Response to “The Neuroscience of Your Brain on Fiction”
Here’s the link to the first article: https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/opinion/sunday/the-neuroscience-of-your-brain-on-fiction.html (Links to an external site.)
The findings in “Your Brain on Fiction” aren’t limited to fiction. Anytime you use sensory detail, active verbs, and concrete examples in your writing, readers’ brains engage in more areas and you cultivate readers who empathize and identify with you. That’s powerful when you want the reader to find you credible or act on a suggestion or let you into grad school or give you an interview.
This assignment asks you to gather the main points of Paul’s article and to dissect Brittany Stinson’s essay so you understand the power of using detail.
1. Capture the main points in the NEUROSCIENCE OF YOUR BRAIN ON FICTION pdf in this week’s folder–10-12 bulleted points.
2. Read the article about Brittany Stinson’s winning essay at the link below.
3. Highlight 20 active verbs (NOT is, was, were, or have-type verbs–verbs that DO something) and 20 sensory details–those words that make you see or hear or smell or touch or taste what the writer is talking about.
You may use this complete copy of Brittany’s essay here http://www.businessinsider.com/high-school-senior-who-got-into-5-ivy-league-schools-shares-her-admissions-essay-2016-4 (Links to an external site.)
4. After highlighting the pdf OR making a list of the selected words/phrases, save as a Word doc or pdf and submit, along with a few sentences about using detail yourself. Does it feel weird to use detail? How much is enough? How willing are you to be a little clumsy with it at first until you get better, especially when you know I’ll add points for your efforts?
Tags: IAS300