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November 14, 2018

Dear Masha Fedorova,

The most important stages of this writing process for me were formulating the structure

of the paragraphs, incorporating evidence, and deciding what to add or omit. I believe that

structure is an important factor to consider because it can determine whether an essay flows or

fails to flow. Another factor that can help an essay flow or fail to flow is evidence. Selecting

evidence that is fitting and relevant is also important because it can help structure the argument.

The last stage of my writing process was editing and that was a lot more challenging because it

was difficult for me to omit words or sentences that made sense to me but did not make sense to

my peer reviewers.

One specific writing choice I made in this project was to separate the different sources I

used as evidence into separate paragraphs. I did this because I thought it would be more effective

in the way that it would help the reader distinguish between my two different sets of evidence

especially since my claim was favoring one of the sources over the other. I think that my

structure overall flowed well because I had an argument, counterargument, and concession. I was

mostly comparing the two different sets of evidence I had in the first few paragraphs to prove the

claim I made in the very beginning. Another writing choice I made was to include the

observation of my professor’s class. I think this was a good decision because it served as

additional evidence to help prove my claim.

One particular activity that helped me tackle this writing project was the class activity

where we had to form a research question. This activity helped me formulate a more detailed

question for this prompt. As a result, I have learned a lot more about the field and its literacy
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practices because I was exposed to a lot of different genres within the biological anthropology

field. Furthermore, the articles of Jones and Driscoll were also beneficial because they

emphasized the importance of evidence and analysis that I had to include to make an effective

argument.

If I had more time, I would try to incorporate more examples of the different genres of

writing found within the biological anthropology field. In this case, I focused more on books and

compared the different styles of book writings throughout the years. Overall, if time were not an

issue I would have included more evidence from a larger variety of sources to better support my

claim.

My specific question for you is whether you think my analysis is thorough and whether it

reveals a deeper significance of the evidence. I usually struggle making supportive analysis

because I don’t always know how to derive more from the evidence. Therefore, I would

appreciate it if you could give me feedback on the analysis I gave after each example. Commented [MOU1]: Genesis, I think that you’re offering
strong analysis when you focus on the significance of your
evidence. When you answer the question “why/how?,” your
claims become much stronger. Overall, I think you did a
good job!
Sincerely,
What you might work on (if you decide to revise this draft)
is on:
1. Paragraph organization (see below)
2. Being more concise (we’ll discuss it on Monday)
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Genesis Delgado

Masha Fedorova

Writing 2

23 October 2018

Secondary schools in the United States are designed with a focus on specific subjects.

The areas of concentration are often English, science, mathematics, foreign language, and art.

Everything else tends to fall under the umbrella of electives. College is no different because it

also expects its students to take a certain number of classes that fulfill category requirements in

order to graduate. The only difference is that secondary schools refer to these requirements as the

A-G requirements (each letter representing one subject) while colleges distinguish them as GE

(general education) requirements. Furthermore, any class that falls under one of the categories of

the A-G or GE requirements is also very likely to fall under an academic community. In specific,

one class taught here at UCSB that pertains to a large academic community is Biology

Anthropology.

Though the class is named Biology Anthropology, it belongs to a much larger and

extensive field known as Anthropology. This field of work studies human societies and their

different cultures. There are many other academic classes that fall under this academic

community of Anthropology such as archeology, cultural anthropology, and linguistic

anthropology. Evidently, Anthropology is a general term to describe all these forms united and it

is safe to assume that a division was needed because each individual topic contained too much

information to be condensed into a single word. However, the specific class I will be focusing on

will be the biological anthropology introductory class instructed by Professor Steven J.C. Gaulin.
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This professor’s ultimate goal is to teach his students to view earth and its inhabitants from an

anthropological perspective.

Professor Gaulin’s Biology Anthropology class is a good site to study literacy practices

because it is a class that requires its students to be attentive and determined with the will to learn

new and different methodologies and classifications. It also very convenient to research this class

because I am enrolled in it this quarter. Despite the fact that this Biology Anthropology is an

introductory class, it is not an easy course to understand if an individual fails to stay up to date

with the readings, video lectures, and class lectures. A majority of the information provided is

meant to build conceptual knowledge therefore memorization would only be partially beneficial.

I do enjoy learning from this class because it is not a topic that is of common knowledge to the

average individual. I am also interested in biology anthropology because it raises many questions

on theories and common misconceptions in the science field. Despite being a fan of this area of

study, I am not planning to be an anthropology major as I feel more inclined towards

mathematics. Regardless, I hope that by researching this topic I can gain a better insight on how

to read and think like an anthropologist.

Based on my experience thus far, I do have some ideas on what the appropriate literacy

practices for this class might entail. The literacy practices may include: scientific journals,

research articles, data tables, and/or lab reports (with a clear purpose, method, result and

conclusion). I will be taking weekly notes and observations in the class lectures (which are

Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:00am - 12:15pm) to view the scientific based research videos

that the professor may incorporate into his lecture. It is equally important for me to keep up to

date with any other scientific discoveries that Professor Gaulin may use as example in his

presentation slides. Another approach may be to observe and listen carefully during the hours of
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section which occur every Tuesday from 5:00pm -5:50 pm. This will help me gain a better

insight on what outside sources the teacher assistants use for their chapter presentation slides and

what other resources they may use to answer questions they do not know. Another place to

observe the appropriate literacy practices would be the professor’s office site. I can visit this site

during the professor’s office hours or the teacher assistant’s office hours. By placing myself in

their environment (Anthropology Department) I may come to understand more about their field

especially since their offices are usually located near other professors and teacher assistants that

are also studying that field.

The types of texts and artifacts that I will study to use as example of writing for this

academic class will be the online resources that the professor uploads on gauchospace. This will

include lecture videos that are based on the readings from the textbook and practice quizzes. The

practice quizzes are especially helpful for students because answers may be checked, and

questions can be reviewed even after submission. Other items on the page are articles on

scientific discoveries and scientific experiments. These articles are often complex and a majority

of them expect their readers to already have a certain amount of knowledge to comprehend the

content. Other important documents such as the syllabus and course schedule are also available

on the page. Besides gauchospace, the only physical artifact that can be used as an example of

the writing in this class is the textbook, Human Adaptations, written by the Professor Seven

Gaulin. All in all, there are many different resources that can be used as textual artifacts to

represent the type of writing that is incorporated in this class.

Obviously, there are many existing literary practices that are impossible to obtain from

observations alone. Therefore, it is essential that I take the initiative to ask my TA for any

additional information she can provide. I will be asking these questions in the form of an
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interview so that the approach is professional and well composed. I feel comfortable asking her

questions about the class because I have already approached her for help during her office hours

and section class. Other factors that convinced me to choose her as the person I would interview

were her experience and her ability to explain concepts clearly.


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Genesis Delgado

Masha Fedorova

Writing 2

25 October 2018

One type of text that I plan to incorporate into my writing 2 prompt is the textbook,

Human Adaptations, written by Steven Gaulin. The author of this book happens to be the

professor for the Biology Anthropology class that I have chosen to discuss. To understand the

book, one must have a basic understanding of biology. It would be helpful if one was familiar

with the scientific terms: “chromosome”, “gene”, “offspring”, “evolution”, “adaptation”, and

“natural selection” before reading this book. Although there are definitions included, the

professor writes the beginning chapters as if they were review chapters.

For an individual to communicate effectively and professionally in this discipline, it

would require a lot more effort and thought beyond a basic understanding of the terminology.

One would need to have a very strong comprehension of the following concepts: natural

selection, gradualism, melanin, altruism, kin selection, and reciprocity. The concepts listed are of

central focus but the theory that intertwines all of them is the theory of natural selection. If one

does not understand the theory of natural selection in an anthropological view, it will make it

extremely difficult to grasp the more complex theories because they all reflect back to natural

selection. Nevertheless, understanding the natural selection theory is only the first step in

learning how to respond to questions that arise in this field.

The second step calls for an individual to apply the said theory. Once an individual

acquires these tools, they will have the ability to rationalize the accuracy of certain ideas and/or

argue against claims made. For example, one chapter discussing the topic of altruism was
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intentionally placed later in the book so that it was read after students gained all the tools

necessary to be able to apply them to the altruism theory. Altruism refers to the principle of

moral concern for the well-being of others. On that note, altruism is a tremendous evolutionary

puzzle because it contradicts everything the Darwinian theory claims. The Darwinian theory

(natural selection) states that any trait that weakens the organism will be unfavored and will not

be spread to the next generation. However, we know that altruism, a trait that gives benefits to

others at the expense of the “giver” exists in spite of the Darwinian theory. This is the thought

process that the professor wanted his students to follow but could only do so if they had the basic

tools first. For this reason, he first teaches his students how to think with the proper tools and

then introduces them to ideas where they can then apply those tools.

Another piece of text that is very useful in this class are the lecture slides. The lecture

slides can either serve as review after reading the textbook or set a platform for what one should

expect in the reading to come. The same concepts that are required for one to advance further in

the textbook are also required in the lectures. It is important to take note of any analogies the

professor uses as it may be referenced to again in the future. The ability to read data tables,

graphs, and diagrams is as equally important for the lecture videos as it is for the textbook.

Lecture videos also provide examples of the seemingly abstract theories by referencing to real

life species that have experienced the processes explained in the textbook. I must admit that the

videos are better for visual learners because it allows one to change the pace of the video, view

the content on slides, ask questions on the online forum, and hear and see the professor on the

screen.

The professor also suggests reading the scientific journals he uploads online to

understand the content better. These often relate to the concepts that we have in the readings for
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that week. These scientific journals are different from the rest of the material used in this class

because they are often a challenge to read and understand. The content often relates to

experiments the professor discusses in his book but require a higher academic and scientific

vocabulary than the class textbook.

These sources relate to my topic because they are all meant to help unexperienced

individuals (whom are not familiar with the field of biological anthropology) acquire the tools

necessary to take part in the great debates and questions of the science field. I plan to use a few

of these sources as examples of literary practices found within this class. These sources can also

serve as examples of the literary practices used within the entire field of biological anthropology.

In specific, these sources will be used for the research question “How do textbook authors within

the last 20 years explain altruism (a trait that shouldn’t exist according to the Darwin theory) in

comparison to authors of articles?” My goal is to question how each text functions by observing

their features (i.e. analogies, vocabulary, data, tone, etc.), considering their audience, and

evaluating their effectiveness.


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Genesis Delgado

Masha Fedorova

Writing 2

31 October 2018

1. What are the tool (abilities/strategies) that an individual must utilize in this field of work

to be successful?

“Writing well, using scientific standards, creative thinking, that’s more at a


professional level than a student level. It's really important to understand the
fundamental theories and everything else sort of builds on top of that so for
instance I have students say in my class say “well that there's a lot of stuff to
memorize in the book, a lot of terms” but there's not really any point in
memorizing that stuff if you don't know how it all fits together. So, understanding
the conceptual framework is the first place that we start.”
2. What worked best for you as a student taking introduction bio anthropology classes?

“I guess in terms of studying sort of a multipronged approach. So, it's not enough
to just go back and read through your notes or read through the textbook and it's
also not enough to convert those sources into your own writing by hand. I find
that the really crucial third part is to study with a partner and to practice
explaining these concepts to each other. There's something about the verbal
connection that really or it's teaching a concept to another person that invents
things in your mind.”
3. What are the essential concepts one needs to understand to comprehend the study of

biological anthropology? Is there a form of writing/vocabulary that one must develop?

“Well these are general biological principles. For instance, everything in life boils
down to fitness. An important component of it is reproductive success but there's
also survival and so, you can look at all these behaviors as ways of maximizing
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gains in terms of reproductive success or survival or at least minimizing costs and


keeping in mind these tradeoffs of costs and benefits of alternative strategies. All
that is meant to help you understand how that affects fitness for an organism.”

4. What is the difference between this anthropology class and the others? Do you think

these classes rely on the same types of sources?

“I might not be the best person to answer that as I haven't had a lot of background
in the other forms of anthropology. It does seem that the biological anthropology
that I sort of grew up in and I mean this as an undergrad not literally growing up
to. That department, the entire wing was focused on how these various forms of
research within bio anth help us understand human evolution. That's not quite the
case in this department. It doesn't have that conceptual footing, but I think it's not
a bad place to start. So even if you personally are not interested in understanding
all the little details of human evolution contextualizing it in that way is helpful for
turning around and explaining these concepts other people as to why these are
important. Why do we study human hunter gatherers in the current/present day?
Why do we study non-human primates? Why do we look at this link between
human biology and our evolved environment? That's I think understanding human
evolution is a nice way to tie it all together.”
5. What are some features of credible sources within your field (bio anthropology)? Are

there any in particular that you can rely on? What type of knowledge does one need to

obtain to comprehend these sources (such as scientific journals, articles, etc)?

“Peer review first and foremost and I would also say that there is some in terms of
where biological anthropologist publish their research. For instance, some of the
journals are really targeted toward other, Bio anth people. But some journals are
much more broad and I think that when researchers are publishing in these
broader audience journals the way that the research question is introduced and
described as being important tends to be a little bit different, there’s less of a
common understanding the upside is that they do have to show the broader
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implications of the research findings so that it’s not just about humans right or it’s
not just about pursuing anthropology. Why is this a relevant research question?
So, personally I think the broader the audience the better, but you know I guess
it’s not to say that the anthropology specific journals are useless or anything like
that its more that they tend to investigate or publish articles with a narrow
research focus.”

“Sometimes I mean for articles certainly for journalists not so much. So for
instance there might be competing hypotheses for a particular issue and some
research groups find evidence in favor of hypothesis or disproving a certain
hypothesis whereas others research groups come to opposite conclusions and so
you might see a stream of articles that conflict in that way.”

6. What examples of writing in this field do you believe are particularly “good” or

“effective” ? (whether this be in terms of credibility, structure, or interpretation)

“So, personally I think the broader the audience the better, but you know I guess
it’s not to say that the anthropology specific journals are useless or anything like
that its more that they tend to investigate or publish articles with a narrow
research focus.”
7. How does one get a book published in this field? Is there one specific publisher that

college professors or other individuals with a PhD in Anthropology must get their

approval from?

“It’s a lot of work. So, I mean now this presupposes that you've gone through the.
Back end of the research process which is designing the research question and the
methods, getting funding, collecting the data analyzing the data and writing it up
and it's not just as simple as analyzing the data and write it, writing it up. Often
there's a lot of sort of understanding what the data are telling you because you
may have gone into the project attempting to answer question X but in the course
of data collection you realize that there's all these other factors coming into play
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and so part of the issue is, is it possible for me to even address those other factors
and to quantify them and measure their effect on the response variable of interest.
That happens a lot in climatology where every system is a bit different. So even
though people have studied subject x at another site what I'm finding at my site
tends to be a little bit different and I am finding these unexpected predictors of
behavior, so it can be a little bit challenging. So, the publishing process it's a lot of
revising, revising, revising them. So even before submitting to a journal the article
should have gone through as many rounds of revision with coauthors or at least
with colleagues who can give you input on how to be maximally clear and
succinct and you know use the most appropriate methods etcetera. Then once the
article is submitted to the journals of there is, they have very specific formatting
guidelines. So, you have to check and make sure that the manuscript adheres to all
of those formatting guidelines because of it doesn't they kick it back to you. And
say please fix this and then they'll proceed and then the journal will solicit
reviewers to do a blind review or a blind peer review of your manuscript and all
of us can take a couple of months for them to find the reviewers the reviewers to
actually read the article provide the feedback send it to the journal and the journal
sends it back to you the author then you have I think up to two months in which to
respond to the reviewers criticisms and it has to be line by line.”

“So if they've written three pages of comments you have to respond to every
single comment both in the response document and in the revised version of the
manuscript tracking your changes so they can see that yes in fact you have
responded to their critiques then you resubmit and you might go through many
rounds of this of revising and resubmitting and revising and resubmitting. Now
when the journal sends the manuscript back to you with reviewer comments they
have this tiered set of responses, so it could be accepted which at least in the first
pass is very rare now. They used to have this category called accepted with minor
revisions and they don't seem to be using that very often. Accepted with major
revisions I think nobody is using anymore and then they say, it's a form of
rejection, they say we're not going to accept it but if you make these changes we
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will reconsider the manuscript. Then once the article is finally accepted you still
have to revise a few more times because there'll be little tweaks and things like
that and then when they put the manuscript into the proofing stage they format it
as if it's a journal article then they send it back to you for a final check and if you
and your co-authors have agreed to that online then it will be published a few
weeks or even a few months later. So, the whole process can take years.”

8. Is there a hierarchy within this field? If so how does it work? Are there any well

recognized individuals you are familiar with?

“There are senior researchers right, who’ve been doing who've been in the fields
just a longer period of time than younger researchers and that tends to roughly
match up with the individual researcher’s status in the university because most
researchers are in universities as opposed to NGO or a conservation organizations.
So you know within the university you have lecturers who are not permanent staff
so to speak. I mean they will teach but it's not the same as being tenure track.
Within tenure track you have assistant professors, associate professors, and full
professors. Then you have distinguished professors and then after retirement you
have emeritus professors and you know typically in an R1 institution or a
research-intensive university the longer that a person has been faculty in the
tenure track, the more experience they have and the more input that they might
have for junior colleagues. In terms of the scientific field more broadly like across
institutions there's sort of an informal status hierarchy but not formal. So, for
instance there might be some research groups that have a stronger reputation, they
get more funding, they publish more articles they have a more active or larger
research presence in their study sides or study countries and then there are smaller
research group, but you know part of it is a legacy issue. So, if you come from a
big famous very competitive lab the odds are higher that you then will establish
your own big competitive lab with ample research funding and lots of
publications. So, if you come from a small lab it's a lot harder to sort of claw your
way up.”
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9. How does one communicate in this field? Do professors from different institutions hold

conferences? Are there any conventions or big events that the field of anthropology uses

to maintain close contact?

“There's lots of formats now for communication. So, yes of course we have
professional conferences, so we have professional science societies and those
societies organize usually annual conferences sometimes the conferences are
every two years. So, for instance I belong to the International Society of
primatologists which has a conference every two years and location changes and
it alternates between primate range countries like the last one was in Kenya to
non-range countries so maybe the US or somewhere in Europe, something like
that. There is also for me personally the American Society of primatologists
which is a bit more locale. There is the American Association of physical
anthropologists which holds an annual meeting somewhere in the U.S. There is
locally Sea West the California workshop in evolutionary social sciences. Last
year it was held here this year will be held at Fullerton but for the last 10 or so
years it's been at Cal Poly. So, conferences are a big component of how we
disseminate our research in addition to publications and of course publications are
a form of communication. We're also supposed to be doing public outreach so less
academic forms of communication and the point of that is to inform the public
about what we're doing why we're doing it and what we found and why it's
important. So, locally you might have seen Dargin’s pub they have a science
night. I think once a month and so they invite a researcher to give a presentation
and so any number of the public you know they come to Dargin’s they order some
food and some drinks, and they listen to the presentation they ask questions
afterward. So that's a great local form of outreach. Some people publish op eds in
newspapers. Some people go on radio shows as a guest or like a Ted talk type
thing. There's also outreach in terms of part of interacting with local NGOs or
local activities. So, for instance there's several different organizations on campus
that work with school kids in the area to get them interested in science. So
outreach doesn't have to be “Here's me here's my research here's my findings” it
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could just be “let's talk about science” and “How can science improve our lives?
Why is that important?”
10. Are there any sources that you rely on to view the most recent discoveries or news in this

field?

“So yeah a variety. The journals where I most typically read the articles that are
most important or relevant to my research. Every time they publish a new issue
they send out a table of contents email that tells people what's in the issue. So, I'm
constantly getting those. Sometimes it's every week sometimes it's every month or
even every quarter. Google Scholar has a setting where every time a paper is
published with certain key words it shows up on the Google Scholar home page.
So that's one way I get notifications. Sigma Zion is a scientific society that
bridges basically every scientific discipline and you know they have little grants
for students and that kind of thing, but they also have a daily, every other day
digest of the science headlines. BBC NPR, New York Times, all of the major
newspapers will also send you e-mail digests of the big news that's happening
based on whatever keywords you programmed into it. Facebook. So, my friends
publish articles even if it's not a topic that I study. It's nice to see what people are
doing in the field. Because I've spent so many years in academia a lot of my
friends are also in academia. So, yes of course we're connected on Facebook and
while we might share information about what our lives are what's happening in
our lives we also share information about our work.”
11. What do you think is a more effective way of writing/explaining the content of the

anthropology (biological) field? Do you have a preference (for articles, scientific

journals, textbooks, etc)?

“Most of our writing for journal articles follows the format of: introduction,
methods, results, discussion but some of the broader journals that reach a large
wide ranging audience and have what we call high impact factor. They're not
structured in that way. They're structured a bit differently and so it's a little bit
hard to make that transition. Personally, when I'm writing about my research. I
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start with sort of simultaneously the results and the methods and then I work on
the discussion and then I work on the intro. So, the way that I write it is not
necessarily the way that I read these articles.”
12. In terms of altruism do you know of any thoughts or ideas that were favored before the

altruism theory and reciprocity theory came into being? Are there any

scientists/anthropologists that disagree with the altruism theory or reciprocity theory?

“Altruism is a form of cooperation and there's a larger literature on cooperation.


There's also a lot of modeling that's been done in terms of when do individuals
choose to cooperate versus defect. What are the conditions that predispose toward
cooperation things like that? So you could look into iterations of the prisoners
game evolution and game theory things like that and I mean the thing to keep in
mind is that we don't just study this in humans we also study this in other animals
and to me one of the more surprising things was there's a professor named
Ridwan Bashari somewhere in England who studies cooperation in cleaner fishes.
These are small fish that as their name implies they do cleaning so larger fish
comes into their territory and they pick the Ecto parasites off of its scales. But
there's this whole cooperative dynamic that happens where you know they prefer
to eat the mucus off the fish, but the fish actually needs the mucus and it kind of
pinches them when they're pulling the mucus off. So, they actually become selfish
and pick the mucus off then the big fish, their dinner fish basically, runs away but
it'll stay put if it's only cleaning off the ecto parasites and there's usually two
cleaner fishes that are working in tandem on a larger fish. So, if one of those
cleaner fishes defects it screws up the dinner for the other guy. So, it's all these
are these complicated strategies that we see in these very sensibly simple fish
right. So, the fact is that there's a lot of attention paid to altruism and cooperation
in humans, but we can look elsewhere for some of the basic principles.”

13. What kinds of problems are being faced in the field today? Where do you see the search
for solutions to these problems going?
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“Oh lots. There is social problems there is research problems there is statistical
problems. So, social problems the whole “me too” thing is also an issue in various
scientific disciplines and one way which that’s particularly relevant for biological
anthropology is that a lot of us do field research like we're not just sitting in front
of our computers on a nice temperature-controlled environment the whole time. A
lot of us work in very remote conditions and we take students out to those places
like field schools’ things of that and in some of these places behavior that is not
considered acceptable here happens out there because it is not under the scrutiny
of the university or the whomever and so there's a lot of the professional societies
in bio anth have started putting out explicit policies saying that they will not
condone this behavior and that as part of those statements they put out a code of
conduct and if a person has been found to breach that code of conduct they're
kicked out of the society. So, universities are often a bit slow to take action on
these fronts and the university’s only concern is protecting itself it's not concerned
with either protecting the victim or, I mean it sounds harsh it is harsh, but really,
they are just concerned about their own liability. So, for instance if there's
something that happens at my field site between two students often times the
person who's most at risk is the professor for being liable because the university
has shoved off all liability. So that being said you can't really rely on the
university to take appropriate action to the correct degree etcetera. but the
professional societies are much more willing to step forward in that regard so
that's a sort of a social issue. There's also on the social front as with so many
aspects of STEM fields you know science technology engineering mathematics,
lack of diversity at many scales so like if you go to these conferences and there's a
panel discussion the people who are invited to the panel discussion up until
recently has been perfectly okay for all of the members of that panel to be senior
white males and so now there's again part of this, another code of conduct in this
society is to say that's not acceptable “We need to have women, we need to have
people from other groups who are underrepresented in science on these panels”
because they are out there but they're not being invited to participate and that's
wasting half the potential of the membership. So those are the big social issues.
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It's not it's not nearly as bad in bio anth as it would be in say physics or chemistry
or something like that, but it still exists. Now in terms of statistics, journals want
to publish interesting research because it gets them more clicks and more views
and more subscriptions and it attracts other high caliber research articles to their
journals. So, what that means is that if I have a study and I don't find statistically
significant results or shocking results or if my study is a replication of one that’s
been done before rather than something new it's less likely to be accepted and
throughout sciences and this I think started in psychology but now there's growing
awareness and other scientific disciplines that this is an issue it's a topic called p
hacking. So, P as in the significance threshold that we see in a lot of statistical
analyses so basically people are looking for statistical results where p is less than
zero point zero five right because then “hey it's publishable you know its
significant.” Based on you know the number of tests that are run per study and the
number of variables in this that and the other we should see a more normal
distribution in p values but what ends up in the journals is a very limited set of p
values it's really only the significant stuff. So, what that's doing is you know a lot
of good science is not getting published and two there is a trend where p values
are inadvertently considered to be more important than the robustness of the
analysis. So, if you don't have enough subjects in your analysis you're actually
more likely to end up with a significant P-value because you get these sorts of
stochastic effects in smaller sample sizes whereas if you have a more
representative sample the answer's less likely to be significant. So more
questionable science gets published as a result of seeking out P-value less than
point five. So that's a statistical thing which generals are now beginning to
address and then in terms of research you know there's all these hypotheses that
are out there and so some research that reaches a conclusion that looks like it's
disproving the hypothesis again is less likely to be published but there's also I
think ,this is sort of my pet peeve, there isn't always enough questioning of the
assumptions underlying these hypotheses. Some of these hypotheses are 20 -30
sometimes even more decades old. So, within my field there's just one particular
model of explaining primate behavior. It's called the primates ecological model.
Delgado 20

Now there's different versions of it but there's one main version that most people
follow, and it seems like there's a lot of really problematic assumptions and
people don't want to talk about this. So that's another issue. Hopefully I'll be
publishing on that soon.”
Delgado 21

Genesis Delgado

Masha Fedorova

Writing 2

6 November 2018

I would appreciate it if you could critique my argument (if one is even required) because I am

not sure if the purpose of this prompt was to focus on the analysis of the literary practices of a

particular field (class course) and simultaneously insert an argument based off that spectrum.

Another specific issue I would like you to look at is my use of evidence. I would like to know if

it is relevant or if I should include more of it, less of it, or otherwise.

Without a doubt, when a student hears the phrase “academic writing” it can immediately

fill them with dread. It is common for individuals to assume that the writing pieces categorized

under “academic writing” will be heavily detailed or lengthy. As a result of this belief many

individuals come to fear or lack interest in these types of writing formats. However, it is not

emphasized that the complexity or simplicity of these writings can depend on the specific area of

focus and the intended audience. An example would be the academic field Biological

Anthropology which in the past few years has definitely attempted to widen their intended

audience. Unlike a majority of the works in this field, the most recent information communicated

has been simplified in a way that the average person could understand it. In specific, the class

that I am enrolled in at UCSB simplifies the intricate field by utilizing analogies and examples in
Delgado 22

the textual forms of communication which allows the common individual to view the world from

a different perspective.

The incorporations of analogies and examples are only the stepping stones of this

favorable format. Recently published books and articles, including the material of the class I am

enrolled in, focus more heavily on the phrasing and defining of ideas which allow the

information to be more easily processed. In the field of biological anthropology, the central focus

is theories. To understand these theories, biological anthropologists first need to explain the

fundamental ideas that all theories fall under. To do so, authors usually define a term or idea in

many different manners so that a general idea forms within the reader and eventually their focus

becomes narrower. For instance, Steven Gaulin in the book, Human Adaptations (2017), dives

into the meaning of natural selection by describing it broadly with a single definition then

describing it as a builder of adaptations and then eventually referring to natural selection as an

architect (p.9-14). This is especially helpful because it is translated from a large more complex

idea into a smaller and more focused definition. By providing different application and

definitions of natural selection, the reader gets a true insight on how this seemingly abstract

theory can apply to our everyday lives by almost personifying natural selection’s role in the

world.

There are other forms of converting these complicated and detailed ideas into simpler

terms within the biological anthropology field and the class itself. Authors can do this by

presenting examples or scenarios for individuals so that they can picture or imagine the idea that

the author wants to get across to them. For instance, when Professor Steven Gaulin claimed that

the theory of altruism, “would be giving some of your food to a hungry person or (assuming that

there was a cost to do so) warning someone of approaching danger” (98). Evidently, the author
Delgado 23

could have easily skipped a clearer definition of altruism by assuming his audience knew what

altruism was based on experience, but he did not because he clearly wanted all of his audience to

vividly understand his point. Defining altruism even for those that may have already recognized

the term, was helpful because it clearly set the platform for the expanded idea of the ongoing

process of altruism in our environment.

Conversely, there are forms of writing in this academic community assume one already

has background information and can often times be challenging to read in contrast to books like

Human Adaptations. In particular, scientific journals such as that if Michael J Reiss suggests that

altruism is the, “giving of aid, a preliminary reading of Darwinism suggests that altruism poses a

challenge to the whole theory of adaptation by natural selection” (p.280). In comparison to

Professor Gaulin’s explanation in his book we can obviously differentiate which one is the

simpler explanation of the theory of altruism. This is not to say that one explanation or form of

defining is better than the other but simply that there is a key difference between the two pieces

of work that pertain to the same academic community.

After reading different types of features of writing in this field it is obvious that there are

different types of audiences targeted. The intended audience can range from intellectuals of that

field to students and even the general public. According to an interview that I conducted with

Biological Anthropology assistant professor, “Some of the journals are really targeted toward

other Bio Anth people but some journals are much more broad and I think that when researchers

are publishing in these broader audience journals the way that the research question is introduced

and described as being important tends to be a little bit different.” Therefore, this field tries to be

very inclusive by providing different forms of readings that can often communicate the same

type of information but in simpler or more prolonged terms. This allows a wide range of people
Delgado 24

to debate and participate in the ongoing scientific discoveries and ideologies. Besides serving as

an informational source, these articles and journals can truly expand an individual’s view and

allow them to approach problems or situations they encounter in a different mode. Thus, there

are many sources available whether it be physical copies or online versions that are at the

disposal of many different groups of people in society.

In short, academic writing consists of many different types of fields or areas of focus in

which the range of complexity, simplicity, and audience may vary. Biological anthropology, in

specific, has become a more comprehensible field of study because of the different approaches

that authors have taken in writing about the field. The incorporation of relatable examples and

simple phrasing has opened the doors for more individuals to study this focus. Through the use

of journals, articles, and books, biological anthropology has been able to introduce its audience

to the tools and knowledge needed to understand the field. Overall, the academic works of the

biological anthropology field can expose many individuals to a different form of viewing their

lives and the lives of other organisms.


Delgado 25

Works Cited

1. Gaulin, Steven J.C. Human Evolution: Processes and Adaption. Fourth ed., Cognella, 2017.

2. Reiss, Michael J. “Altruism's Evolution.” New Blackfriars, vol. 69, no. 817, 1988, pp. 280–
289. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43248234.
Delgado 26

Genesis Delgado

Masha Fedorova

Writing 2

14 November 2018

Undoubtedly, when a student hears the phrase “academic writing,” it immediately fills

them with dread. It is common for individuals to envision the writing pieces under “academic

writing” as detailed and lengthy. As a result, many come to fear or lack interest in these types of

writing genres. However, many fail to acknowledge that academic writing are not that

intimidating. The complexity of academic writing depends on the specific discipline and the

intended audience. For instance, recently Biological Anthropology has definitely attempted to

widen its intended audience. Unlike past works, recent publications have been focusing on

simplifying the writing to make it more accessible to the public. This paper will use the

Biological Anthropology class at UCSB to demonstrate how contemporary scientists strive to

write for the general public by reshaping the structure, phrasing, examples, and analogies used to

explain concepts like altruism. Commented [MOU2]: Great job!

The incorporations of analogies and examples are only the stepping stones of this

favorable format. Recently published books and articles in this field have placed their focus more

heavily on the structure and phrasing of their writing. Due to the fact that the fundamentals of

biological anthropology lie within theories, the common approach by authors nowadays is to

define the theories in many different terms so that they are understood properly by the audience. Commented [MOU3]: This paragraph seems to be out of
place. What’s the main idea of this paragraph?
This new approach has been applied specifically to the topic of altruism. The theory of

altruism itself has confounded various scientists making it a difficult topic to explain.

Nevertheless, Professor Steven Gaulin was able to redefine altruism in such a manner that it
Delgado 27

became an easily comprehensible theory. In his book, Human Adaptations, published in 2017,

Gaulin first defines the term altruism, then briefly discusses the controversy of the topic, and

then finally returns to the discussion of altruism by informing the audience of the two different

forms of altruism (p.98-104). By providing a clear definition at the very beginning of the chapter,

the audience is able to easily follow the argument and reasoning of the author when he claims

that the theory of altruism is a controversy. It is important to note that Gaulin decided to discuss

the two different forms of altruism through the use of two separate chapters because it indicates

that he had the audience’s best interest in mind. If he had chosen otherwise and condensed the

information to fit into one chapter, it could have made it difficult for many readers to distinguish

between the two forms of altruism without an existing gap. Therefore, it can be assumed that the

author truly wanted his audience (a majority of them being students) to thoroughly understand

the differences between the two forms of altruism without feeling rushed into learning both

concepts simultaneously.

On the other hand, older writings in this field structure their writing in such a way that is

not so easily interpreted. For instance, the article, Evolution by Kin Selection, published in 1983

by James M. Cheverud begins the chapter on altruism by first describing the different forms of

altruism and then incorporating scientific experiments to support the analysis of each form of

altruism (p.766). This method definitely requires readers to form a stronger connection to the text

because no clear definition of altruism is provided. Furthermore, a reader must be able to

interpret a lot more information on their own by taking into consideration the results of the

experiments and recognizing the relevance to the form of altruism being discussed. Overall, the

structure and phrasing that a biological anthropology author establishes can truly affect the

impact the writing will have on the readers.


Delgado 28

Besides using structure and phrasing, there are other forms that contemporary biological

anthropologists use to convert complicated and detailed ideas into simpler terms. Scientists

embedding examples into their writing so that the audience can visualize the ideas that he/she Commented [MOU4]: What kind of examples? Use an
adjective here.
wishes to get across to them. For instance, when Gaulin claimed that the theory of altruism,

“would be giving some of your food to a hungry person or (assuming that there was a cost to do

so) warning someone of approaching danger” (p.98). This example of altruism is easily

imprinted in the reader’s mind because it is very likely that the reader encountered a similar

situation where they were inclined to partake in a good deed. As for the writing format itself, the

author obviously believed that a single definition of altruism was insufficient because he chose to

rephrase altruism one again. In addition, his explanation of the kin theory (one such form of

altruism) involves the analogy, “My sibling is, at the genetic level, half of me and I should treat Commented [MOU5]: You talk about analogy in the first
body paragraph, too. Did this paragraph come from this
one? Maybe, it’s more effective to move some sentences in
her accordingly” (p.100). In doing so, the audience is able to better understand the relationship of this paragraph. What do you think?

kinship and the fact that an individual shares ½ of their genes with their siblings. Gaulin’s

personal anecdote not only helps the reader understand the concept of altruism and the role of

genetics but also feel connected to the text because the author is directly speaking to the

audience. Therefore, the author makes is abundantly clear that he wants his audience to

thoroughly understand the topic by providing different perspectives.

Conversely, older texts in this field incorporated examples that were strictly factual to

explain altruism. In the case of Michael J Reiss’, Altruism’s Evolution, the example used to

support the kin selection theory stated, “Hamilton was able to show that the condition for the

spread of altruism through kin selection could succinctly be expressed in a simple equation: b/c

>1/r”(p.282). In other words, the author believed that the best form of explaining the kin

selection theory was through kin selection’s corresponding equation. Unlike Gaulin, the author
Delgado 29

did not choose to use an analogy or any other applicable scenario to allow his audience to

envision the abstract concept in the reader’s so called “real world”. In this case, the author’s goal

was to get his readers to understand the kin theory in a more abstract and quantitative mode

rather than a qualitative conceptual mode.

After reading the many different forms of writing styles in this field, it is obvious that

each distinct form has a certain type of audience targeted. The intended audience varies for each

type but usually it can fall under the following three categories: intellectuals, students, or the

general public. In fact, I discussed this matter with a Biological Anthropology assistant professor

in an interview that I conducted. In regard to the different literacy practices used in her field she

claimed, “Some of the journals are really targeted toward other Bio Anth people but some

journals are much more broad and I think that when researchers are publishing in these broader

audience journals the way that the research question is introduced and described as being

important tends to be a little bit different”(Brown). The essence of this argument is that there

exist inclusive writing formats that can be read and understood by anyone but there are also

writing formats that are exclusively intended for a selected group of individuals. Therefore, the

structure and language used can often be indicators of the group of individuals that are being

targeted.

Needless to say, there is not necessarily a better style of writing that is preferred in this

field, but the new approach, the one that targets a broader audience, definitely holds more

advantages. The new style of writing in this field tries to be more inclusive by providing

different forms of writing that can often communicate the same type of information as older texts

but in simpler or more prolonged terms. This allows a wide range of people to debate and

participate in the ongoing scientific discoveries and ideologies. Besides serving as an


Delgado 30

informational source, these articles and journals can truly expand an individual’s view and allow

them to approach problems or situations they encounter from a different perspective.

In fact, to this day the biological anthropology field continues to expand beyond its

previously set conventions. It is venturing into a new style of teaching in addition to the new

approach to writing. A fitting example of this transition would be the Biological Anthropology

class taught be Professor Gaulin at UCSB. Professor Gaulin has tried to accommodate his

teaching of Biological Anthropology to his student’s needs by providing various resources such

as the textbook, lecture slides, lecture videos, online quizzes, online review, practice problems,

and sections. In doing so, he is allowing his students to learn from many different perspectives

and modes. This is a great advantage for students because if the professor’s main teaching style

does not suit them they can rely on other resources to help them learn the material. Besides this

class as proof, the professor I interviewed was also able to comment on the advancement of the

field specifically here at UCSB. The professor claimed that the anthropology field here is really

trying to invest in public outreach by hosting events open to the community such as Q&A with a

professor, radio show talks, op-eds, ted talks, or interactions with school kids (Brown). The

benefit of committing to this is that everyone regardless of education level can learn more about

the scientific field and how it affects their everyday lives. Admittedly, the old style of writing in

this field is not useless because it does provide meaningful information. However, the older style

of writing in this field fails to match the high benefits and high impact that the new style of

writing promotes in the general population.

In short, academic writing consists of many different types of fields in which the range of

complexity, simplicity, and audience may vary. Biological anthropology, in specific, has become

a more comprehensible field of study because of the different approaches that authors in the
Delgado 31

present day are taking. The incorporation of examples and simple phrasing has opened the doors

for more individuals to study this focus. In the past, this field was restricted to a selected few as

the language, structure, and logic used in them indicated. As a result of straying from the old

conventions, the academic works within the biological anthropology field have gained variation.

In the long run, this new style of writing is exposing more individuals to an anthropological

perspective that they can apply to their lives and the lives of other organisms.
Delgado 32

Works Cited

1. Gaulin, Steven J.C. Human Evolution: Processes and Adaption. Fourth ed., Cognella, 2017.

2. Cheverud, James M. “Evolution by Kin Selection: A Quantitative Genetic Model Illustrated

by Maternal Performance in Mice.” Evolution, vol. 38, no. 4, 1984, pp. 766–777. JSTOR,

JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2408388.

3. Reiss, Michael J. “Altruism's Evolution.” New Blackfriars, vol. 69, no. 817, 1988, pp. 280–

289. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43248234.

4. Brown, Michelle. Personal Interview. 2 Nov. 2018.

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