Pau 1

Jennie Pau
Zack De Piero
Writing 2
16 March 2015
Which Article Works Better in This Situation?
There are couple of ways to inform a person or an audience about a scientific discovery
on a particular disease. One can write an academic scholarly journal or write an article for a
mainstream media site. By doing this, writers can use the functions of a particular type of writing
to provide information that readers need to know. Although a reader can gather information from
these articles, one must work better than the other. In this case, there are two articles that mention
hope in finding a cure for sickle cell disease one academic scholarly article, A century after
discovery of sickle cell disease: keeping hope alive! written by Dipika Mohanty, and a nonacademic, featured news article, Sickle cell disease once meant a short and painful life, but now
theres growing hope written by Laura Hambleton that is posted on the mainstream media site,
The Washington Post. The two authors presents information and evidence for possible cures of
sickle cell disease but does it in a different way from each other. In terms of choosing which
article conveys the main message better to a larger, casual audience, Hambleton, the author of the
non-academic article, does a better job in attracting the audiences interest with the contents
under the headings, and spreading awareness, a sense of hope, and positive results, which readers
would like to hear.
The non-academic article has an interesting headline that appeases the curiosity of
readers, which keeps the reader to continue to read the rest of the article. First, Hambleton uses a

Pau 2
headline to catch the readers attention when they look through the news site. Karen Rosenberg,
the author of Strategies for Readings Scholarly Sources, advises readers to pay attention to the
title because it can convey a lot of information that can help them figure out how to read the rest
of the article more efficiently. (Rosenberg 215) Just by reading the title or headline, the reader
can predict what the author will talk about. After the prediction, if the heading creates a curiosity
within the reader into wanting to know more about the topic, the reader will continue to read on
to the next subheadings and its contents under it. With the headline Sickle cell disease once
meant a short and painful life, but now theres growing hope(Hambleton), many audience would
be curious to know what the sickle cell disease is. But adding once meant a short and painful
life helps the reader understand that it is a painful disease. Mentioning the word hope might
suggest that sickle cell disease is an incurable disease and can lead the reader to read more to
find out if there is a cure. With the curiosity of whether there is a cure or not, the reader
continues to read to look for an answer.
After the headline, Hambleton provides more interesting information on the disease that
satisfies the curiosity from the previous heading/subheadings, but also creates another curiosity,
in which the reader will be tempted to read on. Hambleton includes a real-life story where a pair
of twin girls has sickle cell disease. These two girls have been visiting the doctors to receive
check-ups and examinations on the disease. Hambleton mentions that although there are not
many cures for the disease, scientists are still searching for cures and testing them out. David
Nathan, a hematologist, states that if scientists raise fetal hemoglobin in sickle cell patients, they

Pau 2
can cure the disease.(Nathan) This statement relieves curious readers that there is a cure but is
not successful yet. Another hematologist, Winfred Wang, gives an even more promising

Pau 3
results where patients with hydroxyurea had many fewer pain events, swelling of hands and
feet, episodes of acute chest syndrome and hospital stays. (Wang) These information satisfies
some of the readers curiosities by letting them know some of the possible cures for the disease.
As readers want to know more about other possible cures, they will continue to read on. After
reading the next few subheadings, readers can get a sense of what the contents of the
subheadings will be about and can look for information to answer their curiosities. Bringing back
what Rosenberg mentions readers should do, Rosenberg advices readers to read the subheadings
to see and think what the contents under it will be about. Just by reading the next few
subheadings such as gene therapy, bone marrow treatments, and anti-inflammatory drugs, the
reader will know that the author is gathering up a few more possible cures and treatments for the
disease. Therapy, treatments, and drugs are words that suggest that these can cure or treat sickle
cell patients temporary. Hambletons article gets readers interested and hooked on to read more.
On the other hand, the academic scholarly article written by Mohanty is about having
hope on the disease and what kind of statistics there are, but does not provide possible cures
scientists already found that readers would want to know. Both articles attract readers attention
and makes them curious about what the disease is and what kinds of cure there are. The topic for
both articles is to know what hope there is for the sickle cell disease. Mohanty does a poor job at
spreading the fact that there is a cure for the disease. Her article only provides facts and statistics
to get the interests of scientists and to gather more scientists to research about sickle cells. For
example, Mohanty wrote, Again, to advise governments about the health burden that will be
posed by the SCD in the future it is vital that better health, economic data are collected and So,
it is a call to all the hematologists to join hands to raise these data.(794). This suggests that

Pau 4
hematologists or scientists should focus and research on sickle cell disease to collect more data.
Mohanty fails to mention what casual readers really want to know: possible cures.
Although both articles are similar to each other, Hambletons article has a better purpose
than Mohantys article. The purpose in Hambletons article is to inform a larger group of
audience, who have zero or few knowledge about sickle cell disease. By doing so, Hambleton
uses a famous news article site that many people read from to outreach to a larger group of
audience. Losh and Alexander, the authors of the comic, Understanding Rhetoric, states that
each writing situation has its own demands, its own expectations, and its own sense of how
writing is to be presented. (Losh and Alexander 9) Since Hambleton uses a mainstream article
site to target a larger group of audience, she uses simple words so that anyone can read it and
understand. She wants to spread awareness of sickle cell disease. The article contains short, but
descriptive information and facts and words from doctors and patients on sickle cell disease. The
brief information quickly grasps the readers attention and curiosity without making them feel
bored as they do when reading a long description. Academic articles are usually longer as it
contains many information and goes deep into giving descriptions of the topic. Non-academic
articles are shorter and they get straight to the point. If a reader wants to know more about the
topic, there are hyperlinks that a reader can click on. These will lead them to another article
scholar articles or another news articleand readers can read more about it. Even though the
whole article contains brief information, the information is enough to understand what is going
on.

Pau 4
On the other hand, Mohanty focuses more on a smaller group by using specific,
professional words, which is not a good choice when the point is to attract the readers attention

Pau 5
and interest, and spread awareness of the disease. The article does not attract a larger group of
audience; it uses a specific jargon for the targeted audience who are mainly scientists or
hematologistspeople who study bone marrow, blood, and lymphatic systems disordersor
students writing a paper on sickle cell disease. People who studies sickle cell disease or are
scientists can understand the words mentioned in the article. For example, the article mentions,
The incidence of S gene varies from 0 to 40 per cent and the relatively high frequency of thalassaemia in the same population groups often leads to the clinically important condition,
sickle haemoglobin thalassaemia (Mohanty 793). Readers who do not study sickle cell disease
may wonder and question what -thalassaemia or haemoglobin thalassaemia is. This limits her
range of audience as not many people are scientists. With the unfamiliar words, readers would
stop halfway and move on to do something else.
Hambletons article is best for the purpose of the topic attracting a larger audience to
spread awareness and cures of the sickle cell disease. It is best for those who wants to get straight
to the point, learn brief information on the disease, and learn about the possible cures. For
example, Hambleton states that mutated cells do not flow smoothly and can get lodged in veins,
causing excruciating pain, anemia, severe fatigue, respiratory distress and eventually organ
failure and early death while Mohanty mentions Priapism and leg ulcers seem very uncommon
in Indian patients. About 66 per cent had splenomegaly and 10 per cent had gallstones. Jaundice
is not uncommon. About 52 per cent of the patients had hemolytic jaundice. In all these cases Hb
F level was significantly low7.(794) Mohanty uses scientists jargon and not many people will
understand what she is saying there if they do not know what gallstones or hemolytic jaundice.
Hambleton uses simple words that most people can understand. Mohanty, on the other hand,

Pau 6
provides deeper information on the disease than Hambleton. The academic article is a good use
for students who might want to use it to write a paper on the authors opinion of the disease.
Scientists or other researchers might read this article to understand Mohantys opinion or learn
what she discovered.
The two authors wrote information about this topic in different ways. Both articles can
work really well in relaying the message or information in certain situations. Mohantys article
works best for a group of audience that studies in the field of sickle cell disease, while
Hambletons article is best for a larger group of audience with no knowledge about the disease.
But the main point and idea of both articles is to spread awareness that there are possible cures
and at the same time, spread hope. Hambletons article works best for this main point as she
mentions that there are tests and experiments that are working or are tested. Mohanty only gives
statistic on the disease and spread awareness to gather more scientists to find a cure. Although
both authors provide great amount of information, the effectiveness on how well the article can
be used for depends on the main point and how well the authors send that message out to the
audience.

Pau 7

Works Cited
Hambleton, Laura. Sickle Cell Disease Once Meant a Short and Painful Life, But Now Theres
Growing Hope. The Washington Post. 3 March 2014. Web. 10 February 2015.
Losh, Elizabeth, and Jonathan Alexander. Understanding Rhetoric: A Graphic Guide to
Writing. Bedford/St. Martins. First Edition. 304p. 15 March 2013. Print. 10
February

2015.

Mohanty, Dipika. A Century After Discovery of Sickle Cell Disease: Keeping Hope Alive!
Indian Journal of Medical Research. Jun 2014, Vol. 139 Issue 6, p793-795. 3p.
10 February 2015.
Rosenberg, Karen. Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholarly Sources. 2011. Print. 10
February 2015.