Compare and Contrast

            Everyone is unique.  We all have our distinct looks, thoughts, and most importantly mannerisms.  Another way of describing someone’s mannerisms could be their set of moves.  A person’s set of moves distinguishes them from other people and makes them interesting.  Gordon Ramsay’s moves are his swearing and excessive use of the word “donkey.”  Steve Urkel’s moves are his nerdy posture and saying, “Did I do that?” 

Moves are not special only to mannerisms, because writers also have moves.  Many of the world’s most well-know writers are recognizable by just reading a few paragraphs of their work because of their moves.  The best writers are conscious of their set of moves and they use this to their advantage.  Novice writers are probably not conscious of their set of moves, but whether they know it or not they definitely have some.  The moves that will be examined now are those in Everything is an Argument and “So What? Who Cares?.” 

            In the essay Everything is an Argument the author uses a set of moves that makes the paper very strong and convincing.  First of all, the author uses many pictures.  This keeps the readers interest and helps explain the ideas that the author is trying to present.  Another move that the author uses which makes the paper strong is the frequent use of quotes from respectable and knowledgeable sources.  This helps legitimize the authors claims and convince readers.  Also, each quote is bold and has it’s own paragraph.  This outlines the quote and makes it more noticeable.  The reader cannot help but pay closer attention to the quote than if it was just mixed in with the paragraph.  The author makes the essay easy to reader and uses words like “you” or “us” or “we.”  This makes it seem more like the author is addressing the reader directly and makes it so the reader can feel more close to the author.  Another move that the author uses is breaking up the paper into many small paragraphs.  By doing this, the reader isn’t bogged down by long and boring paragraphs, so the author is able to keep the readers attention.  Overall, by using these moves, the author writes a very strong paper.

In “So What? Who Cares?”  The author also has a helpful set of moves.  Similarly to Everything is an Argument, the author refers to the reader directly by using “you” and “we.”  Again, this helps make the reader feel like they are being spoken to, which ultimately makes them pay attention more.  The author dedicates large section to bullet points.  This makes the reader pay attention to the list of things that the author is saying.  Finally, the author uses an example many times and changes it slightly each time.  This helps the author prove the point that they are trying to make by employing what they are saying on the same example.

Comparing "SCIgen" and a scholarly source

Throughout college and beyond, pretty much all of us will have to use scholarly articles.  We will have to read them, cite them, and possibly even write them.  Due to this, it is important that we become familiar with many aspects of them including their rhetorical features and their conventions.  In this project builder I chose to compare and contrast a scholarly article about exoplanets with the scientific generator.

The scholarly article that I chose is called Statistical Properties of Exoplanets and it was written by Stephane Udry and Numo C. Santos.  Just like the scientific paper generator, it starts with an abstract.  In the abstracts of both papers there is a brief introduction to what the paper is about, but there is no information regarding research or data from the paper.  Next, there is an introduction.  The introduction is longer than the abstract in both papers and the introductions can go into more detail about the what the paper is about.  They contain some background and insights into what research has been done in the field that help readers understand the context for the paper and why it is necessary.  Next, the paper on exoplanets goes right into the findings.  It has many sections with titles that include constraints from orbital properties, and multiplanet systems.  The scientific paper generator however, gives less information about research and is a bit more structured than the actual scientific paper.  Both papers contain many graphs which help to explain and illustrate the research that’s being done and the ideas that this research creates.  Another aspect of both papers that should be pointed out is that each section is labeled with not only a title, but also a number.  This makes the papers more structured and makes it easier to find a certain section.  Both papers also have conclusions which help to wrap up the papers.  The actual scientific paper however has an extra section that acknowledges people and organizations that helped it being written.  Both scientific papers also include words that are associated with the subject of the paper and not normally used in everyday life.  The paper about exoplanets even has a section at the beginning labeled “keywords.”Finally, both papers have a long list of references at the end.  The references legitimize scientific papers and make easier for readers to learn more about the subject if they want to go back and look at the references.

Every part of a scientific paper is important.  Scientific papers are not like books in the fact that they are not written for entertainment.  This means that they don’t contain interesting but unnecessary descriptions of things.  They also do not contain advanced writing techniques. Overall, I would say that the most important part of scientific papers is the that they present data.  This is the point of them after all.  They could go without titles because people reading the scientific papers are probably already familiar with the subject, and although the graphs are very helpful, they could be explained simply using words.  Finally, the reverences are important, most people reading the papers probably don’t pay as much attention to them.  Overall, the scientific paper generator does a good job of generating papers that look like the real thing.

Inspecting Genre Generators

Every genre of written material has it’s own set of conventions, (otherwise it wouldn’t be considered a genre).  This applies not only to novels, but also to the three things that are being explored in this project builder which are scientific papers, comics, and memes.

            Everybody knows that scientific papers are extremely difficult to write.  Lot’s of research must go into creating one, and they are often not approved to be published.  However, this does not mean that scientific papers don’t have their own set of conventions that can be used to create a scientific paper on the spot.  Though, it must be noted that the research that goes into these papers can’t be created quite so easily.  One convention that scientific papers have is that they are rigidly structured.  Each paper has an abstract paragraph, which gives some insight into the topic at hand.  Then the paper has an introduction, which explains what the paper is researching.  The paper then describes what research or experiments were conducted and follows this with results.  Finally, the paper has a concluding paragraph, which interprets the data.  Another convention that scientific papers have is that they give citations for everything that is taken from other works.  Scientific papers also contain many graphs, which clarify data through visual representations.  Overall, scientific papers are hard to write, but, due to their abundance of conventions, easy to mimic.

            Humor is something that some people have and some people don’t.  And one common way of distributing humor is through comics.  Yet, comics have so many conventions to them that even a computer can use them and create a comic that can be quite humorous.  Some conventions for comics is that they all have drawings and words.  This way, comics can tell a joke and visually represent it at the same time.  This is helpful because comics tell jokes, which can be hard to understand without a picture accompanying them.  Comics are also broken up into scenes, with each scene in it’s own box.  The illustration styles in comics vary, but they all are not very detailed and not too realistic.  Each comic follows a set of characters, and usually has a main character who is in just about every comic strip at least once.  The comic generator also revealed that just like essays, comics have a structure to them.  They start with a question or insight that something is about to happen.  Next, an action takes place.  And finally, the last square contains a punchline.  Even though the comic generator used was not very funny, once in a while the combination of the three squares made sense and was laughable.

            Memes are very popular on the internet these days.  They are easy to create and are usually meant to be funny.  Conventions of memes are that they contain words on the top and bottom.  The words are usually white with black outlines.  Memes also contain a picture, and there are a certain set of pictures that are used for memes.  Each picture has its own theme, which leads into the convention that memes all have a theme to them.  For example, the meme with the walking penguin always contains an unpopular opinion, and the meme with the bear always contains a confession.  Overall memes are easy to create for both humans and computers.

            Each of these websites takes a form of writing, and creates a piece of work by simply following the conventions of the genre.  These websites can clarify the conventions for the genres because they show many examples of the work very quickly.  Since a computer is creating the written material, each piece of work follows the conventions very strictly, which can help people understand genres.

PB1A: Adventure Novels

           Throughout the years I have read many adventure novels.  These include a couple of books out of Brian Jacques’ Redwall series, and all of the Percy Jackson series.  The purpose of writing adventure novels is to provide entertainment to the readers, as well as money for the authors.  All of the adventure novels that I read in my youth were geared towards the younger population of boys.  Due to this, the books were often easy to read and used common words found in everyday speaking.  I could often go through a book in less than a week thanks to this.

Adventure books contain many conventions.  For example, the books almost always contain chapters.  This provides concrete timeframes for events to start and occur, and makes it so the author can keep the story interesting by not focusing too much on one subject or event in the book.  This is especially important considering the fact that the readers are young kids who often have short attention spans.  The authors also often write very straightforward.  They do not spend much time describing scenery or using advanced writing techniques because it can often bore or confuse the young audience.  These books also contain lots of dialogue.  This dialogue is what drives the story forward.  It is also an easy way for young readers to know what events are occurring and how characters feel about each other.   

The main character of each book is often a misfit in some sort of way.  One reason for this is that it separates the main character from all of the minor characters because it makes them more interesting.  It also helps young readers relate and like the main character because almost all young people feel like they don’t belong at some point. Often, it is the same peculiarity that makes them an outsider, which helps them succeed on their adventure.  An example of this is that Percy Jackson from the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series is the son of Poseidon.  This makes it so he is segregated from all of the other kids because none of them share the same father with him.  But, it is the fact that his father is the god of the sea that helps him succeed on his quests because it makes him stronger than the majority of the other kids. 

The main character faces many hardships and setbacks, but overcomes all of them and eventually succeeds in his quest.  The main character also often has friends, who are very loyal and help him get out of dangerous situations.  There is also a lot of violence in adventure novels.  This is because most young male readers are more interested in fighting than any other dramatic events.  Finally, the main character often has a love interest.  This provides volume to the character and makes them more interesting.  It shows their softer side and often gives them something to fight for. 

All of these conventions put together help create an adventure novel.  These adventure novels don’t have to contain every convention, but at the very least there must be some sort of “adventure,” meaning that the main character must be faced with a task, and several drawbacks to completing the task.

About Me

Hey, my name is Marcus Dodge.  I'm a freshman and I live on the fourth floor of San Nic.  I am a physics major and hope to go into research once I graduate.  I was born and raised in Davis, California and I am an only child.  I have a dog named Sadie who never misses an opportunity to get a treat.  Growing up in Davis was nice, but I've always wanted to live on the beach, and it's nice to finally have that opportunity.  Back home, in my spare time I enjoyed hanging out with friends and playing the drums.  My favorite types of music to listen to and play are metal and punk.  A couple of my favorite bands are Gojira, Amon Amarth, and Defeater.  You should check them out!  I love listening to live music and I especially like small venues.  I was in a band for about a year in high school and it was some of the most fun that I’ve ever had in my life.  I love the outdoors and frequently go on hikes with my friends in nor-cal.  I like to be active and hope to become a better surfer while I live here in Santa Barbara.  I love to watch T.V. shows and movies, and a couple of my favorite shows are The Office, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and House of Cards.  A couple of my favorite movies are The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Looper, and Watchmen.  Like most people, I love to eat and one of my favorite things about I.V. is all of the restaurants.  I especially like Hana Kitchen and I.V. deli.  Nothing hits the spot quite like a fat gaucho.  So far my experience here at UCSB has been great.  I love going to the beach and meeting new people from different parts of California and the U.S.