Genre Analysis Of A Psychology Critique Paper

Genre Analysis of a Psychology Critique Paper

For my psychology class, I am required to complete critique papers on reputable research studies. For one of these assignments, I was asked to analyze a research paper entitled “The Misperception of Sexual Interest” and to identify possible flaws in the study, as well as explain what the authors did well. While completing this assignment, I had to consider the ethos of the class and understand the kairos and network of interpretation in which I was writing. An understanding of these facets is essential for effective, well-structured writing that is focused and appropriate for a science course.

The universal nature of rhetoric entails that it varies with different areas of study, making it important to be able to recognize the distinctions between the requirements and expectations within each genre. Thus, the rhetorical skills I have gained in this English class can and should be applied to my psychology class. Scientific genres leave little to no room for bias and misguided logic. More specifically, the academic genre of psychology encourages critical and analytical thinking and revolves around the search for truth. When I worked on this assignment, my thought process was guided by this ethos. Because the ethos establishes what is and is not acceptable within the field of psychology, I not only used the ethos of the class to guide my writing, but also to critique the study itself by identifying any areas where the author avoided or failed to avoid bias and other transgressions against the psychology genre. Throughout the writing process, I considered all of these expectations to establish a strong kairos and ethos in my critique.

Before I began writing, I read the research paper an...

... middle of paper ...

...erpreted. When I finished editing, I reviewed my paper and verified everything that I had written, because accuracy is highly valued within the field of psychology.

Throughout the entire writing process, I was guided by the academic genre of psychology. Like most scientific genres, psychology demands objectivity, appropriate interpretation of facts, and critical thinking. These constitute the ethos of the class for which I was writing and set the inherent guidelines for writing in psychology. By fulfilling these expectations, I was able to ensure that my paper was satisfactory by my professor’s standards, which are representative of the standards of psychology as a whole. Understanding the network of interpretation and kairos of my class made my writing effective and focused so that my ideas could be communicated more easily and so that my critique held more value.