ENGL 101, Fall 2022

McGee-Anderson
August 31, 2022

In-Class Journal # 3 Assignment: “The Art of Failure” Discussion Questions

Instructions:

1. This is an independent project, meaning you will not work in a group. However, you are
welcome to quietly consult with a classmate if you feel it might be helpful.

2. Read and annotate Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Art of Failure” on page 16 of your reading
packet.

3. Once you finish reading and annotating the article, write your responses to the following
to the following questions that follow the article in the reading packet.

Questions from Section “Reading Closely and Thinking Critically”: # 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5

Questions from Section “Examining Structure and Strategy”: # 3

Questions from Section “Noting Combined Patterns”: # 3 (including a, b, c, & d)

4. Keep in mind that this assignment must be uploaded to Blackboard before the clock
strikes midnight on September 9th. Additionally, you must include a copy of this work in
your final journal packet (so it might be a good idea to print a copy for your journal).

1: Implicit learning is the learning of complex information in an unintentional manner, without awareness of

what has been learned. Explicit learning is equivalent with intentional learning of information.

2: “To choke or to panic is considered to be as bad as to quit”. Gladwell says that both choking

and panicking is as bad as failing and each of them have their own unique meaning to failure.

Panic is thinking too little while choking is thinking too much.

3:Jona Novanta: “She lost her fluidity, her touch”, She was thinking of her shots and resorted to

her trainings as if she were a beginner. This is an example of choking due to her having done this

multiple times and she just folded under pressure.

Ephimia Morphew- She panicked due to her exercise she was performing at the bottom of the

ocean. When her tank, hose, regulator failed she went into a panic not even being able to think.

This is an example of panicking because she was in real danger and her subconscious mind took

over to where she couldn’t think.

4: Because if he were to choke he would have thought to much to the point where he would

make mistakes or freeze. Where as in panicking he thought to little and tried to correct all the

things wrong and he slipped up.

5: Stereotype threat and choking are similar to one another by the fact they both cause 2 nd

guessing and being overly careful.

3: He ends his essay with the narration with this in order to show that people aren’t alone in

“choking” that it happens and you just need to learn from it and move on.

A. The purpose of Novotnas' match against Graf was to introduce to the reader what choking
and panicking are, as well as set up what implicit and explicit learning is. We also see that
Novotna began to overthink her serves which is a prime example of choking, overthinking your
actions as well as slowing down and appearing to be a beginner again.
B. The purpose of Morphew’s diving experience was to explain to the reader the difference
between choking and panicking, and when instinctive thinking takes over and the person stops
thinking altogether. During the narration, she panics after not getting enough air and goes to grab
her partner's air supply, which would have jeopardized both her and her partner's lives had she
not stopped to think and let her partner help her
C. The purpose of Norman's experience flying with Langewiesche was to explain why Kennedy
failed to save himself and his plane was that he panicked rather than choked during his flight. It
also showed how panicking can also be a conventional failure, where in Kennedy's instance he
didn’t know enough about instrument flying, and how if he had another year of flying he would
have had more experience and would have been less likely to have panicked during his spiral-
dive
D. The purpose of Norman's experience at the 1996 Masters is to show how choking is a part of
an athlete's life where its a lesson to be taught that “sometimes a poor performance reflects not
the innate ability of the performer but the complexion of the audience,” and that even the greatest
of players can choke and fall but what makes champions is the ability to overcome the pressure
of the spectators and push beyond.