The constant and rapid changes in this industry are extremely difficult to keep up with and update on a regular basis. With professional talent, research, and modern-day technology, it’s capable to inform, support, educate, and promote either to the public or people within this community. The business community discusses issues of national importance for financial institutions and customers. Not only does the ABA Banking Journal represent banks of all sizes, but also targets and consists of regional & money center banks, holding companies, savings associations, trust companies, and saving banks, but also to those who are uneducated in the field. The purpose of this journal is to make everyone aware of what is going on financially today, tomorrow, and even a decade from now. Being a business student myself at Northeastern University, luckily I have many resources to turn to in regards of looking up information; ranging from newspapers, textbooks, the internet, and professors and colleagues just to name a few. This area is a non-stop and ever changing community which needs to be kept up to date or else our economy will seize to fail. It's extremely important to have access to all sorts of information because no one can predict our economic future, which is why our community is so highly dependent on the professionals. These professionals are the ones we rely on to predict it for us. Banks, numbers, and money are the three top factors that make up this community, without it, it would be meaningless. To those who want quick results and seek discussions and information turn to the ABA Banking Journal, where they include all sorts of articles directly and indirectly relating to business to all types of readers and audience. This journal cannot be restricted to those who are only part of this community because it affects everyone in the public. The professionals are there to predict and regulate the business, but in order for the community to actually exist it needs the public.
The ABA Banking Journal is one resource anyone can turn to for news, updates, and discussions on current news relating to its community. I chose to analyze two articles to compare and contrast writing techniques. The first piece of writing, "Why the Median May Not Be the Message," is intended to be informative and straight-to-the-point. The way it starts off is very direct, the author wastes no time to get to the subject. Whereas in the second article, "Flu Pandemic Requires Distinct Preparations," this author took her time to introduce the topic to the audience and made sure that the reader was able to get a sense of what she or he will be reading about in the next few pages. The terminology the author used in the first article proves he is writing to a broader audience; not specific to the profession. His word choice is not too difficult; he cleverly picked his words so the general would be able to understand and follow it, “In fact, only five months in the past 40 years have seen an actual price drop.” This sentence states a fact, but shows that is fairly simple and understandable to anyone who reads it for the first time. Unlike the first article, the other article’s sentences were longer and more complex, which made it harder for the general audience to read, but at the same time straight-forward like the first. In addition, it had a persistent usage of repetitiveness in words. Multiple times, the author would repeat her words, for example the word, “preparedness.” Also having to mention, the first word of each bulletin point were the same as well. Anyways, essentially the reader does not have to be an expert in this specific criterion, but needs to have a more well- educated background. Even though the first article is targeted more to the general audience, its author does limit himself to be serious by not using any figures of speech, abbreviations, incomplete sentences, or bullet points of any sort. Although, similarly to the second article, he did add a graph in order to enforce his statistical results of the median sales price for existing homes. By adding this, it makes the reader get a better concept to fully comprehend the given data. The second article contained more physical aspects, besides the writing itself. It consisted of bulletin points, a box diagram, shaded boxes, bulletin points, bolded heading, and a “continues on page.” There were also other articles and diagrams that were non-related to the topic of the article. Articles found in a similar journal necessarily do not mean they are limited to write in similar writing techniques.
The first article is based on facts and numbers, it is not opinionated. He uses the National Association of Realtors and the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight in order to provide realistic numbers, which the audience expects to see. However, he did reference where he found his statistics, but he did not cite them. The second article is in a business journal, but the topic is more health-related. It contained a lot more references, groups, and/or organizations names, which means it contains opinions from others, besides the author herself. It is not necessarily only the author’s point of view, but it also includes the perspective of other men and women in the business and health-science fields. Like the first article, the second also included numbers and percentages. The author is informing the audience about her findings; however it does not prevent her to include direct quotes and opinions from various people, groups, and organizations. These direct quotes are definitely opinion-based, but at the same time not persuasive. Comparable to the first article, the second article did not include an official reference listing where she found her data and ideas. In this particular community, people are expected to see numbers and percentages, this way it is more credible, and backs up the given data. Not only does it make the work more reliable, majority of the writing that is done in this field requires there to be data within the work. The author’s job is to research and look up the needed information to present to his or her audience. The first article’s author uses a couple of rhetorical questions and answers them the easiest way possible, “the answer is pretty simple.” He makes the reader feel comfortable and confident just by his choice of words. He does not intimidate the reader by using acronyms or incredible difficult business-like related terms that only experts in the field will be able to grasp. I specifically enjoyed the tone of his voice, “So are we on the verse of a historic price decline?” His word choice of the word “we” implied that we as a community are a whole, whereas in the second article, it includes a lot of information for the reader to take in. Personally, I had to read some sentences over again in order to understand it to the fullest. It’s not because she was using specialized terminology, it was just the way she formed it. Therefore, this article is intended for those who are more knowledgeable, not necessary in this profession, but those who have more of an education and background. Authors are unique in their own ways; it is up to them to decide how to approach the audience; they choose how to present and back-up their findings either if its relating to business or not.
In the first article, it has a very obvious thesis that is clearly stated in the first couple of paragraphs of the first article. Throughout the article, he provides examples and questions to discuss his thesis. He offers some of his own opinions, but he does it in such a way so the reader does not feel pressured or forced to agree with him. He backs up his findings by giving fairly simplistic explanations; another reason why this article is intended for the general public. There certainly is not a variation in his persona; the author is consistent with his voice tone throughout his article; he stays persistent with his writing. He does not change his use of words, format, or his audience simultaneously. He has one idea in his mind, which he sticks and focuses on. Equally, the second article has a very clear thesis, which is actually implied just in the title. Right when the reader reads the title, he or she will know what this article will go on about; the continuation of the article elaborates its title. The persona as well is consistent, with a very serious, deep, and educational tone, hence this is a very serious topic regarding to almost everybody in the world. Overall, even though articles are written in a specific community’s journal, it does not necessarily mean it is intended for readers of that field and profession.
There are very diverse authors in the field that have very distinctive ways of writing. Not all are extremely professionally, as seen from the past two articles. A journal does not limit itself with related and relevant topics, as seen in the second article. After completely reviewing and analyzing both articles, I recognized that readers should not be intimidated by a title of any given journal. He or she should not under estimate themselves and shy away from those journals that are not part of their community. The writing in this community is targeted to the public; these articles were written the way they were on purpose. It was intended for its focus to be on them. It needed to be written this way so that the public is comfortable enough to understand it; hence they are the main provider to this economy.
References
Holliday, K. (2006). Flu pandemic requires distinct preparations. ABA Banking Journal, 98(10),7-10.
Vitner, M. (2006). Why the median may not be the message. ABA Banking Journal, 98(10), 96.
About ABA. Retrieved January 29, 2007, from The American Bankers Associates
Web site: http://www.aba.com/About+ABA/default.htm
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