The decisive factor of all the characteristics of a piece of text is its purpose for its readers. Every text has a purpose. Texts such as the New York Times article, as well as periodicals, exist to amuse as well as educate. However, if the article's appeal is low, it will be disliked regardless of the quality of its academic matter. Therefore the author must strive to excite a

The language use in the New York Times article is somewhat formal. The style is similar to that of a research paper. The wording and vocabulary is reasonably complex and is clearly catered to an educated audience. Although the vocabulary is complex, using words such as "adage" and "proclivity", it is not specific to the field of psychology. This choice of unspecific vocabulary is logical so that the non-expert audience can understand the article. The document's sentence structure is fairly complex, using very long complex and compound sentences almost exclusively. Passive voice is used for the entire document, thus giving it the tone of a research thesis. Additionally, the whole article is written in the third person. All of these characteristics point to a formal, research type document. However, the information, or concepts, that is conveyed during the document distinguishes it from an actual research document. The claims made are not substantiated in as much detail as an actual research document would have been. There are no facts or statistics brought up to support the conclusion that the author makes. The fact that the content of the document is not very scientific reveals that it is actually a newspaper article that is summarizing the results of a survey. The lack of scientific backing in this article is a result of the purpose. Since the main purpose of this article is to entertain instead of to educate, there is no reason that readers should be bored by proving statements made. This leads into the next point, the persuasiveness of the author. In this article, the author argues that setting material and superficial goals leads to poor "mental well being". Since the purpose of this document is not to prove a conclusion, just to entertain and convey information to the reader, the author does not even have to define "mental well being" in this article. This is not to say that the author is not trying to convince the readers of something, it just means that the author does not have to argue in a scientific and logical manner. One very important quality of the document is that it is a continuous progression of ideas. The "discussion" of the topic by the author flows smoothly. In other words, the document could be read out loud and the listener would get as much out of the document as the reader. The format of this document is long sentences and short paragraphs. There are no lists, charts, illustrations, or other visual items to emphasize or organize points.

Overall, the IS document can be described as being very formal and professional. The thing that stands out the most in the IS document is its meticulous organization. The document is so well organized that it is closer to an outline than it is to a document in the traditional sense. The tone and style of the document is very formal, yet simple. The vocabulary and sentence structure is very simple, except for the vocabulary that is IS specific. Terms that appear complicated to non-experts, such as "data warehouse" and "GUI" (Graphical User Interface) are actually common, simple terms for experienced IS professionals. The sentence structure so simple that there are many sentence fragments to convey points more concisely. Parts of the document may seem confusing to non-experts, but it is very straightforward from the viewpoint of the IS professional. The entire document is written in the formal tone of third person. Since it is considered unprofessional and even sometimes illegal for consulting companies to have a biased opinion, the author is very careful to maintain an objective viewpoint. Nothing can be deduced about the author by reading the documen

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Approximate Word count = 2474
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)