Pre-AP English 9 – 4th hour
Mrs. Cottrill
7 May 2014
Romeo & Juliet Synthesis Essay Being wed to someone one has only known for about 12 hours is what some might call a bad decision. Romeo and Juliet, both teenagers, did not care, though. But, what makes a good decision? Some may think it’s the outcome of the decision, and others will argue that a good decision is what the person makes of the outcome. Some people might even think that a good decision can only be made by certain groups of people; that group not consisting of teenagers; therefore, teenagers are incapable of making good decisions. Some may say the opposite; teens are capable of making good decisions. According to the transcript provided by National Public Radio, Dr. BJ Casey, a brain scientist from Weill Cornell Medical College in New York said this about the brain activities between adults and teens when playing a video game: “what the adolescents appear to be doing in this case, as opposed to acting impulsively and being pulled by that reward, they’re making sure and letting enough evidence accumulate, so that they get it right” (Hamilton) Teens were waiting to make a decision rather than being impulsive and answering the question in the game quickly, making sure to make the right decision. While this may be reason to change one’s opinion, it still does not mean that they will make the right decision. Also, they were dealing with a great amount of points in the game when they began taking longer to answer the question; there was more at stake. When teenagers make bad decisions, they usually don’t think there’s very much at stake and that their decision could have a bad outcome. Some teens may make it seem as though they are mulling over all of the bad things to make it appear as though they could come up with a good decision, but that is not usually the case. Teens are very prone to acting impulsively, creating bad outcomes because they do not think about them.