Yi Yang

First Year Writing

February 2nd , 2016

Kids in divorce: A Subject That Starts To Matter

(Minding the Kids in Divorce: Minimizing the Mental

Health Project, Michael O. Schroeder, January 19th, 2016)

The news article Minding the Kids in Divorce: Minimizing the Mental Health
Project, published by Michael O. Schroeder on January 19th, 2016 opens up a
discussion by mentioning that the divorce rates within the U.S. is climbing higher
yearly, and nowadays nearly half of the married couples in the U.S. go through a
divorce at some point, which causes mental distress, both short-term and long-term,
for the children, often during years of adolescence, hence the exigency of the article.
Although researches were done both in the physical and physiological areas in order

to prevent and minimize the trauma, hardly any systematic efforts have been raised on
working out a solution for these problems. It was noted towards the ending that the
case of depression on children in divorced families have just recently caught attention
of experts and a solution is currently being targeted in researches.
The author, through the body and title, sets up a clear motive to the audience of
the article. Besides the introduction to the newly discovered worldly trend of children
not paying enough attention or responding to their rightful responsibilities with
parents, the article catches on a tangent of a greater topic which has existed ever since
the world stepped into modern age: should the children take part in parental
relationships, and on the parents standpoints, should the children be taken into
consideration when harmful decisions are made?
The discussion, revealed by the simple news article, covers a wide range of
audience from virtually all grown-up age groups. Some of the tags on this news article
include metal health, marriage, divorce, childrens health, depression, anxiety stress
and so on, which quite clearly targets audiences with these disorders as well as those
who seek parenting or family-keeping assistance from those with expertise in related
areas.
The need to produce this news article, as the author sees, is to raise awareness to
the general web browsers on the internet of the existing issue about children being
influenced by parental divorces, while setting up the big structure in a way that
specifically targeted audiences may find information they search for. The purpose can
be described as a reminder and a discussion-inducing platform for takers in the
debate.
It was visible in some remarks from certain experts in mental health researches in
the article that show biases towards the ignorance of American children and how they

likely attribute irresponsible attitudes to the quality of the education they receive. The
authoritative take on this issue may stir the discussion but could also harm the
persuasiveness of certain claims. For example, Steven Harris, a professor in family
social science at the University of Minnesota marks that Most kids that arent
exposed to high conflict marriages are not worried about their parents marriage at
all (Schroeder, 2016). By this quote, Harris describes the attitudes of children as
indifferent, and the tone of the speech seems quite demanding and judgmental. As the
lack of direct evidence to prove the validity of these words is obvious, one could see
this article as a platform on which more discussions can base upon and more
awareness can be raised in a timely manner.
The author from the article elaborates on the mental and physiological responses
and through which, develops upon the importance of the subject of the research.
Interestingly, in an article format for a heated topic, the first paragraph was written as
simply as follows:
With up to half of marriages in the US ending in divorce and rates of divorce
higher for subsequent marriages many children face challenges from their parents
split that can follow them for a lifetime, including into their own relationships as
adults. (Schroeder, 2016)
As a writer who was taught the importance of a thesis statement through the
entirety of English writing education, I originally considered it confusing as the
introduction paragraph to the passages touch upon nothing directly relating to the
information and researches following in the rest of the article, but merely gives
statistics and claims that do not even include discussion topics. The reason appeared
further into the article because the content included in this article covers everything
one would want to know besides the claims from the introduction. Through the

emphasis of the title and the preposition of the important information, the author
successively established the design of the article.
Granted that the audience who clicked on a website named under the
minimization of mental impacts on children in divorced families would have attention
devoted in reading more, the author of this article reasonably makes suitable use of
the news format in grasping the need of the crowd, who may not need to read through
a certain essay structure as students use to develop the tendency to read onwards.
In discussing the use of the news format, however, it is worth mentioning that the
author provides a subtitle and a compelling imagery as well as a description to the
image before proceeding to the main elaboration of the article. The subtitle of the
article says New research finds silver lining in kids resilience, but experts emphasize
vigilance. The image following the subtitle shows a frowning young girl staring at
the camera while her parents in the background seem in distress about issues within
each other and the general awkwardness in the atmosphere in which no one wishes to
make things clear and talk over such issues. In a personal opinion, the visualization of
the issues on which the author expands later in the article depend more on the preface
than the rest of the article, which makes the reasoning that lies in the back seem
superfluous and unnecessary. This is a fascinating aspect of writing categorized as
journalism genres, in which I personally list the article under Ambush Journalism and
Investigative Journalism, where in an ambush-like fashion the article confronts the
audience of a topic normally frowned upon by the general public or otherwise it
would not have been talked about, and in an investigative journalism format, this
news article by M.O. Schroeder develops upon a social trend by which the conclusion
or official definition is unknown, and any true knowledge or solution given is through
investigation and interviews with those in authority and a say in respective fields.

Under this classification, I believe that the author of the article does not wish to
validate points or define any previously unknown phenomenon, but rather, to pose a
question as a serious talked-upon issue in the society, and raise attention regarding
this aspect because there is apparent conflict existing even in the researches being
done that is slowing down the rate at which official help can be given. In this way, the
News format fits greatly, because the author does not have any official standpoints
established on the sites behalf.
The style of writing and the logic of the articles progression base strictly upon
the authors stance on the outside of the discussion. He merely delivers questions
being raised through statistics available online, and then presents the views and quotes
from those with a say in the discussion, from where he steps in and analyzes the
possibilities and provides an article stating the magnitude of the discussion. In an
rhetorical appeal, the author uses logos to raise attention and awareness. Although the
information contained could be doubtful and debate-stirring, to eyes of those in need
of information such as parents under relationship pressure but are stagnant in going
through divorce, and those with powers to persuade conflicted couples into an easier
situation, readers with varying mentalities can already locate useful information
needed, even without seeing the author's standpoint.
Notably, the author provides a compelling presentation of the children's situation,
as pertains to parental divorces. The general persona of the article should be
characterized as problem-posing with a professional efficiency, while the tone in the
delivery of ideas shows the author's stance in the middle of the discussion. As a news
article from a professional and authoritative standpoint, the article maintains a just
speech throughout. Through his efforts in crafting the language to the news format,
the author minimizes biases being shown to the audience which search for the

information rather than opinions.

In the main passages of the article, the author, M.O. Schroeder first raises
attention on how mentally depressing a divorce can be on children, and then
introduces the audience to a few speakers whose remarks and studies on these
physiological researches collide and even run into bumps with each other. While some
strive to find ways to ease the pain for these children to bare, others state that these
works are superfluous because the children, who are otherwise irresponsible of
parental relationships, can always sort out and find a way out of their mental issues
when they are temperately posed in front of them. The overall persona established by
the author can be described as informational and logical, even though many steps
taken by the author come from biased authoritative individuals, the persuasiveness is
firmly established since the beginning, when the statistical evidence and visuals
provide enough for the audience to have a sense of the general direction of which the
author heads towards, which is a series of scientifically researched information about
stress and impacts divorces create and leave on children. In this article, people
seeking information regarding parental care for the children can find different aspects
of information in which one can develop ones own idea towards the better, in this
way biases can exist as long as the main point of the news letter is given to those who
need assistance, which makes the article a valuable news article.

References

Schroeder, Michael. "Minding The Kids In Divorce: Minimizing The Mental

Health Impact". US News & World Report. N.p., 2016. Web. 3 Feb. 2016.