Running Head: Genre Analysis 1

Concussions

Isaac Perezchica

University of Texas at El Paso

Professor Drapes

RWS 1302
Running Head: Genre Analysis 2

Concussions

In today’s athletic events injuries are part of the game. Injuries are impacting sports in a

dramatic way. A great example may be Bryce Harper in Major League Baseball. As his team

was favored to win it all up until his injury, and once he returned he was not the same for the

remainder of the season. Athletes are getting hurt at such a high rate, and it is affecting athlete’s

careers. Doctors are discovering more ways and new successful surgeries, for this allowing

athletes to return quicker and stronger than ever before. Athletes are able to recover faster from

ACL, MCL, ankles injuries, back sprains, etc., but yet can’t seem to find the answer for a more

serious sort of injury. Doctors are yet to find an answer to concussions. Concussions is a brain

injury caused by a blow to the head or chronic injury to the head or body. It is a dangerous

injury affecting the careers and more importantly, the lives of many people. Symptoms found

due to concussions include confusion, headache, memory loss, nausea, dizziness, vomiting,

sleepiness, etc. Many people are suffering from head trauma after they finish their careers and

some people are even losing their lives due to the severity of their concussions. This issue is

being studied by two different sorts of genres exclaiming the issues with concussions and the

affect they have. In an article made by Kevin Guskiewicz, it discusses the effects of concussions

on college football players. While a video made by the Nucleus Medical Media, discusses what

is the brain and how much damage is done by concussions and the possible symptoms coming

from them. These genres are critical to this topic and will used throughout this paper

Audience and Purpose

In Kevin Guskiewicz article titled, “Cumulative Effects Associated with Recurrent

Concussion in Collegiate Football Players”, it has a typography genre. This article uses an
Running Head: Genre Analysis 3

experiment over multiple collegiate football seasons to measure the amount of concussions

football players may have over a season or even a career; furthermore, they go more in detail by

investigating the time it may take to recover from the severity of these concussions, the process

that may come from recovering from this process, and the symptoms that may occur due to the

severity of the concussion or the amount of concussions an individual may have received. The

other genre found is Iconography, which is found in the video by the Nucleus Medical Media

titles “Concussion/ Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)”. In this video they begin by explaining the

concept of the brain, and the function behind the brain. It then changes its course by describing

how a concussion or a traumatic brain injury can change the aspects of the brain and change the

perspective on one’s daily life.

The articles intended audience would be collegiate team doctors, trainers, players, and

team hospitals who treat these athletes. Given the intended audience, people may assume that

they audience understands what a concussion is and a few side effects behind them. As for the

video, the intended audience would be people suffering from concussions, who may not be aware

of what they do to one’s head. Doctors and trainers understand what a concussion is and the

damage it does to the head. As for the athletes, they don’t seem to understand the severity of

stepping out onto that field every single night; therefore, it is important for these athletes to at

least be aware of how our heads work and the significant damage a concussion may do to the

brain. In the article people are seeing the results of experiments and get a chance to view the

amount of damage these athletes must live with every day. People view what these concussions

are doing to these collegiate athletes. As oppose to the video, which is informing any individual

who is interested on how the brain functions and the effect a concussion has on one’s head.
Running Head: Genre Analysis 4

Each of these genres require a different amount of attention than the other. One of these

genres is an article, meaning it will require more time to go through the article and gain an

understanding of the main points the author is trying to come across. Viewers would usually

spend anywhere from fifteen to twenty minutes to read and comprehend the article. The second

genre, which is the TBI and concussions video, happens to run around five minutes long, but

some viewers may want to take some time to take in what they just read in order to fully

appreciate the concept.

These two genres do share one thing in common, which in this case would be the

purpose. The purpose of these articles is to inform. They want to be able to inform the reader,

viewer, and/or listener what really goes through folk’s heads, and the struggles some of these

citizens must deal with in there every day life. Each of the genres do have their own ways to

encounter this idea, for example, the article uses experiments, statistics, and evidence to support

his claims and the issues behind concussions. The author even describes how he went about

testing the experiment. He tested on, two thousand nine hundred and five athletes over the span

of three collegiate football seasons. These athletes were monitored over the courses from 1999-

2001 seasons, and were examined on a specific time frame until the 2001 season came to an end.

As for the video, they use images and examples to display to the viewer how the brain functions

and lacks function as these things occur. The video starts by showing images of the brain and

discussing how each part of the brain functions and its purpose to our daily lives. As the video

continues it begins to discuss what concussions and tramatic brain injury (otherwise known as

TBI) really are. It then goes into more detail by showing a visual representation of the brain, and

displays the effect of each part of the brain has once a concussion has indeed occurred. These

two sources of genre have their own distinct way of demonstrating the effects of concussions, but
Running Head: Genre Analysis 5

both have the same idea/message, which is to inform the viewers of the consequences of these

durable hits.

Rhetorical Issues

Each of these genres have rhetorical issues meaning the follow the ethos, pathos, and

logos, but have a different way of showing it.

Ethos

In the first genre the author displays his methods and process as to going through his

project. He examined the time table and symptoms that come off the concussions over a span of

three collegiate seasons. The author separates parts of the article, which made it easier to

establish credibility; meaning he separates his evidence to his points and finds the correct way to

support his claims. As well as starting the article with the topic and discussing his results. Then

he takes the reader through the process as to how he got the solutions shown earlier in the paper.

As for the video, it discusses the points of the brain before and after the results of a concussion.

It establishes its credibility with the visual representations, and taking the spectator step by step

as to what may possibly be affected in the brain.

Pathos

The author doesn’t seem to show any emotion throughout the article in the first genre. If

anything, the author strikes fear into a collegiate athlete due to the severity of the solid hits to the

head. Kevin does this with his statistical numbers, for the numbers strike a bit a fear and wonder

as to whether playing this entertaining sport is worth the possible consequences. As for the

second genre, the video displays caution and worry throughout the video. It does this after it

discusses how important the brain and its parts are to the body, and how difficult it may be to

resume to our everyday lives once difficult contact to the head occurs.
Running Head: Genre Analysis 6

Logos

The first genre applies logos with its high vocabulary of the brain and its possible

symptoms. The article has words such as concussion, neurological function, amnesia,

consciousness, disturbance of vision, equilibrium, and biomechanical forces. It uses this high

vocabulary words and even words like this creates concern in the reader as to whether or not the

contact sport is worth it. As for the video, the language is formal due to the fact that it is

informing the audience about concussions. It uses high vocabulary words as well, and shows its

meaning behind it with the visual images.

Structure and Delivery

In the first genre the author begins the article by discussing what is it he will be

experimenting. He then goes into detail as if it were a science project. Guskiewicz goes into his

abstract of the paper, which is a brief summary of it all. Once done with that he goes into the

procedures and methods necessary to resolve the topic. Kevin did an excellent job of taking the

reader into his project to show the problems in collegiate football in terms of concussions. The

author wrote freely in order to support the main topic, and providing good textual evidence,

which made it easy to facilitate its purpose. In the second genre, the Nucleus Medical Media did

an excellent job of displaying the effects of TBI. It brilliantly showed the viewer what the brain

was and how significant every aspect of the brain is to the human body using visual images.

Afterwards, they went into what a concussion and TBI are and the effect that has on the brain

and its significant aspects of the brain. It demonstrates the way one lives after receiving a

concussion, and supports its claims with facts and statistics before closing the video. The video

runs freely as well and supports all its claims.

Conclusion
Running Head: Genre Analysis 7

Both genres supported the claims of the topics in their own ways. The first genre relied

more on fear to get its point across to the reader as oppose to the second genre who used more

caution and visual images. Each were able to send a message that concussions aren’t a thing to

take nicely. It is a dangerous injury that need to be paid more attention too.

References

Guskiewicz KM, McCrea M, Marshall SW, Cantu RC, Randolph C, Barr W, Onate JA, Kelly JP.
Cumulative Effects Associated With Recurrent Concussion in Collegiate Football PlayersThe
NCAA Concussion Study. JAMA.2003;290(19):2549–2555. doi:10.1001/jama.290.19.2549

Nucleus Medical Media. (2012, March 14). Concussions/ Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
[Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55u5Ivx31og&t=46s