"The DNA Age"

            Amy Harmon’s “The DNA Age” is a collection of articles that presents the eruption of the usefulness of DNA.  Each article explains an example of how DNA is used today.  These vary widely from genetic engineering to studying family trees.  In many cases, Harmon plays on the reader’s emotions through stories focusing on one person’s life and problems that have been created by knowledge of DNA.  Overall, her goal is to create an awareness of the potential of DNA and its current use by talking about controversial topics.

 

Harmon conveys her message by using examples where DNA has made a huge impact.  A good way to do this is to use personal stories that will connect with the reader’s emotions, so she wrote about Katharine Moser’s decision to test her DNA for Huntington’s disease.  Resulting from the positive results, Ms. Moser completely changed the way she lived and her goals for her life.  The illustration of such an impactful, single event in someone’s life is sure to get the reader’s attention.  In addition to showing what DNA technologies have done, Harmon also wrote about the potential of DNA.  For example, the “Breeders” article is about how alteration of genes in racing dogs has made them faster and stronger, but also too aggressive.  This technology could eventually be used on humans, which will definitely be a topic of controversy.

           

When examining the purpose of writing “The DNA Age,” it is important to identify the audience to which it is directed.  In this case, the intended audience is most likely the populations of developed countries in the age group from teen to middle aged.  Developed countries are targeted because the majority of their populations have access to DNA testing.  This age specification focuses on most everyone who would be interested in DNA testing, and it includes adults who may want to test their children.

           

After looking closely at the purpose and audience of “The DNA Age,” it is easier to see Harmon’s motivation.  The occasion for this writing was that she could see from her studies that DNA would be very important in many people’s lives, and she wanted people to make informed decisions.  Harmon wrote effective articles because of her use of logical and pathetic arguments.  She uses logic to show the potential impacts of DNA studies.  One example of this is her article on racial tensions that could arise based on the discovery of DNA patterns that differ based on race.  Harmon uses many pathetic arguments, as most of the articles focus on one or a few people’s life stories.  Something else that helps give “The DNA Age” more credibility is the many statistics that are used.  These are good pieces of evidence to back up the main points.  Altogether, I think Amy Harmon wrote “The DNA Age” very well and accomplished her goal.