Flora Chang

Zack De Piero
Writing 2
2 December 2015
Moves In Academic and Non-Academic Sources
Leonardo DiCaprio Might Be A Human Puppy may be one of the weirdest articles one
can come acrossproving that articles do not have to be formal all the time. Buzzfeed is one
source that is known for its miscellaneous and random topics. Other media sources can examine
the same topic with varying degrees of effectiveness and techniques that range from very
informal to strictly professional. The same types of sources can even branch into different
disciplines, and thus creating a different effect on the audience despite having the same topic.
From reading two scholarly articles regarding marijuana useUse and effects of cannabinoids
in military veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder by Kevin Betthauser/Jeffrey Pilz and
Race/Ethnicity Differences between Alcohol and Marijuana Use Disorders by Lauren Pacek,
Robert Malcolm, and Silvia Martinsand one non-academic Buzzfeed post about marijuana use,
it is evident that the sources share similarities and differences for multiple purposes. The
scholarly article from a biopsychological standpoint, the scholarly article from a racial and ethnic
standpoint, and the Buzzfeed post from a miscellaneous perspective all discuss marijuana use but
with different levels of formality to satisfy the targeted audience. While the academic sources
successfully reach their goals of being informative and the non-academic source achieves its goal
of creating a humorous response in the audience, it is ultimately the non-academic source that
proves to be the most outstanding due to its unique conventions and moves, such as informal
language and the use of bullets.

The rhetorical features that are present across the sources demonstrate the techniques that
authors often use to be persuasive, such as providing brief insight about what the content features
in the beginning. In their attempt to get the reader to understand their message, these authors
provide a brief introduction and summary regarding the content of the source. In Betthausers
biopsychological article, there is a distinct colored box on the first page that states the purpose,
summary, and conclusion of the experiment. Similarly, in Paceks article, the beginning of the
article contains brief descriptions of the background, methods, and results of the research. The
Buzzfeed posts title is how author Jarry Lee provides the audience with an introduction to the
post. Titled 27 Tweets About Smoking Weed Guaranteed to Make You Laugh, the article provides
the readers with an overview to the context of the post. Providing a brief introduction is
important for the audience, as it gives them just enough insight for them to decide whether or not
they are interested in the articles. The introduction also answers the question Who cares? [by]
identifying a person or group who cares about [the authors] claims (Graff 93). It is imperative
that the author signifies who the intended audience is in order to maximize the readers
information retention. A successful background would capture the audiences attention without
being too lengthy. These backgrounds are effective, as it adds to the scholarly articles
educability and the Buzzfeed posts attractiveness.
Another convention that is common across the sources is the utilization of headings to
distinguish between each subtopic. The scholarly articles share the typical subheadings such as
introduction, conclusions, and references. Scholarly articles often contain a wide range of
content, from introductions to data analysis to references. Without the separation and
organization, audience members would feel overwhelmed by the incredible and diverse amount
of information provided by scholarly articles. The numbered bullet points on Buzzfeed posts can

be considered to be headings, as it does contribute to the organization of the article; this use of
bullet points is a convention that would not be traditional in a formal, academic piece.
Additionally, all three sources have its own range of acceptable jargon, diction, and tone
[that needs to be] learned and applied (Boyd 92). For instance, in the biopsychological article,
posttraumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is defined as chronic activation of the stress response as
a result of experiencing a traumatic event (Betthauser 1279). Acronyms in the sociological
article are also defined, such as when the author describes the National Epidemiologic Survey
on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) (Pacek 435) and clarifies the acronym in
parentheses. These similar conventions all add to the success of the persuasiveness of the
articles. However, even within these similarities, it is obvious that the Buzzfeed post approaches
these conventions in the most unique way out of the three sources.
The tone is one prominent factor that creates the divide between the scholarly articles and
the Buzzfeed post, making the non-academic piece outstanding. The Buzzfeed post has an
informal, sarcastic, and humorous tone. The topic at hand is meant to evoke laughter and is not
meant to be a serious subject. Meanwhile, the scholarly articles are formal write-ups of
experiments that are meant to be informative. The humorous tone in the Buzzfeed post is a result
of the casual diction, as exemplified by, I wish my grades would smoke weed so they could get
higher (Lee). Weed, or other substitutes for the word marijuana, immediately decreases the
level of formality and thus creates more leeway for the post to be amusing. The scholarly articles
also have built-in credibility because of the reputation it hasit is not a surprise that the authors
are very well-educated. In other words, the tone and use of pathetic appeals are very powerful
when used in conjunction with the other two appeals (Carroll 53)logos and ethos.

Another difference is that the scholarly articles list out the authors with their degree,
while the Buzzfeed article includes the authors name, a picture, and a hyperlink to other posts
shes written. The Race/Ethnicity Differences articles authors are listed as, Lauren R. Pacek,
BS,1 Robert J. Malcolm, MD,2 Silvia S. Martins, MD, PhD1 (Pacek 435), with the superscripts
labeled as the schools that the authors graduated from. The significance of these labels is to
appeal to ethos, or credibility, of the authors. The legitimacy of the scholarly article is
emphasized, and it demonstrates that not every laymen can execute this type of research paper.
Therefore, this paper successfully achieves its goal of establishing academic legitimacy and
being informative. On the other hand, the Buzzfeed posts authors hyperlink is included because
the websites goal is to create more traffic and publicity. Links can often allow audience
members to easily find other posts they are interested in, and thus generating more publicity.
Between the two scholarly posts, however, there are also differences. The article from the
racial perspective is written more as an explanation or write-up of the experiment performed.
This article therefore provides concrete evidence and statistical analysis to back up the results.
Meanwhile, the article from a psychological perspective focuses more on the results of the
experiment. There are less numbers on this scholarly article because the psychological
perspective is more abstract. Sometimes when a work does not use too many statistics or overly
technical language, [it] contributes to the ethos of the ad (Caroll 54). The concrete evidence is
not as important when wanting to examine the larger conceptual picture, which would be to
inform the readers of the effects of the cannabinoids on veterans with PTSD. While all of these
similarities and differences are conventions of specific genres, they are also types of moves that
the authors intentionally utilized to help reach their purpose.

Besides conventions, moves can also be the authors stylistic, structural, or technical
choices that are indicative of his or her style of writing and level of persuasiveness. Each author
utilizes different moves in order to portray different messages and evoke various types of effect
from the audience. In terms of visual structure, the authors of the academic articles utilize
columns to prevent the readers from feeling overwhelmed at first glance. Having a significant
amount of words on a page, single-spaced and in small font, can often subconsciously bore the
readers. The use of columns makes the page seem less overwhelming and packed with
information, as does the use of paragraphs. The Buzzfeed post, in a way, shares this move, with
its format of a numbered list. The numbered list help visually create a flow and pattern.
However, the effect of this form of organization is not as powerful as it is for the scholarly
articles. It is not imperative that the Buzzfeed post have the numbers, but it is more ideal for the
scholarly articles to provide as many organizational and structural techniques to prevent from
overwhelming the audience with its significant amount of information. A move that Lee makes
that is unique to only the Buzzfeed article is that the post is entirely evidence based. The post
provides examples of funny tweets without much description because the context is unnecessary.
The simplicity and straightforwardness of the post engages the audiences attention for that much
longer, prompting a stronger response from them. Lee can infer that if the audience is more
quickly satisfied with the content of the post, they are more likely to laugh and share the post
with their friendscreating more popularity.
The reason behind each authors different moves stems from the different types of
audience the piece is targeted towards. The scholarly articles are intended for people interested in
the research regarding the topic at hand. The article about the use and effects of marijuana on
veterans with PTSD is targeted towards people looking for information from a more

biopsychological point of view. Examining the reasons for marijuana use for these veterans
likely attracts readers who are interested in a biopsychological discipline. Jargon such as
physical manifestations of PTSD are linked to increased levels of norepinephrine but also
activity at 2-adrenergic receptors (Betthauser 1280) are indicative of who the intended
audience is. Meanwhile, the scholarly article regarding racial differences attracts readers who are
more interested in a cultural and sociological discipline. The reiteration and comparison of ethnic
groups, such as when the authors discuss how, marijuana use disorders were most common
among African Americans, as compared to Whites or Hispanics (Pacek 442), appeal to readers
who are specifically concerned with the differences of marijuana use between ethnicities. The
Buzzfeed post attracts a non-academic audience, for it is a post simply to create laughter amongst
the audience. The informal keywords such as idiot or wtf (Lee) set the casual tone, and these
phrases are less common in academic pieces. The informal nature makes the Buzzfeed post more
unique and different because of predetermined societal expectations that discourage the use of
negative language. Since not everyone is comfortable with this low level syntax, it is evident that
the intended audience is for people looking for a non-academic setting. Jargon and diction
choices help the authors achieve their goals more effectively by weeding out the readers who
would be less interestedthus, appealing and satisfying the targeted audience who are engaged
in the topic.
While the difference between non-academic and scholarly articles does yield varying
responses, the effectiveness of each is equal for the intended audience. It is difficult to compare
the efficacy between the academic and nonacademic sources because the audience is so different.
However, if disregarding the targeted audience, the Buzzfeed post likely attracts the most
attention because it is more common for people to scroll through Buzzfeed than it is for them to

scroll through academic journals. While some specific moves can be more effective than others,
the overall efficacy of the three sources is even in the sense that each source successfully reaches
its goal and intentions. For example, the use of columns for structural appeal is effective in the
scholarly articles but unnecessary for the Buzzfeed post. However, the Buzzfeed post is still able
to achieve its purpose of entertainment through its own form of organization.
Because the same topic can be discussed in many different ways and on different levels
of formality, the conventions, rhetorical features, and moves of each authors work varies from
piece to piece. Scholarly articles demonstrate moves that contrast greatly with non-academic
articles and posts from Buzzfeed. While each source does successfully achieve its purpose for its
targeted audience, the nature of each sources level of formality impacts how the author executes
his or her thoughts.

Works Cited

Betthauser, K., J. Pilz, and L. E. Vollmer. "Use and Effects of Cannabinoids in Military Veterans
with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder." American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy
72.15 (2015): 1279-284. Web.
Carroll, Laura Bolin. "Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps toward Rhetorical Analysis." Writing
Spaces: Readings on Writing. By Charles Lowe. West Lafayette, IN: Parlor, 2010. 45-58.
Print.
Lee, Jarry. "27 Tweets About Smoking Weed Guaranteed To Make You Laugh." BuzzFeed.
N.p., 22 Oct. 2015. Web. 03 Nov. 2015.
Pacek, Lauren R., Robert J. Malcolm, and Silvia S. Martins. "Race/Ethnicity Differences
between Alcohol, Marijuana, and Co-occurring Alcohol and Marijuana Use Disorders
and Their Association with Public Health and Social Problems Using a National Sample."
The American Journal on Addictions 21.5 (2012): 435-44. Web.

Table of Textual Features

Did Not Meet

Met Expectations

Expectations

Exceeded
Expectations

Thesis Statement

X+

Use of Textual Evidence

X+

from Genres
Use of Course Readings

X+

Analysis

X+

Organization/Structure

Attention to

Genre/Conventions and
Rhetorical Factors
Sentence-level Clarity,

Mechanics, Flow
Flora,

Other Comments
Great work here. To take this to the next level, here are some ideas:

-Include a lot more analysis of the kinds of data/evidence these different

sources are using and what kinds of RQs theyre asking

-Move past describing and get to evaluating -- try to pinpoint the so

what? of this assignment as much as possible.

-This is a tough one, but try inserting more of your own voice into this.
Youve got a great one from what Ive read in your blog and heard in

class -- if you can find a way to make this more of a Flora piece about
how different disciplines/sources analyze marijuana rather than just a
how different disciplines/sources analyze marijuana I think itd make it
even better.

All told, way to go, sister.

Z
9/10

Note: I took off - .5 for not inserting this table.