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Alex TrittWriting 2De Piero6-9-16Don’t Sweat It“Oh no.” A million thoughts rush through my mind as my eyes follow the quickly approaching hand. Can I wipe my palm on my pants without him noticing? Is he going to think I’m gross? Will he still want to hold my hand when he realizes it’s soaking wet? Anyone with hyperhidrosis – excessive sweating caused by a central nervous system dysfunction – has probably been in this situation before. While excessive sweating is a common subject of articles in health magazines, the condition has also been studied by psychologists and physiologists alike. Despite being written from different scientific disciplines, research-based articles focusing on the wide range of effects that hyperhidrosis has on individuals display a striking similarity to one another in structure, conventions, and moves that focus on presenting information clearly; therefore, they maintain a high level of credibility that allows them to communicate their research to an audience of well-educated scientists and physicians. Meanwhile, informal magazine articles on the same topic differ significantly from their scholarly counterparts while still maintaining an appropriate level of credibility for their audience; magazine articles utilize reader-friendly conventions and moves that focus on appealing to the emotions of everyday people in order to make them feel more comfortable with an embarrassing topic.Scholarly articles have been written about hyperhidrosis from very different disciplines – ranging from the mind-driven psychology to the body-driven physiology – but they all have one thing in common: audience. All of the articles are trying to communicate the unexpected side effects of hyperhidrosis to an audience of scientific or medical professionals who have a specific interest in the condition and its treatment. For example, Katharina Gross examined the psychological effects that hyperhidrosis has on individuals in her article Elevated Social Stress Levels and Depressive Symptoms in Primary Hyperhidrosis. The data in this article is presented in a way that is almost identical to Theresa Zackrisson’s article Patients with hyperhidrosis have changed grip force, coefficient of friction and safety margin, which examines the grip force of hyperhidrotics – individuals with hyperhidrosis – from a physiological perspective. While academic articles are catered toward well-educated scientists and physicians, an article from Women’s Health – such as Jill Harrington’s article Excessive Sweat: How to Stop Sweating – is meant to reach a much broader audience: everyday health-conscious women. The audience of a piece of writing is important because it dictates the level of credibility and evidence that the article requires in order to persuade the reader.Because they’re presenting their research to other scientists and physicians, scholarly articles must maintain a high level of credibility. To do so, they focus on the presentation of experimental data and results through the use of numbers, percentages, and statistics. In other words, the articles strongly appeal to the logos – logic and reasoning – of the audience in order to support their hypotheses and persuade the audience of their results. For example, Gross and her team examined the presence of depressive symptoms in all of their test subjects. She states, “60% of the hyperhidrotics scored values beyond the threshold for depression in the BDI-II, whereas merely 10% of the controls did” (5). Presenting the findings as a comparison of percentages makes it easy for the reader to understand the results of the experiment from a logical perspective. In addition, the reader is more likely to be persuaded if the claims are supported with numerical and statistical evidence because the results appear credible.Authors and researchers also establish credibility by including citations throughout their articles. Citations are made whenever information from a secondary source is referenced, and a full list of references is included at the bottom of each article in order to give credit to all of those who contributed to the experiment. This is very typical of scholarly articles; not only are the authors giving credit where credit is due, but they are also boosting their own credibility. An appeal to ethos is important because the reader – especially a physician who is relying on the research to be accurate – will not take the article seriously if they believe that the information is false or plagiarized.Scholarly articles, including Gross’ and Zackrisson’s, often follow a template-like structure referred to as “IMRAD” (Introduction, Methods, Results, Analysis, Discussion) in order to present their research logically and credibly. Both articles begin with an abstract to summarize the objective, method, and results of the experiment. Following the abstract is the introduction; in this section, both articles state their hypothesis, along with an operational definition of hyperhidrosis and its various effects on individuals in order to familiarize the reader with the condition. Next, both articles provide a detailed explanation of the procedure in order to give the reader a step-by-step understanding of how the scientists collected their data. Following the procedure is a section that concisely states the results of the experiment. Finally, both articles conclude with a detailed discussion, which not only relates the results back to the hypothesis but also gives the reader an idea of why the results are significant. This format is an effective convention of research articles, especially when the results are being presented to other scientists; by allowing the reader to chronologically follow the steps of the experiment and see how the researchers obtained their results, the articles appear authoritative and credible.Authors of scholarly articles also establish their credibility by making certain “moves” in their articles. Moves are conscious audience-based decisions made by writers that serve a specific purpose. For example, Gross and Zackrisson both use the “Trust Me, I’m a Doctor” move, meaning that each article concludes with a suggestion of how to treat the various side effects of hyperhidrosis. Zackrisson explains, “a lower dose of botulinum toxin should be used in clinical hyperhidrosis treatments because it has less of an effect on the grip force of an individual” (283). This move is catered toward a specific audience – medical professionals – because the average person certainly isn’t capable of treating hyperhidrosis with botulinum toxin on their own. “The audience should be able to respond to the exigence. In other words, the audience should be able to help address the problem,” Carroll explains in her article Steps toward Rhetorical Analysis (49). The open-ended suggestions of the academic articles invite other scientists to do just that. It also demonstrates that the authors have enough medical and scientific knowledge in order to realistically apply their results, which boosts their credibility in the eyes of the reader.Although Harrington’s article focuses on the same topic as the research-based articles – hyperhidrosis – there are certain conventions that set Harrington’s article apart from her scholarly counterparts because her primary goal is to appeal to the emotions of everyday people. As Mike Bunn explains in his article How to Read Like a Writer, “techniques that are effective for one genre may not work well in another” (77). Unlike the scholarly articles, for example, Harrington’s article avoids numbers and statistics because that would likely bore her audience of everyday people. In addition, Harrington’s article doesn’t require that level of credibility; numerical evidence isn’t needed to persuade her audience of her message. Instead, she focuses on emotional and visual appeals. For example, a picture of a shirt with pit stains is underneath the title. This not only grabs the reader’s attention, but is also an example of visual rhetoric – the use of the image appeals to the pathos of the reader because it can trigger the all-too-familiar feelings of shame and embarrassment that are a result of excessive sweating.However, Harrington still maintains an appropriate level of credibility by using a conversational tone. Facts and numbers aren’t the only way to appear credible; in fact, “not [using] too many statistics or overly technical language also contributes to the ethos… because sounding too intellectual can come across as pompous or stuffy” (Carroll 55). Harrington chats with the reader: “Although it's one thing to sweat while you're running, doing yoga, or having sex, it's quite another to do it all over your boss' M&Ms jar.” This informal and conversational tone, along with the addition of friendly humor, is meant to make the reader feel more comfortable reading about a potentially uncomfortable topic. To reinforce the casual tone of the article, Harrington uses the “Parenthesis Pro” move. For example, after using the word “suffer” to refer to individuals with hyperhidrosis, Harrington includes, “(And we do mean suffer. Dr. Glaser recalls one patient who had a tailor put terry cloth pockets in all her pants and skirts so she could dry her palms before shaking hands.)” This relaxed and friendly attitude is also reinforced with the “Ha-Ha-Hyperbole” move. Throughout the article, Harrington uses hyperbolic – or exaggerated – phrases to describe what excessive sweating can be like for individuals. For example, she refers to sweat as a “tropical storm” and a “car wash” (Harrington). The purpose of this move is to make light of the situation; by trying to make the reader smile or laugh, she’s attempting to bring humor to a topic that may have brought them nothing but embarrassment and shame for so long.While no in-text citations are made in the article, Harrington also maintains credibility by including quotes from esteemed medical professionals in order to support the information that she’s providing. With her “Show Me Your PhD” move, she explains that some women avoid antiperspirants “after hearing rumors that ingredients in antiperspirants cause cancer” (Harrington). Harrington refutes this common misconception by providing direct quotes from an esteemed oncologist who falsified the rumors; by doing so, she boosts her credibility while assuring women that using antiperspirants is a perfectly safe and effective way to control excessive sweating.Although academic and non-academic sources approach the topic of hyperhidrosis differently, they are equally credible in their respective fields. While her article in Women’s Health doesn’t provide any concrete scientific research, Harrington offers a gentle tone and simple remedies to help control a condition that many people are too embarrassed to admit that they suffer from. On the other hand, the research-based articles attempt to offer more substantial treatments to those suffering from hyperhidrosis. While these articles are cold and impersonal, they provide numerical data that credibly supports their hypotheses. In order to maintain a high level of credibility, the research-based articles approach the topic of hyperhidrosis very similarly; both articles are nearly identical in format, conventions, and moves. While the article in Women’s Health is significantly different in these areas, it is still successful in communicating ideas about the same topic to a completely different audience.Works CitedBunn, Mike. “How to Read Like a Writer.” Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. Vol. 2. Parlor Press, 2011. 71-86. Print.Carroll, Laura Bolin. "Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps toward Rhetorical Analysis." Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. Vol. 1. Parlor Press, 2010. 45-58. Print.Gross, Katharina M., et al. "Elevated Social Stress Levels And Depressive Symptoms In Primary Hyperhidrosis." Plos ONE 9.3 (2014): 1-6. Academic Search Complete. Web. 7 May 2016.Harrington, Jill. "Excessive Sweat: How to Stop Sweating." Women's Health. N.p., 14 Nov. 2005. Web. 07 May 2016.Zackrisson, T., et al. "Patients With Hyperhidrosis Have Changed Grip Force, Coefficient Of Friction And Safety Margin." Acta Neurologica Scandinavica 117.4 (2008): 279-284. Academic Search Complete. Web. 7 May 2016. ................
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