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Cover Letter

My writing process was a fairly simple and straightforward one. I began with a rough

draft with only a few sentences for each paragraph in which I would briefly discuss the main

point of this section. This served as a rough outline. I then picked out which pieces of direct

evidence I wanted to discuss and where they would be included. Finally, I just started writing and

tried working it out as I went along. In the end, I went back and reread and corrected both my

grammar and simple things that did not make sense. Once I received my peer feedback, I made

the corrections that I believed would go well in my essay. Some suggestions were based around

grammar and word choices so I ignored some of those. Overall, this writing process was a fairly

straightforward one.

The topic I chose for this project was actually pretty interesting. This made writing the

essay a lot less cumbersome than it would have been otherwise. Because of the class readings, I

was easily able to identify what I would want to discuss in this essay. In all honesty I did not

struggle as much as I have with essays in the past. I also feel like coming out of this assignment,

I understand a lot more than I did before about genre conventions and different writing

assignments. Overall, I am really happy with how I did on this assignment, even though I know

there is still room for improvement.

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Writing Project 1

Identifying and Comparing Genre Conventions in Academic Writing

Jacky Rodarte

Writing 2

Valentina Fahler

May 3, 2020
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Fashion shows, metropolitan cities, and weddings are just a few of the many places in

which a commonality between women can be easily identified: high heels. These shoes, which

often have a distinct heel of at least three inches, seem to have become an almost universal

symbol of femininity. While it may seem that high heels are a simple article of clothing and

nothing more, there are actually plenty of unique aspects to explore. For example, historical

analysts interpret the development of the significance of high heels over time. Meanwhile,

medical experts perform experiments to examine and analyze the effects that the unnatural angles

of high heels have on the human body. Both of these disciplines study the same topic, but with

completely different objectives and methods of presenting findings to an audience of academic

readers. Writing should always have conventions that will appeal to the intended audience in

order for them to properly understand the information that is being presented. The conventional

se disciplines and their differences between disciplines can be easily seen in schoolseenare ever

present in school settings since students often make use of academic resources., since Barton and

Hamilton, who research social and cultural aspects of literacy practices, say “socially powerful

institutions, such as education, tend to support dominant literacy practices” (Barton & Hamilton,

2000, p.12). For example this college class is performing a research project to compare genre

conventions of research articles which we are used to. As such, being able to identify the

differences of literacy practices becomes increasingly important in an academic environment.

Regardless of the specific context, clear differences in organization, diction, and presentation of

evidence reinforce the idea that distinct academic disciplines have their own style and format for

a specific genre, which in this case is a research article.

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* One of my suggested revisions is for me to make my topic sentences more specific to

further captivate the reader. * The decisive organization, including the order in which claims are

made, of a research article can help guide a reader in the right direction. First and foremost is the

introduction, which is the first thing a reader sees after a research article’s abstract. These

introductions serve the purpose of captivating the attention of readers, as well as familiarizing

them with the problem that the research paper will be addressing and the significance of it. In

more simple terms, an introduction states a purpose. Parmentier (2016) wrote a historical article

in which she analyzes the evolution of heels and their significance over time. Her introduction

begins with an observation she made and then states “high heels remain evocative – and for some

transformative – tokens of power, femininity, seduction, glamor, and fantasy” (Parmentier,

2016). * Another recommended revision was for me to further analyze my sources. For example,

I should include more than just one general statement after a piece of evidence. * This

demonstrates that her paper will be exploring the reasons behind the ideologies that have

surrounded high heels since their creation. It can therefore be inferred that this article will not

include much scientific information. Meanwhile, Cronin et al. (2012) wrote an article about the

effects of long term high heel usage on the bones, muscles, and ligaments of the wearer. Their

introduction states that “the aim of this study was to examine the effects of habitual [high heel]

use on the neural and mechanical behavior of triceps surae muscles during walking” (Cronin et

al., 2012). As expected, this article will include scientific information related to the scientific

study. A scientific study is a very distinct purpose to that of the historical article. Rather, this

introduction states a question that will be experimented on to form a conclusion,. Wwhile the

historical article’s introduction informed the readers of what is already known facts.. and will be
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discussed,. tThe purpose of the medical article’s introduction was to introduce an open ended

question that will be examined throughout the paper and only answered at the end.

Additionally, the order in which information is presented says a lot about the intent of an

author and what they want to convey to the audience. A historical article such as Parmentier’s

whose objective revolves around interpreting the evolution of ideologies will begin where the

history of heels began and end with heels in the modern age. In fact, she begins with talking

about the first appearance of these shoes by saying “heels were not to be worn by everyone, of

course; they were the privilege of the elite” (Parmentier, 2016) and ends with “despite (or

perhaps because of) their bad press, heels continue to hold a fascination” (Parmentier, 2016). The

fact that she progressed from first appearances to modern day demonstrates a chronological

organization. This would be a common literacy practice for other historical articles, seeing as

how many historians similarly relate the past to the present. However, it is important to note that

this type of analysis and literary practice can change often, which can be explained by Barton

and Hamilton who say that literacy practices are “as fluid, dynamic, and changing as the lives

and societies of which [it is] a part of” (Barton & Hamilton, 2000, p.13). In comparison, the

medical article by Cronan et al. progresses as any experimental writing would. After the

scientific question has been introduced, a method is explained beginning with “participants

walked at a self-selected speed over a level walkway ∼8 m in length, with a force platform

embedded in the laboratory floor in the center of the walkway” (Cronin et al., 2012) which is

then followed by an explanation of the data collected, then the analysis, and finally a conclusion.

This is an organization format that is common with many scientific papers. For many of the

academic readers, this type of order is typical of lab reports whose purpose is to conduct an
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experiment and form conclusions based on it., which are also examples of scientific writing and

objectives. In short, historical disciplines lean towards chronological organization of events,

while scientific writing is more often outlined by the scientific method itself.

Tone and diction are also distinguishable elements between academic discipline writing.

The tone of a paper influences how the reader takes in the content of the article. Cronin et al.’s

medical article discusses the importance of muscle and tendon interactions, saying “changes in

the properties of either tissue could have important functional consequences” (Cronin et al.,

2012). This exhibits a tone of professionalism and importance. These tones would be common in

other medical papers, seeing as how the function of the human body, and especially situations

that would negatively affect it, are usually not something to mess around with. In contrast,

Parmentier’s article simply evaluates and expresses her view on past and present ideologies

surrounding high heels, which gives her article a more humble tone. In a way, it could make her

analysis seem more achievable for some of the readers themselves. She also mentions a certain

actress’s love for high heels and calls it a “love affair with shoes” (Parmentier, 2016), which

gives this particular paper a somewhat playful tone. Although a playful tone is not always

characteristic of historical articles, it could be with other historical analyses about similar

“marketplace icons” (Parmentier, 2016). Overall, these different tones help let the reader know

how to take in the content, whether that is modestly for a historical analysis article or seriously

for a medical paper.

As far as language choices go, the differences between disciplines can be seen by

comparing the scientific language of one article to the everyday language of the other. are

unmistakable. These language choices can often let a reader know who the real intended
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audience is. Cronin et al.’s article is a scientific one which can be easily distinguished by the use

of scientific terminology. For example, one paragraph explaining the data says “data were

collected telemetrically from the soleus, medial gastrocnemius, and tibialis anterior muscles of

the right leg at 1 kHz” (Cronin et al., 2012). This is a sentence that many non medically trained

readers would gape at. Although the sentence could be understood with some additional

research, an entire article of such writing is not typically aimed at readers without an interest in

the medical field. An experiment was conducted and some of the results were stated in the

following sentence: “average EMG activity was similar for soleus and TA (t = −1.707 to −1.756,

P = 0.097–0.106) but larger in MG in the HH group (t = −4.691, P < 0.001)” (Cronin et al.,

2012). Just like the last sentence, this would also not be easily understood by the untrained eye.

All of those numbers and variables are only understood in a context that many non

science-oriented readers would not easily comprehend. * Another suggested revision was for me

to not include statements that assume things but do not explain them. * Therefore, an article like

this could would unmistakably be identified as scientific because of such choices in language.. In

the historical article, however, Parmentier uses simple, everyday vocabulary to explain her

claims, with the expectation of a few adjectives that one might need to look up. Regardless of

these exceptions, the entire article is fairly simple to comprehend, even by readers with no prior

knowledge of high heels. This is because, as stated before, word choices are different based on a

disciplines’ distinct audiences. In this case, the medical article is clearly geared towards others in

the same or a similar field, while the historical article seems to be directed at any educated

individual who wishes to become more knowledgeable on the subject.

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There are also differences in how evidence is incorporated, such as images and graphs.

As is expected, any claim must always be backed up with evidence. The way in which

disciplines support their evidence is another distinguishable element. In fact, Lunsford et al,

argue that the way in which writers use sources as evidence is characteristic of academic writing

(Lunsford et al., 2016, p.383). This means that any academic discipline will always have sources

and evidence to back up claims to emphasize their credibility. A scientific and medical article

such as Cronin et al.’s which discusses the conduction of an experiment will have data as

evidence. Data can almost always be analyzed verbally analyzed to draw a clear conclusionand a

clear conclusion can be drawn. However, to bring the point across to the reader, tables or charts

displaying this data are often included. Cronin et al.’s article in particular includes some charts

that are labeled “contact time is expressed as a percentage of stance phase duration” (Cronin et

al., 2012). These charts appropriately demonstrate the statistics and help intellectual readers

visualize trends in the data themselves. A historical article such as Parmentier’s, which includes

no quantitative study, but rather a qualitative one, will likely not include many or any charts.

Parmentier’s article in particular does not. Instead, the author uses images to emphasize her

point. For example, after stating that women in the 70’s began to protest against heels as

“demeaning and linking them to tools of female oppression” (Parmentier, 2016), an image of a

controversial flyer captioned “‘American Foot Binding – Stamp Out High Heels,’ Rochester

Women Against Violence Against Women” (Parmentier, 2016) was used to prove that her

statement was true. The flyer contains several words, such as “calluses” which form in areas with

a lot of friction, to bring across the point that high heels were controversial. This establishes

credibility for the author and allows readers to understand the perspective of theof the actually
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see what the authorauthor is talking about. Similarly, after claiming that heels used to symbolize

nobility among men, Parmentier includes a portrait of King Louis XIV, who was wearing red

heels, also to eliminate any doubt that her claim was untrue (Parmentier, 2016). This, again,

helped solidify her sources. as reliable. When images that can be dated back corroborate her

claims, it is pretty much impossible for anyone to claim that she is lying. In essence, scientific

articles most often use strictly data, including statistical tables and charts, whereas historical

articles include some sort of material evidence to further solidify their claims. This is a

discernible difference in presentation of evidence.

Regardless of the topic of a research article, a lot can be discerned based on the academic

discipline that the article is about. Similarly, plenty can be concluded about the academic

discipline based on the literacy practices that are used. This is because even though a research

article is a single genre, different subjects and communities incorporate different elements when

tackling a topic. In this case, a medical article is a lot more qualitative because of the fact that it

often discusses an experimental procedure in terms of data and it’s analysis through the use of

data, charts, and scientific language. In contrast, a historical article analyzes events that

happened in the past and how they relate to the present through the use of historical facts,

supporting images, and usually simple language choices. This is only one example of how

academic discourse practices differ between subjects., which is an important thing to realize and

for academic learners to be able to get the most out of research projects. It is differences like

these that can attract a specific audience, who often have a particular goal in mind. An article

that is formatted and supported in a way that would benefit this audience will attract more of that

audience. Understanding these conventions is, therefore, beneficial to any academic individual.
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References

Barton, David, and Mary Hamilton (2000). Situated Literacies: Reading and Writing in Context.

Routledge, pp. 6–15. London.

Cronan, N. J., Barrett, R. S., & Carty, C. J. (2012). Long-term use of high-heeled shoes alters the

neuromechanics of human walking. Journal of Applied Physiology, 112(6), pp.

1054–1058. Retrieved from

https://journals-physiology-org.proxy.library.ucsb.edu:9443/doi/full/10.1152/japplphysiol

.01402.2011

Lunsford, A. A., Ruszkiewicz, J. J., Walters, K. (2016). Academic Arguments. Everything’s an

Argument (7th ed.,) pp. 379-411. Bedford/St. Martins.

Parmentier, M.-A. (2016). High Heels. Consumption Markets and Culture, 19(6), pp. 511–519.

Retrieved from

https://www-tandfonline-com.proxy.library.ucsb.edu:9443/doi/full/10.1080/10253866.20

16.1153830
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