Running head: GENRE ANALYSIS 1

Genre Analysis

The Psychology of Meditation

Erik Lopez

The University of Texas at El Paso

RWS 1302

Mr. Lohani

February 17, 2020

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Abstract

No abstract. .
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Genre Analysis

The Psychology of Meditation

Although meditation has been practiced in many cultures for thousands of years,

meditation is frowned upon by countless people in the western world. Even though the practice

of meditation is associated with the religions of Buddhism and Hinduism, it still has a

tremendous effect on the brain according to the field of psychology. Countless studies show the

scientific community that any practice of mediation can reduce stress and even improve

concentration. This ancient practice is addressed by two genres that fully support the practice

through controlled studies and scientific research. In a TED Talk named How Meditation Can

Reshape Our Brains, Sara Lazar utilizes her tested scientific data to prove to the audience that

mediation does indeed have a profound effect on the brain. Additionally, I will be using a book

chapter by Glen L. Xiong and P. Murali Doraiswamy called Does Meditation Enhance

Cognition and Brain Plasticity. This book chapter uses meta-analysis from several credible

studies to further prove the point that meditation has a positive effect on brain function.

Structure and Delivery

The TED Talk on How Meditation Can Reshape Our Brains is an eight-and-a-half-

minute speech on a stage at Boston, Massachusetts. Furthermore, audience members attended

this speech and the talk has more than a million views on YouTube. The introduction starts off

with a backstory about how the speaker took interest in the topic. To put the cherry on top, the

speaker makes use of her tested observations on the subject at hand with the help of visuals.

These large visuals consist of graphs and statistics that help her deliver her speech in a structured

manner. Sara Lazar rarely uses any slang in her speech and only uses jokes in her introduction to

hook the audience. In the book chapter Does Meditation Enhance Cognition and Brain
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Plasticity, Glen L. Xiong and P. Murali Doraiswamy start off by providing a brief academic

background. Moreover, they provide an overview of their findings on how meditation affects the

brain. This is followed by a discussion on how they conducted their meta-analysis, supported by

a diagram and chart that provides simplicity to the overall conversation. Since the book is part of

an academic community, the chapters vocabulary is strictly formal and even considers the

possibility of the other side of the argument. There are no colors that jump to the eye and the

chapter is organized into subheadings to provide an easy read for the audience. Although these

genres may seem very different to the naked eye in terms of structure and delivery, there are

many similarities. First, both genres have a scientific style when it comes to the language and

visuals. Even though the TED Talk starts of the introduction with a backstory on the speaker,

most of the speech maintains formal dialect and scientific images.

Audience and Purpose

The TED Talk on How Meditation Can Reshape Our Brains has a very diverse audience.

Sara Lazar is welcoming the scientific community in the audience when she uses scientific data

to carry her speech, but the introduction on her backstory on the topic welcomes a whole other

audience. The speaker makes sure to use everyday language, so that her speech could relate to

almost anyone. Like I mentioned before, this speech was also posted on YouTube with almost a

million views, which welcomes anyone who has an internet connection and doesn’t live in a

dictatorship into the conversation. The purpose of this speech is obviously to inform because the

speaker chooses to explain her speech through science and she never asked anyone in the

audience to try meditation. From face value, the speaker has no intention of convincing anyone

that meditation is the way to go, but behind the scenes there might be a different story. Since the

speaker chooses to welcome both everyday humans and the scientific community, it is evident
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that the speaker is trying to reach out to as many people as possible to convince them that

meditation is an amazing tool for humans and the brain. In the book chapter called Does

Meditation Enhance Cognition and Brain Plasticity, Glen L. Xiong and P. Murali Doraiswamy

has a smaller target audience. Since both authors have massive amounts of credibility paired with

the fact that they published this book chapter on an anthology, shows that their primary target

audience might be the scientific community. The second audience they might have in mind

would be undergraduates because the book chapter was posted on google scholar for anyone who

would like to recourse for their research. Unsurprisingly, the purpose of this book chapter is to

inform since the audience conducts research on their book chapter. Behind the curtain, the

authors might be trying to convince the scientific community that meditation is plausible in the

field of science because the chapter is part of an anthology that has “Integrating Eastern and

Western Perspectives” in the title and they utilize meta-analysis from many different sample

sizes. Both genres share the same purpose when it comes to informing the public on how

powerful meditation really is on the human mind. However, the book chapter fails to

communicate to the large and diverse audience that the TED Talk possesses in their fingertips.

Rhetorical Issues

The TED Talk by Sara Lazar has great credibility when it comes to the topic meditation.

She has a PhD in her field and works at the University of Harvard as an assistant professor in

psychology. The speech was published under her authority with her lab results in a high-level

university, which gives her all the ethos in the world. Now if you look at the pathos in the

speech, you will find a totally different story. One would expect this speech to have very low

pathos because scientific data sat at the driver’s seat and relatability sat at the passenger side.

Fortunately, a whole lot of tested information can give the speaker massive amounts of power in
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the form of logos. Sara Lazar supports her argument with a tremendous number of graphs, charts,

and even diagrams based on her findings. All this visual information can raise the eyebrows of

even the biggest critics of this speech. Now when you look at the book chapter on meditation by

Glen L. Xiong and P. Murali Doraiswamy, it is obvious that the credibility of the work is

extremely high. For example, under the title and the authors names in the book chapter, the

reader is given a brief overview on the amazing positions of power the writers occupy in the

psychological community. Furthermore, if the authors are willing to provide the synopsis before

the scholar even reads the content, it shows that they are fully confident in their ability to

establish good ethos. The great reputation of the authors doesn’t translate when it comes to the

pathos side of the spectrum. The content of this chapter contains little to no pathos due to it’s

scientific focus. The authors keep the meta-analysis as the primary focus of the speech, which

leaves little to no room to appeal to emotions. Luckily, this meta-analysis gives the authors an

astounding amount of logos to work with. The argument of the chapter is supported by seven

different studies with different types of meditations. All the studies yielded positive results,

which helps support the authors claim that mediation is a powerful tool for the brain. Both genres

lack pathos because scientific based discussions take up a lot of space and leave little to no room

for emotions. Additionally, both genres are very similar in terms of the amount of ethos and

logos used.

Conclusion

These genres successfully achieved their purpose in convincing the reader that meditation

is beneficial for brain by providing scientific data formulated by experiments. The test results

give the authors heavy amounts of logos to work to convince scholars all over the world. The

TED Talk conveys its message more effectively because it has more time to work with eight and
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a half minutes on YouTube. Furthermore, the speech is supported by a backstory that allows the

viewer to connect with speaker on a more personal level. These genres are instrumental in

shifting the negative views of mediation in the scientific community and in western society.

References

Lazar, S. (2012). How meditation can reshape our brains. Retrieved from

https://youtu.be/m8rRzTtP7Tc

Xiong, G. L., & Doraiswamy, P. M. (2009). Does meditation enhance cognition and brain

plasticity? Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1172(1), 63.