Edward Morrow

Rhetorical Outline
10/26/16
Author
1) Brenda Patoine
Writing this article for The Dana Foundation
Has been writing for The Dana Foundation since 1989
Has been covering neuroscience for 20 plus years
Audience
1) People interested in neuroscience.
2) People researching on how neuroscience can explain brain activity.
Purpose
To shed light on how neuroscience is being used to analyze why people seek thrills and
how its adding to previous methods that were used to determine this.
Rhetorical Strategies
1) Ethos
When mentioning the work of others, the article makes sure to list the degrees of
the person reference and what university they worked for.
Any quotes used have citations with exact sources.
2) Logos
The article is well formatted broken down into sections that cover specific areas
related to the topic.
The section that mentions studies about brain scans and how they were graphed
shows the actual graphs of the reactions of patients.
There is a section that breaks down sensation seeking into four categories based
on behavior.
The language used throughout the article is specific to the field of neuroscience
and psychology.
3) Pathos
There is an image of the snake on the chart that shows a patients response to fear.
I.

Intro: Thesis (For years when studying the reasoning behind why people chase thrill
inducing situations, the go to method of study was psychology. The article
Desperately Seeking Sensation highlights how neuroscience is being used and how
it has added to this study along with explaining how these findings have led to new
methods of thinking.

II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.

Neuroscientist have been provided with new ways to map the brain. The new ways
show how people react to certain stimuli. A lot of the use of logos comes from this
section
Covering how neuroscience is building on previous psychological studies.
How DNA and dopamine levels play into novelty-seeking or sensation seeking
How does fear play into what is perceived as a reward.
Conclusion