Bethany Kohl

Scott Kneece
Writing 2
9 June 2016
Coffee: Goodness for the Mind and Body
The best part of waking up: coffee. It is the fuel of college students, soccer moms, and
working individuals around the world. These coffee fanatics enjoy the benefits of both getting
and drinking coffee. Although the anthropological aspect of having a coffee break or grabbing a
cup of coffee is important to consider as in Catherine M. Tuckers Coffee Culture: Local
Experiences, Global Connections, the biological aspect includes arguments with superior
methodology, argumentation, and presentation as established in Barry D. Smiths, Effects of
Habitual Caffeine Use and Acute Ingestion: Testing a Biobehavioral Model.
The purpose of Catherine M. Tuckers book about coffee culture is to examine the social
aspect of getting coffee with someone while applying anthropological concepts and theories. In
the end, her conclusion was this: coffee consumption decisions carry ramifications for our
health, the environment, the reproduction of social inequality, and the possibility of supporting
equity, sustainability and social justice (Tucker Book Description). She comes to this conclusion
through the examination and presentation of evidence in an argumentative manner.
Meanwhile, the focus of Barry D. Smiths biology article is to answer the following
question: Does acute ingestion of caffeine impact physiology and behavior differently depending
on the level of habitual usage? His answer is yes; acute ingestion increased vigilance and
response time in the presence of white noise, while habitual ingestion increased sensitivity but
decreased accuracy. In addition, ingestion of caffeine in general increased vigilance responses

Kohl 2

where they risked more false alarms to obtain more successes (Smith 131). He also utilized
conventions of scientific articles and strong numerical evidence from his own experiments to
persuade this conclusion.
Tucker and other authors of such anthropology books use a methodology of gathering
evidence from a variety of sources including experiments, cartoons, and even interviews relating
to the topic. Not all anthropologists use this exact methodology; some may conduct their own
field studies and other experiments to discuss and analyze a given topic. In Tuckers case, the
topic analyzed is the social meaning behind grabbing a coffee with someone. Tucker used
hundreds of sources throughout the book, providing a sense of credibility with many supporters
backing her claims. The vast array of sources in anthropology books provides an abundance of
further readings for those who may crave a specific genre or style of reading when trying to
further validate the authors argument for him or herself. For example, if a reader would like to
increase the knowledge about the topic, but does not intend on reading a whole book, he or she
can chose to read an article, or examine more cartoons.
A few of the sources Tucker includes are articles such as For the Love of Coffee: 61
Things every Coffee Lover Knows To Be True, an interview from Clergy Journals Cup of
Coffee, and even a medical research study of 30,000 middle aged Norwegian men and women
(Tucker 69-70). Tuckers use of a wide variety of source types in her book assists in appealing to
multiple aspects of the readers thought process such as ethos, logos, and pathos. For instance,
the journal article will appeal to the emotional aspect of a persons thought process, also known
as pathos, because journals are written in a personable sense that can access the human mind and
emotions. In another case, the interview will appeal to the ethos aspect because the interview was
with an expert on the topic, adding a credible source to the argument. Lastly, the research data

Kohl 3

supports the logos aspect of the argument because it provides facts and statistics that have been
proven with the scientific method. An argument is made stronger if all of the logos, pathos, and
ethos aspects have been addressed and supported by appealing to the audiences emotions as well
as intellect in order to win the argument, which is what Tucker has accomplished in this section
of her anthropology book.
On the other hand, authors of biology articles, like Smith, investigate questions regarding
biology with a methodology that involves not only referencing many sources in his or her article,
but conducting and analyzing his or her own experiments. These controlled experiments are
thoroughly explained step-by-step with subtitles subjects, apparatus, experimental tasks,
and procedure, under the Method section (Smith 132). This is part of the universal structure
of biology and other scientific articles, which is reviewed and approved by other scholars who
are knowledgeable in the subject, adding a sense of credibility to the argument being made.
Furthermore, the measurements and procedural steps in biological articles are precise and
explained with elevated and subject-specific language. This limits the room for error during the
experiment, and leads to accurate results as well. In addition, his results are original, conducted
by himself personally; hence, the reader will not have heard of the results beforehand, providing
intrigue and interest to finish reading to discover the results and conclusion. Although the
information is new, and there is always more research to be done as there always will be in
science the data supports the conclusion made by the research team and has furthermore been
reviewed by multiple scholars to ensure reliability of the information given.
While Tucker, like many anthropology book authors, did not conduct her own
experiments, she uses multiple sources to aid in the lines of argumentation used to support her
thesis that coffee is associated with a calming, comforting feeling in relation to the social context

Kohl 4

of a coffee break. Tucker builds her argument with excerpts from interviews, a cartoon, and other
experimental results. The authoritative and professional sources included in her study, increased
the integrity of the book simply by the sheer amount of knowledge that supports her opinion.
For instance, the major study used to support this argument was conducted with 30,000
individuals (Tucker 70). With such a large sample size, statistically, the reliability of the results
from the experiment is strong due to little room for errors to occur. Such an experiment is similar
to a biological article experiment in the fact that it uses the rigid structure of the scientific
method. Hence, the argument is strengthened in the same way a biology article is: through
credibility. However, because many sources were used to authenticate the argument made by
Tucker, she uses phrases such as, a number of studies rather than naming specific evidence
from specific studies. Generalizations like this debunk the argument that Tucker had built up by
not supporting the claims with specific evidence.
Similarly, Smith makes generalizations such as, Performance...was also affected by
habitual caffeine consumption (Tucker 136). Unlike Tucker, Smiths generalizations are made
as a conclusion to his experiments, or they are generalizations previously made, of which he
succeeds in dismissing as inaccurate. Smith and other authors in the field of biology use
generalizations as an introduction into their evidence, rather than using generalizations as
evidence.
A stronger argumentative tactic used in biology is providing ethos in background
knowledge, rather than generalizations. For instance, Smith and his team had prepared a
theoretical model in Fig. 1 beforehand, allowing the reader to place trust in the author because of
the background knowledge the author has of the subject-matter. Smith says, however,
Considerable further research is needed (Smith 131). This statement is true for each and every

Kohl 5

claim in the biology field; more research can always be done to help verify and expand upon the
knowledge about claims made by previous experts, researchers, and scholars, as Smith did in his
article. Therefore, this statement must be included in every biological article, however, it does
not necessarily weaken the argument; it allows room for further research to be done.
Claims and evidence are presented in a multitude of ways from discipline to discipline in
terms of format. For instance, Tuckers anthropology book is written in paragraph form with
integrated quotes and statements from outside sources. There is also a free-standing text block
incorporated in the book (Tucker 69). Anthropologists make claims and support them with ideas,
theories, and theses made by other anthropologists and scholars, occasionally in the form of freestanding text blocks. The use of lengthy free-standing block quotes emphasizes the authors lack
of original thoughts and findings, caused through uninteresting summarizations and quotes.
While not all anthropology texts are formulated in this way, Tuckers is, and the presentation of
other scholars findings becomes dull and lackluster.
Furthermore, cartoons can be placed in the middle of the text to apply visual cues to aid
the reader in envisioning the main point being made in the argument. One cartoon in Tuckers
book encompasses a person asleep in a hammock with a coffee cup in hand, with the caption,
Dont worry. Drink coffee (Tucker 69). This supports Tuckers claim that drinking coffee is a
relaxing and calming activity. Cartoons, however, carry a silly connotation and are subjective by
nature. Additionally, cartoons are created by biased artists aiming to get a certain point across.
Biased and non-factual evidence in anthropology books does not improve upon the argument as
well as hard factual evidence such as data and numbers do in biology articles. This is due to the
nature of art being opinion-based while the nature of numerical data is fact-based which makes
arguments against it very hard to substantiate.

Kohl 6

In this case, Tuckers presentation of her argument begins with quotes, then moves to text
blocks, and then to cartoons within the span of a single page. Fortunately, the wide variety of
evidence provided in anthropology books keeps the reader on their toes with a great deal of
information and claims being made. The most common audience of anthropology texts are
anthropology students, anthropologists, and people interested in learning about the topic and how
it relates to humankind. Therefore, it is necessary to give the reader the viewpoints of many
aspects from many sources in order to increase the knowledge of the reader, which is something
that Tucker accomplishes in her book.
On the contrary, Smiths biological article is structured professionally in scholarly article
format, which includes the following in order: publication information, article title, author,
abstract, introduction, background information, scientific method, results, discussion/conclusion,
and references. This structure is universal and indicates credibility with confirmation that other
scholars have read and approved of the presented information. This structure further creates ease
in navigating the text due to subtitles labelling every section of the article.
Intertwined in Smiths article are also multiple figures, diagrams, and graphs created from
the data collected from his and his teams experiments. Graphs make understanding the results
easier to visualize and makes the argument more convincing, clarifying questions about what the
data means pictographically. Additionally, the image of the graph can be exaggerated through
skewing the format to make the evidence appear more supportive of their thesis. For instance, the
x and y axes may be shortened or lengthened to make a trend look how the researchers want it to
thereby skewing the visual aspects of the data being graphed. Although it is unlikely that the
graphs and charts in Smiths article have been skewed or exaggerated, it is a possibility with any

Kohl 7

graph in biology articles. This does not invalidate any of the data, but increases the degree to
which the reader is persuaded.
Overall, Tucker and Smith discuss the effects of coffee in anthropological and biological
aspects respectively. Tucker has a multitude of sources with evidence that supports her argument,
however, her argument lacks the structured methodology and presentation seen in the biological
article. On the other hand, the argument made by Smith is supported by not only other steadfast
sources, but also his own data collected from a reliable and controlled experiment. This is due to
the nature of the data presented in each of the texts from each discipline. Biology is based on
facts, figures, and numerical data which are free from opinion. Anthropology, while using some
hard facts and figures in their field studies, only observe, making generalizations and
assumptions about humankind instead of searching for truth.

Kohl 8

Works Cited
Smith, Barry D., Jennifer Rafferty, Karen Lindgren, Douglas A. Smith, and Amy Nespor.
"Effects of Habitual Caffeine Use and Acute Ingestion: Testing a Biobehavioral Model."
Physiology & Behavior 51.1 (1992): 131-37. Web.
Tucker, Catherine M. Coffee Culture: Local Experiences, Global Connections. New York:
Routledge, 2011. Print.