The scholarly academic publication I chose was A case of early sports specialization in an adolescent athlete, written by Brad Ferguson and Paula J. Stern. This article explains the risk associated with ESS -- early sports specialization -- as the authors gather data and observations to form a hypothesis on the topic. The audience of this type of source are people already familiar with the specialization of youth sports and the injuries associated with it. This includes athletes, parents of children that participate in youth sports organizations, and people interested in learning more about how playing too much of one sport as a child may lead to long-lasting, career ending injuries in the future. The authors use sports-related diction because they assume that the reader is familiar with baseball, as ESS is most popular among baseball players and the case studied was among a baseball player. The jargon is used so that the audience will be familiar with this type of scholarly article. This is also intended to be an academic piece of writing, so it is made for an academic type audience. This article goes in depth about the information and the risks of playing too much of one sport at an early age, and the vocabulary used is a bit more complicated than in many other pieces of writing. There is no slang included in the scholarly sources, and there are many terms -- although defined in the article -- that are not used in normal conversation.
There are also many conventions of this type of genre that make it unique. It presents an introduction and title to give a glimpse of what the article will be about and gives it’s type of tone to the reader. It starts off with a case study and a background of ESS, and it presents analysis and opinions on the topic of study. Charts and diagrams are present to give a visual of what is going on, and graphs are also common in academic sources to portray parts of the data. There are also subtitles to separate different parts of the article, so that it is easier to read, it is more spaced out, and so the reader knows what the next section is going to be about. At the end, there is a list of references. These references are probably sources of the original researchers who gathered the data so the author/authors can formulate hypothesis and analysis about the topic.
The main question posed in this academic publication is if “intense year-round training in a specific sport with the exclusion of other sports at a young age” (B Ferguson, P J Stern 377) gives an athlete a higher risk of injury as he or she develops. Also, what are the risks and benefits of ESS (early sports specialization)? The second question is answered through two main school of thought that have been debated through the last few decades. In short, early specialization risks include career-threatening injuries and burnout, while the benefits include developing skills faster, which help in obtaining athletic scholarships. The first question of whether ESS actually creates a risk of injury is presented through a case study. In this study, a 16-year old baseball pitching prospect had been playing year-round baseball since the age of ten. After experiencing on-and-off pain and either taking short rests or pitching through it throughout the years, his arm finally gave out and he was diagnosed with a type II superior labrum anterior-posterior. Data was collected from other sources regarding youth baseball specialization, and it is concluded that there is no evidence to support ESS and there must be a better understanding of developing an athlete’s skills at a young age to promote longevity and success in an athlete’s career. I believe the the most important of this case study was collecting a lot of data of youth baseball players who play baseball year-round. By collecting these numbers, risk analysis statistics are able to be formulated to educate others about the potential risks of ESS. One must always be able to back up a claim in a scholarly article.
References
Ferguson, Brad. Stern, Paula. A case of early sports specialization in an adolescent athlete. Canadian Chiropractic Association. 2014.
Hi! I really enjoyed reading your response because of the interesting topic! My only initial critique is that it is all one long paragraph; this made it a bit more difficult to read so maybe consider that for next time. You did a really good job addressing all of the different conventions that can be found in a genre and I also liked how you ended your PB2A by analyzing the most important aspect of your article. You did a good job proving your point that the data is the most important part. Also, the middle section where you repeated the author's main questions and then addressed the conclusions was very clear and straightforward, which I appreciated as your reader! Good job!
ReplyDeleteJohnny, you picked an awesome topic for this research review! The circumstances involved with youth sports are quite fascinating, and the case study and results of your scholarly article were pretty interesting. You did a great job of identifying key components of this type of genre like diction, jargon, and vocabulary. Additionally, you discussed the target audience for your article, which I believe to be the most critical part of genre analysis. Your analysis showed that using sports jargon and intelligent use of graphics the researchers seemed to be able to get their point across to even the most casual reader. Nice paper!
ReplyDeleteHey Johnny,
ReplyDeleteI think you picked a really cool topic to do this writing assignment about. Youth sports specialization leading to later career injuries is a really interesting subject to look in to. I really liked that you considered who the audience members of this scholarly article might be and that you pointed out the different language used that assumes a certain amount of prior knowledge from the article's readers. In general, throughout your post, you were very clear in everything that you wrote and it was very easy for me to follow your thoughts which is always very nice.
Great work!
-Dan
Dear Johnny,
ReplyDeleteLike others, I also enjoyed reading your analysis because the topic is very interesting and fun to read. It is a nice break from all the academic articles we’ve read so far. In terms of your analysis, you did an excellent job identifying specific writing conventions of the article and managed to deliver that analysis in a simple language. I love how you contrast the usage of professional language and slang to give more credibility to the article. In addition, excellent job of incorporating the charts as well to give more credibility to the article. Overall excellent job!