The first article I found is called “The Latest Buzz about Colony Collapse Disorder.” This article discusses the potential causes for the mysterious disappearance of the honey bees. The main idea in this article is that the Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV) is the main if not the only cause of colony collapse disorder. They also argue that the strain that is present in the Unites States came from importation of Australian honeybees. This is not an official diagnosis, but they are very firm on this and argue their point throughout their article. The style this article is presented in looks very appealing to the eye. It does not look like they jammed as much as they could onto one page; it is very easy to see and read. On the page is a picture that is very thought provoking. It is a tree with pictures people and the environment and at the top is says “Sustain Human Wellbeing.” Another thing that is done with this article is that they bold the headings and the main points and ideas. It looks like a magazine and isn’t too scary or scholarly looking even though the information is very rich and useful. This articles tone is definitely argumentative and persuasive. They don’t want you to just know what they think the cause of CCD is, they want you to believe them and go with what they are saying. They make it seem as though they are only ones who know what they are talking about and that they are the only ones whose opinion matters. They are effective in getting their message across, but they way they do it can almost make the reader want to go against their opinion because they are so cold and straight forward with their information.
The second article is titled “Wild Bee Abundance and Seed Production in Conventional, Organic, and Genetically Modified Canola.” I used this article as a source in my unit two argumentative essay. This article informs us about a study that was done on different types of fields. They measured how many honey bees were sustained in these fields and what they found was that the organic fields had the highest number of honey bees and the genetically modified fields has the least amount. The reason for this is because there are no pesticides or chemicals of any kind that are used on an organic field like what is used on a genetically modified field and the bees immune systems can sustain and the bees are able to live and carry out their daily functions. The layout of this article is extremely scientific and educational. To me it is very boring and does not make me want to sit and read it all. There is very good information within the article but it is hard to find and decipher. The majority of it is explaining the experiment in extreme depth and there are many graphs, tables, and diagrams in the text. For the purpose of my research this is not something I would use a whole lot, but once you can find the gist of the whole article it is a great source of information and can be used to support a topic on the disappearance of the honey bees. The tone of this article is very scholarly and scientific. I think that unless you are someone who is also studying the disappearance of the honey bees and the causes for this disappearance you wouldn’t really want to read this article because there are so many numbers, measurements, stats and information that means absolutely nothing to you. I had a hard time getting the main idea out of it, but once you can actually find that it’s great. Finding it is what is hard. Whether or not they are able to get their point across effectively I think depends on who the audience is.
The third article I used is named “Colony Collapse Disorder: Many Suspects, No Smoking Gun.” This articles focus is on discussing the different factors that may be causing colony collapse disorder. They do not think that radiation from cell phones or the genetically modified crops are the culprits; they believe that it is viruses spreading from bee to bee. They discuss many different kinds of viruses that are present in different areas of the globe that are experiencing colony collapse disorder and it Is interesting that each area seems to be experiencing problems with different viruses. This article also discusses IAPV and tells us that this virus was brought into the United States from Australia when the Unites States decided to let bees from there in to help relieve the bee shortage and ease the stress that the almond farmers in California were experiencing with the shortage. The bees from Australia were supposedly healthy and virus free. Only to find out later that they truly were not and now our honey bees are suffering. I like the style of this article the most. The information is in three columns on each page and there are pictures that help the point get put across and help the reader understand what they are even talking about. The pictures in the article are good because they aren’t goofy illustrations; they are real photographs of what the information in the article. What is nice about this one just like the first article is that the headings and main ideas of the article are bolded. This makes it easier for a reader to get through all the information and actually get something out from the vast amount of information. The tone of this article I think is mainly to inform. It is not really trying to persuade the audience to believe one thing or another, they are really just telling you and they let us take the information however we want. I think that they are effectively communicating their message not only just with the words but with the layout as well.
When I write my own article I know now not to push my opinion or argument too hard or harshly because this can cause the opposite of what you really want your audience to think. I will try to be concise with my information because if it gets too lengthy it is very easy to lose your audience, which is definitely something I want to avoid. I am also going to try and put in interesting facts and information that will appeal to the reader. Some of these articles did this and it helped me stay engaged and it helped me understand all that they were discussing.
