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Whitley Montgomery

The Study of Creativity

There are two worlds: the real world and the creative world. Not everyone can exist in the

creative world. They can visit, but not stay. Why? Because it takes a certain kind of individual to

be creative. Psychologically, creative beings think differently than others. Everyone can be

creative, but not everyone can have a successful creative career. How doe one reach creative

enlightenment? Does being a genius make you creative? Nancy C. Andreasen, a psychiatrist and

neuroscientist, dives into these questions in her article: Secrets of the Creative Brain. Her

article is a great text for Psychology majors because it is an easy read, 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, extravagant words. Anyone could read this text and comprehend it fully. She also

takes the time to explain things further for non-psychologist readers. London taxi drivers . . .

have an enlarged hippocampusa key memory regionas demonstrated in a magnetic-

resonance-imaging, or MRI, study. 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. Literacy, Identity, Imagination, Flight by Keith Gilyard is a perfect text for English
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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 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. 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.
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There are certain language skills Andreasen uses to effectively communicate with the reader.

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 scans helped
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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. Creative writers know their audience, what content they want in

their writing, and the purpose of writing. Andreasens article is proof she is creative enough to

create a good text for Psychology majors.

Works Cited

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.
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