Dweck’s piece Dweck, Carol (“From Mindset – The New Psychology of Success” Inquiry to Academic Writing: A Text and Reader, 5th Edition: page 669: Ebook) makes the argument that an individuals’ intelligence and abilities are not set at birth. She postulates that individuals’ performance can be enhanced throughout life and the method to do this is to have what she calls a “Growth Mindset” with the antithesis of this is the “fixed mindset”. She further goes on to suggest that the education system in the USA is built on a fixed mindset in that you either have the ability to learn complex things or you don’t.
1. The comic strip in question shows 2
children. One child displaying the
“fixed mindset” and the other the “growth mindset” Dweck, . It is a summary of her piece in
microcosm. The characters are polarised
in their mindsets and their mindsets are demonstrated in her prose by way of
questions at paras 45, 47 and 51. In
these paragraphs Dweck asks rhetorical questions of the reader to ascertain the
readers own mindset to give her overall idea validity and define it using the
readers perception of self.
2. She is explaining her thesis to the
reader giving an example and the outcome of the mindsets she is examining. On its own the comic strip, and indeed the
more scientific graphic later, suggest it is a binary condition – you are
either one or the other. This makes her
point very easy to digest even if there are shades of grey in between. The piece is short and therefore is designed
to hook the reader into finding more – presumably from her.
3. The positioning of the comic strip
also demands interest. This simple
comedic depiction of her ideas is placed in the first 3rd of the
piece whereas the supporting and more scientific graphic (that essentially says
the same thing) is placed towards the end of the piece. It could be deduced that Dweck is selling her
argument first with the comic strip, then closing the deal later with a graphic
that has anatomical elements, process and ultimate outcomes she believes arise
from fixed and growth mindsets.
4. It works. Especially if the reader is short of
time. Further, the use of children adds
levity to the piece – it is not as serious as say applying falsifying criterion
to her work. The reader may smile and be
content with only believing (at that point) enough to read further. You can be partially sold by accepting
children who are allowed to be direct or binary because, well, they are only
children. The later, more scientific
graphic shows a more serious approach, aimed at more serious consideration of
her ideas. The headlines are presented
to the reader that either saves them from reading the text or reinforces what
has been read.
S
P RATTLEY
Cited:
Dweck,
Carol “From Mindset – The New Psychology of Success”
Inquiry to Academic Writing: A
Text and Reader, 5th Edition: page 669: Ebook)
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