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Writing Project 1 

Identifying and Comparing Genre Conventions 

in Academic Writing 

Ashley Son 

University of California, Santa Barbara 

 
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Art can be viewed as a freeform technique to portray one's feelings and contains no 

certain“correct” way or answer to create. On the contrary, mathematics is perceived as a logical 

study of shapes, formulas, and quantities, with a specific answer to a formula or equation. 

However, many artists, past and present, are using mathematical techniques to create art. The 

topic of the use of mathematics in art has created numerous questions in the two disciplines, 

technology and history. Through analyzing the two disciplines and how they perceive the topic, 

one can notice that these differences are caused by the different ways that they approach the 

topic itself. The technology discipline investigates the topic through the factual side of 

mathematics in art and how math is incorporated to create art on computers, where history 

studies different artists who have used math to produce their drawings. Despite the same topic, 

the two varying intentions from the distinct disciplines create different ways to communicate 

through the text through their arguments, use of evidence, and word choices within the articles. 

In the first three paragraphs of the article, “Science and Culture: Solving a math problem 

to create art,” by Stephen Onres, Ornes incorporates the artist, Bosch, to introduce his main 

argument, “​Bosch is now known among mathematicians—and the math–art subset of that 

community—for his line drawings, mosaics, and sculptures created using solutions to 

optimization problems.”(Ornes, p.1)​. Fundamentally, the article is focused on previous artists 

that have utilized mathematics in art, specifically drawing and painting, rather than physical 

techniques that can be used. Ornes is able to create and build his credibility through this because 

he explicitly presents widely known artists who have used mathematics to create their art. The 

audience will be able to recognize these artists' names and their success through the 

mathematical techniques to create art.  

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The technology discipline, on the other hand, discusses the technological techniques of 

mathematics in art rather than how it has previously been used. In the article, “Integrating math 

and art - a new way of drawing,” by Wei Xu, the author scrutinizes many techniques and creates 

scenarios that use these techniques to build her argument. She creates her academic argument 

after “careful reading, accurate reporting, and a conscien- tious commitment to truth” (Lunsford 

et al, p.380) which asserts her stance . She introduces her argument through a background 

paragraph. She starts out with opposing claims that math and art are extremely opposite of each 

other, “​Most people believe math and art to be extremely opposite to each other. Math is a 

science that mainly involves strict emotionless logic, abstract symbols and definitions, and a 

linear sequence of reasons, while art is related to emotions, randomness and visual structures 

assembling to real life objects. Even in today's education systems, from elementary schools to 

universities, art and math are mostly isolated and taught separately”​(Xu, p.73); however, she 

follows it with debunking statements throughout the rest of the article, “Writers should take a 

guarded stance, especially when presenting argumentation and results” (John, p.570). By 

utilizing a rebuttal technique she is able to strengthen her claim because she has thought out 

arguments that could weaken her claim and proved them to be false. It makes it harder for critics 

or the audience to think of an opposing argument that she has not approached and debunked. 

After the background paragraph, Xu quickly follows up with different techniques of drawing 

from a scientific approach, “​Quadtree [FB1974] is a data structure that stores a 2D 

image...Triangulation [BK1997] expresses objects as a soup of triangles called triangle meshes. 

Due to the structural flexibility...A bounding box of a 2D object is the tightest axis-aligned 

rectangle that surrounds the object. For a detail-rich image, bounding box...Divide-and-Conquer 
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[CLR2000] is a general algorithm design paradigm used in computer science. To solve a large 

scaled problem…” (Xu, p.76). By mentioning the techniques, it provides a visual of some 

mathematical techniques that are used to create art≥ Lastly, she segways into an interview-like 

format, where she depicts a scenario where these techniques can be used when creating art, “ 

Problem A: Given a target object in front of us, how can we duplicate the object correctly in 

paper (with a pencil only)? The term of target object in the statement represents anything to 

draw: a chair, an automobile, a garden, a person, a photo, etc. Because the targets bear distinct 

visual structures or even different dimensions, we want to unify them first in order to create a 

general approach…” (Xu, p.78). By using this interview-like format, it provides hypothetical 

scenarios which helps the audience understand when, where, and how these techniques are used. 

The three techniques for evidence that the Xu utilizes, rebuttals, visuals, and an interview, all 

create a visual for how these techniques would be used in different situations which help assert 

her argument. The question that is being asked in these two articles contradict each other greatly; 

while history discusses past artists that have incorporated mathematics into art, technology 

explains how these abstract mathematical techniques can be used in specific scenarios in art 

through technological strategies. As a result, the two different disciplines both build and 

reinforce their argument in different ways, however still maintain a unison topic.  

When observing the different mathematical techniques that are utilized when creating art, 

Xu Wei uses a myriad of mathematical jargon such as convex or boolean operations that can be 

difficult to understand to a reader with no background knowledge. Additionally, her sentences 

are shown to be long and complex which creates intellectual sentences that can be viewed as 

confusing. As stated in Academic Arguments, “some academic writing is clearly aimed at 
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specialists” (Lunsford et al, p. 381). Because of her elevated technological and mathematical 

words and specific sentence structure, it can be assumed that the intended audience of the article 

is someone with base knowledge in technology and mathematics who can fully comprehend the 

author’s intentions and content.p 

Contrarily, the history discipline minimizes the amount of mathematical or artistic terms, 

if a mathematical or art related term is used, the author defines it in the following sentence. This 

helps the audience understand Ornes’ points without having any prior knowledge about the topic. 

Additionally Ornes creates short and precise sentences which keeps the article straight to the 

point so it does not distract or confuse the audience with unnecessary information. . However, 

Ornes does include artists that have used mathematics to create art such as Bosch or Leonardo da 

Vinci, who are viewed as well known artists.Thus the intended audience can be assumed to be 

someone with a basic knowledge in art however does not need to have the knowledge of a 

historian. Even if the audience are not cognizant of these names, Ornes makes it easy for the 

readers to still acknowledge that they are well known and successful artists.  

Comparing the two disciplines, one can see a vast difference between how these two 

contrasting disciplines approach a unison topic of how mathematics can influence art. History 

which is portrayed in Stephen Ornes article “Science and Culture: Solving a math problem to 

create art,” approaches this topic by different artists in the past and how they have utilized these 

techniques while technology, in “Integrating math and art - a new way of drawing” by Wei Xu 

expresses a visual manifestation on how mathematical techniques can be used to create art in 

technology. Just by the way one creates their argument, structure of article, and the words they 

can use can design a whole new aspect to a topic. 

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Sources:  

John, A.M. (n.d), Discourse Communities And Communities of Practice. Retrieved from 

https://gauchospace.ucsb.edu/courses/pluginfile.php/6162286/mod_resource/content/1/Johns%2

C%20Discourse%20communities.pdf 

Lunsford et al. (n.d), Academic Arguments. Retrieved from 

https://gauchospace.ucsb.edu/courses/pluginfile.php/7925168/mod_resource/content/1/Lunsford

%20et%20al.%202016%2C%20ch17.pdf 

Ornes, S. (2016, December 27), Science and Culture: Solving a math problem to create 

art. Retrieved from ​https://www.pnas.org/content/113/52/14873/ 

Xu, W. (2011). INTEGRATING MATH AND ART - A NEW WAY OF DRAWING. 

International Journal of Arts & Sciences,​ ​4​(20), 73-85. Retrieved from 

https://search-proquest-com.proxy.library.ucsb.edu:9443/docview/926176328?pq-origsite=primo