What about tone, language, use of visual material, etc.?

In particular, we will examine how discipline and genre affect the ways scholars find, define,
and use evidence in their publications by looking at the same topic from two different perspectives. For
Writing Project 1, you will present your topic, discuss two different disciplines/discourse communities
that approach it, and make an original argument that critiques how each genre of academic writing
approaches your topic.

5 Pages, Double-Spaced

A successful writing project should include answers to many of the following questions for both of
your chosen articles and discuss the differences between them in terms of genre rather than topic.
a) Argumentation: What is this scholar arguing? How does the scholar make that argument? What
does the argument add to our collective body of knowledge: a discovery? A new way of understanding
something? A critique of another scholar’s work?
b) Use of Evidence: What kinds of sources does the author use? How does the scholar present
evidence and analyze it? Is this presentation of evidence clear and convincing? Does the scholar
discuss the benefits and/or drawbacks of these sources?
c) Discourse Community: What audience does the scholar seem to have in mind? What discipline(s)
does this genre of writing fall under, and why? Does the author assume that the audience has certain
knowledge? Does the scholar mention any ongoing discussions to which they are contributing?
d) Other Genre Conventions: How is the information organized? Are there headings and chapters?
What about tone, language, use of visual material, etc.? In the end, your paper must answer this
question: How do these two articles showcase the differences between these two disciplines and the
scholarly communities they create?
e) A Works Cited Page and Proper Citations: Choose either MLA or APA and stick to it! Be
consistent and read your own use of evidence just as you would your authors’!

Last Completed Projects