Jessica Moore

Professor Graves

Lang 120

10/29/17

Genre Analysis Essay

There are many genres of writing within and about the study of psychology. According to

my professor, Dr. Huneycutt, writing in psychology is very diverse and includes genres such as

letters to clients parents, letters to schools agencies or courts,in depth evaluations, education

presentations, policy suggestions, grants, peer review, and drafting research papers. On top of

these, there are genres such as news articles on topics in psychology that may be beneficial to the

public. While anyone of these might be about the same topic in psychology, there are still

differences between the genres within and about the field. These differences are affected by

aspects such as intended audience and purpose. This essay will analyze the differences in

patterns between a news article and an academic journal, both discussing Dance Therapy within

the field of psychology.

The first article is A Systematic Review of the Evidence for the Effectiveness of Dance

Therapy. This article was peer reviewed and written by several different authors for Alternative

Therapies in Health and Medicine, an academic journal. This article starts off with an abstract, or

a summary of the entire article so the reader knows what he or she is about to read. This is done

so that the reader knows what he or she is going to read, to make sure that it is relevant to what

the reader is looking for within the article. The article then goes on the explain the history of

dance as a form of medicine or therapy. After the history of dance therapy is explained the article

then explains the different studies done on its effectiveness. The article cites several different
studies across different databases, and critiques the quality of these studies and the reliability of

their results. This article uses a more advanced vocabulary as compared to the newspaper article,

citing sources such as Randomized control trials and Overall Quality Assessment

Questionnaire. The patterns seen in this article as compared to patterns seen in writing outside

the field of psychology are due to differences in purpose and audience. The audience for this

article is those who would read an academic journal; such as therapists looking for the merits of

this kind of therapy or researchers looking for the results and integrity of previous studies done

on dance therapy. Therefore the purpose of this article is to inform the audience about the

research done on the effectiveness of dance therapy rather than on what dance therapy is itself.

As the reader of this article is most likely already well informed on what dance therapy is as a

practice. Based on this article patterns show that academic journals tend to be informative,

formal, and intended for a specific audience and purpose.

The second article I am looking at is an article on dance therapy written by Nancy Maes

for the chicago tribune. Maes first explains that dance therapy has been professionally used for

decades. She then goes on to explain exactly what dance therapy is by quoting certified dance

therapists. The purpose of this article is very clearly to explain what dance therapy is, how it's

used, and why it's effective. The audience of this article seems to be the general public, or

anyone who is interested in what dance therapy is, as it is an online news article. While this

article is still formal the tone is much more relaxed than that of the academic article. This is

because the purposes and audience of this article are different from those of the first article; as

this article is meant to inform the general public. This article is informative and purposeful but

through the quotes of the dancers the article appeals to a sense of emotion to draw the reader in

and to keep them interested about the subject in a way that the academic journal does not.
 Through the patterns in these articles one can see the similarities and differences in these

genres. Both articles start off explain the history of dance therapy as well as what it does but this

was doe in different ways. The first article used the scientific description of dance therapy, while

the second article used quotes from dance therapist to explain dance therapy and its uses. Both

articles discussed the effectiveness of dance therapy but again this was done in different ways.

The first article cited research studies done about the effectiveness of dance therapy and

discussed the reliability of these studies. The second article, again, used quotes from dance

therapist about how effective dance therapy actually was and how it affects people. Both of these

articles are informative, purposeful, and written formally. But where the first article is scientific

and fact based the second article appeals to emotion in order to keep the reader engaged and

understanding.

These two genres are very different yet very similar. They both convey their messages to

their specific audiences in ways that seem relevant and helpful. At the same time the way the

messages are conveyed are clearly very different, but these differences work to the effectiveness

of each article. It is due to these similarities and differences that each of these articles succeeds in

their purpose. If these articles were written the same way but for different purposes they would

not be effective. The first article would not have been interesting to the general public and some

readers may not have even been able to to understand it. While the second article would not have

been helpful to therapists or researchers trying to find information about past research done on

dance therapy. Each genre has its own purpose and patterns, without the differences in patterns

observed in this essay the articles presented would not have been effective within their discourse

communities.
 Bibliography

HuneyCutt, D. (2017). Writing In psychology. [Faculty Interview]

Maes, Nancy. The most basic language, dance, brings out the unutterable .

Chicagotribune.com, 21 May 2015, 10:44, www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/health/sc-hlth-

0527-dance-therapy-20150521-story.html.

Strassel, Juliane K., et al. "A Systematic Review of the Evidence for the Effectiveness of Dance

Therapy." Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, vol. 17, no. 3, 2011, pp. 50-9, Family

Health Database, http://0-

search.proquest.com.wncln.wncln.org/docview/892742758?accountid=8388.