Gonzalez 1 Alejandro Gonzalez Professor Vetter English 3840j 26 February 2013 Writing to Multiple Discourse Communities Many theorists

studying genre would conclude that one of the most important things about a genre or any piece of rhetorical work is the audience which that piece is directed towards. This relates to what Berkenkotter and Huckin called situatedness (Berkenkotter and Huckin 478). A particular genre can be written for those in the discourse community. Anne Beaufort makes the claim that, genres do the communicative work of the community (Beaufort 103). On the other hand, genres can be written from inside a discourse community to those who are outside the discourse community. Amy Devitt puts it best when she states that, many genres are designed within one specialist community for functions to be filled by nonmembers of that community (Devitt, Bawarshi, and Reiff 515). Devitt discusses in her essay how a certain genre can cause conflict with members of a discourse community and what she calls non-specialists. To the contrary, Anis Bawarshi in her essay makes the argument that genres are able to bridge a gap between specialists and non-specialists. While neither is correct, it is very important to note that one must take into account the people being asked to participate in a genre. Although sometimes unavoidable, failure to do so creates the possibility of discord between author and intended audience. There have been essays composed on writing to a single member of ones discourse community including Anne Beauforts Writing in the Real World. However, I have not come across much in terms of writing from inside one discourse community to those both inside and outside that community. While

Gonzalez 2 Devitt does discuss legal specialists writing in a genre to non-legal specialists, she fails to show how this can successfully be done. In this paper I analyze two peer reviewed journal articles in the field of psychology. The first article comes from the field of abnormal psychology, written by Chao et al, discusses emotional experiences in schizophrenics. The second, written by Bergeson-Dana, is from the field of developmental psychology and covers the topic of language development in children who are hearing impaired. Both articles can be considered equal in terms of scientific value, but only the Bergeson-Dana journal article panders to an audience outside its discourse community. After analysis of the articles, I will then compare them and try to determine what makes an article effective at communicating with multiple discourse communities. The article written by Chao Yan, Yuan Cao, Yang Zhang, Li-Ling Song, Eric F. Cheung, and Raymond C. K. Chan titled Trait and State Positive Emotional Experience in Schizophrenia: A MetaAnalysis discusses, as the title would suggest, the emotional experiences of people suffering from schizophrenia. The authors compiled 96 other peer reviewed journal articles from data bases such as, EBSCOHost (PsychINFO, PsychARTICLE), MEDLINE, and Web of Knowledge between January 1980 and April 2012 (Yan C, et al. 2). The basic outcome of the study was that schizophrenics displayed a significantly greater amount of impairment in trait hedonic capacity when presented with stimuli compared to healthy controls. Based on the language, content, and form of this article it is easy to conclude that it was written for members of the discourse community of abnormal psychology. The language the authors use is highly complex and technical. They use specific jargon such as valence rating(Yan C, et al. 1), affective circumplex(Yan C, et al. 2), as well as scales that they used with no explanation as to what they mean. To a lay-person or non-specialist these phrases are not useful. The authors also reference other studies without giving background as to the implication or outcomes of said studies. To someone in the field these words and studies are probably second nature

Gonzalez 3 and the reader would not have to think twice about them as they probably already are well versed in such things. The content of this research article is another tell that it is directed towards people in the same discourse community. It is riddled with statistics that would baffle a non-member of the discourse community such as Z slope=3.36, p<0.01, N=26 (Yan C, et al. 5). The authors give effect sizes, probabilities, z-slopes, and a number of other statistical values. Much like with the language used in the paper, a non-specialist might not know what these symbols mean and thus would have no way of interpreting them or obtaining significance from them. However, someone who has taken at least a basic class in statistics would be able to comprehend what Cohens d is and understand what the value attached to it means. There are also several graphs and tables in the article that display the findings quite nicely. The form of this paper follows a cut and dry journal article format. The authors give an abstract which outlines the basic premise of the research as well as what they hope to discover. The abstract also contains a small summary of how they conducted their research and what they actually found out during the course of the study. The abstract is followed by an introduction which gives some background on the research. Next is the methods section in which they explain in detail how they went about conducting their research. Like in the abstract there is also a results section that lays out the findings of the study. They end with a discussion section outlining the possible implications as well as conclusions of their research. Most researchers compose their articles in this fashion to make it clear to other researchers exactly what was done and the manner in which it was done. It also makes it easy for other researchers or those familiar with this type of document to quickly navigate and find the information that is important to them. Unfortunately for the average person, such an article comes off as quite a tedious read and dreadfully boring.

Gonzalez 4 The article by Tonya R. Bergeson-Dana is titled Spoken Language Development in Infants who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing: The Role of Maternal Infant Directed Speech. It covers the topics of how children without hearing impairment are able to pick up language as well as how those who are hearing impaired go through a similar process. Similar to the Yan C, et al. article, the Bergeson-Dana article derives its facts from previous research in the developmental psychology discipline. The basic outcome of the study suggests that children who have suffered hearing loss acquire speech in a similar to those who have not except that mothers of those with hearing impairment must use repetition. This article has a wide audience. Many professions including speech pathologists, other developmental psychologists, educators, and even parents who have children who have auditory impairment could gain a great deal of insight from reading this piece. The language of this article is quite simple. Even the only phrase in the title that could possibly not be fully understood, infant-directed speech(Bergeson-Dana 171), is clarified in the first paragraph as baby talk(Bergeson-Dana 171). Other than that, there are really no other instances of difficult language or jargon being used throughout the entirety of the article that isnt explained in at least some detail. This makes it easy for any type of reader from any discourse community to jump in, get all the information, and understand exactly what is being discussed. The content of this article is fairly straight forward. It presents the facts of previous research pertaining to the study while citing appropriately where necessary. The author also explains a few different studies for those who are not too familiar with the current research of the subject. For example, the author references research that was done involving how babies direct their attention to different audio and visual stimuli and then goes into detail as to how this study was done as well as why it is pertinent to her argument.

Gonzalez 5 The format of Bergeson-Danas article is easy to follow. That is not to say it is bad. It is presented in a way that reads more like a story rather than a research study. There is a brief abstract at the beginning of the paper as well as an introduction that expands on what is mentioned in the abstract. Besides the introductory portion there are only really two sections titled Child Perception of Infantdirected speech (Bergeson-Dana 172) and Caregiver Production of Infant-Directed Speech(BergesonDana 175). There is also an easy to follow question/response dynamic that the author uses. Both these things give the piece a format that allows specialist to extract all useful information as well as allowing non-specialists to follow the argument without getting lost. Both these articles do an excellent job of writing to their intended audience. One is to members of the same discourse community. The other is aimed at an audience that encompasses many different discourse communities. The language of the Bergeson-Dana paper allows for a larger audience while still not alienating members of the developmental psychology community. The form and content also cater to both members of the discourse community as well as non-members. This style of composition greatly contrasts the Yan C. et al. paper which can be quite intimidating for the lay person. While both are important in their fields, it is useful to note that the Bergeson-Dana article does not require the metacognitive knowledge to comprehend and fully appreciate its findings. As mentioned previously, I have not located any writings on how to write for members of ones discourse community while also having the piece be accessible to non-member. Through analysis of these two journal articles, I have established some basic criteria to make such a thing possible. First, the language of the paper must either be simple or have the more complex terms and ideas explained so the non-specialists are not confused. Second, the content of the paper must contain all useful information so the specialists are able to gain the required knowledge about the article. However, it is useful to have more narrative rather than just statistics and facts to keep the lay-person interested in the article. Third,

Gonzalez 6 the form must be able to guide the members of the discourse community to the important information quickly and efficiently while not giving off a dry and boring feel. These criteria are certainly not perfect and more research could greatly improve the relationship between specialists and non-specialists while not compromising the importance to either group.

Gonzalez 7 Works Cited Beaufort, Anne. Learning New Genres: The Convergence of Knowledge and Action Writing in the Real World: Making the Transition from School to Work. New York: Teachers College Press, 1999. 103-137. Print. Bergeson-Dana, Tonya R. Spoken Language Development in Infants who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing: The Role of Maternal Infant-Directed Speech The Volta Review 112.2: 171-180. Web. 2012. Berkenkotter, Carol and Huckin, Thomas N. Rethinking Genre From a Sociocognitive Perspective Written Communication 10.4: 475-509. Print. October 1993. Devitt, Amy J., Bawarshi, Anis, and Reiff, Mary Jo. Materiality and Genre in the Study of Discourse Communities College English 65.5: 512-518. Print. May 2003. Yan C, et al. Trait and State Positive Emotional Experience in Schizophrenia: A Meta-Analysis PLoS One 7.7: 1-9. Web. 18 July 2012.

Gonzalez 8 Appendix http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy.library.ohiou.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=6b51d11c-1f874dcb-8cf0-510b72a84ffb%40sessionmgr112&vid=8&hid=127 http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy.library.ohiou.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=6b51d11c-1f874dcb-8cf0-510b72a84ffb%40sessionmgr112&vid=8&hid=127

Gonzalez 9 Reflective Essay From the readings in this section I have learned that genres are often directed at s specific discourse community. In addition to that it is quite apparent after reviewing many journal articles, that there is a specific format that is often not tampered with due to how standard it has become. Almost all of the peer reviewed journal articles that I have read follow this standard format due to the fact that it has become so common in the field and allows the other members of the discourse community to find the information they need when reading such an article. I have learned that most psychology discourse communities write in a no nonsense style that emphasizes facts and information about research and scientific findings over a narrative based style. The Bergeson-Dana article is an exception and it took me quite a bit of digging to find such an article. Most of the articles I came across both in this class and other psychology classes follow the format of abstract, introduction, methods, findings/results, and then a discussion section. I speculate the reasoning behind this to be because it has become the norm to write in such a fashion and anything not written this way would draw negative criticisms from publication reviewers that would lead to the authors article not being published. I struggled most with finding a niche in which to base my essay. Finding a topic that had not been covered in the readings was difficult enough but then applying it to a strict genre brought the difficulty to a whole new level. However, I did my best to scrutinize the readings and come up with concepts that I could relate to the genre I chose. I did my best to find that niche though and I tried to flush it out to the best of my abilities. Unfortunately my desire to find something and write about something unique might have hurt my overall essay due to the fact I felt as though I had to reiterate my points several time in order to make them stick. This is one of the more challenging writing projects I have ever had to do because instead of writing about a specific topic, it gave us the freedom to choose

Gonzalez 10 something that was relevant and let us run with it. Im not sure how this assignment could be improved. The worst part was the difficulty but I feel that was a necessary part of the assignment and struggling through it provided a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.