In the essay, “Tween: Ten Going on Sixteen’’, the author Kay S. Hymowitz explains that children somewhere between the ages of eight and 12, also known as tweens, considering themselves to be more mature at a younger age. These tweens are changing out their childish belongings, and implementing for items that make the child appear more socially acceptable to older crowds; these tweens trade their child-like behaviors for those of a more appealing, mature adolescent or adults. Hymowitz uses several strategies to approach the article but not all strategies work to her advantage. Hymowitz begins the article with a personal experience of her ten year old daughter and how she “morphs” from being a child to a teenager.
She explains the different behaviors her daughter possesses as a result of this. Opening the essay with this paragraph grabs the reader’s attention. The use of a personal example to show the transition from childhood to teenage years through one’s personal experience can foretell the reader’s with what they can expect when reading the rest of the article. In the same paragraph Hymowitz uses words such as “mysteriously, glowering, and threatening,” to keep the reader intrigued about what the author is trying to imply about the daughters’ “rite of passage”. The author’s choice of words gives the article a negative implication; this negative association brings concern to the audience, who happen to be the parents of their own tweens.
The Essay on Intended Effect Article Writer Reader
ARTICLE 1. 1. State the type of text- letter to the editor, editorial etc. - In her letter to the editor titled, "Don't dump waste", L. Bourke argues, claims, asserts, advocates, contends... Writer's main contention- state the writers main contention and mention a couple of the main reasons given to support his contention. - the author supports this view by highlighting - claims that - asserts ...
Due to the word choice of the first section in the article the author changes the tone of the article. For example, Hymowitz uses phrases like “adorable puppy posters” to “grateful dead souls”. This change in tone gives the tweens parents the idea that their child could be doing or going through a similar thing. Hymowitz does a good job of creating this concern by adding phrases and words like this because after reading it, parents are concerned that this phase their child is going through, does not pass, but rather becomes permanent lifestyle. This concern will turn to fear when Hymowitz states the result clothing and style has on these growing teens’ decisions. The outfits worn by these tweens support the authors’ thesis because clothing/style is a major way of expression and showing ones outward appearance.
These tweens are becoming more concerned with how they dress and with what they look like, rather than what message they are sending, such as sexual predators. When the author gives the example that tween girls from metropolitan areas are “looking more like madams” and that they compare to those that “hang around West Side Highway where prostitutes ply their trade” (Hymowitz) the reader fears that their daughters are characterized the same way. On occasion these girls know that their dress is inappropriate, but they do it anyway. The use of this example by the author is a great way to move the reader from concern to fear. Not only does style constitute for the audiences’ move from concern to fear but behavior does as well. The problem that comes up when Hymowitz begins to talk about behavior is she starts to use statistics that involve children over the age of 12. Earlier on in the article Hymowitz defines tweens as being from the ages of eight and 12. So, one begins to ask themselves if Hymowitz is correct with all the info she stated before. Hymowitz states that children become involved in risky behavior in the seventh grade.
When children are in the seventh grade they are between the ages 12 and 13 so that example is not necessarily true for all seventh graders. She also says that “most studies of risky behavior begin with 15 years old teens. Along with this risk behavior is crime and Hymowitz says that children under the age of 15 represent the minority of juvenile arrests. Thus, this statement represents children that are between 13-15 years of age, which does not define a tween according to Hymowitz. In addition, Hymowitz then brings up a statistic that 25 percent of the children under 15 represent total court cases. With this statistic we begin to ask ourselves as the audience what percent actually accounts for tweens alone.
The Essay on Childs Author Obesity Children
Greg Critter in his article "Too much of a good thing" tries to bring a valid point of stigmatising overeating in children. The author strongly advocates parental advice in a childs diet. Obesity according to the author is an epidemic which is engulfing the youth of the nearly all the major countries. It is high time that this problem was taken care of. Researches have shown that majority of ...
To go along behavioral changes she brings up topics of suicide, sex, drugs, and alcohol. Sex among tweens is increasing and Hymowitz again brings up before the age of 15. Hymowitz explains that even though numbers of suicide remain small, it has more than doubled in the last thirty years. The use of drugs and alcohol among tweens is increasing as well, but she uses in eighth graders in her example which means children from the ages 13 to 14 so this statement does not apply to tweens. So, should the reader trust that the statistics are accurate, or could they be the author’s invention? These last few topics are brought up very briefly throughout her article, and therefore this essay appears to be very contradictive.
If an article is contradictive, then there is no organization to the article. When beginning to read the article it appears as though the author had a plan as to how she was to organize the article, but there seems to be no association or transitions towards the end so it does not prepare the reader for the outcome or closing argument. Maybe if the author changed her ideas into sections it would have created a more organized article. Hymowitz’s “Tweens: Ten Going on Sixteen” shows that tweens from ages 8 to 12 are becoming more interested in teen and adult-like activities at a younger age. In conclusion, even though Hymowitz writing style does a good job of changing the emotions of the readers and is intriguing enough to make the readers finish what they began, the evidence on the topic provided by Hymowitz is conflicting to what she is trying to explain to the audience.
