Music's Health Benefits: Using Music to Ease Patients Stress During Surgery - TIME
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1929994,00.html
When I read this article for the first time I was not very surprised that music is being experimented with to help with surgeries and other medical practices. Music has always had a special healing power for many people and has been proven "calming effective" in many other experiments and articles. Carr's article focusing on the effect music has had on those with Parkinson's Disease in medical situations, uses diction and imagery to show how everyday people are effected by the power of music.
Carr uses very elevated and sophisticated diction throughout the whole article. Her use of medical terms and other diction is strong and gives a sense of intensity to the entire article. She uses words such as "well-being" and "frazzled" to give a sense of human emotion to the reader. Many people who are going into a medical procedure or surgery, including myself, would say that they are nervous, scared and even frazzled because they don't know if the outcome will be good or bad. Her other diction including "soothing" and "eye-opening" gives a medical insight to the reader. Experiments such as these are very different and have had some interesting outcomes that that some people have been really shocked at. Music may not seem like a physical therapy or a healing power that you can see, but it is something that has helped people through the best and the worst times.
Carr's use of imagery in the article helps the reader connect to what the article is trying to say. In the beginning of the article she uses the phrase "pounded drums and plucked strings" (Carr) to create the image that when music began with the pounding of drums it has always had a good effect on humans. Her use of imagery in the medical sense is also very clever and helps the reader visualize what is going on, even if they don't know the medical terms or names of procedures. This was very helpful to me when reading the article since I am not a big hospital, doctor and medicine person.
This article gives a whole new aspect to the power of music and how it can reach ordinary people everyday. Even if you are not musician or don't have any musical interest at all, music both teaches and reaches people in their own way, helping them get through the hard times and the good old days.
3 comments:
Hi Mel!
So I really liked this! Most of it was pretty accurate, and the article itself was very entertaining. Being a music geek myself, I found it really awesome.
Okay, now on to your essay.
I liked that you used diction- when I was reading it, I thought of the interesting diction as well. However, I felt like what you said was "elevated diction" wasn't exactly as elevated and sophisticated as you had said. I felt like that there definitely is sophistication to the diction, but the words are not high level elevated diction.
I really liked your paragraph about the imgaery. Carr does use amazing imagery to appeal to the reader's senses! However, I felt that the imagery appeals more to people who listen or understand music. People with no knowledge of music who read this might not have as vivid of an image planted in their head, but nowadays, most people do know music, so it;s not a big problem.
Great job!!
Erin
Singing for Parkinsons...remind you of anything. :-)
I feel like your third and fourth examples of diction give an opposite feel, more colloquial and relatable.
Your assertion about medical terms made understandable by imagery needs an example.
Don't forget you need three kinds of DIDLS
I love the subject you chose to write on! As a music person, I totally agree that music does more than make our eardrums vibrate. I think that you need to continue to explain and analyze your quotes more. I can see that you have some very well formed ideas, but they are just not coming through very clearly. However, this was a very enjoyable essay to read.
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