December 8, 2019

Joshua Smith
Writing 2
HSSB 1207

Dear Mr. Smith,

The essay I wrote is of the discipline of Ecology, but since the discipline of Ecology is so
broad, I focused on the subdiscipline of infectious diseases. I chose this discipline because it is
extremely interesting and the articles in the discipline follow similar conventions.
I decided to write about the jargon, structure, and the tone because those where some of
the things in the articles in the discipline that I picked up on. Since this were some very
prominent things in every article, I figured that they needed to be analyzed. The structure of the
article was one thing that really popped out to me because if the layout was any different the
whole article would look different.
I formatted my essay similar to how you might see an article in the Ecology of Infectious
Diseases discipline. I wanted to provide you with an example of what to expect when reading in
the discipline. I did this by adding headers to the beginning of each paragraph and by including
an abstract at the beginning, which basically gave a quick synopsis of my essay.

Sincerely.

Maya Olesen

Contact
Email: mayaolesen@ucsb.edu
Maya Olesen
Writing 2
Joshua Smith
9 December 2019
Writing Project 2
Writing in the Ecology Discipline
Abstract
Every subject can be placed in a discipline or a discipline. The discipline of Ecology has

many subdisciplines and the one I am focusing on is the Ecology of Infectious Diseases. There

are specific conventions in this discipline and the writing style is similar to many other science

disciplines. My disciplines in the sciences share common writing conventions, but these

conventions differ just enough to make each their own discipline. People in the discourse

community all follow a similar writing style making this style appear to be the correct way to

write in the discipline. Since there is thought to be a correct way to write in the discipline people

in the community keep the tradition of writing in which the conventions going. The conventions

used in a discipline makes a big difference because if the conventions of another discipline were

to be used the writing would not make as much sense.

Introduction
A particular area of study is referred to as a discipline and each and every subject has a

discipline or subdiscipline that it can be placed in. A subdiscipline is the areas of study that

branch off from a bigger discipline, like Ecology is a discipline and Ecology of Infectious

Diseases would be a subdiscipline. Disciplines will share common characteristics and follow

similar patterns in the article’s writing. People in the same discourse community follow the same

rules fir writing in their discipline. A discourse community is a group of people working to a

common good. My Ecology of Infectious Disease course deals with the interactions between
organisms of infectious disease, so the writing style for this discipline is very different from

writings in the arts disciplines. Some of the main conventions in the Ecology of Infectious

Diseases discipline is the jargon, the structure, and the tone.

Jargon

Jargon is one of the most important aspects of the writing in the discipline. In the

Ecology of Infectious Diseases discipline bacterial names are often used because they are so

many different types of strains of diseases. The average person would not know the bacterial

names of diseases, while those in the discourse community would understand. “Yersinia pestis,”

is a great example of a bacterial name that the common person would be unable to identify,

however someone in the discourse community would know that this is the name of the plague.

Yersinia pestis is the bacterial name for the plague, but there are different strains of the plague

that go by different names, such as Pasteurella pestis, which is similar but not the same. The

jargon is necessary to be able to tell the strains apart. The jargon doesn’t end at the bacterial

names but also types of vaccines, such as “attenuated recombinant,” which means that the virus

is weakened in the disease.1 Other uses of jargon would be “zoonosis” and “endemic,” which are

terms that describe the type of disease that is occurring. The jargon specific to the discipline of

Ecology of Infectious Diseases is an important convention because few to no other disciplines

will use this jargon setting it apart from any other discipline.

1
Mathebula, Lindi, Duduzile Edith Ndwandwe, Elizabeth Pienaar, and Charles Shey Wiysonge. 2019. "Effects of
vaccines in protecting against Ebola virus disease: protocol for a symtematic review." BMJ Open. May 31.
Accessed October 31, 2019. https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/9/7/e029617.full.pdf.
Structure

The layout of articles in the discipline will usually be the same. The lab report format is

very common in the science disciplines, and ecology is one of the disciplines that follow this

format. It is common for there to be headers at the beginning of a new subject in the article, this

is done to prepare the reader for the next part they are going to read and so it is easier to locate

things on the page. Examples of some of the headers are “Abstract” and “Background.”2 Most

articles will have an abstract at the beginning, an abstract is a brief summary of the content of the

article. The abstract is there so the reader can get a quick overview of what will be in the article

without having to read the whole thing. The number of people effected by the disease or the

length of diseases incubation and maybe the size of the particular outbreak are included in the

article as statistical data. The data can be presented in tables or in the writing, The Nosocomial

Colonization of T. Bear article the information is presented in tables, while for the Effects of

vaccines in protecting against Ebola virus disease: protocol for a systematic review presents the

data in the paragraph.3 4 It is very common for the articles in the discipline to include an analysis

of the data after the data is presented in the article. The structure of all the articles in the

discipline is also that there are references where the information was found for the article and

this is very common for other disciplines in the sciences because the authors want to give proper

2
Mathebula, Lindi, Duduzile Edith Ndwandwe, Elizabeth Pienaar, and Charles Shey Wiysonge. 2019. "Effects of
vaccines in protecting against Ebola virus disease: protocol for a symtematic review." BMJ Open. May 31.
Accessed October 31, 2019. https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/9/7/e029617.full.pdf.
3
Hughes, Walter T., Bonnie Williams, Bobby Williams, and Ted Pearson. 1986. "Infection Control." The
Nosocomial Colonization of T. Bear 495-500. Accessed November 5, 2019.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/30143870?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents.
4
Mathebula, Lindi, Duduzile Edith Ndwandwe, Elizabeth Pienaar, and Charles Shey Wiysonge. 2019. "Effects of
vaccines in protecting against Ebola virus disease: protocol for a symtematic review." BMJ Open. May 31.
Accessed October 31, 2019. https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/9/7/e029617.full.pdf.
credit. The structure of the articles is important because it can make it easier for the audience to

follow along with the work. The uses of headers, data, and analysis of data give this discipline a

lab report like layout, which is one of the most efficient ways of presenting information in the

discourse community. Since this is such an efficient way to present information it is used by the

Ecology of Infectious Diseases discipline.

Tone

Tone can make a big difference in articles because if the tone is more playful the article

won’t be considered very serious and important. The topic of infectious diseases is not

something that should be written with a light-hearted tone. “Symptoms range from transient flu-

like episodes to septic shock and death,” this is an example of how the writing is very straight-

forward and in a serious tone.3 Looking at the line you can also see that it is a statement less little

room for opinion because it is considered a fact. The writing being written so that things are fact

set this discipline apart from other discipline, for example in the social sciences the reader is

usually supposed to think but in the Ecology of Infectious Diseases the reader is supposed to the

accept the information as fact. Many other disciplines in the sciences will do this because they

have worked to solve and research that the said thing is fact. This discipline is very blunt and

serious because the issues in this discipline can be grim and the factual natural is very common

for subjects in the sciences.

Conclusion

Scientists all around the world publish work in the field of Ecology of Infectious Diseases

all the time and all the writings in this discipline follow the same conventions. Some of the most

prominent and important conventions in the writings in the discipline are the jargon, the
structure, and tone. The jargon is important because it really sets the discipline apart from others

in the sciences by using terms only those in the discourse would understand. The structure is the

groundwork for the articles and acts as a layout that will give the reader an outline of what they

are reading. The tone works to make the articles appear professional and serious about the

material. The conventions are used by almost every author in the discipline and has become the

norm making these conventions be classified as “good” writing.

References
Hughes, Walter T., Bonnie Williams, Bobby Williams, and Ted Pearson. 1986. "Infection
Control." The Nosocomial Colonization of T. Bear 495-500. Accessed November 5,
2019. https://www.jstor.org/stable/30143870?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents.
Mathebula, Lindi, Duduzile Edith Ndwandwe, Elizabeth Pienaar, and Charles Shey Wiysonge.
2019. "Effects of vaccines in protecting against Ebola virus disease: protocol for a
symtematic review." BMJ Open. May 31. Accessed October 31, 2019.
https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/9/7/e029617.full.pdf.