Eric Lynch

Professor Thames

ENC 1102

10/2/2020

Stylus Study

The article, “Reddit’s Diverse Platform: Transforming the Social Media Landscape

Through Its Communities” by Daniel Lu relates to my research question, “What effect does

technology have on attraction development within the amusement/theme park industry?” as they

both are about utilizing technology in new and exciting ways in order to complete a task. On one

hand, Lu had learned how to be better at academics by utilizing the social media platform Reddit

while people working on new attractions for amusement/theme parks will utilize new technology

in order to better immerse guests in a story(Think of the Bourne Stuntacular from Universal

Studios Florida as a prime example). The methodology used by Lu is that the author explains the

differences between Reddit and other social media sites and how Reddit made the tasks of

writing exponentially easier for the author. In order to better get their point across, the author

includes various images as well as large text quotes which displayed the key points. For

example, one of the large text quotes say, “My overall experience with Reddit thus far has

transformed me in a way that I never thought would occur. All my life I would associate writing
as a very tedious and stressful task; never did I think that writing could be enjoyable and

something that I actively wanted to do” (37). When writing an article, I would also like to use

visuals so that the readers can understand my point better as well. The structure of the article is

organized as is it in a “before-after-effect” format, meaning that there is linear progression in the

article. I believe the article was selected not only because it goes into great detail about the

authors transformation, but also because it serves as a great inspiration for other students into

finding different ways to cope or even go above and beyond in their classes and career.

The article, “Video Games and the Hero’s Journey” by James Plyler is about the

emerging potential for videos within our society. The authors goes on to talk about the benefits

of video games, how they are emerging and how narrative plays a big part in them. While the

author was researching for the article, the author “conducted a textual analysis in order to

validate the narrative quality of video game titles by comparing the stories of two critically

acclaimed video games to the structure defined by Joseph Campbell in his Hero’s Journey” (23).

This article relates to my research question in that it is another use of technology that enhances

people lives, the rhetoric in this article could be applied to my research question in the same way

in that there is plenty of potential for improvements for both the user and the designer. As well as

the fact that some attractions today are already being designed to be like video games, with

Smugglers Run at Disney’s Hollywood Studios being the prime example of this as the guests
themselves get to pilot a spaceship using joysticks, buttons and knobs, similar to how video

game users utilize a controller. The article had linear progression and started out by explaining

video games before discussing about them. If I were to write a scholarly article, I would utilize

the large text quotes that were demonstrated throughout Plyler’s article as well as dividing the

article into sections to help organize the information better. I believe this article was selected for

publication because of how popular video games are among all age groups and the desire to

make them better to improve the lives of everyone.

In the article, “Essence of Technical Writing: Communication between Non-Experts and

Experts in a Constrained Genre” by Clayton White, the author talks about the importance of

communication when it comes to technology. The author, in the end, finds out that clarity is key

when it comes to making and utilizing software that is designed for both people that are well

versed in electronics/programming and those who only know it on a superficial level. I

absolutely love the method that White used in order to get the results. The author “focused on a

shared genre of KACE reports from three different teachers of a local high school” and “used

textual analysis to categorize and analyze the reports according to several factors including: word

count, the types of keys used, punctuation and topic”(98). This way, the author got real life,

detailed results to work off of. I would definitely want to do this too for my article, but maybe
include more interviewed in order to get a broader view of the situation(although I realize

interviews and observations take a substantial amount of time to do). The article has a logical

progression, first introducing us to the research question and explaining what KACE is (it’s

software), and then explaining methods/results, and then with discussion of said results. This

makes the article easy to follow and you feel like you are filled in on what is happening

throughout. This article relates to my research question in that when someone is designing an

attraction for an amusement/theme park, one must keep in mind who will be operating the

attraction. In most circumstances, you will be having people high school or college who will

need instructions in order to operate the ride. If you make a ride that is too complicated for

people to understand, you will not have an operating ride for very long. With that being said, the

reason that I believe the article was selected for publication was its attention to detail and its

direct relation to the realm of education. It is vital that educators are able to utilize technology to

its fullest capacity in order to teach today’s youth.

 Works Cited

Lu, Daniel. “Reddit’s Diverse Platform: Transforming the Social Media Landscape Through Its
Communities .” Stylus: A Journal of First-Year Writing, 2018.

Plyler, James. “Video Games and the Hero’s Journey .” Stylus: A Journal of First-Year Writing,
2013.

White, Clayton. “Essence of Technical Writing: Communication between Non-Experts and

Experts in a Constrained Genre .” Stylus: A Journal of First-Year Writing, 2016.