https://www.forbes.com/sites/janicegassam/2018/10/16/how-to-increase-female-representation-in-the-stem-field – It could not embed the link for some reason, so I will attach pictures at the bottom. I apologize for the inconvenience.
As a part of one of her many contributions to Forbes Magazine, Janice Gassam Asare, a strategic provider for diversity, equity, and inclusion, published “How to Increase Female Representation in The STEM Field”. In this piece, Asare does a brilliant job at luring the reader into wanting to understand more about a select number of barriers that women face when pursuing careers in STEM. Her magazine article provided a unique structure that made her piece so successful. Her title begins by stating the intent of the writing, which is to provide insight into how to increase female representation. In other words, provide the reader a solution to the problem. After the title, the author gives her reasoning as to why she wrote the article at that current time. I thought this was useful because instead of just going straight into the problem and then presenting the solution, Asare stated that October 11 was the International Day of the Girl. She then went into the meaning of the day, a day to recognize all of the obstacles that young girls encounter. Asare then points out to the reader that the STEM industry, instead of breaking down barriers, has numerous barriers that make it difficult for women. Women have to exceed expectations to have a chance to enter the field. Asare makes her writing stand out because she seamlessly provides statistics, to where it does not seem like she is trying to force anything. I think this is a sign of a great writer because, as we all know from experience, it is sometimes difficult to blend thoughts with statistics or evidence.
After providing some background information on the problem, Asare provides the problems to the subject at hand. She writes them out in a list, where each issue is in bold for the reader to easily notice if they are skimming. I think that this is unique and a great way to get the reader’s attention. Personally, if I am reading an article for fun and there are no bold headers or anything to grab my attention, I get lost and find it difficult to concentrate. Bold headings always seem to draw me back into the article, so I appreciate the author’s use of bold letters in this case. Along with the problem sections, solutions are provided in the same location. Often, writers split problems and solutions into two sections, so I thought this was unique.
What stands out to me most about reading this article is purely the format and the writing style that Asare uses. She uses more of an assertive tone with the reader but still manages to convey her message. It is not conversational as many other magazines are, as they often refer to the readers and themselves as we or us, rather, she addresses the issue as this issue. I thought that was interesting just because usually, writers try to ask: how can we fix this?
Overall, I liked the format of this article. I believe that Asare played to her strengths and focused on things that she was passionate about herself. She was confident about the subject most likely due to her experience with the issue at hand, being a strategic provider for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Her tone helped illustrate this, as it was confident and efficiently conveyed the message. There are things that we can control to help women break into STEM-related careers. Her use of bold letters also stood out to me. Also, being the short article that it was, only a page or page and a half in length, it conveyed the message well and helped illustrate that you do not have to overcrowd your paper with statistics to be successful at giving your point.
There were some things that I found might help create my article, others not so much. Although I found it interesting that she posed problems and solutions in the same paragraph, I did not like this format. I would rather keep the two separate, as I believe that is a cleaner, more easily understood format.
I did, however, like how she posed a solution in her title. I think that I will use that for my project. I also appreciated how she used bold letters for each of her sections that were on a new subject/solution, so I plan on using bold headings for my project as well. Her use of lists made it simple to scan through, so I plan on using a list for the reasons why the underrepresentation of women in STEM exists. I think this will make it easier for the reader and for me to plan through my writing.
Summary of article: Tone- Assertive, trying to illustrate point. Length- Short, around a page. Graphics- One image of women in suits before writing in article begins. Style & Syntax- More descriptive about the issue at hand and solution than anything. Somewhat short, easily read sentences due to length and word choice (simple wording, no big words). Level of detail- Does not really dive into the subject deep, just gives the reader a glance into the subject. Formality- Not as formal as a scholarly article, but not conversational. It stands somewhere in the middle, but shifting more towards conversational/informal in my opinion.
I look forward to using this article to create my writing piece, as I feel I learned a lot from just analyzing this short article.
That opening move you describe–providing some context that surrounds this article (and that constitutes part of her exigence as a writer)–is a valuable one. It accomplishes some ethos and pathos work that engages the reader for the logos that lies ahead.
Excellent analysis here–glad you were able to find an example that provides you with a lot to think about. Let me know what questions you have as you’re working with this. Keep in mind that you’ll need to credit your sources, i.e. by embedding links where possible, using in-text attribution, etc. Be sure to check out my latest blog post for more.