1 of 9

Tasi LeDonne

Writing 2

Revision Sheet Writing Project 2

After reviewing the comments given by Robert Speiser, I noticed that my main issue

throughout this essay was I was not as clear as I could be. There were instances where I was too

broad or failed to include important findings. The first issue that needed to be fixed was the last

sentence in my opening paragraph. I wrote, For example, UCSB also hold their own protests

against ocean pollution as a result of information on ocean pollution being produced by both

disciplines. I think the way I wrote it may have been confusing and I did not make the main

focus of the sentence about the two different disciplines and how they could relate. By fixing this

closing sentences, it helps introduce the reader to the topic that is going to be discussed and

brings the paper in together as a whole. There were also times where I avoided using first person

when it was okay to use it. For example when I was discussing the observations I made in the

classes, I did not use the first person voice. This made the flow of the essay rough. Overall

writing project 2 was a more complex paper to do, but I still received mostly positive feedback

from Robert Speiser, such as excellent and good opening.

"
"
"
"
"
"
 2 of 9

"
"
"
"
Two Perspectives, One Issue

Tasi LeDonne

Writing 2 WP2

May 17, 2016

Robert Speiser

University of California Santa Barbara

"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
 3 of 9

Water pollution is one of the biggest problems our environment is facing today. Not only

has it impacted the natural world, but also the social world. Since marine pollution is detrimental

to the environment and us, it is studied from a variety of disciplines. Additionally these issues

have caused social unrest among different communities and individuals. Both biologists and

sociologists take different perspectives on how ocean pollution impacts humans and the

environment.

Although different disciplines view an issue from distinct perspectives, they can all be

connected in a way to showcase the possible causes and solutions to an issue. To clarify, a

discipline is a branch of knowledge typically studied in a higher education and belong to a

discourse community. According to Swales (2013) members of a discourse community have

three commonalities: common end goal, a certain jargon/lexis, and a method of communicating.

The two disciplines that will be analyzed in this essay are biology and sociology. Both

disciplines are effective in researching the topic of marine pollution, but differ in the perspective

taken while examining the issue, causes and implications regarding the issue.

For both disciplines, I made classroom observations to gain a general understanding on

how research was approached. The first discipline observed was biology. While observing the

classroom environment, the lecture is typically directed by multiple professors. The professors

rotate depending on what topic is being taught in the class. For example in EEMB 2 there is one

professor who teaches the ecology section and a separate professor who teaches the evolution

section. The lectures are held three times a week and run for about 50 minutes. There is no

section for the biology courses, but lab is sometimes considered to be in place of section. The lab

environment allows students to conduct experiments and write a research paper on what they
 4 of 9

have learned in lecture. The biology courses require students to use an iClicker to answer

questions regarding the topics being taught. Usually in lecture, the slides provided are general

information, but the professor explains more in depth to facilitate further discussion on topics.

The slides contain mainly scientific vocabulary, that only people who are familiar with the

natural science discipline may understand. In the biology courses, evidence that is considered to

be useful must be found/tested through experiments and statistically analyzed. It is important to

remember in the biology field, that hypothesis are not meant to be proven true, but meant to

show possible causes or solutions to an issue.

On the other hand, sociology lectures are set up differently than a biology lecture. The

classroom is taught by only one professors throughout the whole quarter. Sociology lectures are

held twice a week, with lectures running to be around one hour and fifteen minutes. A section is

also required for students to take because it serves as a place to engage in discussion regarding

what is being taught in lecture. The sections are directed by graduate students(TA) who have

expertise or experience in the field. They are there to lead discussions, grade papers/tests, and to

help clarify any areas of concern. During lecture, the professor asks rhetorical questions to

engage the students to think about what is going to be taught. One professor, Dr. Hajjar also

requires her students to use an iClicker as a way to take polls on students opinions regarding

certain political/social/personal topics. She uses the answers to the polls as evidence for her

lectures. In the discipline of sociology, evidence utilized comes on the form of articles and

journals that have been previously published by other sociologists. The majority of research done

by sociologists involve field work that involves observing interactions between humans and their

environment. Sociologists mainly study the relationships and meaning through social analysis
 5 of 9

and applications of sociology theory. Overall sociology involves many fundamental concepts that

are easy to understand, but require detailed analysis depending on what is being observed.

When analyzing the biology and sociology academic articles, the observations made were

quite shocking. The academic articles pertaining to the disciplines differed from the observations

made in the classroom. The discipline of biologys academic articles was first to be analyzed

first. While analyzing the academic articles published by the biology discipline, it can be seen

how these pieces focus mainly on the biological and ecological effects within the ocean.

The purpose of this discipline is to study the ocean as a whole and how each factor apart

of the ocean is affected. For example Sigler(2014) describes the effects on marine pollution and

breaks this down into different categories about the ocean and its animals and plants. There is a

section dedicated to marine biodiversity, sea turtles, cetacean, birds, and fish. This article first

began by introducing the topic of marine pollution and a giving a simple explanation of why this

issue is occurring. Overall in this article, statistical analysis and charts were not present. This was

an odd finding because of the assumption that biologists rely on quantitative data to make their

hypothesis reliable. In this article, Sigler also uses previous studies and articles as evidence for

the claims she made. For example she writes, Small plastics, such as bottle caps are often

mistaken by seabirds for food. In several studies At the beginning of this section she lets the

reader know that she is backing up her claims from previous studies. This was a shocking finding

because when observing the lecture for sociology, claims were backed up by using other

sociologists previous studies. It could be seen how both the sociology and biology methodology

could be used in both disciplines in regards to research depending on previous studies.

 6 of 9

Biologists not only research the effects of marine pollution on the ecosystem, but they

provide different ideas and ways to prevent this issue from occurring. The article written by

Grumbles (2008) explores different ways that agencies that help promote and prevent marine

pollution. This article is also broken down into different sections such as the previous article

discussed by Sigler. He breaks the article into three different. One section to discuss marine

pollution and his creditability and experience in the field. This section helps the readers

understand the issue at hand and also helps the audience see the author as a reliable source.

Especially because Grumbles mentions he is a member of the 1987 Interagency Task force on

Persistent Marine Debris The next section is then broken down to talk about the collaborative

efforts used to prevent pollution. Particularly, Grumbles talks about all the companies that are

apart of this research and mission to help reduce the amount of pollution entering the ocean. For

the audience, this section helps clarify who exactly is working on the issue and how different

companies are working together to prevent marine pollution. The most important section is the

last section because it is written to describe how awareness is going to be brought to this issue.

Throughout, the overall language used is not scientific, he uses phrases such as, assessing the

problem and need for research, identifying potential reduction measures This finding also

opposed what was observed in the biology lectures, because it was a non-scientific vocabulary.

After analyzing the biology discipline, the main goal translated is to understand how and what is

being affected in the ocean and what action needs to be taken to prevent this issue from

occurring.

However, while analyzing the discipline of sociology, the academic articles focus more

on how humans interactions and society have lead to an increase of pollution in the ocean. In the
 7 of 9

sociology discipline, the researcher used qualitative data techniques through surveys to get input

and data for their academic article. For example Kumar, Sivakumar, Reddy, Raja, et al.(2016)

used a method of surveys, by having volunteers walk along the Chennai coast to collect and

quantify various debris left over. After conducting this data collection, the researchers

determined that most of the waste was mostly due to local recreational activity. So, by their

research they discovered that human interactions at the beach is one of the major leading causes

to marine pollution. This research groups method of collecting data was similar to what was

observed in the biology classroom. The sociologists collected data and did statistical analysis to

come to their conclusion just like what a biologists would do to find evidence for their studies.

The academic article is broken down into different sections just like the biology academic

articles. This is because the sociologists defines what marine pollution is, but must also explain

how human interaction at the beach plays a role in marine pollution. Charts and visuals are

provided throughout the articles to help readers understand what exactly the pollution consists

and how much of it there is. For example Pasternak, Zviely, Ribic, Ariel, and Spanier(2016)

provide pictures, maps, and pie charts on marine pollution. The pictures serve as visual aids to

allow the readers to see what the trash consists of through quantitative data and presentation. The

maps allow the readers to understand where the pollution is occurring and the pie charts help the

reader visually see the different percentages of waste in the ocean. The sociology discipline use

of visuals also followed what was observed in the biology lecture. After analyzing the sociology

discipline, it can be observed that the main goal is to examine how human interactions at the

beach causes marine pollution.

 8 of 9

Both disciplines of biology and sociology are effective in conveying the reader the

importance of understanding the effects of pollution in the ocean and how this issue can be

resolved. The biology discipline gives readers insight on how exactly pollution is affecting the

ocean as a whole and describes ways in raising awareness and pollution prevention methods. The

sociology discipline focuses more on how human interactions in their environment play a role in

marine pollution. This discipline is important in understanding and solving issues concerning

marine pollution because it shows how our everyday interactions can lead to marine pollution. It

can be perceived that the two disciplines overlap in how their research is conducted. This finding

is important because it shows how a biologists and sociologists from different disciplines can

work similarly to explain meaning and causality. Therefore meaning that despite the disciplines

differences in research techniques, their end goals are similar to protect the oceans. Whether

marine pollution is discussed in sociology or biology, the end goal of all these articles is to bring

awareness to the issue and present facts, so that there will be a change.

"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
 9 of 9

"
"
References

Biology:

Sigler, M. (2014). The Effects of Plastic Pollution on Aquatic Wildlife: Current Situations and

Future Solutions. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/asfa/docview/

1628460563/6C5AC01AB17F420FPQ/4?accountid=14522

"
Grumbles, B.(2008). EPAs Marine Debris Program: Taking Action Against Trash. Retrieved

from http://search.proquest.com/asfa/docview/198609976/90328DC976474D6DPQ/1?

accountid=14522

"
Sociology:

Arun Kumar, A., Sivakumar, R., Reddy Y., Bhagya Raja M.V., Nishanth T., Revanth V. (2016).

Preliminary study on marine debris pollution along Marina beach, Chennai India. Retrieved

from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352485516300020

"
Pasternak G., Zviely D., Ribic C., Ariel A., Spanier E. (2016). Sources, composition and spatial

distribution of marine debris along the Mediterranean coast of Israel. Retrieved from http://

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X16309195