Accomplishments Essay Example
Do you ever feel like luck may have been on your side and circumstances aligned that should take more credit than your own efforts? Fear and doubt can attack anyone into thinking that they don’t deserve what they have. This form of self-doubt can be described as Imposter Syndrome or Imposter Phenomena. In Katie Cronin’s essay, “Imposter Phenomenon: When Self Doubt Goes Too Far”, she discusses the discovery of this occurrence, and the reality of its existence.
She starts her essay with a conversation between her and her friend Emily. This conversation highlights the mindset of someone who has Imposter Phenomenon, or Imposter Syndrome. Emily, who has “…a 4.0…in college classes in high school, and…a part of National Honor Society and a Sterling Scholar,” believes that she is just average, and attributes her success to a variety of things, not herself and her hard work.
The author, who acts as the other voice in the discussion, is shocked that her friend would think such a thing, even though her accomplishments and accolades suggest that Emily is well above average intellectually. This conversation is used as a basis to then ask the reader they know anyone who experiences this. The conversation naturally helps the reader try to pinpoint anyone, even themselves, as a victim of this syndrome. By using a real conversation template, the author creatively incorporates a pathos approach, appealing to the readers real life, and how their experiences relate to find a common ground with the reader. The use of this engages the reader and starts the paper strong.
As early as the first paragraph after the conversation, the essay doesn’t know what it wants to be. To start, the author describes how this “syndrome” came to be. In 1978 Dr Suzanne Imes and Dr. Pauline Clance noticed a correlation in high achieving women and how they felt that the do not deserve the positions that they are in. Clance herself says that she experienced IP (Imposter Phenomena) while she attended graduate school. “I would take an important examination and be very afraid that I had failed. I remembered all I did not know rather than what I did.” (Clance, “Imposter Phenomena”). After this, there is no time spent expanding on what this means or how it impacted the world. While it is a good introduction to the disorder and how research started because of this one observation, more time should have been spent building up the “so what” of the research, but all it did was introduce the concept.
The crucial flaw of this essay is that there is no clear argument stated. A few paragraphs into the paper, the author spends a considerable amount of time answering questions about IP. Never in any of this is there a claim made. The purpose is to give the reader information about IP, and to discuss who it can affect, what the difference is between IP and regular self-doubt, and how long it has been around. Supplementing their words, the author uses a variety of quotes from a variety of people. All these quotes do is add flavor text and give experiences from a variety of people, not provide evidence for a claim. One quote in particular adds nothing to the essay and feels completely pointless. If the author wants the reader to know more about IP, then the quotes should have been about information pertaining to it from doctors or psychologists, instead of writers and YouTube stars.
While there is no clear argument made in this essay, the author does a good job at asking questions in the paper to provide information about IP. These questions, one being, “Who can imposter phenomenon affect?” guides the essay and tells the reader what to expect. The use of these questions is simple, yet effective. The author answers the questions given, and provides insights about IP that
