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1
Yilun Feng
Writing 2
Matt Wilson
Spring 2016
Education in Different Disciplines
Education never fails to attract publics attention. It directly influences the quality
and the quantity of researchers and institutions, and therefore indirectly affects the
comprehensive national strength, which contributed to Gross National Happiness.
Different disciplines developed different methods to study educations functions and
influences. Economists focus more on figuring out the relationship between the
investment in education and the growth of economics. In Institutions, Education and
Innovation and Their Impact on Economic Growth, Miroljub Shukarov and Kristina
Mari tended on talking about this relationship by combining theoretic analysis and
experimental results. Sociologists care more about how education influence the whole
society. In An Introduction to Educational Sociology, the author, Walter Robinson
Smith, tended to use examples in daily life to help illustrate this idea. Because the first
essential rule in Economics is assuming that people are rational, economists are
good at concluding from their analyzation of datas to convince their audiences.
Sociologists do better in analyzing the relationship between several social
phenomenon, because Sociology requires people find the most trivial connection
between two phenomenon. In general, articles in Economics and Sociology differ for
their different disciplines traits.
To be more rational, economists prefer using combination of analysis and datasets
to introduce concepts or their research results to the audiences. Using cool firm and

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calm tone to analyze the definition, associated with the results of experiment, make it
easier to persuade audiences and make audiences understand what authors want to
convey thoroughly. In Institutions, Education and Innovation and Their Impact on
Economic Growth, Miroljub Shukarov and Kristina Maric used both literature and
statistical analysis. The article built project on whether the degree of institutional
development in countrys educational system is sufficient enough to create prospects
for economic growth. Using data analyzations as examples to support authors main
idea: education contributes a lot to economic growth, not only makes sure audiences
can understand those concepts, but also enhances audiences interests in reading, since
we must admit that reading an article filled with concepts is boring. The authors of the
Economic Journal used comparison of non-European and countries as research
objects. Choosing four countries instead of just choosing one country from each union
to compare prevents the accidental phenomena and makes the datasets, which means,
the authors were striving for accuracy and precision. This matches main idea of
rational people: only accurate datasets and analyzation can convince their
audiences. The authors perform two kinds of analyzations from the comparison: one
is just comparing the statistical data, and another is comparing the HDI (Human
Development Index) of the four countries of, which is one of the results from their
experiment. Comprehensive comparison is a great way to make the article
considerable and credible.
Instead of focusing on datas and evidence, monograph in Sociology
put more effort on explaining the definitions and using examples help illustrate. How
the author of An introduction to Educational Sociology, Walter Smith, talked about
why education and the society are closely linked can be a great example. First, he

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showed the truth that it is impossible for an individual to be trusted to educate
himself. Then, he introduced that there are only three kinds of education the society
can provide for an individual: group education, mass education, and school education.
Excluding the influence of self-education, the rest of education all related to the
society. So that the author assumed that Society has adopted universal compulsory
education to protect itself (11) when considerings that the government need to use
education to socialize individuals. Through this example, we can figure out that
sociologists get their conclusion by connecting several social phenomena with the
associated sociological theory, and sorting out a reasonable logical relationship
between these phenomena. Sociologists research objects are the whole group of
individuals and the society. Many sociologists aim to conduct research that may be
applied directly to social policy and welfare, while others focus primarily on refining
the theoretical understanding of social processes. The tones of sociological articles
vary for their audiences and purposes: articles written for individuals use plain words
for its purpose of introducing and spreading scientific knowledge; those written for
the public, mainly for the government, always sharply point the problems in the
society, and give the government advises with a serious tone. Walter Smith used easily
understood words to introduce the educational sociology to those who unfamiliar with
sociology. For example, when he mentioned the mission of educational sociologists,
he wrote that, Our curricular are being worked over to introduce more sociological
material, and each study is going through the process of socialization. Even school
discipline is ceasing to be individualistic and domineering and is becoming social and
democratic. He used a soft and gentle tone, analyzed and discussed by first person to
encourage audiences to keep up with him, follow his chain of thoughts and discuss

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their own comments with him.
The different traits between the two disciplines determine the scholars different
research methods and conventions of articles. The authors of economic journals like
listing the data to invite audiences to discuss their results of investigation and write
down their progress of analyzation to invite audience follow their trains of thought
and point out the mistakes and shortcomings. Economists love to use evidence to
convince their audiences. The authors of sociological monographs tend to persuading
their audiences by logically analyzing related social phenomenon. Due to the main
purpose is to study the social behavior, sociologists do better in writing critically for
the government and introduce clearly to the individuals. The differences between the
two words convince and persuade may be the main differences between the two
disciplines.

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Works Cited
Shukarov, Miroljub, and Kristina Maric. "Institutions, Education and Innovation and
Their Impact on Economic Growth." Interdisciplinary Description of Complex
Systems : Interdiscip. Descr. Complex Syst. 14.2 (2016): 157-64. Web.

Stalcup, Benjamin F., and Walter Robinson Smith. "An Introduction to Educational
Sociology." Journal of Educational Sociology 3.6 (1930): 372. Web.