Crystal Chau

De Piero Writing 2
WP 2
Who Said Pop Culture Cant Be Informative
As a college student, I have been introduced to many different types of drugs, but when
did substance use become such a common practice? Substance use/abuse seems to peak in
teenage/college years, but how does it affect them? Are there any factors that cause more or less
substance use? Upon reading Mental Health in First Grade and Teenage Drug, Alcohol, and
Cigarette Use and Teenage sex, drugs and alcohol use: problems identifying the cause of risky
behaviors, I was able to answer these questions from an economists point of view and a
psychologists point of view. To get an even better picture of this topic, MTV published an article
on The Connection Between Teen Pregnancy and Substance Abuse, which provides the
audience with a real-life case of how drugs can take a toll on someones life. Janet Boyd talks
about how the tone and language of a piece of writing can be very different based on the
audience. Because scholarly articles are hard to read, they follow the usual abstract, introduction,
methods, result, discussion, and references structure for readers to gradually get a better
understanding of the study while the MTV article is more casual with straight-to-the-point
information allowing the readers to get the story quickly. Many articles can be found online for
one simple topic, but the author, depending on their major/discipline, can affect the way the text
is laid out and the information it focuses on.
Even though the three articles revolve around the same topic, they still fall under different
genres because of the information the authors use to support their claim. As stated by Mike
Bunn, it is important to consider the genre of a piece of writing because the conventions for

each genre can be very different (Bunn 77). A lot of people may see scholarly articles as one
broad genre, but few see the subgenres that lie beneath. Although the two scholarly articles
mentioned above are very similar in structure, one is considered an economic scholarly journal
while one is a psychology scholarly article. These two articles seem very alike from a glance, but
differ greatly with their purpose and method of study. From this, we can see that even though
both articles are considered scholarly articles, it can still further split into subgenres. The
Connection Between Teen Pregnancy and Substance Abuse would be considered an
entertainment article because MTV would only post an article about teen pregnancy because they
want their viewers to understand more about their show Teen Mom, which would hopefully
keep their viewers interested in the show.
As stated before, scholarly articles usually follow the same format, but because the MTV
article is not a scholarly article, we see a different structure. MTV is an entertainment source so it
really tries to keep its readers interested. The article starts out by introducing the main character
of the article and her problems, which is on one of their TV shows. This way they can tell the
readers why she is so interesting to read about. Then they introduce an issue [substance use] that
is common amongst its targeted audience, teens. After that, they include statistics to support why
this issue is a concern. Even though these statistics are simplified, it still helps them make their
writing more trustworthy. They end with a recap of how the main character is doing, which
reminds the targeted audience that they may be able to get more information on this topic if they
keep up with the show. The structure of this article was very effective for me because as a
teenager, I like reading something short for entertainment so it was the perfect length for me and
it persuaded me that I should care about this topic more. If this article were any longer, the
audience may have gotten bored and zone out. The author had a good amount of statistics and a

good amount of the show incorporated into this article. I think the author was also very strategic
about the end of the article because he/she talks about how the character is still in the process of
fixing her issues with substance abuse and it keeps the readers hooked on to find out whether
shes actually successful.
Right away, when looking at these articles, the readers can see that the two scholarly
articles are much more formal than typical articles, like the MTV article. These two articles have
professionals from the specific field of study as the author to establish credentials, which is why
it can be considered a scholarly article. The two authors being the researchers as well make the
article even more credible because they have the best understanding on the study. The MTV
article is obviously much shorter than the two scholarly articles. Entertainment news writers
seem to place less emphasis on the credibility of their stories essentially because the main goal of
their website is to entertain their readers. The author of the MTV article simply summarized the
findings of another study regarding the use of drugs amongst teenagers and how it applies to the
show. The reason for doing this is to promote their show, whereas, the authors of the scholarly
articles want to share their findings with others.
Credentials are much more important in a scholarly article than it is in an entertainment
piece seeing that the authors of the scholarly articles have all their degrees listed out while the
author of MTVs article simply says EDITOR. The source of a scholarly article is crucial so
the authors name and education background must be listed in the article for readers to consider
the article when looking for credible evidence, while a mainstream article doesnt even care for
the authors name to be listed. From this, we can see how much the audiences of each article
cares about the levels of truthfulness. The authors of the scholarly articles know that their readers
are looking for credible information, whereas, readers of the MTV article are probably just

looking to catch up on the latest gossip. Of course, scholarly articles are expected to have a
higher level of knowledge, while entertainment articles are expected to have the most caught up
social media story.
Although all three articles are about the same topic, the goals of these articles are not the
same such that one author is trying to deliver the economic aspect, the other trying to deliver the
psychological aspect, and the third one trying to deliver the entertainment aspect. In Teenage
sex, drugs and alcohol use: problems identifying the cause of risky behaviors, which is written
by an economist, the researcher seems to be focused on societys economic effects from
substance use. The questions posed by this researcher are whether how society functions affects
how much substance use teenagers participate in. In the economic article, the researcher asked
about the taxes on drugs/alcohol, arrest rates, legal drinking age, etc. whereas the psychology
article mentioned the researcher asking about the academic standings and teachers thoughts on
students that used drugs. These questions showed that the economist cared less about how the
teenager was affected and more about the aspects that may have caused them to participate in
substance use. As for the psychology study, the questions posed seem to show that the study
focused on how these drugs affect the behaviors or these students. Interestingly, the psychology
study found a lot of teacher saying that students that practice substance use appear to be more
aggressive.
Between the three articles, it is quite clear that not only are the intended goals different,
but the authors writing styles are also different. Their individual writing styles are made up of
their own unique moves. As mentioned before, one of the moves authors of scholarly articles
almost always used is establishing trustworthiness by listing out their credentials and all the
references used. While the authors of the scholarly articles might have been able to hook their

readers with their credentials, the editor of MTV had to satisfy its audience by entertaining them
with their show since their credential is most likely not as strong. MTV does this by quickly
talking about the drama in the show as a result of substance use. This shows the main difference
between a scholarly article and entertainment article. The scholarly article uses hard evidence to
keep its readers, whereas, the entertainment article uses dramatic stories such as Amber getting
into arguments with her family because of drug use.
Even though it makes sense that more complex language is used in scholarly articles
because the authors have studied the topic much more than other people, it also says something
about its targeted audience. Because the language is so much more complex with statistical
symbols that not every may understand, it implies that the author expects other professionals in a
similar field to read these articles. The author would not want to put something in their article if
they didnt expect their audience to understand it. Similarly, MTV has a more diverse audience
so to make sure their audience understands their article, they must simplify the statistics they use
to make sure it is understandable to everyone. Also, MTV is an entertainment source and their
audience is usually a younger crowd, which makes it less likely for them to be familiar with
complex terms used in scholarly articles. If MTV were to use the same type of language used in
the scholarly articles, its readers would lose interest very quickly because they wouldnt
understand much and their purpose of reading if for entertainment so they would want something
quick and simple. Word choices can definitely be one of the easiest ways to identify the targeted
audience. We can see that in the MTV article, the author doesnt use big words and goes straight
to the point because their audience is broad and they want to make sure their audience
understands their article.

In the results, both scholarly article talks about the effects these individuals have on
society by using drugs. The economic article talks about the increase in amount of sexual activity
amongst these individuals, which may affect societys health risk, whereas the psychology article
talks about how the drugs affect the individuals connection with society. Although both articles
talk about the individuals affects on society, the psychology article focuses more on the
individual and the economic article focuses more on society as a whole. Similar to Mental
Health in First Grade and Teenage Drug, Alcohol, and Cigarette Use, the MTV article also
focuses more on the effects substances have on individuals because their targeted audience is
teenagers/young adults specifically. Something different about the MTV article is that it only
talks about how substance affects the individuals actions. Because Mental Health in First Grade
and Teenage Drug, Alcohol, and Cigarette Use is a scholarly article, it is much more detailed in
a way that they explain all their data and how they obtained this data. On the other hand, MTV
only includes basic statistics, such as 10% of high school students have tried marijuana, (The
Connection Between Teen Pregnancy and Substance Abuse) as a support for their article so that
it can establish a bit of credibility.
While credentials are important, results and data are just as important. We can see that
statistical data is important when trying to prove a claim under the substance use topic because
all three articles include some sort of statistical support whether its a scholarly article or not.
Through the three different articles, we can see how statistics can look and be used differently. In
the scholarly articles, the statistics looks way more detailed and harder to understand than the
statistics listed in the MTV article. For the scholarly articles, their statistics included standard
deviations, variance, etc. while the MTV article simplified their statistics into one sentence like
this: More than one-third of teens who have had sex say that theyve gone farther sexually while

under the influence of drugs or alcohol than they would have while sober (The Connection
Between Teen Pregnancy and Substance Abuse). Because the audience isnt intending on
learning about the whole study, MTV shortened all the complex statistics so their readers can get
the end result without having to go through all the complex statistics.
As I look through these articles, I noticed a pattern in each article where the supporting
statistic is presented and then it is followed by an explanation. This method is very effective most
of the time because it lets the readers know why it matters and how it could affect them; again,
this is a way to keep the readers engaged so this can be considered a move that a lot of authors
use. In Teenage sex, drugs and alcohol use: problems identifying the cause of risky behaviors,
the authors even listed out what the statistical symbols meant, which I found very helpful
because I wouldnt have understood what the data meant without it. It is always important to
explain data and not just place them in the writing, which is why the analysis section of scholarly
articles are very important.
Although scholarly pieces are more trustworthy, non-academic pieces can be just as
effective for some people in some cases. Because scholarly pieces are so long, it can be hard for
readers to stay focused a lot of the times; therefore, non-academic pieces are often more concise,
which appeals to some readers more. While it is good to be concise, the author must still be
informative. Scholarly pieces seem to always be more persuasive because off all the data it has to
support its claim; therefore, that is something a non-academic piece cannot accomplish. It cannot
credibly persuade its audience. Professionals who understand the terms used in the scholarly
pieces may find the scholarly pieces more persuasive because they actually understand it,
whereas, people who are not in the field may prefer the mainstream article because everything
has already been simplified and they dont need to know how that result was reached. The

scholarly pieces are able to provide its audience with an in-depth explanation of its study and
how it got its results. The non-academic pieces are still able to provide its reader with the same
end result, just without the details that they dont need. Both genres are effect when read by their
intended audience.
Whether it is a scholarly or non-scholarly piece, both genres can accomplish the same
end result of informing its readers, but it is the in-between content that differs. While the
scholarly piece is more complex and detailed, its intended audience will be able to understand it
just like how the intended audience for non-scholarly pieces will understand and enjoy those
pieces instead.

Works Cited
Boyd, Janet. "Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking)." 2011. Writing Spaces: Reading on Writing. Ed.
Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky. Vol. 2. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 87-101. Print.
Bunn, Mike. "How to Read Like a Writer." 2011. Writing Spaces: Reading on Writing. Ed.
Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky. Vol. 2. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 71-86. Print.
Editor. "The Connection Between Teen Pregnancy And Substance Abuse." News. N.p., 12 June
2012. Web. 09 May 2016. <http://www.mtv.com/news/2383236/teen-mom-amber-drugalcohol/>.
Kellam, S. "Mental Health in First Grade and Teenage Drug, Alcohol, and Cigarette Use." Drug
and Alcohol Dependence 5.4 (1980): 273-304. Google Scholar. Web. 9 May 2016.

Rashad, Inas, and Robert Kaestner. "Teenage Sex, Drugs and Alcohol Use: Problems Identifying
the Cause of Risky Behaviors." Journal of Health Economics 23.3 (2004): 493-503. Google
Scholar. Web. 9 May 2016.