June 9, 2024

Writing 2

Allison Bocchino

The Future Reduced to Second Grade Terms

By Jared Hamm

Academic writing is very unique having one main purpose: to contribute information to

human knowledge as truthfully and streamlined as possible. Conventions of academic writing to

aid in the precise spread of information are format, punctuation, word choice in correlation with

evidence. Writing processes like these form a writing piece that is meant to follow the scientific

method in addition to summarizing results. The discourse community for an academic journal is

exclusively PHD students or research experts. We can tell this by the advanced style of writing

that is only identifiable to those who went through school for biology. Academic writing uses

words that are targeted to an area of education. Words everyday people cannot understand

“Binary logistic regression analysis was performed that included the ADRB2 polymorphism.”1

As listed, binary logistic regression would not be understood by just anybody. An academic

writer chooses to write for their peers, in this case those well versed in genetics at a graduate

school level. Conventions like jargon make academic journals an exclusive club with the

intention of concisely spreading information. Contributing to the distribution of clear cut

1
Beta2-adrenergic receptor gene polymorphisms in Egyptian patients with acute myocardial
infarction, accessed June 9, 2024, https://www.hindawi.com/journals/amb/2014/471635/, 3.
information is format. Particularly the use of an “Abstract”2 or “Results”3 This is a recurring

theme in any scientific journal for the sole purpose of organization. By including large headings

in a universal format researchers can quickly identify key information about the article. Thus

forming a universal bond in all academic journals to hastily convey whatever information is

required. Evidence is a defining characteristic of academic writing. It is used to prove the

information true or false. Without information an academic article is incomplete due to

information with the possibility of being incorrect. Evidence such as “Characteristics according

to ADBR genotypes and haplotypes are demonstrated in Tables 5 and 6”4 Here evidence is

presented in the tables in the form of numerical comparisons. Resulting in the trustworthiness of

the academic article. In the end all academic writing is built upon evidence as its analysis and

results is the very information that should be conveyed. The punctuation of an academic journal

is bland or blatantly not correct. Throughout the entire journal there are no exclamation points.

This is a result of information being the main goal. Periods convey the most normal informative

sentences, on the other hand exclamation points add drama. In a journal there is no drama, only

evidence and results. The conventions of the academic journal are packaged to specifically

convey information in a way that is familiar to those educated in a specific field. Punctuation,

jargon, format in addition to evidence all accumulate to form a way to precisely spread an

academic discipline around the world.

A newspaper is written with multiple conventions regarding audience, word choice, and

punctuation with multitudes of emphasis on initial and ending sentences. A newspaper is written

2
Beta2-adrenergic receptor gene polymorphisms in Egyptian patients with acute myocardial
infarction, accessed June 9, 2024, https://www.hindawi.com/journals/amb/2014/471635/, 2.
3
Beta2-adrenergic receptor gene polymorphisms in Egyptian patients with acute myocardial
infarction, accessed June 9, 2024, https://www.hindawi.com/journals/amb/2014/471635/, 12.
4
Beta2-adrenergic receptor gene polymorphisms in Egyptian patients with acute myocardial
infarction, accessed June 9, 2024, https://www.hindawi.com/journals/amb/2014/471635/, 6.
for profit therefore the main focuses are publicity, attention grabbing wrapped up with sellability.

A papers discourse community is a massive, variously educated audience that wants to hear the

happenings of the world. This community is not educated to a specific discipline or teaching

therefore the writing must be nonspecific and understood by the general population. A journalist

must tread carefully when explaining in an article. Since one winded explanations get boring

quickly losing readers interest and revenue. Journalists will simplify complexity particularly in

instances when “Apple requires this key to help reset or regain access to an Apple ID”5 The

journalist carefully avoids what keys are, due to the fact that keys are a complicated

technological process. An explanation of keys would lose the reader's interest which conflicts

with the goals of a newspaper. A newspaper uses a visual aspect of a photo or advertisement to

draw in readers to get the initial attention of a reader. In addition to a photo, a hook draws

attention to the article in an effort to push past the initial purchase of a newspaper or click of an

online article. A past tragedy creates a great hook such as one where “She loved to belt out

Taylor Swift and Zach Bryan Ballads in the car.”6Hooks like these where a tragedy is on the

horizon or themes that happy times are disappearing are all too common in papers. Attention

grabbing hooks almost always use exclamation points or question marks. In addition the end of a

newspaper article will include a positive statement with an exclamation point. Punctuation in a

newspaper article is used to convey emotion or introspective questions in order to keep hold of

the reader's attention. In the end the specific conventions for a newspaper are all enacted in order

to gather a large audience who will create better profit margins.

5
Samantha Murphy Kelly, “How to Protect Yourself from Iphone Thieves Locking You out of
Your Own Device | CNN Business,” CNN, April 23, 2023,
https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/23/tech/iphone-thief-recovery-key/index.html, 1.
6
Samantha Murphy Kelly, “How to Protect Yourself from Iphone Thieves Locking You out of
Your Own Device | CNN Business,” CNN, April 23, 2023,
https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/23/tech/iphone-thief-recovery-key/index.html, 1.
 In writing the translation it was extremely important to forget all prior knowledge for

biology. As you put specialized education behind you realize that newspaper articles are sales

pitches. Changing the Jargon in addition to the format of the article best converts the bone

structure of an academic article to a news article. Some changes that took the article to a new

level were the use of pictures and ads in formatting. While looking at online articles there were

multitudes of advertisements at the bottom, top or sides of an article. Almost all of them were for

new medications or topical ointments. Which solidified the choice to add a Pridclo ad at the end

of the article to create a more accurate translation. Removing all attempts to explain biology

longer than 5 words allowed the article to be short and sweet. This rule helped to keep a short

article filled with feel good fluff in order to keep a reader's attention. What remained untouched

was the tone as it is more serious in my newspaper article as well as in the academic journal.

There was leeway on the title and the length of the article. Online all my articles are incredibly

short, only 100-150 words while mine is 300. Not to mention the title has a question mark in it

while online newspapers tend to use dramatic statements. However I found articles that were

exceptions to both of these rules therefore my translation is still accurate just not stereotypical. In

the end the entire point of a newspaper article is to grab a reader's attention in order to make a

profit. The current conventions for a newspaper article are the most successful formula to reach a

profitable goal.

The biggest concern when writing a newspaper was the audience. Who will be buying

this paper and reading my article? Who am I selling my article to and for whose attention? To

defeat this concern my writing was aimed at my father, I based it on what words he would

gravitate to. He is an avid newspaper reader who has 3 subscriptions to local and national papers.

A key aspect to my translation was using a Birds Eye view. Mindsets like “Getting back to
detective writing although you probably didn’t think much about whom your audience would

be.”7Boyd tells us to put ourselves in the shoes of the writer in order to properly translate a piece

of writing. After multitudes of analysis on journalists a newspaper is not five thousand words of

explanation and evidence. Instead it is a concise recap with a few interesting facts. Which was

kept in mind during the translation from academic journal to newspaper article. It is important to

know when “Deciding which moments to include in a comics short story and which to leave

out.”8 Lots of the aspects about helping others as well as the findings of the journal remained in

translation. However, not much of the evidence coupled with complicated research ended up in

the final translation. For the final product of my translation a last look over to phrase things as a

second grader would form my final translation.

Bibliography

Author links open overlay panelDolores Albarracín a, a, b, AbstractThis chapter analyzes how
the environment affects human behavior by presenting a model that delineates four important
pathways addressed through diverse research on inner speech, D. Albarracín, D. Ariely, K.
Attwell, et al. “The Impact of the Environment on Behavior.” Advances in Experimental Social
Psychology, February 10, 2024.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0065260123000308.

Kelly, Samantha Murphy. “How to Protect Yourself from Iphone Thieves Locking You out of
Your Own Device | CNN Business.” CNN, April 23, 2023.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/23/tech/iphone-thief-recovery-key/index.html.

Boyd, Janet. "Murder! Rhetorically Speaking." In Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing,

Volume 2, edited by Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky, 87-97. Anderson, SC: Parlor Press,
2010.
McCloud, Scott. Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga, and Graphic
Novels. New York: HarperCollins, 2006.

7
Boyd, Janet. "Murder (Rhetorically Speaking)." In The Art of Murder: New Essays on Detective
Fiction, edited by Jonathan Smith, 123-145. New York: Mystery Press, 2011
8
McCloud, Scott. Writing with Pictures. New York: HarperCollins, 2006