Nephtali Garcia

Zack de Piero
Writing 2: MW 3:00-4:50
Cosmetic Surgery and Teenagers
According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, the number of cosmetic surgeries
in America is steadily increasing, with 5.7 million procedures performed just in the past year. It
is no surprise that appearance is such a large concern to people- especially when the media
bombards Americans with an ideal way one should look. Those especially vulnerable are
teenagers. After all, their bodies and appearance are changing at a rapid pace. There are many
factors to consider when looking at cosmetic surgery, especially with teenagers, because it raises
many concerns and issues. In The Effect of Cosmetic Surgery Reality TV Shows on Adolescent
Girls Body Image by Eleni Dittmar and Susan Ayers, they addressed the issue through a
psychological perspective. Dan OConnor examines cosmetic surgery through a Bioethical lens
in A Choice To Which Adolescents Should Not Be Exposed: Cosmetic Surgery As Satire.He
considers the ethical issues concerning cosmetic surgery in teens. Cosmetic surgery and
teenagers a disaster waiting to happen is an article in The Guardian, a liberal US news source,
which also discusses issues which adolescent women considering cosmetic surgery face.
Dittmars and Ayers publication seems to be the most well supported argument because of their
use of statistical analysis and broad evidence. The Guardian article simply reiterates information,
while OConnors publication has an extremely opinionated argument, making them each less
effective in supporting their argument than Dittmar and Ayer.

Each of these texts has a different genre with different conventions, which shapes and
dictates the nature of the authors arguments. Dittmars and Ayers publication, along with
OConnors, are both scholarly articles which have been peer reviewed and written by
professionals. The Guardian article is non- academic from a media source. Dittmars and
Ayerspublication is a psychology research report in a psychology journal; they both hold PhDs
in psychology. OConnors paper is a bioethics report in the Journal of Health Care and Law and
Policy, and Dan OConnor is a postdoctoral fellow in bioethics. The Guardian article is a
magazine article written by Jane Martison, a newspaper editor and writer. Of these three sources,
the bioethical and psychology report are the most similar because they are both scholarly texts
which have been peer reviewed. Their authors are professionals in the field, and have cited
evidence to go along with their research.
While both scholarly articles cited evidence in their arguments, Dittmar and Ayer had
the most organized citations; they accomplished this through parenthetical citations, using the
authors last name followed by the year of publication.. These references were then cited at the
end of the publication. This is easy for the reader to follow because all of the citations are
organized into a list at the end of the paper. OConnor chose to number his sources, adding
superscripts to the information he was referencing. These superscripts corresponded to citations
at the bottom of each page. This move is slightly confusing for the reader, as sometimes the
superscripts go as following 5. See White, supra note 3 at 9. Thus the superscripts sometimes
reference to other sources. The organization is less confusing in Ditmars and Ayers publication
where the information is laid out nicely at the end of the paper. The reader of OConnors paper
may lose interest if they have to keep going from the main text to the references superscripts at
the bottom of the page. The Guardian article contained no citations, as it is not exactly necessary

to do so in a magazine. Another reason is that the article contained multiple personal anecdotes,
which obviously do not need extended citation. Dittmar and Ayer therefore best organized the
references used for its publication, making their article more clear and easier to read through for
their audience
Further differences between these genres are titles, length, and some basic content which
affect the persuasiveness of each of the articles arguments. The magazine article is the shortest
of them all. This is typical of this genre. The audience of a magazine is usually there to read
short, quick, trending stories or topics. If the article went on for longer, the reader would
probably lose interest. Dittmars and OConnors publications are considerably longer, around 10
pages. This is typical of scholarly publications because they must be thorough and cover all
details of their research, or in OConnors case, their argument. Their claims must be
comprehensive and backed up with evidence. This evidence must come from other scholarly and
reliable sources. This further enhances their arguments because the reader sees that much of the
content is peer reviewed and shared between professionals.
Dittmars and Ayers paper contained an abstract, or summary of the research, which
clearly presented their argument in a condensed fashion. This is important in research
publications because it gives the reader an overview of the lengthy study. OConnors did not
contain an abstract. His publication is not a study, but a supported argument. Therefore it wasnt
necessary to include an abstract, since the thesis would cover the main points, although it might
have been easier for the reader to ascertain the paper as a whole if it had. The titles of the three
papers are also different in respect to their genre. The magazines article title Cosmetic surgery
and teenagers a disaster waiting to happen is attention grabbing, as it should be. The hyphen
serves to emphasize the controversy in the topic, and controversy often draws the reader in. The

title OConnor gives to his article is A Choice to Which Adolescents Should Not Be Exposed:
Cosmetic Surgery as Satire is descriptive. Karen Rosenberg, who wrote Reading Games:
Strategies for Reading Scholarly Sources observed that the convention within some academic
disciplines [is] to have a pretty long title separated by a colon (153). She goes on to state that
the colon is a teaser in order to grab the readers attention. Here, OConnor teases the reader, and
this allows him to really stress the importance of his argument that cosmetic surgery should not
be exposed as a choice to teenagers. Lastly the title The Effect of Cosmetic Surgery Reality TV
shows on Adolescent Girls Body Image is detailed. This is important for a research paper in
which the audience, most likely other researchers, must be have a clear idea of the main topic.
Furthermore both scholarly articles have subtitles to additionally guide the reader
through each main point. Dittmars and Ayers paper has titles such as The Present Research
and Participants to clearly explain their main points. Rosenberg comments on this strategy too,
claiming that they give a sense of the trajectory of the text before delving into the content
(155). Thus Dittmar and Ayer used these subtitles in order the guide the audience through the
paper, effective in making their information flow nicely for the reader. OConnor also uses this
technique, although it is a bit overused. Dittmar numbers his topics such as his introduction with
roman numerals, but they sometimes contain subtopics such as "A. Feminist Interpretations on
the Ethics of Cosmetic Surgery," followed by B, C, etc. Although one might argue that this
further organizes the information, it could maybe make the reader feel overwhelmed with the
amount of subtopics presented.
Another important component of a research paper is the use of graphs and other figures,
Dittmar and Ayer utilize these to effectively support their publication. This is present only in
Dittmars and Ayers publication. It utilizes tables and graphs to fully analyze and express their

research. This is typical of research papers where they must conduct research with statistical
analyses, and then utilize to support their argument. Dittmar labels each figure with Figure
followed by the number, and a short description of it. This significantly improves the
organization of the data rather than having it embedded in the actual paper. The magazine article
had one graphic of a woman with marker on her face, showing the lines where the surgery would
take place. This image is in color and quite eye- catching. This move to include this graphic is
useful to grab readers attention if for example they were flipping through magazine articles.
Thus this image compared to Dittmars article is interesting and does catch the readers attention,
but it does not contain the substance that the figures in source one provide. Now that the three
genres have been described, the authors content can be more closely examined.
The authors tones are very distinct in each piece, a neutral tone is sometimes more
effective than a very opinionated tone, such as in OConnors publication. In Dittmars article the
tone is quite formal, which is conventional for a research publication. Even when Dittmar is
critical of the medias influence on young girls, she keeps her tone neutral, for example stating
these shows tend to present surgery as low in risk by seldom acknowledging the risks and
complications associated with it. This makes Dittmar more credible because emotion does not
get in the way of her analyses of the facts, she uses logos to effectively convey their findings.
This is a striking difference in OConnors, where the author is extremely opinionated and
passionate about the topic. For example he argues I want to show, this ethical resolution is
challenged when we consider some of the ironies that these contain His tone is a bit sarcastic
regarding the information he has researched. This points out something else, much of the article
is written in first person. This is a strongly opinionated piece, which may deter some readers who
already have a strong opinion on the ethics surrounding cosmetic surgery. The Guardian article

is also opinionated, critical of the reasons why young girls choose to get plastic surgery. When
discussing that a disastrous surgery may be the only thing that will change the mind of these
young adults, the article ends with by then of course, itll be too late. This is a strong
conclusion, but some readers may find it too pessimistic and not really giving any insight into the
problem. Tone is vital to how information is conveyed, and having a strong opinion may deter
readers who are on the fence about the issue. Therefore sometimes having a neutral tone and
displaying the facts is most effective, as Dittmars and Ayers publication did.
The target audience is an important consideration when looking at a text. Dittmars and
OConnors target a well-educated audience, primarily people in their respective discipline. The
magazine article targets a broader audience, aimed at the general public. Magazines are easily
more accessible and thus draw in a larger audience. Audience has a big impact on the structure of
a text because the author must appeal to their audience. For a research paper such as Dittmars,
the audience is expecting significant data and sufficient explanations. This is why it must have
citations and explanations of their research. Thus this is why the authors included an explanation
of the design of their experiment. The article has detailed descriptions such as the participants
were all female students recruited through a girls school for students aged 11-18 years. Details
are crucial in research, and failing to be thorough might reduce the quality of the publication.
The authors must adhere to a professional audience which will be scrutinizing their work, and
must therefore be as meticulous as possible. In contrast, the audience of a magazine has a
different set of expectations. They expect of course a shorter article, and an entertaining topic.
Furthermore the general audience would probably find the topic more entertaining when real
people are referenced. The author uses several personal anecdotes and references a girl, Ella, and
about her desire to have cosmetic surgery at the age of 11. This makes the article more

entertaining than if the author were to speak about the general community. It makes it more
personal.
Although a magazine article can perhaps be more entertaining than an academic paper can, it
ultimately lacks substance to be persuasive. Dittmars and Ayers publication was the most
persuasive because it had concrete research in which they based their argument on. O'Connors
publication was too opinionated, coming from an ethical viewpoint, to draw in a large audience,
and therefore less persuasive than these two other publications.