The publication I choose was an academic article about the effectiveness of reforestation, particularly on the east coast of New Zealand. This article was a research paper that explained the effect of people and therefore included the same structure as that of a typical research paper (abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion, and conclusion). This paper uses many scientific terms in order to better explain to those within the fields of this type of science what is going on while maintaining a concise paper. The explanation of what erosion is as well as the effects it as on the environment around it further aid the reader in their understanding of the experiment. The inclusion of specific percent differences are also throughout the paper as they serve to show the reader the differences between the inclusion and exclusion of the experimental technique at hand. If these were to be excluded the importance of what was done within the experiment would not be as easy to understand. Diagrams of the landscape to show the the of geography within the area of discussion and pictures of the location from year to year are also included for the understanding of the reader. By knowing how steep the hills are as well as what the physical changes of introducing more trees to the land scape looks like, anyone who reads this article can begin to form an image in their own minds as to how important it is that the scientists made this change to the landscape. This article also takes the benefits of the process and specifically calls attention to them. The effect of this on the reader is that they do not have to try to figure out why what was done was important, it is explicitly shown to the reader and eliminated the possibility for confusion of purpose.
Questions that were posed within this article were: “Which type of plant is most effective for soil retention?”, “What effect does reforestation have on erosion?”, and “What are the benefits of reforestation in terms of prevention of erosion?”. The idea of reforestation is operationalized by how the author explains its importance. The author makes a point to explain the type of environment that erosion occurs in, the changes in the environment that cause increased erosion, what can be done to stop erosion, the impact the experiment has had on the amount of soil that does not get washed away from the rain, the types of plants that most effectively as well as most quickly aid the reduction of erosion, and the benefits that have been injured from the reforestation of the hills in New Zealand. The most important aspects within this piece are the explanations of the processes and the inclusion of the benefits of the reforestation of New Zealand. The article contains a bulk of material which can make it difficult for someone completely understand all of what they are being told. It also gets tiring to a reader to continuously have to make their own connections as to what the importance of the included material is within this type of paper. It is for this reason that the two aspects were chosen to be the most important, the lead the reader to the highest amount of understanding as well as make it possible for anyone to be able to understand the article. With the inclusion of the benefits of the work that was done in New Zealand one can gain the idea that doing work with reforestation could be beneficial to other similar areas in the world. The inclusion of these aspects does not allow for the reader to get lost at all; they are guided to the importance of the information presented to them and its implications.
Works Cited
Marden, Michael. "Effectiveness of Reforestation in Erosion Mitigation and Implications for Future Sediment Yields, East Coast Catchments, New Zealand: A Review." New Zealand Geographer 68.1 (2012): 24-35. ProQuest. 25 Apr. 2016 .
Hey Kayla! I thought your PB2A had a lot of great elements. You did a good job of listing the conventions present in your article and explaining their purpose. You also followed the prompt to a T, so it was really clear that you understood the assignment and analyzed the article well. I think you could have made your essay even stronger by connecting some of the features of the article to concepts that we’ve been learning about in class. For example, you mentioned that percentages were included in the article, so perhaps you could elaborate on this and explain how this functioned as an appeal to the logos of the reader. Other than that, I thought you did a great job and your essay was really interesting to read!
ReplyDeleteHi Kayla! I liked how you explained the different parts of the research paper and the effect they have on the reader. It is interesting to read through your analysis; it feels like a good summary of the research paper. I think it would have been cool if you mentioned explicitly what elements from the ones you analyzed were conventions and how they contributed to the rhetoric of the whole paper. I know this can be challenging to do in less than 800 words since I struggled to do the same, but it is possible. Maybe you could tie things you already said to different rhetoric elements. For example, when you mention that "It also gets tiring to a reader to continuously have to make their own connections as to what the importance of the included material is within this type of paper." What does that have to say about the ethos of the paper? I think if you mention those things, your paper would be more complete. In despite of that, I think your analysis is good and I liked it :)
ReplyDeleteHey! I liked how to included examples of how different opponents affect the paper. Like how you mentioned that the diagrams helped the readers better understand the topic. Also I like how you clearly stated how the author avoided confusion to the purpose. You also clearly stated how the author operationalized the idea of reforestation, which I think would really help people understand the topic faster. I think you did a good job writing a concise analysis of this article, it was easy and interesting to read!
ReplyDeleteHey Kayla I thought the topic you chose was pretty interesting and important since taking care of our planet is very important. I liked the inclusion of the general conventions that most scholarly articles have, but I think you should’ve taken some time to explain them in a little of detail, especially with how they pertain to this specific article. I think you one way you could improve this PB2A could be by addressing how the author addresses the “who cares” and “so what” of this article. One thing I really enjoyed about your writing was how you made everything flow so smoothly.
ReplyDeleteP.S. check for those missing words