Text Analysis in Pedagogic, Popular and Professional Sciences - Assignment Example

Title: Text Analysis Name: Registration No: Name of professor: Institution: Date: Text 1 The first text is pedagogic science. It largely aims at communicating research and scholarly ideas. The audience for this text is academic scholars as well as students the target audience of the fact that the Europeans were dark skinned. The text informs the reader about an ancient European who lived 7000 years ago. The genome of the Ancient European can be compared to that of the modern humans. Technical language has been used in the text. Some of the technical terms used are lactose, genes and Mesolithic. Lactose is a form of sugar found in milk and genes are hereditary molecular units in organisms. Additionally, Mesolithic refers to the pre-agricultural period in history. The use of technical terms in the text has enabled the reader to communicate in an efficient and precise manner. In addition to this, the technical terms show the reader that the discussion topic is scientific. However, the use of the technical terms is limited in text 1 as compared to text 3. A possible explanation for the limitation is the fact that some of the target audience might not have much experience in the subject. The use of several technical terms may therefore render the information incomprehensible to some audience. Limiting the number of technical terms increases the readers’ accessibility to the text. The use of clauses that contain content words and offer information about the text defines the article’s lexical density. The writer conveys the information in the text by using a limited number of words. For example in the clause ‘It makes sense that lighter skin evolved in cooler climates,’ there is increasing lexical density in order to create emphasis. Lexical density in the text 3 is more as compared to this text since the audience in the third text is more experienced. In the second text lexica density is low as compared to this text because the general public might not be in a position to understand complex grammatical constructions. By regulating the lexical density in a text the author is able to achieve the purpose of the text. In the pedagogic text the complexity of the nominal groups is higher as compared to the popular text. The cause of the increasing complexity is the change in audience from the general public audience to students and literary scholars. The rather are able to understand complex nominal groups as compared to the general public-the target audience in popular science. Nomilisation and nominal groups are used to describe the ancient European as seen in the first paragraph. Through the use of nomilisation, the writer is able to place important information in thematic position. This can be illustrated by the phrase ‘The male……’ in the first paragraph. Nomilisation enhances clarity of expression and emphasizes on important information. For instance in the clause, ‘In 2006, two exceptionally preserved human skeletons were found in a cave in Leon the emphasis is on the skeletons. Information organization is observed by the manner in which the text explains the main ideas being put across. This involves describing the genome of the ancient European in relation to history. The writer organizes the information into themes, hyper themes and macro theme. The macro theme can be traced in the title ‘Ancient European hunter-gatherer was a blue-eyed Boy.’ The themes are evident throughout the text. For instance, in the first paragraph most of the sentences begin with nominal groups that refer to the macro theme in the title. Additionally, the hyper themes define the content of each paragraph and are closely linked to the themes as well as macro theme. The writer has used nomilisation to thematise certain concepts. For instance, in the first text the theme in the second sentence is a nominal group. Through nomilisation, the author is able to stress on important information The way the writer establishes their relationship with the audience depends on the purpose and the audience itself. In this text the writer presents accepted knowledge and assist the learners to acquire the knowledge. This is pedagogic science and most information is presented as factual. Credibility in the pedagogic text is established by using citation markers such as ‘says’ in the first paragraph. The author quotes other scientist such La Lueza in order to establish credibility. The writer has incorporated the use of visual aid in order to clarify his/her position. There is a facial image of the ancient European which elaborates his main features as described in the text. The ancient European appears bushy, dark and blue eyed. The simplicity in the image is targeted at making the information accessible to the audience who are mainly students and scholars. The use of images enables the readers to see science in reality. Through the use of images the readers visualize the experience of the writer Text 2 The second text is popular science. It largely aims at communicating research and scholarly ideas to the general public. It therefore informs and entertains at the same time were dark skinned. The text informs the reader about an ancient European who lived 7000 years ago. The genome of the Ancient European can be compared to that of the modern humans. Technical language is used in the text. However the author limits the number of technical terms used here as compared to the professional text. Limitation of the technical terminologies is aimed at simplifying the information for the reader. In the other texts, the lexical items are less densely packed purposely to simplify the information for the audience’s comprehension. The target audience n the popular and the pedagogic texts, students and the general public, may not have much knowledge on the subject thus it is the writer’s duty to simplify information to their suitability. This has been achieved in the two texts by reducing the lexical density as well as limiting the number of technical terms in the texts which are likely to be incomprehensible to the audience. Lexica density in the three texts is majorly employed in order to develop coherent arguments (Martin 2011). In order to make the popular text easily accessible, the writer has limited the length as well as the number of nominal groups in the text .The use of limited nominal groups in popular science is aimed at simplifying the information for the audience who might not be in a position to easily understand complex nominal groups. Popular science writers engage in reporting news and showing the importance of discoveries and their effects on ordinary people. On the contrary, professional writers show authority and persuade the readers to accept their position In the second text, the writer establishes credibility by making reference to a study recorded in the nature journal. The writer acknowledges and quotes other scholars such as Carles Lalueza. Reference is made to such sources as AFP. Citation markers used in the popular text include words such as ‘says’ and ‘told’. The writers refer to Carles Lalueza in the second text by referring to his institution in order to give his work credibility. The visual image used in the text is used mainly for comparison purposes. It compares the physical features of the modern European as seen today to those of the ancient Europeans. Ancient Europeans were dark skinned while the modern Europeans are light skinned. The writer argues that the morden light skinned Europeans emerged much later. Text 3 The third text is professional since it is aimed at providing professional support and information application. The texts are description in nature since it describes a sequence of process and experiments done in order to determine the genome of the ancient European. A series of experiments are described and the results analyzed and displayed. In the text, several technical terms are used. Some of them include ‘next generation sequencing technologies’ and ‘ancient genomic sequences’. Different processes and systems are nomilised into technical terms. The technical terms used here are complex as compared to the other two texts. For instance, terms such as ‘Principal Component Analysis’ are comprehensible to the common man but those with knowledge in the concerned area of study. Technical language compacts information and transforms it at the same time. In addition to this, it enables the writers to nomilise processes as things. In the professional text technical language plays an important role in creating cohesion. Through the use of technical language the writers are able to discuss multifaceted systems and processes. Lexical density measures the density of the information in this text. The content words are densely packed into grammatical structure. This is purposely to offer adequate explanation as well as describe the various experiments that were conducted in order to determine the genome of the ancient European. It can also be attributed to the audience and the purpose of the text. Since the audience are professionals in this field they can easily access the information despite the use of complex grammatical structures. Information in the texts is organised into themes, hyper themes and macro themes. Nomilisation is used throughout to place significant information in thematic positions. The writers are therefore able to lay emphasis on important words by organizing information and employing nomilisation. The macro theme in each text is highlighted in the title. In all the provided texts the macro themes can be summarised as ‘Pigmentation in the Ancient Europeans’. In the text the lexical chains link the different hyper themes together and to the macro theme. The various themes are connected to the hyper theme. The nominal groups in professional text are long and frequently used throughout the text. Nomilisation plays an important role in compacting information in the text. Through the use of nomilisation processes are thematized thus creating emphasis. This text is characterized by long nominal groups that are used frequently throughout the text. Writer credibility is established in the three texts. The writers establish credibility by using citation markers, making reference to other science professional and acknowledging the works of other authors. The writer commands authority by describing the processes involve in analyzing the genome of the ancient European. Furthermore, the writer provides a lot of information such location, depth where the remains were found. The experiment results are clearly illustrated in order to assert the writer’s position and succeed in persuading the audience at the same time. Additionally, the professional text writer uses reporting verbs such as observe, found and identified to refer to the research that was carried out the writers gives a list of references at the end of the text. The writer achieves credibility by use of the appropriate word choice, provision of strong researched evidence and acknowledging the works of other science writers. The writer has used several visual aids in this text in comparison to the other two texts. The use of visuals does not only clarify the information being shared but earns the writer credibility. For instance the geographical location where the remains of the ancient European were found is illustrated by a map. The map is labeled clearly thus accessible to the reader. In addition to the map, figures such as graphs are used to summarize the results of the different tests carried out. The figures are also used to compare various elements in the experiment. The writer uses visual aids in order to persuade the audiences accept the credibility in the position of their claim. References Martin. J. (1993). Technicality and abstraction: Language for the creation of specialized texts. In M. Halliday & J. Martin. (Eds.), Writing Science: Literacy and discursive power. London: Falmer Press. Martin. J. (1993). Literacy in Science: Learning to handle text as technology. In M. Halliday & J. Martin. (Eds.) (2011), Writing Science: Literacy and discursive power. London: Falmer Press Brick, J. . Academic Culture: A student’s guide to studying at university, (2nd ed), Melbourne: Palgrave Macmillan. Chapter 17: Making your argument flow Myers, G. (1991). Lexical cohesion and specialized knowledge in science and popular science texts. Discourse Processes, 14 (1), 1-26 Read More