Stress Tolerance: New Challenges for Millennial College Students - Assignment Example

Analysis Prewriting Sheet Questions to consider when analyzing a text Who is the (are any credentials listed)? What year was this essay written? This article was collaboratively written in June 2012 by four authors, whose names along with their credentials are listed below: Helen W. Bland – PhD, Department of Health and Kinesiology, Georgia Southern University; Bridget F. Melton – Ed.D., Associate Professor at Department of Health and Kinesiology, Georgia Southern University; Paul Welle – S.B., Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Lauren Bigham – MS., EdS Candidate, Department of Health and Kinesiology, Georgia Southern University. 2. Is this essay aimed at a particular audience (a sympathetic, neutral, or hostile audience)? Where was it published? This essay is aimed at college students belonging to millennial generation, studying stress tolerance strategies deployed by them and analyzing their effectiveness. The article was published by Project Innovation, Inc. in Spring Hill Station, Virginia (Southeast America). 3. What is the author’s purpose for writing the essay and his or her thesis (main claim)? The authors intend to study lifestyles exhibited by college students of recent generations and stress-handling strategies adopted by them. Through an assessment survey of 246 students, the authors were able to conclude on their thesis that these undergraduates are not managing stress effectively, thereby exposing themselves to high risks of low stress tolerance. The authors mainly claim through this essay that people should create such circumstances for their millennial generation kids going to college that they can learn to be independent and handle stress on their own. 4. What assumptions does the author make about the topic of general/liberal arts education (i.e. it is necessary or outdated, or should be modified, or is successful under certain circumstances)? The authors assume that college life is a stressful journey for masses and believe it to be necessary to focus on the millennial generations pertaining to last 30 years since they lack the mature abilities of coping with stress. Current circumstances have led them to adopt methods to combat stress which are highly ineffective and produce adverse effects. The authors have carefully selected and targeted subject-matter for this dissertation that constitutes to issues of modern era. The authors however claim that their research shall not be projected on or taken to be representative of the entire population since they selected a limited sample size for their study. Additionally, due to nature of research methodology adopted, cause and effect relationship cannot be accurately established and needs further verification. 5. What appeals does the author make? See below. Does the author appeal to reason (for example, with use of statistics, expert testimony, or personal experience)? Where and how (might want to write paragraph numbers)? Does the author appeal to emotion (for example, with loaded adjectives)? Where and how (might want to write paragraph numbers)? Does the author appeal to our sense of ethics (what’s right or wrong) by showing he or she is trustworthy? Where and how (might want to write paragraph numbers)? The authors appeal to reason that young generations find it very difficult to cope with stress and use undesirable means to struggle against it, resulting in drastic repercussions. At various places in the article, the articles defend their viewpoint with logical and quantitative reasoning including segments in ‘Millennials and Stress’ paragraph (pp. 364), ‘Stress Tolerance’ paragraph (pp. 365), ‘Results’ paragraph (pp. 368-71) and ‘Discussion’ paragraph (pp. 372-73). Additionally, they also appeal to emotion by suggesting how the immature and innocent generations need more attention and parental support in handling stress and social pressures of achieving good grades to survive in the highly competitive society. This has been emphasized in sections of ‘High Achievement’ paragraph (pp. 363-64) and ‘Structured’ paragraph (pp. 364). Finally, the authors also appeal to sense of ethics of readers, explaining how these youngsters are highly vulnerable and susceptible to indulge themselves in unhealthy and risky activities as a measure of coping with stress. As a result, they become target of committing unethically wrong acts as discussed in later portion of ‘Introduction’ paragraph (pp. 363). 6. What statements within the essay are CONVINCING (using one or all of the appeals above)? The following statements can be considered to be most convincing for readers, possibly causing inclination towards favoring the thesis supported by authors: ‘When individuals make the transition from high school to college, they are faced with stressful academic, social and personal challenges associated with adjusting to university life.’ During times of stress, social support has been found to reduce psychological distress, such as anxiety and depression, and promote psychological adjustment. Social support, or the perception that an individual is loved and cared for by others, may provide the foundation for developing high stress tolerance in the millennial college student population. Since college students are at risk for experiencing a greater amount of stress, there is a real need to educate this population on ineffective or maladaptive coping mechanisms that are risk factors. An emphasis should be placed on protective factors, such as emotional support, to increase stress tolerance. 7. What statements within the essay are NOT or LESS CONVINCING (using one or all of the appeals above)? Some statements, however, in the essay do not provide concrete grounds that the current strategies adopted by millennial generations are ineffective or harmful. Talking to parents and relying on their experience and opinions may work out well for some. Majority of college students are non-earning dependents, less burdensome with responsibilities, and are under constant surveillance by elders of family. People have different unique attributes and may tend to be amused by different factors; therefore, it may not be fair to generalize conclusions. These statements include: A common theme that these risk factors might share is that all allude to reliance on external coping sources. As exhibited by the results of this study, these coping mechanisms employed by an individual may be maladaptive dependent upon how one ultimately manages stress. Instead of promoting college students to become reliant on parental support, there needs to be a push by college and university administrators to allow student to make their own decisions and choices. Again, students need to feel supported in their decisions and not reliant on their parent's input. Parents also need to be encouraged to take a step back and allow their college-age son/daughter to make mistakes and learn from them. College students are expected to carry a more difficult workload at a faster pace while adjusting to a new environment with little or no supervision. 8. Overall, has the author convinced me he or she is right? Is this essay ultimately persuasive? Despite of the fact that few statements, as mentioned above, are less persuasive, the overall arguments demonstrated by this dissertation are highly convincing and conclusive. The authors have succeeded in presenting a powerful thesis to support their viewpoint that stress is largely faced by college students of millennial generations and corresponding measures taken by them prove to be risky and injurious to their well-being. The methodology adopted by authors to collect and analyze the findings seems appropriate since carefully designed questionnaires can be a great tool for gathering first-hand information and recording sentiments and beliefs of the population under testing. ANALYSIS PREWRITING SHEET Introduction College life might not be as fun as it sounds; stress is a major part and parcel of this experience. At such delicate ages, youngsters are incapable of tackling well with academic hassle and pressure of fulfilling expectations. The literature used to study this scenario was written in 2012 by Melton, Bland, Welle and Bigham, namely “Stress Tolerance: New Challenges for Millennial College Students”. The authors have conducted a survey of hundreds of students and provided analysis of findings, concluding on implications of stress for such youngsters and their unproductive steps to defend against it. The authors suggest that this generation has certain negative characteristics that cause hindrance in their ability to cope with stress, including burdensome schedules, constant surveillance by parents and high expectations of families and mentors leading to pressurizing circumstances. After carefully studying the article, my beliefs have changed towards this propaganda. The strong material arguments presented by the authors are very persuasive, backed by strong quantitative evidences, effective methodologies and concrete conclusions. However, few weaknesses have been observed, discussed in the next section. Discussion In the opening chapter of the essay, the authors claim that college life represents one of the most traumatic periods. I clearly disagree with this notion since the major proportion of college lives are spent in leisure and enjoyment rather than stress. Other stages of human lives are far more stressful than relaxed college days. The exaggerated aspects of the essay weaken the position of authors. Nevertheless, the minor stress that exists can be tackled through measures as defined by the authors. Similarly, the limitations paragraph clearly states that the results cannot be reasonably projected to define behavior of all members pertaining to this generation due to the limited assurance derived from methodologies adopted. The authors should have instead taken more time to conduct further researches to be in a position to draw more exhaustive and certain conclusions. But authors limited their research to a single strategy, putting their conclusions to questionable doubts. However, the most dominant point explained throughout the essay overshadows all the shortcomings: stress has substantial drastic effects on college teens and their immature tactics to cope with them have drastic repercussions. This is very realistic and true for today’s generations which have certain attributes that entice them to be indulged in unethical and unhealthy habits. Conclusion Based on aforementioned argument, it is safe to conclude that essay is credible and persuasive. The author has presented the notion brilliantly, providing evidences and winning arguments to support the cause. The essay provides a detailed analysis of findings that were generated through research surveys conducted on a random sample of youngsters. It is an optimal source of learning for parents, mentors and millennial generations. My perceptions were altered after reading this article and as of now, I believe that stress does have a large footprint on college lives of students and proper educational and parental measures must be initiated to rectify this damaging situation. However, I have some reservations regarding certain points made by authors that do not appear to be rational such as total isolation from parents and generalization of current strategies adopted by few to be ineffective for the entire population: we must respect individuality and emotional uniqueness of every being distinctly. Thus, to provide more invulnerable conclusions, authors ought to conduct multiple detailed studies to corroborate their agenda through different sources. This is turn would have enabled them to appear on a stronger position to the readers. References Bland, Helen W., et al. "Stress Tolerance: New Challenges for Millennial College Students." College Student Journal 46.2 (2012): 362-375. Read More