Pea 1

Carlos Alberto Pea

Zack de Piero
Writing 2
18 February 2015
Communication and Social Media
Has social media technologies effected how the new generation
communicates with others? Instead of face to face encounters, the
generation of social media tends to use e-mails or texts to communicate with
someone. Before people would like to have face-to-face encounters, they
would go out to have a coffee or do business on the golf course. In a
scholarly-academic text, it gives academic and revised research of how social
media has affected a certain population. In this case, Helen Yost and Si Fans
Social media technologies for collaboration and communication: Perceptions
of childcare professionals and families, presents how social media has
affected the communication between childcare professionals and families of
young children. The non-academic piece is directed from the Forbes website,
the

article

by

Susan

Tardanico

Is

Social

Media

Sabotaging

Real

Communication, gives examples of how social media is affecting the

population without concrete research. Yost and Fans academic text is a
research paper on the effects of social media on a certain population, while
Tardanicos non-academic text is an article about social media affecting our
communication with people. Yet, both distinct genres use similar rhetorical

Pea 2

devices to convey their points. Both follow specific conventions concerning

their genre, the specific language used to reach their intended audience, and
both

are

successful

in

showing

how

social

media

has

changed

communication.
Both respective authors make their own unique moves to portray their
point in either their article or research paper. Moves in writing are like moves
in sports, you become recognized for your signature move like Michael
Jordans pump-fake. Except in writing moves are more about the genre and
the choices the writer makes to convey their point. In Mike Bunns How to
Read Like a Writer, he states, think about how the choices the author
made and the techniques that he/she used are influencing your own
responses as a reader. (Bunn, pg. 120) For example, Tardanicos move in the
non-academic piece is the use of informal language and asking direct
questions with the anticipation of having a response. This move is used in
non-academic articles because it tries to almost have connections with the
audience rather than only providing information with no sense of feedback.
On the other hand, the moves academic articles use tend to provide plenty
of credible information, but no room for feedback or interaction from an
audience. It is unclear to see if Yosts piece truly has a move because it
already has to follow specific conventions as it is a research paper. Most
moves authors use tend to follow the conventions of a specific genre, in this
case the non-academic piece as an article and the academic piece as a
scholarly-journal/research paper.

Pea 3

The specific conventions followed by the genre of a research paper are:

the structure of the writing, the information in the genres, and their formats.
The structure and format of the research journal is used for academic
purposes; there is an introduction to what information you will find in the
paper, the results of the research conducted, and a conclusion to the
research paper that states if their hypothesis was correct or plausible. In the
non-academic article, the structure and format it follows is plain paragraphs.
The structure is not as specific like a research paper, but articles usually
have structured paragraphs like an essay: introduction, body paragraphs,
and a conclusion. Though, this article also has subtitles for different sections
and topics, but it is not as specific as the academic article. As Kerry Dirk
states in his essay Navigating Genres, Given these characteristics, I would
feel prepared to write some new country lyrics. By knowing what specific
conventions a certain genre follows, you would feel as if you can also write in
that genre or style. If you were looking to find answers on how social media
has affected (specific) communication, you would probably find Yosts
research paper more convenient because it has credibility from multiple
scholars. Yet, the article I found seems to have a sense of credibility because
the author of the article is a well-educated and an accomplished women
according to the biography shown before the article. Both accomplish the
task of stating how and what populations have changed in communication
because of social media. Though I would believe the research article is more
persuasive than the article because the research paper cites all of its

Pea 4

resources and has data to prove what has changed; while the article only
states what has changed and does not cite its sources well enough.
Both genres use different techniques of specific language in order to
reach their intended audience. The research paper uses a formal style of
writing because it is a scholarly-academic article and usually the audience is
scholars or researchers. On the other hand, Tardanicos article sounds casual
and easy-going which suits audience who are just curious about social media
and communication. For example, the paper begins with, The primary aim
of the study was to develop an understanding of how social media
technologies, such as Web 2.0, can be used to facilitate collaboration and
communication between childcare professionals and families of young
children. (Yost, pg. 1) While, Tardanico begins with, They chatted back
and forth, mom asking how things were going and daughter answering with
positive statements followed by emoticons showing smiles, b-i-g smiles and
hearts. Happiness. (Tardanico, pg. 1) Like Janet Boyd states in her essay
Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking), They obey the conventions of the genre.
As a writer you want to hook your audience with the language you use; Boyd
also states, as much as I am aware of my audience I am trying to
engage in dialog with you through my casual tone (Boyd, pg. 39) The
jargon Tardanico uses does not lower the persuasiveness of the piece
because this article seems to be directed to a much younger and broader
audience, unlike Yosts research paper that is intended for scholars and
researchers. Tardanicos article will attract more readers because of the

Pea 5

language she uses to persuade the audience, it is more interactive as she

uses rhetorical questions and a casual tone. With more interaction to an
audience, I think the genre can accomplish its goal much better than not
having much or any interaction at all.
Many people will not consider articles to be such a credible source
compared to a scholarly journal, yet they can be credible if they are found in
accomplished mainstream media sources, like Forbes in this case. By Forbes
being a top mainstream source, you can consider it to be a credible source
because many articles are published here and are published by welleducated people like Susan Tardanico. Perhaps this sites article is not as
credible as the research paper, but it still accomplishes reaching to a much
broader audience. As I stated before, the scholarly journal is usually intended
for scholars and researchers. On the other hand, the article from Forbes is
expanded to a much wider audience like young adults, teens, and anyone
who is just curious of how social media has shaped our communication. If
you were to search for articles on how social media has effected
communication, the first sites to choose from would be mainstream media
sources. Scholarly journals can be limited to students and scholars in school
unless you specifically search for a scholarly journal of the topic. Because of
the article having a much more expanded audience, I believe it is more
effective in getting its statement out to the public.

Pea 6

Works Cited:
Tardanico, Susan. Is Social Media Sabotaging Real Communication? Forbes.
30 April 2012.
Yost, Helen; Fan, Si. Social media technologies for collaboration and
communication:

Perceptions

of

childcare

professionals

and

families.

Australasian Journal of Early Childhood. Jun 2014.

Boyd, Janet. Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking)
Dirk, Kerry. Navigating Genres.
Bunn, Mike. How to Read Like a Writer.

Thesis Statement
Use of Evidence
from Articles
Use of Course
Readings
Analysis
Organization/Struc
ture
Attention to
Genre/Conventions
and Rhetorical
Factors
Sentence-level
Clarity, Mechanics,
Flow

Did Not Meet

Expectations

Met
Expectations

Exceeded
Expectations

Pea 7
Pena,
Other Comments
Nice work here.
On a bigger note, Id like you to get more specific with
your thesis statement. Check out my comments.
On a (sort of) smaller scale, I think your paper would
benefit from more transitions between
sentences/paragraphs. There were a few times when
I wonderedwhoa, wait, where did this come from?
Sometimes you need to really spell out the
link/connection in order for your reader to understand
how youre getting from one place to the next.
I also noticed that your subject/verb agreement is off
in a few places.
More textual examples are needed too.
Again, though, I was happy with this.
Z
B