Scientific Articles - Journeys of a Lifetime

Unseen Text: Journeys of a lifetime: Once your blood was dinosaur pee

Text Type: Scientific Article

Guiding Question: In what ways does the language of this article serve to entertain and persuade its readership?

The following Paper 1 (SL) is a response to the May 2017 examination, Text 1, an article published in the magazine New Scientist. The student’s work reveals a generally excellent understanding of the article. Clearly written, and quite lengthy, it is hard to find much to fault. Nevertheless, it can be worth considering what is absent in this analysis, and whether the student could usefully extend her discussion in particular areas.

SAMPLE RESPONSE:

Text 1 consists of the cover story from the “New Scientist” Magazine and one of the articles contained in the magazine, related to the cover story. The New Scientist magazine appears to be a magazine dealing with scientific topics, which targets an English-speaking audience of teenagers and adults interested and knowledgeable in scientific and technological topics; in view of the language used in both the cover story and the article, it seems safe to assume that the magazine aims at making scientific topics attractive to people who might not necessarily belong to the scientific community. The purpose of the article is to inform and entertain its audience by telling the story of a molecule of water and speculating on its “journey of a lifetime” from the distant past to the present. In my opinion, the texts achieves its purpose by effectively presenting scientific information mixed with an appeal to the imagination and using clear storytelling and even persuasive techniques, as well as an effective structure.

The appeal to the imagination can be first seen in the title of the Cover Story: “The Journey of a Lifetime”. This title complies with a basic rule of article-writing, which is the “attention-grabbing title”. In this case, the title not only catches the attention of the reader, but can be interpreted both in a literal and figurative sense, which makes it very effective: in a literal sense, the article tells the story of the “lifetime” of the water molecule, which is a “journey”, i.e. a voyage in time from one place to another; while in a figurative sense, “the journey of a lifetime” can be interpreted as an extremely exciting journey, which is what the article describes.

The text in the cover story addresses the reader directly in a very persuasive manner, which is coherent with the purpose of the cover story in a magazine: to make the magazine cover attractive to readers in order to persuade them to buy it. The introduction below the title draws the audience into an almost magical world of science and fantasy, with the sentences: “Welcome, weary traveller. You’ve come a long way.” The writer knows that these words will strike a chord in readers’ imagination as they have been used a lot in science fiction and fantasy movies or stories, and are almost stereotypical of these genres.

The first paragraph provides scientific information (“You and the world around you are a temporary arrangement of matter and energy that took many billions of years to assemble”) yet at the same time immediately invites the reader to embark on a journey of the imagination: “Imagine if you could deconstruct it all…”), contributing to this mixture of science and fantastical or magical elements which makes the article entertaining besides informative. The second paragraph uses poetic language (“Incandescent core of stars”) together with astounding information (“Some of the water in our cells has been through dinosaurs”) to sell the article (or magazine, as it is on the cover) to its readers by awakening their curiosity: “Your physical body will eventually return to the stars.” On the other hand, the illustration fulfills the dual purpose of making the cover attractive to prospective buyers and matching the mysterious and fascinating mood created by the text, with a mixture of blue, black, white contrasted with the red of the human head which has what seems to be the moon or a planet as an eye and constellations inside the head. The combination of all these elements make the cover story of the magazine intriguing and attractive to the reader, as well as clearly establishing its relation to scientific topics.

Finally, the cover story persuades the reader directly (“Come with us..”) to read the selection of imaginary journeys contained in the magazine, one of which is the text in question, “Once your blood was dinosaur Urine”.

Again, this title fulfills the persuasive, informative and entertaining purpose of the text and brings a scientific topic to the level of readers who might not necessarily have a scientific background, making it even appealing to young people: the words “Dinosaur”, “blood” and “Urine” work as hooks for readers, who are led to want to find out how this surprising statement can be true. The dark background of the title also contributes to making the title appealing.

The subheadings in pink give the impression that they will be present in all the “selection of imaginary journeys” in the magazine and will describe who the “traveller” is, where it comes from, where it is going and what the duration of the “journey “has been, providing the link between all the stories and the “journey of a lifetime”, which encompasses them.

The journey of Water, in this case, is told like a story, with a clear sequence of events in the journey marked by sequencing words (And so… “In subsequent millennia…”) in the different paragraphs, and language that intends to appeal to the reader’s imagination and make the story exciting through the use of facts (“Water’s journey began 4 billion years ago”) and figurative language (“Hellish” “pummeled by a relentless rain of comets”) intended to make the narrative interesting and in a way, magical. This magical mood is in part achieved through the personification of the water molecule, who “skirted continents” and “found itself” on the sea and the narration of the adventures it goes through. The water molecule is the main character in the story and its importance is highlighted by phrases such as “keeping them alive” and “now it can perform the most important role Earth has found for it…” An interesting element to note is the use of the passive voice in order not to draw readers’ attention from the water as the main character in the story or journey: the actions that are not performed by the molecule are in the passive voice (the pine is felled, the paper is printed, it is cut folded and stapled) whereas the actions performed by the molecule are in the active voice (“the water molecule sits”, “it waters a pine tree.”) This is an effective combination of journalistic style with storytelling elements.

Further evidence of the article’s purpose to inform and at the same time entertain through an appeal to the imagination are the storytelling elements in the language, such as “And so, our molecule…” and the personification of animals as in “a brontosaurus cranes its neck down for a drink.” On the other hand, the informative/scientific elements can be seen in plain statements such as “it forces DNA, proteins and other cell membranes in to the correct shapes to function”, which assume that the target audience has an understanding of scientific processes. This is coherent with the purpose and audience of a scientific magazine.

In order to keep the story interesting and entertaining, the writer effectively mixes colloquial language (“the game is up”) with more elaborate language that appeals to fantasy and the imagination: “In subsequent millennia, our molecule finds its way into a whale’s brain, an Antarctic ice sheet, a glass of water and a human heart.” This listing covers very different creatures and objects that can be visualized by readers. The use of visual images is also present all throughout the article (“molecules trapped inside them”, “roils around the beast’s digestive system”), contributing to its effectivity in narrating the “journey” of the water.

The article is structured in six paragraphs and the ending of the “journey” (and the article itself) wraps up this mysterious and fantastical mood created all along the article by closing the circle of the journey in its last sentence, with a surprising ending (“this very one”.) which ties the past to the present. It is very effective because it is unexpected and also connects the story to readers themselves in the precise moment they are reading the words.

To conclude, Text 1 is, in my opinion, extremely effective in its dual purpose to attract readers and persuade them to buy the magazine through the language and illustration employed in the cover story and to present scientific theories in an attractive and entertaining way by telling a story and creating a mysterious and fantastical mood that awakens the reader’s imagination.