TOW #15 - Article: "The Cold Makes Us Smarter" . . . does it?

In following the trend set by what may possibly have been the number one topic of conversation this past week -- I’ve decided to do my TOW based on an article that argues, and is appropriately titled, “How the Cold Makes Us Smarter” by Time’s Allison Levine. The primary rhetorical strategies and devices used are statistics and logic, thus heavily appealing to the audience’s logos. The author also attempts to appeal to both the audience’s pathos and ethos by referring to specific situations in his own life through personal anecdotes. In fact, the very first sentence of the article attempts to establish Levine’s credibility while also functioning as an effective hook, as the sentence itself is short, sweet, and forces the reader to continue reading. “I know cold...I have climbed the highest peak on each continent (the famed Seven Summits) and have skied to both the North and South Poles -- a feat known as the Adventure Grand Slam.” In the following paragraph, she goes into detail on one particular trip that she called her favorite, which also happened to take place in the coldest place on earth. Finally, in her last paragraph after her audience is fully convinced of her expertise on the cold, Levine finally gives up the one piece of information that she based her entire statement on. She states that because glucose is needed for the brain’s mental processes, and because cooling off when it is hot uses more glucose than warming up when it’s cold, that the cold is better for the brain because there is more glucose available for it to use than when its warm. Logically, her statement makes sense. A car will run longer if it has more fuel. However, I believe her article was ineffective because it fails to establish the specific importance of glucose and actually how much more is used when it’s warm than when it’s cold. If she had provided these two pieces of information, I would have found her article far more convincing.