It is important for writers to keep the audience engaged and captivated not only through the contents of their work, but also their technique. Since, this is an essential part of writing, the authors use specific rhetorical devices, based on their own style of writing, to appeal to target audiences. For instance, two articles were written on the same topic of parental favoritism, but only one of them is considered popular and the other academic. While the popular article, "As You Suspected, Your Parents Absolutely Do Have a Favorite Child" by Tanya Basu and the academic article, "Reciprocal Links Among Differential Parenting, Perceived Partiality, and Self-Worth: A Three-Wave Longitudinal Study" by Katherine J. Conger, as mentioned, did not differ in content, they were still distinguished by the use of rhetorical devices leading to individual and discrete organization and diction. Academic articles typically follow a set structure and this academic article is no exception. The main claims were found in the end of the article, We found that later born adolescents perception that parents favored an older brother or sister predicted a decrease in self-worth consistently across all three time points Cogner (2005). The main claim is found at the end because, during the entire article the author is explaining the studies and the data retrieved from the experiments. In the end she uses all the data gathered to form the main claim. Academic articles also provide diagrams, models, and charts for their audience, so that they are better able to comprehend the information they are given. These articles, especially ones that include research, are packed with numbers and data that can be missed by the reader due to their abundance. Therefore, one type of useful visual is a data table, which is the perfect way to display numbers in an organized fashion so that the reader can clearly see and understand their importance. In the academic article, "Reciprocal Links Among Differential Parenting, Perceived Partiality,and Self-Worth: A Three-Wave Longitudinal Study" by Katherine J. Conger, multiple charts, models and graphs are presented. By the inclusion of these visuals, the reader is provided with a data table that can ultimately help the reader understand the research. Figure 2 in this article is a model showing the " Associations across time between fathers and mothers differential treatment, earlier born siblings perception of partiality (later born siblings perception in parentheses), and earlier born siblings (later born siblings) self-worth provided as standardized path coefficients; correlated errors among latent constructs are not shown. *t 2.00;t 1.82; N 38 " Cogner (2005). This model helped the readers conceptualize the links and understand the underlying methods that were used to configure the results. Conversely, in a popular article this type of visual would not be needed considering that readers would prefer to be told the results without the background data that proves the result.
Popular articles as well, usually follow a particular structure. In the beginning
Basu, the author of the popular article, provides some background on the matter, "Theres always the family favorite. Your little sister got away with temper tantrums suspiciously often, or your older brother somehow snagged all the trophies while you slaved away in an attempt to shine. At least thats what it kind of felt like, even though your parents repeatedly insisted they loved you and your siblings all equally" Basu (2016). Through this she presents the parental favoritism problem, just as other popular articles typically would do. In the end she writes, "every child had a sneaking suspicion their parents were favoring the others" Basu (2016), which addresses the problem and comes up with a conclusion. She gives the end results without actually stating the reasoning behind it. Hyland wrote on the organization of popular articles and he mentioned a specific structure of how most popular articles are organized., ... found that journalistic accounts typically open with a background move which contextualizes the research issue as a problem for readers and then follows this with the main outcome Hyland (2009). Unlike academic articles, popular ones are lacking in the amount of visuals that help explain data. Instead these articles use images and visuals that dont pertain to data. While, the academic article, mentioned previously, heavily relied on visuals such as data tables and models to prove to the reader the results of the study, the popular article just presented and discussed the experience of a group of children that were siblings. There is no need for popular articles to provide charts and tables, because the people who will be reading these types of articles will not have an interest in them. In fact, the addition of data tables and modes might cause the reader to lose interest in the article. The organization of this article follows Hyland's description of the how most popular articles are structured.
In addition to organization, there is difference in diction within the articles. In
academic articles, the diction is typically more professional and scientific considering that the audience is expected to have background knowledge on the topic at hand. Academic articles are more likely to use words that are less understandable to the general public because the target audiences are people who are interested and knowledgeable in the particular subject. In this academic article on the psychology of parental favoritism Katherine J. Conger writes, "The differences in the patterns of longitudinal associations between later born and earlier born siblings are noticeable; only earlier born siblings appear to be sensitive to parental differential treatment, whereas self-worth of later born but not earlier born siblings has the predicted effect on perception of partiality" Cogner (2005). Most people would not know what a longitudinal association is nor would they be interested in finding out. People who would not be able to understand the writing of an article would not be compelled to read it. Since the audiences of this article are evidently people who are engrossed in the psychology field, it is very likely that they are interested in psychological studies and articles. This allows the writer to use a vocabulary that the average person would not know. To keep the article professional and informational, the author doesn't address the reader and keeps
the topic strictly about the study and the results gained from the research that was done. On the other hand, authors of popular articles assume that the reader is not well informed and inexperienced on the subject they are writing on. In addition, the audience of a popular article is not expected to know all the scholarly vocabulary that readers of academic articles are expected to know. Subsequently, the diction is kept simple and writers of popular articles use easy to understand words regarding the topic at hand. For instance, when summing up her argument Basu writes, " ... no matter if you were the oldest, youngest, or somewhere in between, every child had a sneaking suspicion their parents were favoring the others" Basu (2016). This ending argument is a clear and straightforward summary that most readers will not only be able to understand, but also relate to. Basus article is catered to suite all audiences, not just those well versed in psychology and psychological effects. It is simple and straightforward, which is a quality that is prevalent in popular articles due to the presumption that the reader is not supposed to have any background information on the subject matter. Popular and academic articles surrounding the same topic have the same argument, however, since the target audience is varied the way the articles are executed and presented are also different from one another. Authors use rhetorical devices such as organization, diction, and argument structure to appeal to the varying audiences. Both the articles that were discussed in this essay provide information on parental favoritism toward their children, nonetheless, the presentation of the two were nothing alike. It seems as though the popular article is a simple summary of the academic one and may be more beneficial to read. Though, sometime as readers its important to head straight to the source, look at all the data, and make judgments based on that information alone. Works Cited Basu, Tanya. "As You Suspected, Your Parents Absolutely Do Have a Favorite Child." Science of US. N.p., 31 Mar. 2016. Web. Shebloski, Barbra, Katherine J. Cogner, and Keith F. Widaman. "Reciprocal Links among Differential Parenting, Perceived Partiality, and Self-worth: A Three-wave Longitudinal Study." ResearchGate. Journal of Family Psychology, 2005. Hyland, Ken, Constructing proximity: Relating to readers in popular and professional science, Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 2010
