Reading And Writing Academic Texts Essay Example

to learn how to read quantitative data. This convention is evident in Grabber's and Lust's article. For an example, they present the nutrient breakdown of a Big Mac, large fries, and a large thirty-two ounce Coke, in the format of a Nutrition Facts Label. This illustrates to the reader how much of everything is in just those three items alone.

To better understand the label, the authors break down the percentages of the contents and Justify It to the dally value percentages for a person with a 2000 calorie diet "this meal would provide 68% of the total calories, 89% of the total fat, and 57% of the sodium recommended daily" (Gerber, Lustiness). The authors also note that there is no daily value percentage for sugar because there is currently no recommended dally Intake. In presenting this Image, the authors are using these statistics as hard evidence to convince the reader how much of an Impact one fast food meal has on a daily value chart. OFF According to her, academic writers establish an ethos of authority, convincing the reader that they are credible and worth listening to. They do this by using first or third person styles.

In "Is Fast Food Addictive", authors Gerber and Lusting use a voice of authority by using first person dialog. An example of this is "We propose that fast food exerts its effect on reward eating through three routes: 1) nutritional composition; 2) individual factors that increase susceptibility; and/or 3) environmental cues".

They go on saying that fast food does not exert its effects on one nutrient alone but in fact the combination of nutrients. In this quote, they

are introducing what they have concluded. Another example of this convention is where they state "We recognize that fast food addiction as a verifiable phenomenon remains to be proven; however, evidence is emerging from several fields to provide collective purport of the concept" This influences the audience because it establishes authority and a sense of credibility.

It conveys to the reader that the authors have done some research and are somewhat experts in what they are talking about. Thinned states that this is important because even graduate students have difficulty establishing an ethos of authority when writing, but by knowing what an ethos of authority is, the can learn to imitate techniques of experienced writers Thinned claims, "Academic writers state the value of their work and announce the plan for their papers" (350).

According o Thinned, academic writers refer to what has been written about an issue because it establishes that the issue matters and that their research addressed an aspect of the issue still unresolved. In the Gerber and Lusting article, this convention is seen towards the end of the article "We recognize that fast food addiction as a verifiable phenomenon remains to be proven; however, evidence is emerging from several fields to provide collective support of the concept" (158).

In this quote, the authors are establishing that fast food is not certainly proven addictive; but more and more studies in and around that field are proving otherwise.

This is an influential strategy because the authors are telling the audience that the field that they are discussing and researching is something new and not really explored, stressing to the reader that the issue discussed is

significant. Thinned references the finding of two linguists, Swales and Peak, who like Thinned, have done extensive research on patterns of academic writings.

Swales and Peak claim that all academic writers "create a research space" with the help of three standard moves. The first move is establishing a territory. In this move the author sets the context for their research, providing background on the topic.

The second move is establishing that there is an open gap in the previous research, also sometimes called a niche; basically making it known that there is a space that needs to be filled through additional research. The third move is occupying the niche.

In other words, the writer will answer the questions that have been raised or provide the missing information. "In Is Fast Food Addictive" Lusting and Gerber in their opening sentence say "Studies of food addiction have focused on highly palatable foods. While fast food falls squarely into that category, it has several other attribute hat may increase its salience" (1 15). In this statement alone Swales and Beaks first and second move are evident when talking about the overall structure of Lusting and Grabber's paper.

Here they are providing background on the topic that when studying established when they "it has several other attribute that may increase its salience" creating a niche, a gap in previous research. Too conclusion, the research paper published in Current Drug Abuse Reviews by Gerber and Lusting reveals that it does incorporate patterns discussed by Thinned. When reading the research paper and observing the conventions discussed throughout this paper, it is clear to me that they do have an impact in the

strength of the author's overall argument.