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Sandy Hoang
Zack De Piero
Writing 2
9 February 2015
Effects of Alcohol on Sleep
Alcohol isnt the best tasting drink out there. However, it is consumed not for its taste,
but for the aftereffects of being drunk and forgetting reality. Consequently, there are many
negative effects on the body of consuming alcohol such as causing a liver damage, increasing
risk of cancer, and disturbing sleep. There are many articles from non-academic to academic
texts in circulation, warning people about the negative effects of alcohol such as This is What
Alcohol Does to Your Sleep from Time Magazine and Surgical Dexterity After a Night Out
on the Town from ANZ Journal of Surgery. Even though both the academic and non-academic
texts have different purposes, they are both successful in appealing to their respective audience
because of its use or presentation, evidence, and language.
Presentation is very important in conveying the information in the most effective way
possible through physical features like formatting. The academic and non-academic text uses
different methods of presentation that will appeal to each audience. The academic text was from
a scholarly journal and is more of a research article, explaining the results of their experiment,
which tested the effects of alcohol with lack of sleep on the performance of surgeons. There are
many sections to it with subtitles explaining exactly what the focus of each paragraph is. Graphs
are also shown to display all the data from the experiment. The non-academic article is just from
a magazine and contains fairly short paragraphs. There is also one sentence in bold on top that
says Its a favored way to end a hectic day, but a drink before bed can disrupt your sleep,

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which is intended to serve as a hook and capture the audiences attention. The academic article is
a lot more professional since it is neatly organized and looks more formal. On the other hand, the
non-academic article is on a webpage and is more casual since there are many advertisements on
the side and contains more color than the article from the scholarly journal. All these conventions
set different effects for each article mainly because they are trying to appeal to different
audiences. The academic journal is more professional and densely packed with information since
it is intended mostly for experts, scholars, and doctors while the magazine article can be for
anyone to enjoy. Every move and convention that contributes to the presentation helps the
author appeal to the audience.
The moves of the two pieces further show how each has a different audience they are
catering their article to. Even though both articles are on the same topic of how alcohol affects
sleeps, their purposes are slightly different. The purpose of the non-academic article was to
describe the effect of alcohol with evidence from an outside research experiment while the
academic article was to describe the effect of alcohol intake on surgical dexterity with an actual
experiment. This made the academic journal have much more detail while the non-academic
article just highlights the main points. The academic journal focused more on explaining all their
data so they used a lot of roman numerals within the paragraph to emphasize a list of points.
There are also many footnotes that refer to the references section because it is important to give
credit for information from other sources and it gives the writers credibility. Both articles use
parentheses in their writing, but they serve different purposes. The academic journal would use
them to explain a concept more or in a different way while the non-academic journal would use
them for side comments or to give more detail. Since the academic article is intended to explain
the experiment, it was more direct and went through the steps of how exactly they went about

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their experiment. The magazine article was more casual and contained slang such as hitting the
sack as a more casual way of saying sleeping. There was also some incomplete sentences, and
phrases that would start with but. This would appeal much more to a reader who was reading
this article recreationally. Each article has to carefully choose certain moves to effectively appeal
to their audience.
In order to fully convince the audience, writers need to use effective and sufficient
evidence to support their claims. Both the academic and non-academic texts rely on evidence
from a variety of sources to show how alcohol affects sleep. The magazine article based its claim
on the research of Christian Nicholas of University of Melbourne in the journal Alcoholism:
Clinical & Experimental Research. This was the only source this author used is her article, but
she refers back to him several times. She used quotes from Christian Nicholas and briefly
explained the experiment he did as his research. Using evidence from an actual researcher gives
Park credibility for her work and will lead her audience into believing what she has to say in her
article.
While the magazine article uses an outside research experiment as a source of evidence,
the article from the scholarly journal is an actual experiment. This article gets its evidence and
information mainly from primary evidence, actually finding the information firsthand. In
Introduction to Primary Research: Observation., it defines this as primary research, which is
based on principles of the scientific method and allows researchers [to] develop research
questions or hypotheses and collect data on events, objects, or people that is measurable,
observable, and replicable (Driscoll 97). This experiment tests out five surgeons in three
situations where they had no alcohol and a full nights sleep, alcohol and a full nights sleep, and
alcohol and little sleep. This allows researchers to see exactly the role alcohol has on sleep in

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these controlled environments by observing the subjects. This academic article also uses outside
sources for information pertaining to the experiment so that it can explain more of other
concepts. The evidence used for both the academic and non-academic articles are pretty similar
in that they use evidence from credible sources in order to make their arguments more
persuasive.
Both texts are able to incorporate a language that is familiar and easily understood by
each audience. There is also a lot of jargon that only experts in that field would understand. As
defined by Janet Boyd, jargon is the terminology used by those in a particular profession or
group to facilitate clear and precise communication excluding those outside of the community
who do not understand the meanings of the words (Boyd 38). As a result, this would be used
carefully to accommodate to the same language of the desired audience. In contrast, the article
from Time Magazine is meant for a casual read that anybody can understand since it sets a more
conversational and easy tone in its piece. There are some jargons in this article, but it makes sure
to define every vocabulary word or concept to make sure most people can understand. Each
piece includes different conventions and rhetorical features because these articles are different
genres and have different goals.
Non-academic texts and academics texts are usually written for different purposes even if
they are on the same topic. Although there are still quite a few similarities, there are certain
features that one has and the other doesnt. Non-academic texts can give quick, easy information
to the public unlike academic texts that go more in depth and more often found in research
universities or libraries. The article in Time magazine is easier to acquire since it can be found in
any local market or drugstore whereas the academic text needs a little more effort to search for.
Almost anybody can be attracted to non-academic texts because it is fast and easy to read. It

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doesnt require much knowledge about the context and it provides as a quick read-through for the
main points. The article I chose does exactly this by having simple language and it is short and
concise. It serves its purpose as a light, easy read that is entertaining, yet informative.
Scholars and professionals would be more interested in the academic source because it
gives much more detailed points and actual data to back up the explanations. The lack of detail
makes the non-academic text more effective since the readers just want to get a gist of it.
However, the same thing would make the academic text less appealing because the research
article is supposed to be heavily dependent on the details. The point of the academic article is to
describe in detail of all the results of the experiment and analyze the results while the nonacademic article is mainly a short analysis. The non-academic and academic texts have their
strengths and weaknesses when compared to each other where one text is better than the other,
but all of these choices are made depending on who their intended audience is. As Stedman in
Annoying Ways People Use Sources, one of the fundamental ideas of rhetoric is that
speakers/writers/composers shape what they say/write/create based on what they want it to do,
where theyre publishing it, and what they know about their audience/reader (Stedman 150). All
the elements described earlier work together as rhetoric with the audience in mind to appeal to
them in the most effective way.
As shown, This is What Alcohol Does to Your Sleep and Surgical Dexterity After a
Night Out on the Town are each comprised of different conventions and moves, but they are
both able to be successful in appealing to their intended audiences. Both articles use rhetoric
elements that fit for their audience. Some conventions and moves will work for one piece, but
wont work for the other because some things will attract certain people while others wont.
Non-academic texts allow almost anyone to be allowed to read it, but academic texts are more

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geared towards experts in that field. This is similar to the way we speak towards certain people,
where we would adjust what we are saying to fit the situation. We wouldnt talk to our mothers
that way we talk to our peers. Language is adjusted based on the audience to effectively get our
intentional message across while still be respected.

Works Cited
Boyd, Janet. "Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking)." Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. By
Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky. Vol. 1. Anderson, South Carolina.: Parlor, 2011. N.
pag. Print.
Driscoll, Dana Lynn. "Introduction to Primary Research: Observations, Surveys, and
Interviews." Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. By Charles Lowe and Pavel
Zemliansky. Vol. 2. Anderson, South Carolina.: Parlor, 2011. N. pag. Print.
Kocher, Hemant M., Jane Warwick, Reyad Al-Ghnaniem, and Ameet G. Patel. "Surgical
Dexterity After A 'Night Out On The Town'" ANZ Journal of Surgery 76.3 (2006): 11012. Web. 9 Feb. 2015.
Park, Alice. "How Booze Messes With Your Sleep." Time. Time, 16 Jan. 2015. Web. 9 Feb.
2015. <http://time.com/3671777/drinking-sleep/>.
Stedman, Kyle D. "Annoying Ways People Use Sources." Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing.
By Charles Lowe and Pavel Zemliansky. Vol. 2. Anderson, South Carolina.: Parlor, 2011.
N. pag. Print.