Analyzing My Genre

Walker, Samantha "Screenshot from my computer"
11/3/15

In the following blog post I will be providing 5 links to examples of my genre for this argument and then answer the genre questions provided by Writing Public Lives while referring to my examples.

Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
Example 4
Example 5

Social Context

• The genre tends to be on more formal news sights, such as Washington Post, New York Times, and USA Today. 
• The genre of political commentary news article tend to summarize and evaluate the current state of politics, including legislation, taxes, war, specific politicians etc. and reflect on the implications and impact of those actions or subjects. 
• People interested in politics are the ones who use the genres. Those with distinctive political parties, are slightly older, and are more passionate about voting tend to be the most interested. However, younger people who have specific interests also use the genre to keep up with what's going on in those areas. 
• The genre is constantly used in order to keep people informed regarding all aspects of the governments and politics. However, it becomes notably more active during times of large political change, such as elections and huge legislative movements (for example, legalization of gay marriage or declarations of war). 

Rhetorical Patterns of the Genre

•  The type of information included in this genre is typically a combination of statistics regarding the issue and quotes from those involved. These quotes can be emotional quotes that prompt sympathy from the readers, condemning quotes from opposition, or credible quotes for support. Information that tends to be omitted is complicated terms and history because it loses the readers interest in this fast paced news genre. Some of the examples also included general 
• The most common rhetorical appeals tend to lean toward ethos and logos. In most of the examples I included, they examined money policy relating to education and the implications of it. That approach leads to the combination of an ethical and logical appeal which influences the reader by grabbing their attention with statistics, then impacting their emotions and beliefs by looking at the impact of those facts.
•  The articles tend to be lengthier texts embedded with quotes, with no headings, and including minimal visuals. The introductions of most of these texts describes a situation or concept that helps to frame the overall idea of the paper, such as a recent statement of policy change or an involved organizations. The endings can very, with a couple articles using quotes to conclude their thought on a high note while others end their argument with simple, direct statements of criticism or closure.  
•  Almost all of the articles include a variety of sentence structures, but many fall back on active, complex sentences to describe complex ideas, statistics, or conclusions. The sentences can have a variety of endings, but not all the time. One article used no special punctuation, while another did not shy away from rhetorical questions. The genre is relaxed about punctuation and does not adhere to any one style of sentence structure. 
•  The word choice varies from article to article, but it can be narrowed down to two basic tones: semi-formal or approachable/casual. The topics and relation of the author to said topic would dictate the word choice, but one consistency was in the formality surrounding facts and statistics. 

Analysis

•   The genre includes specifically people geared toward the authors political viewpoint and tends to exclude the opposing political view. That does not mean that all of the articles are one view in particular, though Washington Post tends to be a more liberal lean.
•  The genre encourages readers, typically, as perpetrators of change. The author tends to act more of an accuser of those who have done wrong or a guide to the readers in how they need to change the situation to fit the authors views. 
•  Typically values of change in the political realm are encouraged in the genre. Those who are content with the current situation are not supported or encouraged.
•  The genre treats irrefutable statistics as the most valuable because they tend to be good tools of accusation. The genre tends to ignore opposing political positions because they don't support the views of the authors

REFLECTION

After reading the posts of Chelsea and Evan  I found it interesting to see the different word choice patterns and rhetorical strategies we interpreted. Chelsea is doing a blog post, which is much more informal than my genre and is moderately more accessible for us as writers since it's more in our age range. Evan is working in a genre very similar to mine, but he has found that, based on his examples, the articles appeal more to pathos rather than logos and uses more passionate word choice than my moderately composed, logical word choice. Both were very insightful.