Proposal for your Genre Translation

Project Builder 3A

Often, due to the contrasting levels of comprehension between age groups, stories become hidden behind veils of an author’s judgment. An author dictates his work according to the audience to whom he wishes it presented to, be it children or adults. More often than not a writer will take into account the age group of his target audience in hopes of making his work relatable and manageable. Although a writer pours his heart and the sweat of his brow into the work that will eventually be read by his audience, I will take it upon myself to pervert the gem that has been toiled over for hours. I will take Doug Rossinow’s “The Legend of Reagan the Peacemaker”, an academic piece that opts to give a more realistic view of the president, as opposed to the nationalist's, patriot’s picture. I will deface his work and interpret it in a way that would make it attractive to the common teenager and another for the elderly. This would be especially difficult considering the stigma the Ol’ Gipper” has with the American public. He is often credited with the anti-drug movement, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and jumpstarting the economy after Jimmy Carter, the Peanut Farmer from Georgia, failed to do so. Often, the elderly idolize the President and the youth couldn’t give two shits.

The youth today are exposed to a flurry of infographic material that will sway their malleable mentalities one way or the other, and like a pendulum waiting to cast its bloody swing upon the victim of a horror film, that swinging political ideology will one day strike on the ballots of our nation. If the future generations of this country are to successfully lead this nation, then they must be educated beyond the patriotic veil. They must realize the truth of the horrors of our nation, but just as much the moments when the term American Exceptionalism truly fits. If the youth were exposed to an opposing portrait of President Reagan then they may be able to compare both and engender their own ideas. I propose a drawing of president Reagan, a hyperbolic piece of art that screams all his discrepancies against those he as affected. The piece would include flashy, bold colors that would attract the attention of those that would see it, as opposed to conservative tones of color, The flashy colors would not only attract attention, but they would also underscore the distance the artist is trying to create between himself and the conservative establishment. The piece would have reagan’s bust floating alone, connected solely with his tie. The bust would stare down and at his bare tongue where there is what appears to be a pill, but is really a warhead. The warhead pill suggests that constant war is what feeds the reagan in the picture. The tie would also be a war head, suggesting his business is war. From the tie roots will protrude and appear throughout the picture underneath reagan, hinting at his policy to outspend the USSR and his almost complete reverence for capitalism. These aspects of the picture will be absorbed much like a reader absorbs the rhetorical strategies of an author. They are discreet, but effective.

If I were to create something that an elderly person would find relatable, I would not use an illustration to convey the Reagan presidency. I would use something that is more quaint in nature, like a silly mug. The elderly drink tea, or at least my grandmother does, therefore a mug would seem like the perfect means to reach the elderly. The mug would be comical, as it would don a pun alluding to Reagan’s record as a peacemaker. The mug would be a simple white ceramic mug which would read I remember my death star. The mug would be alluding to Reagan’s defense plan to curb any attempts for Soviet Russia to attack the United States. Ironically enough, these strategies for defense were banned because both countries feared their enemy having such a defense mechanism would give the enemy the upper hand. Other than the letters, Ronald Reagan would be cloaked like the emperor from the Star Wars Franchise. The allusion to a film series adds a comical effect due to the nefarious nature of the Emperor contrasting Reagan’s appearance as a conservative elderly man. Not to mention the strange contrast between politics and a 1970s Sci-fi film. The cup would serve as a means of curiosity for some, as they will ask the owner what his mug means to say. Those that are curious may even search for more on the subject then relay that information to friends. The object acts as an abstract source of information, too abstract to get the whole idea, therefore prompting others to research it.

Translating a piece of peer reviewed work into something that could be accepted by adults and by the elderly, respectfully, is a true challenge to an author’s ability to use rhetorical strategies. An author has an entire arsenal to use in his attempt to get in your head, yet he can only employ so little. The means by which a writer attracts your attention may go unnoticed, and may eve ne devalued, yet it is what the author has labored so hard over.

Writing Project Two

Analyzing and Evaluating Genres Across Scholarly and Non-Academic Contexts

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Gun safety is, for some reason, a very controversial subject in the United States that begs hours of debate every year. To supply those who would dissent, and those that would affirm, gun safety regulation, there exists a swath of information, biased and leveled. Because this matter will eventually either save lives or doom others, the information used must be accurate, articulate, and available. For those that make it their job to inform others, organizing the information they have created, either through studies or by other means, for the appropriate audience becomes a very important task. To target audiences at different intellectual tiers, from the uppity academic to the challenged layman, a person reporting on gun safety will use different means and moves to reach the desired readers, as can be seen by the two contrasting pieces “ ‘Is There a Gun in the Home?’ Assessing the Risks of Gun Ownership in Older Adults” by Ellen M. Pinholt, MD, Joshua D. Mitchell, MD,  Jane H. Butler, RN, and Harjinder Kumar, MD and “Firearms Safety -- 10 Rules of Safe Gun Ownership” on the National Shooting Sports Foundation website.

Both pieces have the same objective in mind, to inform the reader of the dangers of owning a gun, but do so through different means. The reader that would be searching for information on the subject may be affected equally by both pieces, as they come to the same conclusion. Spoiler alert, guns are dangerous. The reader will choose one piece over the other due to the genre the authors have chosen to format their articles in. Ellen M. Pinholt, MD and all those included chose to organize their information using the style of the scholarly article. By doing so the authors have gained the highest level of legitimacy possible adding weight to the validity of their paper. This sort of elitist style attracts those within the academic community, professors, scientists, researchers, etc. who have an understanding of the jargon, prose, and format. While the rigorous standards of a peer reviewed scholarly paper are preferred in the academic community,  a layman may feel overwhelmed by the academic jargon and may choose something akin to  “Firearms Safety -- 10 Rules of Safe Gun Ownership.” The genre used by the National Shooting Sports Foundation is an informative list that is both interactive and informative, and along with the language of the paper, it is an easier approach for the reader.

The genres of both articles are at opposite ends of the intellectual spectrum and as such the actual devices used are much different. The most stunning contrast between both articles is the use of pictures. The National Shooting Sports Foundation attempts to humanize guns by adding dozens of pictures of people handling guns while wearing safety equipment. A reader using this website for information may be inclined to believe that guns are safe if the correct precautions are used by falling victim to a bandwagon approach. Often the characters in the pictures are seen in confident poses, which would influence a reader’s judgment on the use of guns making them believe they too can achieve confidence by handling weapons. The academic paper does not depend on pictures to convince the reader to handle guns. Instead, it’s use of illustrations falls short of the dozens of pictures on the website, opting for two pictures which prove to be informative rather than propaganda-ish. The pictures demonstrate a weapon with a trigger lock and another weapon with a cable lock. The pictures prove to be completely objective unlike the pictures from the website that  carry an objective. The use of pictures in each article is very different and demonstrates the tone of their article.

The direction of both articles, due to the genre chosen by their authors and the audience it is directed towards, have different tones. Naturally, the academic paper would carry a tone of objectivity because it must abide to the academic genre, after all, “The words you choose for an argument help define its style - and yours”(Style and Presentation in Arguments, 310). The academic genre utilizes the objective tone to hide any biases the researches may hold. The tone must be objective at all times, including when the authors give their opinion,”Older adults owning firearms are a public health concern. There are no easy answers, but there are “red flags” that move senior gun ownership out of the abstract and into daily practice in the clinic and certainly home health.” (Is There a Gun in the Home?” Assessing the Risks of Gun Ownership in Older Adults). The quote is completely objective as it lacks any sign of personal intervention. There are no “I”s or “we”s which demonstrates a reliance on facts rather than opinions. The website carries a more conversational tone which is a manner of reaching the layman. The jargon is not a comprehensive, it refers to the audience specifically,”You must assume the serious responsibility of using only the correct ammunition for your firearm. Read and heed all warnings.”  This conversational tone was used to make the article more engaging for a reader and more relatable. It does not speak in the manners of high society. This manner of writing makes the author seem more relatable, creating ethos, and establishes a connection with the reader. Because the author of the website article utilizes a very non-specific genre, he is able to choose the tone of his article, allowing him to be relatable. The academic piece does not have that luxury and must abide by the strict code of academic papers and the tone of logical objectivity. Both have their advantages when aiming for an  audience.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation organizes itself in a manner that is both interactive and simplistic, a list. The manner in which it was written allows the reader to search for the information that is deemed most important for their purpose which may create bias. As Dana Lynn Driscoll, a critic in writing style, mentions, “There is little point in collecting data...if you already know the answer”(Driscoll, 156) meaning bias only affirms beliefs, not challenge them. The fashion in which it was formatted is non-academic, which facilitates a readers search for enlightenment on the issue. On the other hand, the academic article is not allowed the simplicity the website is allowed because the website is dedicated to the subject of guns and the need for safety. Therefore, it does not need to cite the information it gives as it is an deemed an established leader in the subject. The academic paper must cite everything in order to abide by its conventions. The manner in which it is organized follows a very parallel format throughout, having rhetorical questions as headings,”Is the Operator Feeling “LOW?””,”Are LITTLE Children Present?”(Is There a Gun in the Home?” Assessing the Risks of Gun Ownership in Older Adults), etc, followed by case reports. These headings become the basis for their recommendations that are summarized towards the end of the article. While both articles carry a heading followed by a paragraph about the heading, they both use the format differently. The academic article uses them as a way of questioning the reader to better inform them while the website uses the headings as a way to give the reader a quick summary of what the rest of the article is about like, “Firearms Should Be Unloaded When Not Actually In Use”. Although it is simple to read, it seems that a person may lose information if the reader is allowed to read what ever that person deemed most important.

The academic paper does something the website does not and that is bring two personal accounts. The personal accounts establish legitimacy for the article as it is a way to display the need for cautions for gun safety. The article also brings in statistics which also help ferment the article into a very logical piece that is also held by relatable accounts, “The suicide rate for men aged 80 and older from 2005 to 2010 was 41.11 per 100,000 (80% using a firearm), more than double the national average.”(Is There a Gun in the Home?” Assessing the Risks of Gun Ownership in Older Adults). The authors utilized a logos and ethos approach in this way, something that was not done by the website. Because the website is already deemed an expert on the subject of gun safety, it is not completely necessary for the article to establish the relations the academic piece created. The name of the website carries a lot of the legitimizing that the academic piece had to site information for. The website does not use any cases because it attempts to convince others using guns is safe. A case where someone was injured would be detrimental to that argument. In this case, the academic paper gives the best account of what occurs when using guns and is the most reliable source. The lack of bias is a necessary objective when informing an audience about the realities of dangerous weapons.

Both articles attempt to give a person information concerning gun safety and do so through different means. They both utilize moves specific to their genre or moves that they use themselves to convince the reader of what they say. The author’s formatting must be tasteful to the audience, but because the author can not create an article to a general audience, the author must choose a specific set of readers. Moves are just as important to writers as they are to readers because they are used as a means of subliminal communication.

Works Cited

"Firearms Safety | 10 Rules of Safe Gun Handling." Firearms Safety | 10 Rules of Safe Gun Handling. Web. 13 Feb. 2015. .

Lowe, Charles, and Pavel Zemliansky. Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. West Lafayette, IN: Parlor, 2010. Print.

"UC-eLinks Direct Link." UC-eLinks Direct Link. Web. 18 Feb. 2015. .

Edwar Hernandez

Writing 2

TA: Zack de Piero

Due: February 9th, 2015

Moves

Writing Project #2: Project Builder 2B

The moves that are adopted by writers overtime demonstrate the works of authors that have inspired them. By combining the sets of moves that have been compiled overtime a writer can create a set of moves unique to them. Therefore, recognizing moves and their effects on an argument is important for any writer that is attempting to better his skill. Moves are present in any writer’s work, as can be seen in the articles Navigating Genres by Kerry Dirk and Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking) by Janet Boyd. Both authors utilize different moves in their writing to make their work clearer and more interesting for an audience that may not find English to be a very interesting subject. Both Dirk and Boyd have compiled their own set of moves which they have compiled into their articles.

Boyd and Dirk both begin their essays by relating to their audience, a use of ethos, thus establishing a relation. They do so through different means, though, as Boyd uses a personal story to gain the audience’s trust,”The college where I first started teaching writing called its freshman composition course ‘Logic and Rhetoric’ “, and Kirk simply utilizes a joke, “Q: What do you get when you rewind a country song? A: You get your wife back, your job back, your dog back”. Both have chosen to begin their articles by relating to an audience that may otherwise believe english to be just some college credit. Because the audience may not feel invested in learning english it is their job to gain the attention of the audience as fast as they can. If attention is lost, then the author’s risk being thrown into the black nexus of “boring uppity college articles” college students dislike so much. By beginning with a joke or personal experience the authors distance themselves from those college articles and make it slightly more interesting for those that may have to use their essays as a tool for some assignment.

Both authors realize their audience is a very particular one, worried about other subjects and classes, therefore reading the articles may be done in a rushed manner. In order to facilitate the reading for the audience, especially when the audience has to come back and search for something they once read, they both use different methods to save the audience some time. Boyd, because of his use of different examples throughout his essay, uses small headlines throughout his work,”Getting in touch with your inner detective...cultivating your inner coroner, etc”. This creates an easy reference for those that may need to look back and find the text they are looking for. Dirk, on the other hand, utilizes bullet points and examples which are kept separate from the body paragraphs. By doing so he summarizes points that may have otherwise become lost in the sea of body paragraphs. Also, by keeping it separate from the rest of the paragraphs, it becomes a marker for the reader that may recall that those bullets are tied in with something, thus serving a similar purpose like Boyd’s headlines. They both facilitate the essay for their readers in a manner that allows them to read and come back and find what they are looking for quickly. Both authors realize the importance of not making this too wordy, too formal, and too academic.

While both essays offer literary insight into the world of english by using similar means they do fail in some respects to argue for their subject. In the article Murder (Rhetorically Speaking) by Janet Boyd, the author does a great job of giving examples. So much so that she waters down her entire essay with four examples that weren't all that necessary. While her objective is to make the essay funny and relatable, by the second paragraph the reader has a clear grasp on what she is trying to explain and how. This is not particularly be poor English, but it does demonstrate a failure to recognize when to stop. Still, it can be argued that the other examples are used to solidify the ideas in the readers mind, something that is actually a good thing. Therefore, the number of examples is not actually completely bad and in fact is subject to reader bias, it is subjective.

Both essays offer insight into English, its struggles, its strengths, and genre. Both have a strong grasp on what they talk about and demonstrate their knowledge through the moves they use to the advantage of the argument. The use of an suthors moves and their effectiveness are often subjectective as not every person will learn the same. As a writer, that just happens to write in English, it is beneficial to argue, internally at least, whether or not a move used by an author was effective. Sorting the effective approaches allows an aspiring writer, or just the recreational writer, to become more effective in the use of language. The adoption of “moves” is not plagiarism, it is a manner of maturing one’s language.

Comparing and Contrasting the Art of the Snobbish Article

Project Builder 2A: Comparing Genres: “SCIgen” and a Scholarly Source

The scholarly article is a noteworthy genre due to the rhetorical devices that it utilizes to become legitimate and reputable. The scholarly article must follow the rules of its genre or be rejected by its target audience, obviously not the laymen, the academic community. Through its rhetorical devices it must establish a hypothesis and the author(s) must prove the hypothesis using facts, all the while proving facts. The genre’s qualifications are quite stringent, therefore, it is important for a person who dabbles in the academic community to recognize the key features. Through the SCIgen model and the article Force Measurements with the Atomic Force Microscope: Technique, Interpretation, and Applications readers can identify the key conventions and rhetorical devices that become prevalent in both.

If we start in a chronological manner, we can see that the most obvious convention in both articles is the title. The title of this article is starkly different from titles of many other genres, especially common novels, because its objective is not to attract attention. The title of the article is used in a more clerical manner; it is what the introductory paragraph is to an essay. It categorizes the article and informs the reader, more likely researcher, using jargon specific to the field. Again, the target audience is not the average reader, rather those who have become experts in their field of study. Force Measurements with the Atomic Force Microscope: Technique, Interpretation, and Applications  is the title of the text - and it is quite a mouthful - but is not done to perturb the average reader. It does so to categorize the text and make it readily available for anyone looking to use it for their own work. The titles in both the SCIgen model and the article have put the article above the rest of the text in bold making it easy to view.

The organization of the genre is clerical too, as it separates the different sections of the essay using sub headings. Much like the title of the entire essay, the subheadings hover over the paragraph they relate to until challenged by another subheading. These subheadings help the reader find the aspects of the text that they need, like the abstract which informs the reader of the hypothesis and what they hope to achieve. In the text Force Measurements with the Atomic Force Microscope: Technique, Interpretation, and Applications, and the SCIgen model the abstract model appears at the beginning, followed by an explanation of what they hope to achieve and context. This fashion of writing is very blunt, especially considering the manner in which a rhetorical essay is written. Rhetorical essays organize themselves in a manner in which one paragraph slips into the other, creating a fluidity about the writing. The academic essay uses subheadings, eradicating completely the need to be clever about writing and facilitating the transition from idea to idea using subheadings. The reader’s mental strain is also eased as the author’s will often add a subheading indicating the symbols they will be using. Such a use of subheading is representative of its use; not only are they used for introducing ideas to the reader before they begin the reading, but they also work as a reference which makes it easy for someone to come back and find something they were looking for. In this manner the writers have followed the conventions of their genre and in doing so they have done away with clever closing sentences which conjoin one paragraph to the next, on the other hand they adhere to a basic, simplistic model which eases the reading for a person who already has to work through a sea of complicated jargon.

Both models have a series of charts and diagrams which further facilitate the text for a person who has the misfortune of having to journey through a mess of academic jargon. The diagrams vary from pictures of the experiment to graphs displaying aspects of the experiment. In the Force Measurements with the Atomic Force Microscope: Technique, Interpretation, and Applications text,  a picture is shown of the experiment displaying and titling aspects of the experiment. These picture resolve any confusion a reader may have had about the experiment.  Although the SCIgen model is not based on actual information, it display graphs and pictures just the same for the sake of the argument. Underneath the pictures or diagrams there is a title that explains the function of the picture. A major aspect of the text seems to be easing the text for the reader.

A very important aspect of both the texts is the objective tone all the authors adopt throughout the entire text. The objective tone is important because it displays a lack of passion for their craft. Although this sounds counter intuitive when attempting to convince others to believe what you believe, it is actually the more prudent alternative. By sounding objective they have created an atmosphere without pathos, an appeal to emotion, in a community that values facts and logic over emotions. Without pathos the article carries an atmosphere of logos, an appeal to reason. Because this paper is based on charts, statistics, and research, or in other words, empirical data, logos is the most logical approach (no pun intended)

Although the academic community may appear uppity, for lack of a better word that displays the great intellectual divide between them and the laymen, a lot of the conventions in the text serve to ease the reader through the text. The graphs, subheadings, and tone all serve to facilitate the reading. The genre is unique for its style and contrasts greatly a lot of the other genres.

Edwar Hernandez

TA:Zack de Pierro

Due: January 21st, 2015

State of the Union

The distinctions from genre to genre are numerous and therefore, as a writer, it is important to recognize those distinctions. The differences between genres exist due to precedents set by writers that chose to evoke another writer, creating a set of loose rules for anyone writing the same genre or addressing the same audience. These loose set of rules become guidelines and therefore create similarities that, if multiple sources were compared, would utilize the same rhetorical approaches and use of language. After The State of the Union Address by President Obama, all major news networks set out to create a clear picture for Americans that might have missed it using the guidelines of their genre, the newspiece. Although the approach may differ, the news stations Fox News, The New York Times, and The Huffington Post utilize the precedents set by reporters years before them adopting the genre as their own.

That bold large print hovering over the story is called a headline, and is arguably the most important part of the news piece. The reporter must make the headline short and concise, yet attract the attention of the reader. A reporter may choose to use hyperbolic language to make the headline sound more exciting than it is, or keep it mild and respectful. The New York Times headline for the state of the union reads “In State of the Union, Obama Heads Ambitious Plan.”(New York Times) The headline is overhead, in bold. and the font is different from the rest of the article because it attempts to attract the attention of the reader. The reporter chose to word the headline formally, opting for words that convey little emotion, “ambitious” “heads.” This is in vast contrast to the choice of words in the Huffington Post,”Last Act: MIddle Class Warrior”(Huffington Post). The language paints Obama as a passionate crusader for the middle class running out of time before he is vanquished by another election cycle. Fox News on the other hand directs a different approach, perhaps guided by their own personal bias,”What Obama Didn’t Say: Address Skips over Debt, Entitlement Crisis.”(Fox News). The headline utilizes mild language and pairs those words with terms which are controversial in a manner that would sound condemning towards the president. The reporter, according to the headline, has directed the article in a manner which would criticize Obama for what he did not say. The choice of words in all three news articles is a great example of Jargon, “the terminology used by those in a particular profession or group to facilitate clear and precise communication (Janet Boyd Murder, 89).  In all three articles the choice of words gave notice to the reader on how the State of the Union was going to be addressed by the writer. Reporters have learned to create short, bolded headlines using Jargon that will attract the attention of readers thus making it incredibly important to the genre.

Another quality that has become incredibly important, especially when on the internet, is the use of pictures for context. Pictures following a headline, yet preceding the actuals text has become a mainstay aspect of the news on the internet, and paper to a smaller extent. The choice of the picture conveys the message of the reporter just as much as the text. Many pictures are taken during a speech and at different times a person may convey different expressions that are interpreted differently. For example the news site Fox News carries a picture of Obama wearing a seemingly sly smile. This type of picture may create the impression the president has done something wrong and is very proud of it, smug even. On the other hand, the more liberal news site, The Huffington Post, uses a more heroic picture of the President, one where he appears to be making a bold statement. The picture is a close up, much like a heroic figure in a film would have. In both news sites Obama is characterized further through the use of photographs. Pictures not only further the argument for a reporter but it also creates an association between the reader and the figures in the story. A person that may not have known what the President’s face looked like, or the face of the very melancholy John Boehner that sat behind Obama, can now associate the name with a face. This helps the reader cement the names, and information, given by reporters.

A common convention in new articles is the objective tone an article carries. The tone of objectivism adds to the legitimacy of the article by instituting the approach Logos. The articles do not use any indication that the opinions expressed belong to the reporter, instead the information is presented in a way that seems factual by presenting charts and citations. It is incredibly important to cite sources and keep a legitimate reputation because reporters will be judged on their information by their audience. Perhaps no other profession has such a varied audience as a reporter because the news is a necessity among the people of any democracy. Lately, news sites have begun to pander to demographics. Fox News is a great example of how an objective tone can be used for bias in news, as can be read, “If there were any doubts that President Obama has moved beyond trying to tackle the 18 trillion national debt, his state of the union address should put them to rest:he’s over it”(Fox News). Here the reporter uses a tone that sounds objective and alludes to the State of the Union Address to cite his conclusion, Obama will not do anything about the growing debt and has stopped caring.  The tone may lead readers to lose faith in the president. Fox News has taken the conventions of the genre to legitimize their arguments by making it sound objective. The Huffington Post, though, decides to use this tone to support the president and the proposals he offered Tuesday night, “President Obama’s...Signaled a fresh battle for the hearts and minds of America’s middle class -- and Republicans weren’t having any of it.”(Huffington Post) Here the Huffington Post has established Obama as the “Middle Class Warrior” and Republicans as the barrier in the face of his benevolence. The reporter has condemned the Republicans as enemies of the middle class, but informs the reader very little of Obama’s proposals throughout. The use of language in both articles shows the ability of genres to have the same rhetorical devices, in this case the same tone, yet used to different ends. Fox News was antipathetic towards Obama's goals and made it clear, but the Huffington Post utilized the same tone to aggrandize the president for his proposals and demonize republicans. Kerry Dirk describes the role of genres best,”It is the knowledge that helps us to recognize and determine appropriate responses to different situations.” (Dirk, 259)As reflected above, each reporter had an opinion and decided to write an article using the respectable conventions of a news piece.

A respectable aspect of news pieces is the ability to admit when they are wrong. If a news piece relays the information incorrectly, the reporter must edit it and add a piece in the bottom admitting the mistake, This on its own adds to the Logos approach that is furthered by the objective tone, as well. The New York Times adds such an edit on the foot of the article explaining,”(New York Times) An earlier version of  this article misstated the nature of a killing by a police officer on Staten Island. The victim, Eric Garner, was choked not shot.” The small piece at the foot of the article also adds the date, January 21, 2015, to inform the reader of the date of the correction. The reporter has admitted his mistake in regards to the death of Eric Garner demonstrating his integrity, ethics, and commitment to his trade. The correction piece also creates, by mistake, Ethos. By admitting the small mistake he has humanized himself beyond the a name on print and as a fellow person. Of course, if Ethos is established multiple times, it may lead to the reporter losing credibility in a career that demands it.

Although the amount of genres may be daunting, learning them remains an important aspect or anyone writing anything. Genres are not only precedents set by writers before us, but they are also a guideline to approach an audience. For those that say otherwise and say Genres play a very minimal role in writing, they’ve obviously never been a news reporter. News reporters must abide to their genre or lose credibility. Because they are the voice of truth, their credibility is of the utmost importance. There are many conventions that a news piece must follow in order to garner validity.

Genre will forever be an important aspect of writing. A person’s audience will never be the same and because of this, the amount of genres are equally varied. The person that every specific genre to will differ vastly not only because of time period, but because of targeted social groups. Genre will remain important to the struggling author or to the unemployed resume writer.

Works Cited

McAuliff, Michael. "Obama State Of The Union Address Highlights Battle For The Middle Class." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com. Web. 26 Jan. 2015. .

"Obama’s State of the Union 2015 Transcript (Full Text) and Video." The New York Times. The New York Times, 20 Jan. 2015. Web. 21 Jan. 2015. .

"What Obama Didn't Say: Address Skips over Debt, Entitlement Crisis." Fox News. FOX News Network, 21 Jan. 2015. Web. 26 Jan. 2015. <http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/01/21/what-obama-didnt-say-address-skips-over-debt-entitlement-crisis/>.

Boyd, Janet. "Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking)." Writing Spaces: 89. Print.

Dirk, Kerry. "Navigating Genres." Writing Spaces: 259. Print.

On the internet there exists a beneficial resource called Meme Generators which, if used correctly, can help any person learn the conventions and rhetorical patterns of a Genre. In essence, these Meme Generators help define a genre for someone who would otherwise not have been able to see the patterns.Three very different Meme Generators rest in Meme Generator.net, Pandyland.net/random, and pdos.csail.edu/scigen. Each website creates a format utilizing patterns that juxtapose one another and show the variance of how a genre is defined,

Considering the Scigen meme generator, one can see that it utilizes a very academic format which would be used for a more scholarly audience. The website creates academic papers that would have basis in scientific fact, would use graphs as a means of illustrating their point, and uses sources to prove the validity of their hypothesis. An article with these conventions, patterns, and rhetorical devices would not be written for a layman that is seeking entertainment, rather a scholar attempting to further educate himself or herself. The intense jargon is matched with a lack of rhetorical devices that would make the paper enticing to a common reader, such as puns, allusions, alliterations, etc., choosing instead to use Ethos and logos to establish credibility and appeal to the audience, The lack of Pathos demonstrates further the scientific nature of the genre because, as my HIgh School Science teacher said, “No one cares about your opinions until you have established yourself to be credible”. This style of writing deeply contrasts the other two products of the Meme Generators, as the other two do not have to focus on credibility or appeal to such an uptight audience.

The Meme Generator on Pandyland.net created comically irreverent three “box” comics which appeal to a general audience with a sense of humor. The appeal comes from the lack of scientific jargon that makes the Scigen meme generator so popular, opting for simple sentence structures that do not make it such difficult read. The Comic further establishes its appeal to the layman by having a very normal premise, two people having a conversation about occurrences. What makes the comic genre so unique, though, is not the lack of scholarly jargon, but its means of communicating with the audience, drawings. The comic uses its irreverent humor and matches it with anti-climactic endings which, in their own way, are humorous, often starting with relevant dialogue and ending with in a nonsensical manner. What makes the comic genre so unique, though, can be described with The saying “a picture is worth a thousand words”, and that is what a comic can establishes. The comic characters come to life through the drawings, as their facial expressions are translated better than they could ever be through writing. The drawings are, perhaps, the biggest contrast between the other two genres as they communicate through different means.

The simplest of all the meme generators is memegenerator.net, which allows users to add titles to a picture. Each picture is characterized differently and are not interchangeable. What a meme does is create a door from the creator to the reader, often a wary internet user, by giving relatable, often comical, views and stories that are normal or preposterous.  For example, Futurama Fry exists so that the creator can ponder with the audience about a situation. It often begins with “ Not sure if…. or….”. The reader may find the situation relatable, establishing logos between a reader and the creator. Memes create a one way dialogue which would not be as lengthy as a book or a comic, as the words must fit on a small picture. The language is usually very simple (often misspelled), not as complex as the scientific article and not as controlled as the comic because there is no one there to check for errors. Internet memes may not solely be created for the purpose of relating stories and ideas, they may also share jokes and riddles. The “Lame Pun Coon Meme” utilizes puns, a rhetorical device often used in a humorous way. Despite the variance of memes, they all share the same look. All memes share a pattern hinting at what the creator will talk about and the actual story, joke, or opinion over the picture. Though not as expressive as comics, the meme’s use of pictures improve the communication of the creators words better than it would without them.

Meme generators exist to help a student see the patterns hidden in a genre. Using these websites and searching for genres can help a reader understand the style of writing that must be used to replicate it. A person can not begin to write a paper without internalizing what a paper encompasses. Meme generators serve as a guidance tool into the world of genre.

Edwar Hernandez

Zack De Pierro

Writing 2

Due: Monday, January 12th

PB1A: Dissecting a Genre’s Rhetorical Features and Conventions

9gag was established as a mode of free expression on the internet with the use of popular internet memes, which include but are not limited to, Confession Bear, Awkward Seal and Good Guy Greg. The clever comments section on the meme website have a particular set of rhetorical features and conventions which make the it a genre of its own. The use of puns, movie references and retorts against feminism make the comment section a product of its community, the 9gaggers.

The comment section on 9gag is a place where the joy of memes and openness of a community can extend beyond the memes. Comments are characterized by a set of rhetorical devices which become prevalent among an audience looking to laugh and be entertained. The tone may vary from critical of others to kind, but it will always be based on humor. A prevailing rhetorical device that is used is the pun. The pun is simple in its undertaking, yet its use is for comedy. One such example is when a person responded to a picture of a sloth “That is why it is the sin of sloth,” (@Gergioff) by doing so the person has established himself as a humorous person and thus a member of the community. Allusions have established themselves among the comment section, as the “Am I the only one...” reference from The Big Lebowski film has become incredibly popular. Often 9gaggers will use the reference to show their disapproval with something they deem wrong, and those that agree will follow suit. While rhetorical devices have helped characterize 9gag, there are certain conventions that help define the 9gag community.

Comments are built on the conventions of the community, popular beliefs, common dislikes, and nationalities. 9gag is a website that is visited by people from around the globe, resulting in the creation of an international community. The prevailing convention held by the people on 9gag is their solidarity against feminism. Most comments can be described as sexist and sometimes bordering misogynistic. A female 9gagger will be awash with comments, ignoring her input, yet commenting on her looks, “Body so awkward makes me cringe”(@iheartbunnies) or describing the sexually explicit acts they would do. The constant lambasting against feminism on 9gag has become so grave that it has inspired blogs describing the site’s nature. 9gagged, on tumblr is one such example. While 9gaggers have shown unity against feminism, the site inspires empathy for tragedies around the globe. After the assassination of the artist in France, the 9gag community came together to criticize the actions of the murderers. Together, like many times before, the community prioritized themselves before their nationalities.

The community on 9gag abides by its own set of standards and methods, thus defining their own genre. Together they have created a community that carries their conventions and language. Their distrust of feminism and their unity against tragedy marks them. They are known as the “Forever Alone” community and together, but together they will never be alone.