Academic Discourse & Genre

1. Consistent with what my interviewees said was the dominant style of all scientific literature, Nature Neuroscience as a whole is written with conventions of an APA composition in mind. The title page, table of contents, subheadings, page numbers, bibliography (citations), among other facets of the style are evident throughout. Furthermore, the actual pieces are divided into four prominent sections of perspective, review, commentary, and editorial. Some vary in length, but each and every piece, regardless of author, follow the conventions of a research report (same as the ones my interviewees published). The previously blogged-about conventions of a research report are nearly identical to what I found in this academic journal.

2. Although I cannot really differentiate between genres in this journal, I can point out varying points in some of the pieces. Perspective and commentary pieces within this journal are composed by less authors than any other type of pieces. They also tends to be more abstract and conceptual and because of this, the author values normative pieces of statistics. Consequentially, the media within the pieces are bar graphs and surveys rather than numerical diagrams such as line or scatter plots. The editorials incorporate conceptual and concrete pieces of evidence are much more verbose in nature, but maintain the conventions of a thesis-oriented research report. The reviews are the most critical in nature and spend more time objectifying a thesis rather than defending one and incorporate numerical values more.

3. The purpose of the research report genre, as previously blogged about, is a thoroughly explained and inclusive presentation of an identified hypothesis that often includes a question, explanation of process, and analysis of the process and results that often incorporates media (graphs, diagrams, etc.). This genre is often utilized to present an educated party's experimental process refuting or backing a previous claim (usually in the realm of science). The report is created to not only present and inform, but perhaps educated peers, fellows, and avid learners within the field as science is an ever-evolving discipline.