Hawthorne, CA 90250

ebanuelos@ucsb.edu
(310)-529-0189

December 9, 2019

Joshua Smith, Writing 2

University of Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA

Dear Mr. Smith,

My name is Eric Banuelos and I have recently submitted Writing Project 2 with a focus
on the discipline of Chemistry. I believe I should receive an A on Writing Project 2 because I
was able to produce a thesis-driven paper that reproduces the conventions of my chosen
discipline.
In order to reproduce the conventions of my chosen discipline I first had to research what
those conventions were. This was achieved by looking at various academic pieces found within
the discipline and identifying recurring traits. Then I had to compose a piece of writing that
reproduced all of the identified traits and also explain what those conventions are.
In order to understand how I reproduced the conventions of the discipline it is important
to look at the writerly decisions I made. Looking at the abstract I understood that the purpose of
this section was to promptly deliver a simple overview of what the article should be about. I did
my best to keep the paragraphs short and get straight to the point. I ended the paragraph by
stating what we will be looking at in the rest of the article. I also did it using direct language that
easily allows the reader to understand the goal of the article. Within the chemistry articles I
looked at they all tried to state what they were going to be about without wasting too much time
on detail in this section.
Another example of my writerly decisions is when I write “Looking at figure 1 below
you can see proof of the extravagant use of color and the textbook-esk style.” This statement is
incredibly important to the discipline of chemistry because this is how the discipline refers to
evidence. Chemistry is a STEM based discipline that deals with lots of data and figures. So when
figures are used in a report they are labeled as “Figure X” and then referenced by the assigned
name. Then it is stated whether the figure is above or below the current text as to allow the
reader and easier time finding it.
By making smart writerly decisions referencing the articles I researched I was able to
recreate the conventions of the discipline in my piece, and for this reason deserve and A.

Sincerely,
Eric Banuelos
Writing Project 2 Investigation of the
Writing Conventions Found Within the
Chemistry Discipline
Abstract:
The conventions of writing change
dramatically depending on the discipline the
writing is affiliated with. Every discipline
has unique standards that make the writing
of that discipline unique. In this
investigation, we will be looking at the field
of Chemistry and the writing conventions
which allow it to best convey information to
its intended audience. We will look at: the
writing conventions of the discipline -
Chemistry. What qualifies as “good” writing
in the context of the academic community.
What kind of evidence the community
utilizes, and how individuals from the
discipline utilize these kinds of writing
conventions.
Background/Introduction
A writing convention is not a rule of
writing. A writing convention is a
characteristic of writing that is commonly
found within a specific style of writing. It is
simpler to compare writing conventions to
the expectations of others. When you are out
in public people expect you to behave in a
manner appropriate to whatever you are
doing. When you don’t behave in a manner
that is expected of you, everyone thinks you
are weird and no longer wants anything to
do with you. Writing is the same. When you
are writing an academic paper, it is expected
that the writing is professional and
appropriately worded, if the paper didn’t
meet this criteria not only would you fail the
assignment but your teacher probably
wouldn’t even read it. If you were writing a
letter to your grandmother the conventions
would be very different than in an academic
paper, the tone would be warmer and the
overall letter would be more personal. She
wouldn’t want a rigid and cold academic
letter. There are differences just as
significant within disciplines as well. When
writing for a specific discipline it is
important to recognize the conventions of
the discipline. It is only when these
conventions are properly understood that an
individual is able to create a piece of writing
that nicely fits within the standards of the
discipline.
Basic Conventions
It is important to first identify the
kind of Chemistry Paper you are reading.
Writing in Chemistry is often broken down
into three main types: a Literature Review,
Research Proposal, Research Paper. For this
paper, we will be focusing mainly on the
conventions of a Research Paper. The Goal
of a Research paper is to give the author an
opportunity to present/communicate their
research to other members of the
discipline(The Audience). The subject
matter is the experiment or investigation that
was made by the chemists authoring the
paper. The authors are chemists or other
academics with an understanding of
chemistry.
 By understanding the rhetorical
scenario that the discipline is often
associated with we can understand why
there are certain recurring characteristics.
One important trait is the use of
advanced jargon specific to the field. By
using terms specific to the field the authors
are able to better explain their findings. If
the authors were restricted to the linguistic
capabilities of 5th graders they would be
hard-pressed to deliver an explanation of
their findings.
The most important convention is the
way these types of articles reference
evidence. Many articles seem to be
formatted as if they were meant for a
textbook. This is because while information
in a lab report is simply a record of the
experiment, a Research report is a display of
the finding that is meant for others to see.
Looking at figure 1 below you can see proof
of the extravagant use of color and the
textbook-esk style.
Figure 1
Use of Evidence
When it comes to the use of evidence
is when the conventions for the discipline of
chemistry become really distinct. Research
reports are mainly used as a way for
chemists to publicize their findings for other
chemists to utilize. They are usually based
on work that the authoring chemists have
done themselves. As such they contain a
substantial amount of evidence. Any
statement that the chemists make they can
simply back up with the research they did
themselves. They also do there best to not
only provide evidence but to provide
substantial evidence. Looking at figure 2
below it is clear just how much evidence
chemists use.
Figure 2
Sometimes they also include small
descriptions of the image in a fashion similar to notes
in order to explain a particular figure.
—————————————————————-
Looking at the figure it is clear to see that
kind of evidence that chemists use is unique
to the discipline as well. Instead of using a
quote they use figures.
There are two major reasons for the
use of this kind of evidence. Unlike most
other disciplines, Chemistry is a STEM
based discipline. This means that the order
between finding evidence and coming to a
conclusion happens in that order. First
research is done and then based on the trend
discovered in the research a conclusion is
reached. The second reason they use figures
is that the people writing is meant for these
figures contain actual meaning. The figures
are usually graphs that display the gathered
information which allow readers to at a
glance come to similar conclusions as the
Chemists themselves.
Layout of Information
The layout if Information within
research reports is also a key characteristic.
As the information within Research Reports
can be very dense it is best to break it down
into categories. If the information was in a
single block of text it could be very
overwhelming. In order to better convey the
findings of the research, and to preserve
some of the readers sanity it is important for
the author to layout the information in a
specific manner. Looking above at figure 1
it is clear to see that within chemistry the
most common way to lay out information is
to break it up into clearly defined sections
that create a defined structure. Since most
reports have a similar layout it becomes easy
for the reader to quickly navigate to the
section of the writing that they want. If the
reader just wants to read the conclusion of
the paper they already know that they can
just jump to the end of the paper.
For most research papers the common layout
is: Introduction, Results and Discussion,
Conclusion, Citations. The introduction also
commonly contains an abstract but the main
purpose is to provide a basic understanding
of the experiment. The Results and
Discussion are sections that contain the
experiment itself and what the findings of
the experiment were. The conclusion
contains and conjectures or interpretations
that the researchers have about the
information, and the Citations are simply
citations for any additional information.
What is “Good Writing” for the
Discipline
Clarity is one of the key points of
writing in chemistry. Sentences must be
concise and to the point. The information
being conveyed in the paper is so complex
that if the author were to make the sentences
even more complicated, the meaning of the
findings would surely be lost. It is important
to allow the reader to digest the dense
information being conveyed. It would make
writing in chemistry useless if no one was
able to understand what was being said in
the paper.
The paper must have chronological
formating. Once again this focuses on
making sure the reader is able to understand
the information being presented to them. If
the paper is well formatted the reader will be
able to more easily digest the information
and the findings of the authors will become
more likely to be accepted by the
community they are submitting their
findings to.
There must also be a significant amount of
evidence. The author is trying to prove
something regarding an experiment that they
performed. They should have any and all
data they could possibly need to prove their
point.
All of these characteristics seem to say that,
“Good” writing in chemistry is clear and
concise, with substantial evidence to support
any and all claims. By looking at figure 3
below you can see once again that the
authors try their best to incorporate evidence
that proves their claim.
of the things the author does to share there
findings best demonstrate the goals of the
writing found within the discipline of
chemistry. In the future, it would be better to
look at a much wider spread of articles in
order to better understand the conventions of
the discipline.

Citations
Keith Voeller, Honza Bílek, Jasmine Kreft, Alžběta 
Dostálková, Evguenii Kozliak, and Alena Kubátová 
ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering 2017 5 ​ ​ (11), 
10334-10341 
DOI: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.7b02392

https://www.southwestern.edu/live/files/4169-guide-for-writin
g-in-chemistry.pdf
Used mainly to highlight information that was already
present in the writing.

Compilation of work: Eric Banuelos

Conjectures/Connections: Eric Banuelos
Written by: Eric Banuelos

Figure 3

Conclusion
One can clearly see that the writing
conventions of Chemistry, are geared to
better convey information from the
researcher/author to their audience. By
making the layout of information clear, and
by justifying all of their claims with
evidence the author writes in a way that
clearly conveys information. By avoiding
convoluted language and complex
sentences, and instead delivering the
information in short sentences allows the
authors share what they want to convey.All