The text that I have selected to analyze for this blog post is a medical article titled “The Emotional Causes of Cancer”. In this article, author Wendy Myers breaks down the ways individuals can obtain cancer through high-stress level. With this, Myers includes an ample amount of outside scholarly sources such as medical reports and studies in order to support her claim. In order to show her passion for her field of work, she also provides a 6 phase cycle of how one can develop cancer through stress. As for my final project, my goal is to research the role emotional health has on cancer risk and beginning with stress is a major key to my hopeful success on this project.
In chapter 19 of The Chicago Guide to Communicating Science, there were a few key techniques Montgomery incorporated that not only stood out to me, but I also noticed that Myers may have used as well. In chapter 19, the first technique that Montgomery points out is the importance of having a strong opening sentence or as he refers to it “the lead”. According to Montgomery, the two first lines within your writing should do two things: deliver the main (intended) message and create interest for the reader to follow (Montgomery, 297). When reading Myers Emotional Causes of Cancer article, the first sentence stating “Cancer absolutely has emotional roots” stood out to me. Being a college student and knowing that I stress every day over school work made me curious and interested to keep reading. I think this is a useful skill as it worked on myself, and I do intend on stealing this technique for my final project. A second technique that I’d like to point out from chapter 19 comes within the body paragraph, or as others refer to as the bulk of your report. The second technique is that the main body of your text needs to include logic to make it flow and cohere (Montgomery, 301). While including logic to support your argument and research, you’re also giving the reader a reason to remain interested and continue reading. In Myers’ medial piece, she does an outstanding job of separating her research findings from her informative/logistic drive research, as this gives the reader the impression that there is a smooth flow and organization style to her writing. Going into depth further into the article, Myers actually includes statistics in her findings section, which link back to providing logistics to ensure a flow as Montgomery stated. With these two moves that Montgomery discusses, I feel that I will be able to not only keep my reader interested, but also form a connection with them. As Montgomery discussed, using simple language and making sure your work contains a passionate flow can take you a long way, and I intend specifically to try this while composing my final deliverable on my final project.
2 Comments
Matt Carrano
3/26/2018 10:29:24 am
Nick this is great blog post because you talked about an article that related to your final project and summarized it very well. Also, you connected the ideas you learned from the article and said how you are going to apply the ideas of emotional health and how it has an effect on cancer risk to your final project. You then talked about the two techniques you learned from Montgomery, and how they apply to your article. When you mention having a good "lead" in your introduction I though that was very important in grabbing the attention of the reader. Also, having your body paragraph include logic to make it flow was another important technique that needs to be applied in science writing in order for your reader to understand your writing better. Overall, you did a great job of summarizing your article and relating the techniques you learned from Montgomery to the article you choose. I think you are in good position to use these techniques in your final project now.
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Stanley Pazdziora
3/26/2018 10:35:28 am
Nick,
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