Abstract
The fundamental problem of the article “Obscuring causality in rape discourse: A quantitative analysis of variation in argument Structure” is the choice of the right word combination that will clearly explain the situation of sexual violence. At the same time, an essential point is a reason why people use variations such as rape and sexual assault. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to explain people’s use of a certain concept and provide it meaning. In this paper, the author applies the methods of comparison of past studies and selected a sample of news from Dartmouth College in Hanover. The results of the analysis were statistical data indicating how many times a certain expression is used and how much attention is paid to the victim and attacker. It also indicated that authors of diverse genders emphasized the victim or attacker differently. Thus, the article shows that various factors influence the choice of the verb for illicit sexual acts. Accordingly, readers’ perceptions change from the authors’ coverage of the main idea.
Keywords: rape, sexual violence, sampling, verbs
Evaluation of the Introduction and Literature Review
The author provides a reasoned and clear rationale for the study. She concentrates on relevance because little attention has been paid to analyzing perceptions of rape formed in society and the media (Hilton, 2013). The topic of sexual violence is most often subjected to adjustments that reshape the personal understanding and public opinion on this urgent and complex matter. Such perceptions lead to stereotypes, distortions, and personal judgments of violence, while the reasons for such modifications have never been established.
Moreover, the research is fundamental as the rapist himself is often excluded from the news, and invasion becomes an event that happened by chance. It is the most common model of media representation of force — it becomes a crime without a perpetrator. Through clear examples, the author shows how changing the construction of the phrase shifts responsibility for the violence from the rapist to the victim (Hilton, 2013). The use of the active pledge and the indication of the subject of the action is a radical means and can have dramatic consequences. Therefore, the article’s purpose was to analyze the possible motives for this exclusion and the reasons for leaving the participants implicit. Its results are of high significance both for further research and for this field as a whole. Understanding the specific use of syntactic structures and their impact on perception will help set the right direction for solving this complex phenomenon. It will also draw attention to the fact that crime is a personal act, it always has a guilty party, and this subject should be mentioned in the materials.
The literature review is thorough and complete; several sources are analyzed, forming an opinion of scientific developments related to this topic. The focus is on the personal perception of guilt and its causes and the differences in accusations and punishments (Hilton, 2013). The author describes each resource in detail, indicating its relevance to the problem. Materials dealing with various aspects and implications of passive constructs are selected. Furthermore, a summary of each study and its outcomes is presented. At the same time, possible gaps in the literature or certain inaccuracies in previous studies are not pointed out. On the contrary, the efficacy of what has already been done and its importance for the future is emphasized. The chosen resources do not contain any biases or contradictory statements. On the one hand, this indicates the correctness of selecting appropriate references; on the other hand, the relevance of further research is questioned.
As for the essential conceptual categories for this study, they are clearly explained and argued. The article is structured in such a way that anyone can understand it and draw appropriate conclusions. Clear statements and explanations of terminology make the information accessible to a broad audience, with no specific knowledge required. All definitions are apparent; they are complementary rather than contradictory. Additionally, appropriately selected examples are used for a deeper understanding. However, concerning previous research methods, such data is virtually non-existent. The author only provides specific studies examples without indicating what tools were used to conduct them (Hilton, 2013). After reading the literature analysis, it can be concluded that only one method — surveys were applied.
Assessment of the Purpose Statement and Hypothesis
In the chosen article, the purpose statement is clearly delineated. Since in the introduction of the paper, it is stated that the goal of the task is to statistically explain the differences in the application of the various terms related to sexual acts. At the same time, the essential section of the study contains questions that enable people to correctly determine what results the author expects. For example, such questions relate to whether the writing style of women and men about rape is modified. Although, it is worth noting that the geographical location or population of the sample is mentioned later in the text (Hilton, 2013). Moreover, the scope of the research was how the topic of violence changed over time, or whether the authors may deliberately not focus on one of the participants in the situation.
It is worth remarking that the literature review is obviously based on the purpose of the article. That is, examples are provided from newspaper articles illustrating which constructions were chosen by different writers to describe the circumstances. At the same time, the scholar of the chosen article recognizes that the chosen verbs for illegal actions affect the mention of the members in the situation. Concerning the variables, the victim and the attacker are identified in the introduction (Hilton, 2013). However, in the following parts of the study, the author focuses on the fact that there are not only these two variables but also others. For example, if one considers the news from the college, then the coverage is also affected by whether or not the violence affects its students.
The study uses the alternative directional hypothesis because it specifies that there are certain differences and shows in which direction they can be analyzed. Thus, it is pointed out that there is speciesism between the choice of verbs to explain the process and the phenomenon of rape. At the same time, the author’s particular choice influences the reader’s perception of guilt, circumstance, and other variables in the situation (Hilton, 2013). The source review includes suggestions from other researchers that explain how the meaning of the writing changes depending on the construction chosen. Consequently, it can be seen from the samples that the author’s presentation of information is of high importance. Thus, it is possible to analyze the perception of each author and the factors that influence it. As a result, due to such a direction, it is possible to characterize both the connectedness of the verb and the influence of the text on the reader.
Although, it is worth noting that the hypothesis is clearly stated. As in the introduction, the author creates the general direction of the development of the article. The hypothesis can be tested using the method of data analysis from the sample. Thus, the statistical data, for example, from the college will provide to establish whether the hypothesis was accurate or not (Hilton, 2013). Accordingly, the hypothesis cannot be falsified because available news was used in the paper.
Estimation of the Methods Section
The sample is based on three major publications of the same college —The Dartmouth, The Dartmouth Review, and The Mirror. It was based from 1993 to 2012 and included 290 articles with sexual assault as the main topic. The unit of analysis was a reference to the event and the identity of the attacker or the victim. The author coded each segment according to gender; other factors such as ethnicity or age were not considered in the study. Sampling methods are rather narrow because they take into account the specifics of only one educational institution; in addition, only some periodicals were analyzed, while other sources of information were not considered (Hilton, 2013). Accordingly, such selection methods may be ineffective in achieving the global goal because the data obtained illustrate the situation in a narrow framework.
Therefore, it is impossible to determine the essence of the overall problem. The article’s purpose was to broaden the existing predicament, but the small sample size contradicts this statement. The author based the selection solely on the belief that the chosen college had the highest number of sexual assaults (Hilton, 2013). Although the comparison of the data to other institutes is made, provided information is insufficient.
The article did not use experimental research because the study is based on a sample of theoretical information. Nevertheless, it is crucial to write that the research project aligns with the purpose and hypothesis. Accordingly, the methods were used to assess specific sources that referred to illegal sexual intercourse. Based on them, the terms applied and how the authors influenced the presentation of information to readers are analyzed. It is essential that the independent variables are clearly expressed and do not change. For example, such variables are the year of publication, college affiliation, and the event’s relevance to the topic. Thus, the author of the article bases all research on independent variables. Potential threats to the study’s internal validity are the choice of a higher or smaller sample of years as the study is based on an analysis of publications for 1993-2012. However, the possible choice of other colleges may be a threat because the internal situation in educational institutions is different (Hilton, 2013). The research cannot be applied in external validity as it is based only on specific colleges and selected publications.
The paper describes the selected data collection tool; the author records that she searched the Internet daily for references to abstract violence or a specific case. After that, she analyzed the compliance of the text of the articles with the selected criteria and performed multiple regression.
It is significant to perceive that the article used to analyze differences between groups. This provided her to evaluate the sample according to the criteria. Thus, the article describes the authors’ statistics of the sources and their use of terms and presentation of information (Hilton, 2013). However, there are potential limitations that apply to the different skills of the authors according to which they present data. To standardize, the results of the study and the instruments are shown as percentages. It is particularly effective in this context because it clearly shows all the data and compares them to other indicators. The tool chosen by the author is suitable for the sample, but it is not enough to collect information effectively. Moreover, nothing is said about the reliability of the tools, as well as the validity.
Evaluation of the Results Section
The author provides adequate and complete descriptive statistics according to the prepared data. All necessary for the study indicators are designated and explained in the article. The frequency distribution is systematized and presented in graphs and tables. Moreover, a quantitative description of the statistical information is provided. Measures of Central Tendency are used to illustrate all necessary information and make it accessible for readers (Hilton, 2013). According to this visualization, the study results are understandable and do not require much effort to interpret. The article applies an interval estimate of the inferential statistics, i.e., it is possible to determine not the average but the selected population segment. Thus, this method is adequate and consistent with the hypothesis. Consequently, the hypothesis concerned the study of one part of the community (Hilton, 2013). The quantitative method of analysis is described accurately; it uses a sample of years and investigates statistics. The result is a percentage of the use of different terms meaning sexual violence.
Assessment of the Discussion Section
The goals and research questions are formulated in detail and qualitatively. Nevertheless, there is a difference in purpose at the beginning and at the end of the paper. In particular, the author set a global object to expand on existing research. However, the results are based on narrow and specific investigations precise only to a particular institution. Other aspects and study issues are explicitly and succinctly outlined (Hilton, 2013). The author’s expectations were apparent, interpretation of the outcomes and formulation of the proposals meet the assigned topic.
The implications of the findings are clearly outlined and structured in the article. In conclusion, the author records the main reasons why grammatical constructions infuse the personal perception of an act of violence. Detailed explanations for the differences in the interpretation of the term rape and its derivatives are also stated. The arguments provide insight into why correct terminology is essential and what impact it has on society. The author also relates judgments to other data and practices (Hilton, 2013). It is pointed out that many pieces of research have shown that variations in representations of violence are influenced by gender. In contrast, the results of this study show that both men and women describe rape equally. In opposition, other findings correlate with those of other investigations. Specifically, nonlinguistic factors have been shown to influence the reader’s personal opinion.
The article does not explicitly highlight potential limitations that apply to selected data. However, if someone analyzes the research, it becomes clear that the limitations relate to the scope and examination of the data. The results obtained by the author cannot be applied to the whole country or even the state. However, only a few chosen newspapers and gender issues of writers were investigated (Hilton, 2013). As a consequence, essential details such as race, culture, and background information are not taken into account when assessing their interpretation of the news. The author of the study did not present any assumptions about what areas of further research are possible. However, the article states that activists on campuses are trying to draw attention to the coverage of sexual violence in newspapers.
Questions
In my opinion, the most challenging aspect of quantitative research is the choice of verified and qualitative information. Such data should present variables that can be easily measured. For me, there is difficulty in researching complex or under-studied areas that are tricky to measure with specific variables. Hence, the method uses deductive logic; it must provide empirical evidence. The most unsettled area of this study is the methodology and tools used. The author does not explain the instruments she chose and does not highlight them as a separate part of the research. Furthermore, it is impossible to formulate a sample type based on the provided data. The validity and effectiveness scores are not stated in the paper.
Moreover, the methods are not delineated; from the provisions, it can only be assumed what was used to obtain the information and how the analysis was carried out. Additionally, the author does not mention the limitations of the study and does not provide recommendations for further research. Although conducting the analysis, it becomes clear that the research has deficiencies. Therefore, it is valuable to regard that this is not typical for a scientific article.
Reference
Hilton, K. (2013). Obscuring causality in rape discourse: A quantitative analysis of variation in argument Structure. Texas Linguistics Forum, 56, 23-33.