Oren Merry

Perm #7592892
De Piero, Writ 2
Genre Across Scholarly and Non-Academic Context
On January 21st of 2010 the Supreme Court of the United States ruled
on a legal case that would change the course of the U.S. forever. In Citizens
United v. FEC the Supreme Court ruled that organizations, such as
corporations, are allowed to donate an unlimited number of funds to a
political campaign. The effect on the ruling allows politicians to be
practically sponsored by a company. Many fear that being supported by a
large corporation could affect a politicians lawmaking ability. When
analyzing the effects of this court case, I took the New York Times article, A
Trickle-Down Effect of Citizens United and the academic text Citizens
United at Work into consideration. The authors bias is unmistakable in the
specific evidence and word choice exposed to the audience. Specific moves
are also used according to the audience expectations of the author. These
two articles are uniquely qualified to highlight these points.
The New York Times is a prominent news source, but instead of giving
the audience the entirety of the situation, there is an obvious bias fashioned
by the author. The genre that characterized A Trickle-Down Effect of
Citizens United, written by The Editorial Board, is an Opinion/Editorial piece.
It is an opinion based take on the issues regarding the Citizens United ruling.
The focus in this article is based on the failures of the court case. The author
explains how politicians are exploiting the court ruling in their benefit. The
diction used is particularly accusatory and alarming. Instead of purely

informing the audience, the author uses specific words to convey the
urgency that the situation entails, Its not surprising taking advantage of
this permissive environment. (1, The Editorial Board). Instead of simply
providing the details for the audience to understand the facts, the author
goes a step further and insists the inevitability of the wrongdoing. The
Supreme Courts central rationalebased on the unrealistic notion. (1,
The Editorial Board). The authors purpose to incite anger and action, due to
the specific evidence provided, is directly translated to the diction used when
providing the facts. When the writer sat downwhom was he or she
implicitly talking? (87, Rosenberg) The authors bias has a large impact on
the overall paper, and these rhetorical features provide the pathos that a
paper like this involves.
Citizens United at Work is an academic journal written for the
Harvard Law Review. The purpose of the article is to understand the
landmark court decision and its negative effects on the common man/woman
in todays workplace. The concern of the article is the exploitation of workers
in favor of a specific political campaign, due to the corporation that one
works for. The injustices that are caused by the Supreme Courts ruling are
highlighted and used to argue against the overall decision. The legal
framework with extensive employee protectionsno longer serves its
function (5, Harvard Law Review) While still following the conventions of
a scholarly piece, the language used is directed against the decisions and is
meant to provide the reader with a perspective instead of the specifics of the

lost protections. extensive employee protections (5, Harvard Law

Review). This is a perfect example of a specific word choice. To add pathos
to the argument the author adds the word extensive (5, Harvard Law
Review). The specific words used are there to highlight the arguments from
the author.
Moves are crucial for an essay to have meaning. Without moves, the
writing turns to be uninvolved and shallow. Authors make a conscious
decision to use every word. writing is a word-by-word, sentence by
sentence process. (121, Bunn) These choices come together in stylistic
moves. The moves used in A Trickle-Down Effect of Citizens United are the
use of direct examples relating to the topic, cumulating as a call-to-action.
When highlighting the flaws of the case, the author utilizes specific
repercussions of the decision. .Mike Ellis, a Republican state senator from
Wisconsin dropped his re-election bidput together an ostensibly
independent Super PAC (1, The Editorial Board). The use of this example is
the starting point as which to base the call-to-action off of. Without
regulations, the author argues, politicians will take advantage of the ruling.
Florida law regulates only explicit advocacy for or against a candidate (1,
The Editorial Board). The specifics used in this opinion piece are used to
underline the faultiness of the overall decision. In the end the authors use
the provided evidence to offer the reader with a specific call-to-action,
and Vermont have recently taken steps along these lines. More should follow
in their lead. (1, The Editorial Board). Due to the lack of background

information, yet inclusion of in-depth political analysis, the audience meant

for this article is an educated voter. As the audience expects, the author is
rallying political support, awareness, and action against the court ruling. The
moves used in this article are directed toward the specific audience that the
article is written for. The given examples and call to action is for those
already concerned with this topic and have the specific understandings that
the article needs.
The fundamental bias in Citizens United at Work is that against the
court ruling. Meanwhile, the authors then recognized that the targeted
audience is lawyers, and utilizes moves to best suit their style.

The

audience expects a piece that makes a solid claim and uses a variety of
sources to back-up the claims, such as a lawyer would. The moves used are
uniquely directed for the lawyer. As a lawyer would, he/she establishes
pathos by using a scenario: you and several other employees will work
full time for the Koch brothers Super PAC any employee who refuses to
participate will be fired. (1, Harvard Law Review). The move of including a
scenario is unique to the article and even the genre. An academic journal is
typically rigid in its discussion of the topic. The author uses this move as a
lawyer would: give a story as a way for the reader to empathize with.
Another key move, that is specific to the audience, is the comparison of
previous legislation to our present laws. Before Citizens United, Congress
had established a comprehensive statutory framework regulating
corporations and unions political engagement. (3, Harvard Law Review)

This allows the reader to fully comprehend the dramatic changes that
occurred due to this court decision and its overall negative effects on our
society. This is a useful strategy for the audience to better understand the
overall effects of the ruling. The comparison move is also utilized throughout
the law discipline as a way to show the positive or negative effects of
something. These moves all are directed toward and expected by the
intended audience of this piece.
Each genre has its own particular strengths and weaknesses. The
strength that a non-academic essay has is the ability to develop a strong
pathos. The authors voice shines through when they are not constricted to
the rules of an academic text. On the other hand though, a non-academic
author has to prove his credibility or ethos. When an academic paper has to
go through peer revision it gains immediate credibility. An audience is
greatly affected by the papers source. This greatly reflects in its persuasive
ability. When an article is from the New York Times or USA Today the reader
understands the papers journalistic integrity and standards. When the paper
source is a random blog, people are much less likely to trust the article. The
effectiveness of a written piece has a lot riding on the credibility of the
source.
The authors intended bias determines the evidence and diction used.
The perceived audience then also has a large impact on the moves used.
The authors take into consideration the audience that is reading the paper
and uses moves that most likely assist the argument. Why care about an

authors moves? readers always need to know why they should care.
(69, Birkenstein & Graft) Understanding moves will greatly assist in
understanding motives in writings. You can learn how to not be easily
persuaded, by realizing why the author writes what the author is writing. A
writer can then borrow others moves and apply them to their own writings.
In the end, a written piece has a lot riding on its source and withstanding
credibility. A successful essay is not just words on a page.

Works Cited
Birkenstein, and Graft. ""So What? Who Cares?"" Writing Spaces 2 (2011):
92-101. Print.
Board, Editorial. "A Trickle-Down Effect of Citizens United." The New York
Times. The New York Times, 13 Oct. 2014. Web. 11 Feb. 2015.

<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/14/opinion/a-trickle-down-effectof-citizens-united.html>.
Bunn, Mike. "How to Read Like a Writer." Writing Spaces 2 (2011): 71-86.
Print.
Citizens United at Work. Diss. Harvard Law School, 2014. Boston: Harvard
Law, 2014. Citizens United at Work. Harvard Law Review, 1 Dec.
2014. Web. 10 Feb. 2015.
<http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?
sid=5fa48616-59a8-4450-9f677836987de579%40sessionmgr4001&vid=1&hid=4209>.
"Citizens United v. FEC." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 11 Feb.
2015. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_v._FEC>.
"Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission." SCOTUSblog RSS.
SCOTUSblog, 2015. Web. 11 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/citizens-united-vfederal-election-commission/>.
Rosenberg, Karen. "Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholarly
Sources." Writing Spaces 2 (2011): 210-20. Print.