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NCSU ENG 101 - lizvandijkASSIGNMENT1

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Van Dijk 1Elizabeth van DijkHeather BowlanENG 101-0891 October 2013Rhetorical Analysis of Journal and Magazine Articles on Whale Shark Migration“It’s the largest fish in the ocean and we don’t know where it goes for six months of the year” (Handwerk 1). The magazine article “Secrets of Whale Shark Migration Revealed” by Brian Handwerk expresses how unusual it is for whale sharks to disappear for half the year. “Horizontal Movements, Migration Patterns, and Population Structure of Whale Sharks in the Gulf of Mexico and Northwestern Caribbean” is a published journal article by Robert Hueter, John Tyminski, and Rafael de la Parra on the nine year study of whale shark migration. Despite both presenting information on the same topic, Handwerk’s magazine piece engages the audiencein a more factual and entertaining way than Hueter’s published journal that presents data to professionals.Whale shark migration has been an inconclusive study for many years. This nine-year study was done in order to figure out where whale sharks give birth at and to find out where the majority of female whale sharks reside. Although many of the organisms have been tagged and tracked it is still difficult to observe them for long periods of time due to tags falling off and the vast amount of area they travel. The scientists have gained a small amount of more information about their migration patterns and cycles; however, it is still unknown exactly where the whale sharks stay for six months to give birth. “Secrets of Whale Shark Migration Revealed” is based on theVan Dijk 2adjacent scientific writing and even has some information given specifically by the lead scientist of the article, Robert Hueter. These pieces contrast on levels of global, visual, stylistic, and content features. The first part of a paper one sees is the title. The name is important when trying to alert the audience of what they are about to read. Titles can either be exciting, grabbing the attention of the audience, or they can simply describe the information within the reading. The purpose of the title is decided by the writer while thinking about the target audience. When comparing headlines, “Secrets of Whale Shark Migration Revealed” sounds like breaking news and would automatically spark interests so that they could find out the “secret”. Handwerk was probably trying to engage readers through the title so that they would want to continue reading based on interest. On the other hand, “Horizontal Movements, Migration Patterns, and Population Structure of Whale Sharks in the Gulf of Mexico and Northwestern Caribbean” is wordy and tells the audience exactly what they are going to learn about. This title is directed towards scholars that want to know exactly what the article they are about to read is about.But there is more than just the main heading at the top of the paper, there are various subtitles throughout the pieces are slightly similar but very different. “Analyzing the Data” (Handwerk 1) and “Discussion” (Hueter 10) both tell the audience that they are going to read about why the results are the way they are. They are reasonably scientific in the sense that they are straight to the point. However, when comparing “Birthing Mystery Solved” (Handwerk 1) versus “Results” (Hueter 4) there is a great distinction in the formality. The first is a title that grabs attention and will tell the findings of this birthing mystery, the second is a simple word thattells exactly what you will find in the following information but does not give any preview onVan Dijk 3what the results are. First impressions foretell what the rest of the article will be like and they also determine whether or not the reader decides to continue to read the writing. Looking at the pieces at a distance, the global aspects show the overall layout of the articles. Although they both have subtitles and multiple paragraphs, they vary greatly. The magazine writing has many small paragraphs that consist of no more than a few sentences. They are spaced out fairly evenly for easy reading that would make skimming the text easy. This is once again done specifically by the writer in order for the audience to be able to read conveniently without having to concentrate too strongly. In the journal paper, there are almost twice as many paragraphs that are thick and full of sentences, the largest containing 20 sentences.It is very dense which makes it hard to read without giving a great deal of concentration. This is definitely for someone that is taking the time to educate themselves on the data in this article, while the magazine piece is for someone that wants to learn about the given topic but is based purely on quick interest rather than a dedicated study. At another visual standpoint, you can visually see the difference in the global context of the pieces. In the magazine writing, there are a few pictures related to the topic, but nothing too scientific. Also, the context may have variations of colors depending on whether or not the writerwants you to see the importance of something, or if there is a link to a related source. The journalarticle is very plain in text. It will be all black, but may have a few words italicized or underlineddepending its importance. Also, they will have far more images which are charts or graphs of data being displayed. The fonts may not disagree too much, but if anything the magazine paper will have a font that the audience is typically used to, such as "Times new roman" or "Ariel".Van Dijk 4As for the characteristics in-text of the two pieces, there is a much more obvious difference. The terminology is very distinct right way; the magazine article uses commonly used words and if they know the audience won't know a word, they will define it in the writing. However, the journal article believes that the audience should already know the scientific words and will use a more professional and intellectual word choice. Hardwerk says, "Whale sharks areknown to gather at a dozen major feeding locations around the word, from western Australia and Indonesia to Belize" (Hardwerk 1) which gives a short description of background information. Hueter contrasts saying "Whale sharks, Rhincodon typus, aggregate by the hundreds in a summerfeeding area of the northeastern Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, where the Gulf of Mexico meets the Caribbean Sea" (Hueter 1) which is a lot wordier and is expressed in a more


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