PB2A

Today we will be looking at two articles, of similar genre. To put the articles into context, one is a random science article generated by a computer science genre generator while the other is an actual scientific publication from an online science journal called Science AAAS. The random computer science generated article is simply an attempt to recreate the actual genre that the online journal conforms to, so it my lack some conventions present in true scientific articles. I will analyze the real published article and then compare the generated one to it for similarities and differences.

            The actual published article, titled Cognitive Control Signals for Neural Prosthetics, includes many conventions and rhetorical devices that conform to the genre of “scholarly article” and that cater to the audience. The audience of this piece are likely to be scientists, doctors and engineers, specifically medical researchers. Since the purpose of articles like this is to share results of a study, many of the conventions used here are aimed at improving the clarity and effectiveness of transferring information. It has an abstract at the beginning, which is consists of a well written paragraph to introduce and summarize the contents of the article. This allows the audience to sort through articles that may be of interest to them as they are looking through the online science journal. It also has graphs and charts to visually represent the data in a way that proves some important relationship between the data collected. Each chart has its own analysis that is broken into parts separated by alphabetized subsection. Towards the end of the article, there are paragraphs on analysis of the data and what it could mean for the medical field, and then a section comparing the work in this study to other studies to put the work into perspective. At the very end of the article the authors also includes references at the end in a list form and cites the references within the article by including the reference number in parentheses after the sentence.

            The Cognitive Control Signals for Neural Prosthetics article employed a style that was very formal, informative and detailed. The tone was formal and scientific. The tone was largely influenced by the diction which was extremely technical and scientific. For example, the authors write about how the “Recordings were made at points along a major pathway for visually guided movement which begins in the extrastriate visual cortex (6) and passes through the parietal reach region (PRR) and area 5 to the dorsal premotor cortex (PMd) and then to the primary motor cortex” (Musallam, Corneil, Greger, Scherberger, Anderson). As you can see the diction is highly specialized (This also hints at audience).

            The “SCIgen” computer science article generator follows many of the conventions that the real published article does, but lacks a couple of aspects that would make it a more believable emulation. The style, tone and purpose are essentially the same as the published article, but the audience, while still geared towards the scientific community, may be less medically focused than the published article, since it was specifically about technology in the medical field. This should not affect the overall use of conventions but the diction may not be as medically relevant. The generator creates articles that have conventions like the abstract, graphs and charts, and references. Among these, the abstract and the graphs, while included, are lackluster when compared to the real article. The abstract in the generated article is short and brief. Although it does give information on what the article will contain, it is not nearly as in depth as the actual article. The graphs are also lacking information. The generated article’s graphs are only graphs or charts, a figure number, and a title. It tried to follow the conventions of using graphs but they failed to include a detailed analysis explaining what exactly the graph was displaying. Another thing that was different was the use of titles to divide each subsection –introduction, framework, implementation, results…etc. This isn’t necessarily wrong use of a convention as for longer more detailed works, it may helpful to divide the article into subsections, but the actual article did not have subsections.

            While both articles come from the same broad genre of scholarly article, they have a few subtle differences. The generated articles conformed for the most part to the conventions of the genre, and produced a believable “table of contents” for a scholarly article, but when compared to the actual published article, it is evident that the generator did not fully take into account the level of detail that real scientists include in their writings.

PB1B: Inspecting Genre Generators

All three of the genre generator websites were similar in that they successfully fulfilled their particular genres by applying the widely accepted conventions. They differed in the actual types of conventions and literary elements they choses to include.

The computer science paper generator, generated articles in the form of a descriptive table of contents. This table of contents style arrangement dictated that each section be numbered chronologically. Every generated paper had an introductory section where it discussed a brief background on the research and then proceeds to cover what material will be found in the paper. The very last line of the introduction is aimed at helping the reader to better navigate the information in terms of how the information is going to be presented. It goes on to summarize the contents of each chapter. Often chapters on related work, the analysis of the project and graphs or charts are included. The graphs and charts are important conventions in the science world because it is important to provide a visual representation of the data for other scientists to interpret and validate. The papers usually end with a conclusion followed by the references used in the work.

               The purpose of these computer science papers is to inform the expected audience, the science community, on research projects and discoveries that the authors have made during their work. The style in these papers can be considered formal. The tone reflected by the precise, scientific diction, is clear in order to pass on the information as effectively as possible.

               In the comic generator, short comics were on display. It is characteristic of comics that they possess a series of boxes that represent scenes in the story. In these boxes illustrations will take up most of the page, but often there will be words accompanying the illustrations either as setting descriptors, onomatopoeia, or as speech or thought bubbles. Characters are often comical looking or larger than life, to capture the audiences’ attention and imagination.

Also, the fact that this genre is made specifically for the internet affects it composition. All these comics are very short and don’t take up much time or effort to enjoy. This matches up with internet users’ desire as a collective population, for instant gratification. The purpose of this genre is to entertain and amuse the audience who people browsing the web or people who are enthusiastic about comics. The style and tone vary, but almost all yield a humorous effect. The tones include ironic, light, playful, slightly bitter, and even weird. To achieve these tones they may or may not use colloquial speech, slang, and very loose grammar. The power of the comic genre lies in its ability to interact with the audience from both a visual and written standpoint.

  The meme generator produced memes, small humorous pictures with a set of joking phrases. Memes started as an internet trend, then rapidly became an internet culture. Memes consist of a single weird, perplexing, visually striking, unique, and/or amusing image accompanied by bold white words on the top and bottom of the picture. The phrases, usually concise in nature, are supposed to be humorous in some way. The purpose of this form of media, similar to the comics is to entertain it audience, who are internet browsers and meme junkies.

The style and tone in the words on the meme depend largely on the type of meme. The internet meme genre is further divided into more specific genres depending on which picture one decides to use. Each picture has its own set of conventions that one must follow or the meme will lose its humor and value. The most important conventions in these mem sub-genres is the syntax and diction of the images. For example the meme with the picture of Morpheus from the Matrix, generally starts out with the line, “what if I told you”. If one started it off a different way, then they would not be complying with the conventions of the sub-genre and would insult the seasoned meme veterans.

Looking at all these genre generating websites, and analyzing the different conventions in each allows for the better understanding of genre. This is because when one compare and contrast similar rhetorical elements, like convention, style and tone, purpose, and audience, for different genres, one begins to see how the media is related. All genres use the similar rhetorical components but they must be altered to better address certain issues and audiences. By looking at the generator websites, one sees that the conventions are largely shaped by the audience. 

PB1A: Dissecting a Genre’s Rhetorical Features and Conventions, The Informational E-mail

The text I am considering in this project builder is an email from my Physics professor. This email, falls under the genre I am calling “informational email”. The students enrolled in Physics 1 this quarter are the audience of this text. Her purpose for writing this email is to both, introduce herself and let the students know about all the information and class preparation that they will be held accountable for on the first day of class. She is a professor of physics at U.C.S.B., writing this introductory letter to all her incoming students. This implies that the email is under the context of university life and academic pursuit.

The style she uses when writing this email is very formal and logical. She uses many strategies to effectively order the information in her message. As this is the most likely the first time these incoming students have taken her class, she intends to be as clear as possible. She employs numbering systems in two ways throughout; Roman numerals to broadly categorize the largest three divisions, and then standard Arabic numerals to divide certain information and give it a chronological order. She also uses bullet points and bold headers to give further order to her email.

The tone, somewhat reflected by the style, is a friendly but authoritative and very matter of fact. The friendly tone is portrayed through her thoroughness of detail. She is very willing to help which gives her a very accommodating and understanding feel. Also the occasional use of exclamation points enhances the friendly tone, because it makes it seem as though she is excited about the class and through the excitement she shows support and welcoming to the incoming students. The authoritative and matter of fact tone are implied by the very plain diction and syntax. She writes for clarity, rather than making extra effort to sound flowery. The matter of fact tone is especially displayed in the fact that she structured the text with such underlying order. It tells you that her main goal is to pass on information.

In this text she uses many of the conventions expected of a formal email. She starts off with a header: “Dear Physics 1 students,”, then proceeds to leave a line before she starts writing the main body. She also ends the email according to standard email convention, by writing a closing line, “best regards,” and then her name, indicating sender of the message. The order that I have discussed in the above paragraphs, is also a convention of writing an email geared towards transferring information to a large audience. Another element expected of emails, which she uses, is the use of the word “you”. This makes the message more personal as the reader feels as though she is addressing them.

When considering this genre as a whole, once sees that both context and convention contribute to making the genre of the text what it is. Notable features such as the header and closer are remnant of physical letters, which have been carried over in the new medium made possible by technology. The context plays the biggest part in making the text what it is. It is an email sent by a college professor to college students on their u-mail email addresses, which is why it contains all the components discussed above.  

Text:

“Dear Physics 1 students,

This message contains I) announcements for the 1st week of classes, II) tells you how to get set up with the MasteringPhysics homework system and the etext version of the textbook for Physics 1, and III) how to get set up with your i>clicker2. 

I. Announcements:

1) Reminder: please bring your i>clicker2 to all classes, starting next Tuesday, Jan 6. 

2) The reading assignments for next week are posted on Gauchospace.  The first homework assignment is due next Wednesday, Jan 7, by midnight.

3) Please note that discussion sections will meet during the 1st week of classes. Bring with you a #2 pencil, an eraser and a ParScore Scantron form (8 1/2" x 11").  You will use these to complete a pre-course quiz on what you already know about physics.  Attendance at section is required.

II. Setting up MasteringPhysics and the etext for Physics 1:

You can go to the UCSB bookstore buy a MasteringPhysics access code that includes the eText version of the book. The bookstore is open today (Saturday) and Sunday as well as next week.

Alternatively, you can make the same purchase through the MasteringPhysics Website, http://www.masteringphysics.com/

In either case, you will need the following information:

• A valid email address

• A student access code (Comes in the Student Access Kit packaged with your new textbook, or available separately in the bookstore. Or, you can purchase access online athttp://www.masteringphysics.com/)

• The ZIP code for your school: 93106

• The MasteringPhysicsCourse ID for Beth Gwinn's Physics 1 for Winter 2015: MPGWINN92015

• Your seven-digit UCSB perm number, which you will use when prompted to enter your student ID.

Registration

1. Before registering, you should watch a short video with tips and tricks for registering with MasteringPhysics, at http://www.masteringsupport.com/videos/registration_tips/registration_tips.html

2. Go to http://www.masteringphysics.com/ and click Students under Register.

2. To register using the Student Access Code inside the MasteringPhysics Student Access Kit that you purchased at the UCSB Bookstore (either on its own or shrink-wrapped with the book), select Yes, I have an access code. Click Continue.

-OR- You can Purchase access online.  To do this, Select “No, I need to purchase access online now”. First select your textbook: Young and Freedman, University Physics with Modern Physics, Technology Update, 13th edition.  Be sure to select the correct version!

Then select access to the eText, to get the online version of the textbook, and click Continue. Follow the on-screen instructions to purchase access using a credit card. The purchase path includes registration, but the process differs slightly from the steps printed here.

5. License Agreement and Privacy Policy: Click I Accept to indicate that you have read and agree to the license agreement and privacy policy.

6. Select the appropriate option under "Do you have a Pearson Education account?" and supply the requested information. Upon completion, the Confirmation & Summary page confirms your registration. This information will also be emailed to you for your records. You can either click Log In Now or return to http://www.masteringphysics.com/ later.

7.Make a record of your Login Name and Password. You'll be using these frequently, so make sure you don't forget them!

Log In

• Go to http://www.masteringphysics.com/.  
• Enter your Login Name and Password and click Log In. 

Enroll in the correct course

Upon first login, you’ll be prompted to do the following:

• Join your MasteringPhysics course by selecting “yes” and then entering the Course ID for Physics 1:   MPGWINN92015
• When prompted to enter your student ID, enter your seven-digit UCSB perm number. 
• CAUTION: Be absolutely certain that you enter this information correctly! If you make a mistake, you may not get credit for your work with MasteringPhysics.

Click Save and OK.

Congratulations! You have completed registration and have enrolled in MasteringPhysics for Physics 1. To access your course from now on, go to http://www.masteringphysics.com/, enter your Login Name and Password, and click Log In. As I create assignments and made them available to you, you'll see them displayed. You can also click on eText to access the eText version of the textbook orStudy Area to access self-study material.

Important: Do the assignment "Introduction to MasteringPhysics"

The first assignment is "Introduction to MasteringPhysics." The purpose of this assignment is to familiarize you with how MasteringPhysics works. You should complete this assignment by Wednesday, Jan.7 before attempting any subsequent assignments.

Support  If you have difficulties or questions about MasteringPhysics, access Customer Support at http://www.masteringphysics.com/support/ , where you will find: 

• System Requirements
• Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
• Additional contact information for Customer Support, including Live Chat

This is a nice service that you have paid for, so use it!

Hint: If you experience any technical difficulties, the first thing to check is whether your computer and browser satisfy the system requirements for MasteringPhysics. Seehttp://www.masteringphysics.com/site/support/system-requirements.html for details.

III. How to use and register your i>clicker2 remote transmitter

You'll be using your i>clicker2 remote transmitter in every Physics 1 lecture meeting, beginning with the 1st class meeting.  Make sure that you register your i>clicker 2 no later than Friday, January 9, 2014.


USING YOUR i>CLICKER2: To learn about using your i>clicker2, read the Student Quick Start Guide.  A pdf is posted on the Physics 1 Gauchospace page, under the link “How to register your i>clicker2 remote transmitter”

REGISTERING YOUR i>CLICKER2: In order to get credit for your participation, you must register your i>clicker2 remote. Here's how:

Go to http://www.iclicker.com/registration. Complete the fields with your first name, last name, student ID, and remote ID. Your student ID is your seven-digit UCSB perm number.The remote ID is the series of numbers and sometimes letters found on the bottom of the back of your i>clicker2 remote (see the photo below). CAUTION: Be absolutely certain that you enter all of this information correctly! If you make a mistake, you may not get credit for your work with i>clicker2.

NEED HELP with your i>clicker? If you have any issues with your i>clicker2 remote transmitter, contact i>clicker technical support for guidance. They're available Monday through Friday 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Pacific time at <support@iclicker.com> or 866-209-5698.

Best Regards, Prof. Beth Gwinn”

"About Me"

Well. What can I say. I don't really like talking about myself, but I guess since it is an assignment I'll manage. I am half Bhutanese, half white American of German descent. I don't really know why I always say that, but it just seems to be a "convention" (at this point by using a term that we learned about in class you may think I am a try-hard, no-good-doer) that I have developed over time. I like to play guitar. I like to hang out and have a good time. I also really like creativity and the freedom and leisure to be creative. I just really enjoy art and all forms of expression. There's something really powerful about that moment of connection between an artist and their audience. That is pretty much it. I will return next assignment.

-Sonam