The American psychologist journal, experts
Discourse communities are groups of people that use the same language to communicate. This language is usually specialist and thus leaves the other members of the general community out. For example, while reading an engineering paper, the reader has to have a dictionary if they are not a member of the engineering community. This is true for almost all disciplines. Since all disciplines use written language to express themselves, then their identity is found in their written works.
The relevance of this explanation of a discourse community is in explaining the language used in the Journal. This paper has already shown that it is intentioned for psychologists or people with a psychological background. Therefore, the language used in the journal has to be a reflection of this discourse community. Before 2009 (B. Anderson, 2013), when the journal adopted the philosophy of welcoming all people who wished to read it, the articles were written in specialist language that was hard to understand for new readers. After the new policies, the language barriers lessened. However, reading the Journal still requires a level of understanding psychological terms, otherwise the articles lack a flow. However, there are explanations of certain terms, though this is rare.
[...] This is the reaon why important APA documents are published in the journal. However, the other articles in the journal are written in relatively easy to understand language and are therefore easy to understand for the rest of the population. For example, teachers may enjoy portions of the journal because they have been trained in educational psychology, though they are not members of the APA. The discourse community targeted by this journal is therefore wider that the average scholarly journals. [...]
[...] For example, the American Psychologist was criticized for its lack of identity after the change. Though it is still among the most cited journals in psychology, its earlier audience finds the new version less academic, and thus looks for alternative journals. The articles are tight and linear. They start by establishing a pattern and then proceeding to make a claim and prove the claim. The claims made by the authors are proven through research data presented in the articles. This data is analyzed in terms of integrity and weaknesses before a trend is established. [...]
[...] Therefore, the absence of a specific audience and a specialized language is the biggest weakness of the American Psychologist' Journal. There are huge shifts in the monitored period. For example, the journal began targeting a larger audience and using simpler language after 2009 (B. Anderson, 2013). In addition, the writing style changed from functional and academic to practical. For example, more articles in the journal focus on the effects of psychological phenomenon on real life experiences. References B. Anderson, Norman. [...]
[...] The articles rotate around psychology. This view is also presented by the mission statement of the journal, as shown earlier in this paper. The articles in the journal mainly use the third person presentation. This is ion part due to the requirements of scholarly writing as well as the policy of the journal. However, articles by staff members are presented in the first person format. They address things such as internal policies. On the other hand, articles have to be scholarly and peer reviewed. [...]
[...] These are the characteristic of scholarly articles. The readers do not need graphic representations, especially where it is a useful form of data analysis. This is because the audience is mature and reads the articles for other purposes, not entertainment. The tone of the articles is formal for the most part. This is derived from the use of the third person narration as well as functional language that does not engage the reader in any way. The presentation is merely to inform. [...]
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