PB2A: Predictability: Tennis Matches & Genres

A scholarly academic publication is easily distinguishable because of the rhetorical features and conventions associated with it, including the audience, format, context, tone and style. Being rarely exposed to scholarly articles throughout my academic career, I found it interesting to find and disentangle a familiar topic of in a more scientific genre. 

I chose to analyze a scholarly article that aims to predict tennis matches using a scientific formula. The article, titled “Predicting the outcomes of tennis matches using a low-level point model,” targets the audience of professors, students, or someone of a research descent. Because scholarly articles are often lengthy, the paper is therefore formatted in a very specific, uncomplicated structure so that the different segments of the paper can be referred to at ease. The content involved in a conventional scientific research report includes the author(s), abstract, introduction, an explanation of the model being used, data sources, event probabilities from statistical data, simulation and results, conclusions, and references. Each heading is numbered in order of appearance, and uses a clear, bold font. The spacing in-between each of these sections are exactly the same each time, which also conveys a professional pose. The authors names are listed directly below the title of the research paper, which creates credibility and authenticity. The title is also very specific, and uses scientific terminology. The diagrams are specifically labelled using “Figures,” with a brief blurb on what the diagram is presenting. The whole research paper is in black and white, as it appears more professional and scientific, because colors can often sway the audience away from the content. The most noteworthy conventions of a scholarly academic publication include the use of technical language and specialized vocabulary, with tables and charts to support the collected data and results. Although there is always visual evidence, there are never photographs or drawings. The researched subject must be very specific, with the title being complex and lengthy. The author(s) names are listed with their degrees, titles or other credential, and the paper will often exceed five pages in length. 

The most important aspects of the scholarly article include the abstract and the conclusion. With reading just these two segments of the article, the reader is able to understand the topic of the article, what is being tested and the results — without reading the entire research paper. The abstract enables the readers to get a sense of the specific topic being experimented, and the type of research being conducted. The conclusion is also very important, because it states what was being tested and the results in a non cluttered manner, without having to read through the data and results segment.

In specificity to the article itself, the main question being posed is how, using a scientific model, one can predict the result of a tennis match; taking into consideration a number of different factors. The concepts within the research article were operationalized by beginning with a topic, so in this instance how to predict the result of a tennis match. The topic was then described, and expressed on how to achieve the topic using a formula; in this case an explanation of how to figure out the result of the tennis match. The topic was then tested using the given formula, and the raw data was presented. The results section involves an in-depth explanation of the outcomes derived from the raw data, written into sentence form and explained. The conclusion includes a short summary of each segment, and the overall outcome of the topic sentence. 

Personally, the whole concept of the article was very intriguing to me. As a competitive tennis player myself, I had never considered the notion of predicting a tennis match using a derived formula. After reading the article, I was still not convinced that the formula was credible, because the authors did not include possible variables. For instance, players’ mental state during the match, the players’ experience, home court advantage, and players’ injuries are all possible variables that can influence the model’s accuracy and credibility. Therefore, the model must be of a very basic nature.