Date: 27 March 2022

To: Dr. Xiaobo Belle Wang, professor

From: Norli Servin, student
Subject: Stylistic Analysis Report over “There’s a Mental-Health Crisis Among American
Children. Why?

The purpose of this memo is to report the findings of my stylistic analysis of “There’s a Mental-Health
Crisis Among American Children. Why?”. In this report, I summarize, rhetorically, and stylistically analyze
my chosen document, and offer recommendations to improve it.

Summary
The document informs readers of the rise of emergency room visits in the United States amongst teenage
girls who began to experience tic-like symptoms. Researchers have reported that these visits along with
other mental health conditions have doubled in the last two years. Surveys that contribute to the reporting
of mental health in children have been relatively slow, subsequently affecting the real-time data of
symptoms during a crisis. Mental health data has improved the way people perceive mental health and
helps physicians treat these conditions earlier. The document also emphasizes the importance of this
data as it reduces the chances of misdiagnoses and prescriptions. Physicians also reiterated that the
mental health crisis began long before the COVID-19 pandemic, but the outbreak has only spotlighted
these issues. Even though clinicians continue to treat and raise awareness about mental health, it is
critical for adults to create a path and open these conversations with their children.

Rhetorical Analysis

Genre, Audience, and Subject

The genre of this document is informative. In addition, the primary audience are parents, physicians, and
anyone who works deliberately with children or teenagers. The content of the documents is over the
increase of mental health cases amongst children in the United States. The document goes in-depth over
the rise of emergency room visits from girls related to mental health. Additionally, the document
emphasizes that the mental health crisis amongst children started long before the COVID-19 pandemic,
but the outbreak spotlighted these issues.

Purpose and Context

The purpose of this document is to influence readers to check on the mental well-being of children.
Additionally, the document advises readers to open the conversation about mental health along with
suicidal ideation to directly address the problem. The context of the document is meant for the audience
to consume this information on the internet or in a newspaper. Meaning, that this article is free for access
by anyone. Additionally, there are not any prior conditions for one to comprehend the content.

Exigence
The author created this document to raise awareness of mental health amongst children. Throughout the
article, the author quotes physicians, researchers and other knowledgeable agencies that contribute data.
It is apparent that the author is strengthening her point by using logos. In addition, I think the catalyst may
be a surge of mental health cases in children. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, the
second leading cause of death amongst people from the ages 10-34 is suicide. Therefore, the rise in
mental health cases in children is convercing, but it does not mean it is too late to help. This is why I think
the author said at the end of the article “Perhaps it’s helpful – as well as tragic – to know that finding
others whose children are struggling, and who are struggling themselves, won’t be difficult (Tingle.”
Followed by a suicide prevention lifeline and resources.

Stylistic Patterns
Brief paragraph about the stylistic elements you analyzed. Summarize the table. Reference your table
below.
 The stylistic elements that I analyzed can be found on the table below. The article was very clear and did
not have any non-agent subjects. It also had a limited amount of passive sentences, which aids to the
clarity of the text. However, there were 24 nominalizations throughout the article which can harm the
clarity of the text. When it comes to concision, there were 8 hedges, and 5 intensifiers. Meanwhile, there
were 3 occurrences where the author used old information to comment on new information in the same
sentence. This element is essential when referencing the original topic for the audience, however, it can
get excessive if used constantly. I think the author limited this element a fair amount of times to enhance
her functional sentence perspective. As for the principle of writer-oriented language/information, there
were 0 occurrences of jargon which shows that the author was direct with their information. In addition,
there were 2 occurrences in which the author sent elsewhere for info, but it is only to give readers
additional information over mental health resources. Nonetheless, the article displayed a fair amount of
stylistic elements without getting off-track from the topic. For more information, the chart below breaks
down the principles, the elements that fall under them, and the amount of occurrences.

Principle Clarity Concision Functional Writer-oriented

Sentence language/
Perspective information

Elements Non-agent Passive Nominalizations Hedges Intensifiers No topic Jargon Sends

subjects Sentences (old Info) to reader
comment elsewhere
(new info) for info
in same
sentence

Occurrences 0 4 24 8 5 3 0 2

Recommendations
This document could be improved by minimizing the amount of nominalizations, hedges, and intensifiers.

Nominalizations
“In preadolescent children, Fortuna says, depression may reveal itself as touchiness and irritability rather
than sadness.”
The word “touchiness” means easily irritated which is mentioned in the sentence. Therefore, the author
should discard the word and leave the noun by itself.
“In preadolescent children, Fortuna says, depression may reveal itself as irritability rather than sadness.”

Hedges
“Perhaps it’s helpful – as well as tragic – to know that finding others whose children are struggling, and
who are struggling themselves, won’t be difficult.”
The author can strengthen her sentence by changing the word “perhaps” to distinguish their stance.
“Reasonably it is helpful – as well as tragic – to know that finding others whose children are struggling…”

Intensifiers
“These findings, particularly the rise in what have been called TikTok tics, have received considerable
media coverage.”
The word “rise” already signifies the trajectory of the issue, therefore, the word “particularly” should be
switched to another word that supports the rise instead of intensifying it.
“These findings, especially the rise in what have been called TikTok tics, have received…”

Thank you for reviewing my stylistic analysis report of “There’s a Mental-Health Crisis Among American
Children. Why?” If you have additional questions about this report, please do not hesitate to contact me. I
can be reached at nts016@shsu.edu.