Kailah Korsh

5/5/16
Writing 2
Prof. Zack De Piero
WP2 first draft
The Relevant Reactions to Hook-up Culture
Is everyone in the modern young-adult generation lazy? Do they all party too much? Is
hookup culture making dating obsolete? People throw around many opinions about my
generation, but sometimes fail to consider the thoughts of those who are actually partaking in
said generation. For my WP2, I analyzed three articles that all strived to address the relevant
issue of how millennials actually feel about our supposed hookup culture. I looked at a popculture article written by college student Catherine Guarino, called The Sad Truth About Our
College Hookup Culture. In contrast, I looked at two academic articles. One by Jennifer Aubrey
and Siobhan Smith called Development and Validation of the Endorsement of the Hookup
Culture Index from The Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, as well one by Karen D.
Arnold called College Student Development and the Hookup Culture, in the field of
developmental studies. These three articles vary a lot in their levels of formalityThe Odyssey
being the least formal and the sexuality study being the most. The organization, conventions,
and moves of each article give the articles a different level of formality, and therefore allow
them to reach out to different audiences. The articles each accomplish something different for
their intended audiences, such as informing them or promoting change within them.
The organization of The Odyssey article gives window into the less formal tone of it, and
therefore reveals its overall intentions. This article is organized in small paragraphs that range
from about three to seven sentences with no clear topic of each paragraph; the article rather
represents a stream of consciousness. The point of the article is clear throughout, rather than
being built up to. In the first paragraph, Guarino reveals that many people are constantly
looking for someone in all the wrong ways and all the wrong places in hopes that it will go

somewhere meaningful. *SPOILER ALERT IT NEVER DOES* This major point is immediately
revealed in the essay and continues to run through the article as she tries to convince other
millennials to take a stand against this culture and change their actions. The lack of organization
makes the article appear as if it is first-order thinking, which is characterized as being intuitive
and creative and doesnt strive for conscious direction or control (Elbow, 55). The intentions of
this article seem to be to unite and persuade the young adult generation with some general
thoughts that this author has, rather than informing the readers, as the scholarly articles do.
The scholarly articles take on an academic organization that gives knowledge to the
reader in a logical way. This academic article uses IMRADintroduction, methods, results,
analysis, discussiondue to the fact that the article explains a study. This conventional socialscience organization makes the complicated study seem reader-friendly, which gives the
impression that the article is intending to efficiently inform its readers. Since the IMRAD form is
common in many fields, the intended audience is familiar with it and will more easily maneuver
through and absorb the information that they read. The article from the developmental field is
different because there is no study done. What the article does instead is take information that
is already known, and compile it in an organized, connected way, in order to take the reader
through certain steps to reach a conclusion. For example, some titled sections are Identity
Development, Sexual Identity Development, Identity In Emerging adulthood, Cognitive
Development, and so on. There is a clear organization based on necessary background
information that adds on to the subsequent information given, until the article reaches the final
Conclusion section. These more strictly organized articles contain a plethora sections for
background knowledge and facts, which tell that they are probably intending to inform the
audience, rather than persuade the audience of an opinion.
The conventions of each piece, or the similarities within genres [that] help us
communicate successfully, even further emphasize what each article is trying to accomplish
Dirk, 258). In addition to the aforementioned short paragraphs, the Odyssey article is also very

short in general, being no more than two pages at the most. It contains no extensive discussion
or secondary sources, as the other sources do. A typical sentence of this piece goes, in this
age of drunken hookups, this is why your night or your princess is nowhere to be found. We all
do it. This is about as in-depth as the authors reasoning goes to explain the current lack of
dating she and others experience; rather than using facts or other sources to support her claim,
she uses a hunch that she has to explain behavior she observes. She also fails to explain any
terms that are brought up, but instead assumes that her readers are well informed enough to
know. The author stays at the surface when exploring the topic, and has conventions that are
typical of short opinion pieces. The conventions of the sexuality and developmental pieces
contrast to these conventions in a huge way by creating extremely in-depth articles, supported
with factual evidence.
The sexuality and developmental articles vary in levels of formality, however are both
more formal than The Odyssey article. For example in the sexuality article, Smith and Aubrey
define culture as a set of shared values, goals and practices and hookup as having a lack of
expectation for a future commitment. The article then explains the operational definitions of the
endorsement of hookup culture (EHC) among young adults by measuring four aspects of the
culturecommitment, fun, status, control, sexual freedom. These are measured with questions
that address each of the aspects on a five-point scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly
agree). These conventions are more academic, but still similar to the conventions in the
developmental article, which contained conceptual definitions and secondary sources for data.
The developmental article states that hookup is generally understood to refer to an intimate
physical encounter between partners who hold no expectation of an ongoing committed
relationship. It then includes that The extensive empirical research on Chickerings vectors of
identity development confirms that students do not arrive in college with full mastery of these
tasks [achieving a stable adult identity]. The secondary sources in this article are vital to
comprising the information that makes the point of the article provable. The conventions of each

of the articles further emphasize the informative approach that the scholarly articles take, as
opposed to the informal cry for change that the Odyssey article embodies.
The author of each piece uses specific moves, or common techniques, that aid in their
intentions of writing the piece. The Odyssey author uses all capitals, italics, bolded words,
astrices, and conversational jargon such as we and you in order to reach her audience. For
example, a sentence reads We have to pretend like we dont care, and do whatever we can to
prevent catching the feels. (Because thats the worst thing ever, right?!) BUT GUESS WHAT?
Its all a game and no one is winning, so its time to put an end to this. Excessive
punctuation (?!, ?), conversational pronouns (we), and eye-catching attributes on certain
words (bolded words, all capitals) are all moves that Guarino relies on to catch the attention of
her reader and try to keep it, without using facts or studies. She also takes on a conversational,
yet condescending, tone by asking the reader questions and then answering them herself as if
the answer should be extremely obvious. Rather than using concrete data or secondary sources
to inform and gain credibility with readers, she relies on eye-catching moves and a very informal
tone in order to relate to her readers in hopes that they will listen.
On the contrary, the sexuality article uses more content-related moves such as hedged
bets and viable secondary sources. Arnold acknowledges that research has shown that
hookups can bear negative effects [...]. By using the word can, the researcher is giving the
argument room for improvement, ultimately showing that he/she is knowledgeable, yet openminded to new findings. The article then addresses that Another assumption of the hookup
culture is the expectation of alcohol use in party contexts in which hooking up is likely to occur
and attributes this information to the Journal of Research on Adolescence. In this sentence, the
author uses two moves, one where he is Introducing Something Implied or Assumed, and
another where he introduces that the information was found in a different source (Graff,
Birkenstein, Durst, 682). Similar moves are used by the author of the developmental article. For
example, the article states that young people who lack the skills to resolve interpersonal

conflicts or express discomfort might either consent to unwanted physical intimacy or use
technology to avoid uncomfortable conversations. Using the word might creates a hedged bet
by explaining an action that is a possibility, but not necessarily going to happen. Another move
that this source used was to include paragraphs of text from a secondary source or researcher,
and set that text apart. Then, throughout the article, the author would refer back to the text and
clarify it. He writes, Cot argues that the lack of collective values and future-oriented social
markers results in a post-modern identity crisis. Here, he is Capturing Authorial Action (Graff,
et al. 683). All of these moves are important in order for the source to be taken seriously. If
people respect the source, it affects how the article is received and if it ultimately does its job to
inform people or change the way that people are behaving.
The different limitations of all three articles affect what they are able to accomplish. The
informal Odyssey article is able to have much more opinion in it than the scholarly articles. This
aspect can appeal to some people, however may affect how seriously it is taken. Also, being a
short article, it appeals more to young people because they are likely to read it online and not
formally analyze it or spend too much time on it. It is also then easily shareable via social media
platforms. Due to these contextual limitations, this article will likely reach many readers in the
young-adult realm who are actually partaking in the culture, but will probably not be taken
seriously by older adults or researchers. Oppositely, the sexuality article is effective for those
who want a very in-depth analysis of the issue at hand, and want to take the time to be
informed. However, the length and shear amount of information may deter people from reading
the article. This article will likely appeal to other social scientists in the field, especially if they are
conducting other studies or further investigating the topic. The developmental article is effective
by being very informative, and appealing to people who are not necessarily scientists, but want
to spend time informing themselves about hookup culture. Each type of article is important in its
own way because it reaches out to different groups of people. If a topic was only written about

by a certain field, the audience would only be those who are in that field, and the information
would therefore not reach everyone.
Both types of articles are essential to informing the public and inciting a desired change.
Without articles like the ones written by The Odyssey, young people would not be as exposed to
the opinions of other young people who are calling on them to make a change. Additionally,
without scholarly articles containing studies and background info, there would be no real proof
of a problem and no evidence that supports peoples opinions. Both kinds of articles accomplish
entirely different outcomes, however they work together in order to reach a much larger platform
of people to educate and persuade.

Works Cited

Arnold, Karen D. "College Student Development and the Hook Up Culture." Journal of College
and Character 11.4 (2010): n. pag. Web.

Aubrey, Jennifer Stevens, and Siobhan E. Smith. "Development and Validation of the
Endorsement of the Hookup Culture Index." Journal of Sex Research 50.5 (2013): 435-48. Web.

Carroll, L. B. (2010). From Backpacks to Briefcases: Steps toward Rhetorical Analysis. Writing
Spaces : Readings on Writing, 1, 38-46.

Dirk, Kerry. Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume 1: Navigating Genes. Vol. 1. N.p.:
Parlor, 2010. Print.

Elbow, Peter. Embracing Contraries: Explorations in Learning and Teaching. New York: Oxford
U Press. 1986.

Graff, Gerald, Cathy Birkenstein, and Russel Durst. They Say / I Say: The Moves That Matter
in Academic Writing. New York: W.W. Norton, 2010. Print.

Guarino, Catherine A. "Odyssey." Odyssey. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 May 2016.