. 2016.