Montana Kearns, WRIT2, Fall 2015

WP3: Academia Made Easy Through Writing 2

Have you ever wondered how a written work of one genre would fit into another? Then
Writing 2 is just the class to take, seeing as we work extensively with genre. Writing 2 has given
me the tools to smoothly shift between genres and figure out what it would be like to sing along
to an academic article that one is required to read, as opposed to reading it. I will combine main
concepts and apply what Writing 2 has taught me by taking something dull that I need to learn,
and making it into something that is fun. To do this, I will start with the academic article
scholarly or peer-reviewed journal articles are written by scholars or professionals who are
experts in their fields Dealing with Verbal Inflection in Natural Language Selection:
Resources for Minimal Requirement by Juan Rafael Zamorano-Mansilla (Dictionary). I will
take the main points, and match it to Mark Ronsons chart-topping pop song, Uptown Funk.
Using my song as evidence, I plan to argue that Writing 2s instruction of rhetoric, genre and
conventions, and discourse community has given me the tools to translate academic information
into something that is easy to understand as well as enjoyable to learn.
Generally, academic articles on any topic are unpleasant to read, whether the reader is
interested or not. They tend to be difficult to read, seeing as facts that the reader needs to know
are rattled off because writers expect their audience to know the information. For this reason,
there is little effort in keeping the reader interested or persuading them. Overall, academic
articles persuade readers through logos, or an appeal to logic, as they explain things in the most
logical way possible. For example, in a section titled Some Facts on the Inflection Verbs in
Spanish of the cited article, facts about the language are described to help the reader logically
understand the rules that the author introduces later (Zamorano-Mansilla). Ethos, establishing
credibility, is also used by displaying elite knowledge or having a credible school or publisher

behind them. Unlike articles, songs rarely use ethos as a rhetorical device. When it comes to
rhetoric, songs mainly deal with pathos, appeal to emotion, as writers aim to connect on an
emotional level with the audience. Sometimes, logos is used as well since the writer may have
experienced a similar situation as the audience. In my song, I employ all three. I use ethos and
pathos in the song lyric Ive been there, stay with me. Ethos is supported in noting that Ive
been taught and have learned the material. Pathos is supported as I connect with the listeners
struggles with the information, and make them feel that I understand what theyre going through.
Logos is implied throughout the song as I walk the reader though the steps of the basics and
connect it back to the English language. Through my use of rhetoric, I am aiming for multiple
groups of people to listen to my song by reaching out to two different discourse communities.
A discourse community, according to linguist John Swales who researched and broke
down this term is a group that has goals or purposes and uses communication to achieve these
goals (Swales). In short, a discourse community is a group of people with a common interest
that communicate about it. With my song, I hope to reach two discourse communities: Spanish
language students and the general public living in North America. Spanish language students
should listen to this song to learn the basics of Spanish. They could encounter it while searching
Spanish concepts for a better understanding, find the song, and use it as a memory aid in
learning; or a teacher could give out the lyrics and sing it with a class of students who most
likely know the original song and will enjoy making the connections. In addition to students, I
hope to reach the current audience of the original Uptown Funk song most children to adults
on the North American continent that own a radio, go out in public, socialize, and/or use social
media should at least be familiar with the song due to our worlds incredible means of constantly
sharing information, even if its not in their preferred genre which is a category of artistic

composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject

matter of music (Dictionary).
Similar to music, the genre of academic article is made up of conventions which are
characteristics or features that people associate with something categorized as a certain genre
specific to its own genre. They are conventionally straightforward and dry, contain an abstract,
introduction, didactic sections on the subject, examples, and a conclusion. These conventions
result in an audience comprised of professionals in the Spanish field who are practicing and
reinforcing the language, teachers and professors that need proper Spanish for work, and any
others that might be associated with this group. To appeal to more than just that group, I
translated information from a boring genre to a fun one, each with different conventions. In my
song, I had to use the conventions that make up the song genre: verses, chorus (tense
demonstration in the song where dont believe me just watch is in the original), pre-chorus,
rhythm, rhyme (too and do ending consecutive verses), and colloquials (lemmi tell yall). I
knew to use similar conventions as other songs in my song after reading Dirks Navigating
Genres in Writing 2 as genres develop because they respond appropriately to situations writers
encounter repeatedly, meaning all songs are similar and that I can use one to format another
(Dirk). I know that my song, made from something that began as boring required reading, will fit
the fun and flowing song genre.
More often than not, required reading, especially academic reading, is far from exciting;
however, Ive learned that when turned into something familiar, even the dullest of things can be
accomplished efficiently and even in a fun way. I used what Ive learned in my Writing 2 class
about rhetoric, discourse communities, genre, and conventions to translate an academic article
about the basic rules of the Spanish language an article probably viewed as a drag to read

into an upbeat song thats catchy, easy to memorize, and fun to sing. Using this, I hope that even
people who arent interested in Spanish, and those who would never even go near the academic
article, may learn the same content with much less hassle.

Works Cited
Dirk, Kerry. "Navigating Genres." Web. 1 Oct. 2015. <http://www.parlorpress.com/pdf/dirk-navigating-genres.pdf>.
"Dictionary." Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com. Web. 1 Dec. 2015.
<http://dictionary.reference.com>.
Swales, John. The Concept of Discourse Community. Genre Analysis: English in Academic
and Research Settings. Boston: Cambridge UP, 1990. 21-3. Print.
Zamorano-Mansilla, Juan Rafael. Dealing with Verbal Inflection in Natural Language Selection:
Resources for Minimal Requirement." 2008. Web. 18 Nov. 2015.
<http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?sid=b7347ce9-f8a5-4964-bd7034919a83ed55@sessionmgr4002&vid=0&hid=4112&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2Z
Q==#AN=37806446&db=a9h>.