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Carlos Alberto Pea

Zack de Piero
Writing 2
10 March 2015
Communication and Social Media
Has social media technologies effected how the new generation
communicates with others? Instead of face to face encounters, the
generation of social media tends to use e-mails or texts to communicate with
someone. Before people would like to have face-to-face encounters, they
would go out to have a coffee or do business on the golf course. In a
scholarly-academic text, it gives academic and revised research of how social
media has affected a certain population. In this case, Helen Yost and Si Fans
Social media technologies for collaboration and communication: Perceptions
of childcare professionals and families, presents how social media has
affected the communication between childcare professionals and families of
young children. The non-academic piece is from the Forbes website, the
article by Susan Tardanico Is Social Media Sabotaging Real Communication,
gives examples of how social media is affecting the population without
concrete research. Yost and Fans academic text is a research paper on the
effects of social media on a certain population, while Tardanicos nonacademic text is an article about social media affecting our communication
with people. Yet, both distinct genres use similar rhetorical devices to convey

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their points. Both follow specific conventions concerning their genre, each
piece uses specific language to reach their intended audience, and both are
successful in showing how social media has changed communication.
In writing, most authors use certain moves to generate their
perspectives; moves can range from the use of certain rhetorical devices to
the structure of the essay/article. Both respective authors make their own
unique moves to portray their point in either their article or research paper.
Moves in writing are like moves in sports, you become recognized for your
signature move like Michael Jordans pump-fake. Except in writing moves are
more about the genre and the choices the writer makes to convey their
point. In Mike Bunns How to Read Like a Writer, he states, think about
how the choices the author made and the techniques that he/she used are
influencing your own responses as a reader. (Bunn, pg. 120) For example,
Tardanicos move in the non-academic piece is the use of informal language
and asking direct questions with the anticipation of having a response. This
move is used in non-academic articles because it tries to almost have
connections with the audience rather than only providing information with no
sense of feedback. On the other hand, the moves academic articles use tend
to provide plenty of credible information, but no room for feedback or
interaction from an audience. It is unclear to see if Yosts piece truly has a
move because it already has to follow specific conventions as it is a research
paper. Yost must follow the moves of the genre, which are being formal and
academic. Most moves authors use tend to follow the conventions of a

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specific genre, in this case the non-academic piece as an article and the
academic

piece

as

scholarly-journal/research

paper

follow

their

conventions respectively.
The specific conventions followed by the genre of a research paper are:
the structure of the writing, the information in the genres, and their formats.
The structure and format of the research journal is used for academic
purposes; there is an introduction to what information you will find in the
paper, the results of the research conducted, and a conclusion to the
research paper that states if their hypothesis was correct or plausible. In the
non-academic article, the structure and format follows the use of plain
paragraphs. The structure is not as specific like a research paper, but articles
usually have structured paragraphs like an essay: introduction, body
paragraphs, and a conclusion. Though, the non-academic article also has
subtitles for different sections and topics, it is not as specific as the academic
article. As Kerry Dirk states in his essay Navigating Genres, Given these
characteristics, I would feel prepared to write some new country lyrics. By
knowing what specific conventions a certain genre follows, you would feel as
if you can also write in that genre or style. If you were looking to find
answers on how social media has affected (specific) communication, you
would probably find Yosts research paper more convenient because it has
credibility from multiple scholars. Yet, the article I found seems to have a
sense of credibility because the author of the article is a well-educated and
an accomplished women according to the biography shown before the

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article. Both accomplish the task of stating how and what populations have
changed in communication because of social media. Though I would believe
the research article is more persuasive than the article because the research
paper cites all of its resources and has data to prove what has changed,
while the article only states what has changed and does not cite its sources
well enough.
Both genres use different techniques of specific language in order to
reach their intended audience. The research paper uses a formal style of
writing because it is a scholarly-academic article and usually the audience is
scholars or researchers. On the other hand, Tardanicos article sounds casual
and easy-going which suits audience who are just curious about social media
and communication. For example, the paper begins with, The primary aim
of the study was to develop an understanding of how social media
technologies, such as Web 2.0, can be used to facilitate collaboration and
communication between childcare professionals and families of young
children. (Yost, pg. 1) While, Tardanico begins with, They chatted back
and forth, mom asking how things were going and daughter answering with
positive statements followed by emoticons showing smiles, b-i-g smiles and
hearts. Happiness. (Tardanico, pg. 1) Like Janet Boyd states in her essay
Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking), They obey the conventions of the genre.
As a writer you want to hook your audience with the language you use; Boyd
also states, as much as I am aware of my audience I am trying to
engage in dialog with you through my casual tone (Boyd, pg. 39) The

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jargon Tardanico uses does not lower the persuasiveness of the piece
because this article seems to be directed to a much younger and broader
audience, unlike Yosts research paper that is intended for scholars and
researchers. Tardanicos article will attract more readers because of the
language she uses to persuade the audience, it is more interactive as she
uses rhetorical questions and a casual tone. With more interaction to an
audience, I think the genre can accomplish its goal much better than not
having much or any interaction at all.
Many people will not consider articles to be such a credible source
compared to a scholarly journal, yet they can be credible if they are found in
accomplished mainstream media sources, like Forbes in this case. By Forbes
being a top mainstream source, you can consider it to be a credible source
because many articles are published here and are published by welleducated people like Susan Tardanico. Perhaps this sites article is not as
credible as the research paper, but it still accomplishes reaching to a much
broader audience. As I stated before, the scholarly journal is usually intended
for scholars and researchers. On the other hand, the article from Forbes is
expanded to a much wider audience like young adults, teens, and anyone
who is just curious of how social media has shaped our communication. If
you were to search for articles on how social media has effected
communication, the first sites to choose from would be mainstream media
sources. Scholarly journals can be limited to students and scholars in school
unless you specifically search for a scholarly journal of the topic. Because of

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the article having a much more expanded audience, I believe it is more

effective in getting its statement out to the public.

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Works Cited:
Tardanico, Susan. Is Social Media Sabotaging Real Communication?
Forbes. 30 April 2012.
Yost, Helen; Fan, Si. Social media technologies for collaboration and
communication:

Perceptions

of

childcare

professionals

and

families.

Australasian Journal of Early Childhood. Jun 2014.

Boyd, Janet. "Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking)." Writing Spaces 2
Dirk, Kerry. Navigating Genres. Writing Spaces 1
Bunn, Mike. How to Read Like a Writer. Writing Spaces 2