jessicansmith03@gmail.

com

Jessica Smith
Writing 2
De Piero
25 January 2016

Audience Appeal
According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a genre is defined as a category of
artistic, musical, or literary composition characterized by a particular style, form, or
content (Gove). Genres are not confined to just types of literature or art, but genres can be
applied to many contexts and are made up of conventions, or several elements that are
unique to that category. News articles contain many conventions that are shared among
the genre. I will analyze the conventions of three different articles on the death of Osama
Bin Laden to demonstrate conventions of news articles from sources ABC News,

Zack De Piero 1/30/2016 3:49 AM

Comment [1]: J-Smith, I don't like this
title for two reasons: 1, it doesn't give me a
specific idea of what this paper is going to
be about, and 2, it's suuuuuuuuuuper
boring. You've got a ton of style and wit
and curiosity -- use that to your advantage.
:)
Zack De Piero 1/30/2016 3:51 AM
Comment [2]: The "definition" opener is,
I think, a bit too standard (and boring).
Get me hooked! What makes this stuff
interesting?
Zack De Piero 1/30/2016 3:51 AM
Comment [3]: You've got a ridiculouslyinteresting subject here: use that as a way
to draw me in.

History.com, and The Guardian. While news articles are similar to one another, one can
observe that the target audience, based on geographic location, influences how the writer
structures the article based on the incorporation of outside sources and the inclusion of
background information.

The audience of news articles heavily influences how the article is structured
based on the importance of information for that audience. As Dirk says, knowing what a
genre is used for can help people to accomplish goals, and in regard to news articles,
they are meant to provide an outlet of information to share with the public to better
understand current events (Dirk 253). For the Bin Laden articles, the intended audience is
people interested by the terrorist events of September 11, 2001, which is the exigence of
these articles. While this audience of the events is primarily Americans affected directly

Zack De Piero 1/30/2016 3:53 AM

Comment [4]: As I told you during office
hours, I really like this thesis -- it's complex
and specific.

One q, though: I'm wondering what
*about* the outside sources and
background info you'll be examining?
What are the conventions you'll be
analyzing?

If you can find a way to incorporate that
and get even more specific, I'll be able to
anticipate the steps that you (the writer)
are taking so that I (the reader) can follow
along more deliberately.
Zack De Piero 1/30/2016 3:54 AM
Comment [5]: Careful -- you sure of
this? (If so, based on what?) Could there
be other exigences for writing/reading
these articles? I'd be willing to bet that
there's significant dissimilarities in the
exigence that drives these pieces.

or indirectly by 9/11, because the event became such a global issue, the audience also
reached out to people outside of America, as they too were seeking information and
interested about Bin Ladens death. The American Broadcasting Company, ABC News
has an intended audience of specifically Americans, while History.com is an online outlet
intended for a global audience. On a global note, too, The Guardian is a daily British
newspaper with an intended audience of citizens of the United Kingdom. For all of these
media platforms, the purpose of the article for the intended audience is informing readers
on an issue, but because their audiences differ, their structure is not the same. One key
difference amongst the articles is the inclusion of background information, which is
catered to the intended audience. ABC News did not include any background information
on the events of 9/11 but rather only on details about Bin Ladens whereabouts prior to
his death. Because they are an American-based company with an intended domestic
audience, it expects its readers to know the details of this important historical event.

Zack De Piero 1/30/2016 3:54 AM

Comment [6]: This comment is in
reference to the whole paragraph:

When I see thiseven before I start
readingI think, Ahhhhhhh! Attack of the
page-long paragraph!

See if you like this metaphor:
Pretend your whole paper is a big, juicy
steak. Do you want your reader to enjoy
that steak in easy-to-chew, digestable
bites? Or do you want them to start
gnawing away at whole thing in one piece
(think: zombie).

Paragraphs are like those bites. Give
your reader your argument in little,
digestable, one-idea-at-a-time bits. By
doing so, theyll be able to following along
the trail of your argument much easier. To
relate it back to the steak metaphor,
readers need to be able to see the
different parts/pieces/bites of the argument
that theyre chewing on.
Zack De Piero 1/30/2016 3:56 AM
Comment [7]: Right here, it looks to me
like you're moving from AUDIENCE to
BACKGROUND INFO. Whenever you're
moving from 1 idea to another, it could be
a good spot to bust out a new paragraph.

Alternatively, The Guardian provided background information about many American

topics. In the article, President Obama is defined as a candidate in the 2008 election
campaign (Walsh). The Guardian is a British daily newspaper and its readers are not
necessarily versed in American politics, so while ABC News would never share this
information, inserting it in this article is necessary for the context of this article.
Additionally, The Guardian article makes a point to elaborate on how the death of Bin

Zack De Piero 1/30/2016 3:58 AM

Comment [8]: Excellent! Right here,
you're convincing me that the
audience/context plays a role in shaping
the conventions of this genre, AND you're
incorporating textual evidence/support to
help me SEE this.

Laden will likely also reconfigure relations with Pakistan, and thus change global
relationships (Walsh). The inclusion of this information prioritizes how other countries
outside of the United States will be affected by this event, which is important to the
British-based audience. While both The Guardian and ABC News cater to a particular

Zack De Piero 1/30/2016 3:59 AM

Comment [9]: Yes, excellent analysis
here -- you're helping me to understand
how the puzzle pieces fit together.

region, History.com has a much more versatile audience, which directly affects how it
incorporates background information. There is little inclusion of historical background
for History.coms article, other than defining the events of September 11, 2001 as the
largest terrorist attack ever on U.S. soil (History.com Staff). The purpose of the article is
solely to organize the information of the death of Osama Bin Laden, thus no background
information to give context of why he was killed was included. To share the background
information, all three articles also had the same style and tone. For a news article, the
tone is intended to be informative and serious because they are meant to provide
information from an unbiased perspective of the author, which is the main constraint of
news articles.
To stay true to the genre, News articles may incorporate the use of outside sources
to share opinion and additional information with the reader. Each article differs in how
outside information is incorporated to best interest the audience at hand. To appease its
global readers, The Guardian incorporated information that would highlight the issue
from a worldly perspective. In the article, The Guardian incorporates input from an
official with Pakistans Inter-Service Intelligence, as he describes the event as a highly
sensitive intelligence operation (Walsh). The inclusion of other global citizens outside of
the United States keeps the interest of the article global, which appeals to the British
readers who are also not as directly influenced by this event as Americans are. While
The Guardian attempted to increase the importance globally, ABC News worked to keep
the issue domestic. In the article, President Obama explains how he authorized an
operation to get Osama Bin Laden and bring him to justice (Schabner). The information
was then supplemented with former President George W. Bushs input that Bin Ladens

Zack De Piero 1/30/2016 3:59 AM

Comment [10]: What do you mean
here?
Zack De Piero 1/30/2016 4:00 AM
Comment [11]: Hmmm... I feel like
you're slapping on "tone" to a paragraph
about background info. Aren't they two
different things? Or are they interwoven?

Whatever the case may be, it seems like
you're introducing an important new topic
(tone) without examining it in meaningful
depth.
Zack De Piero 1/30/2016 4:03 AM
Comment [12]: J-Smith, I think you
might be wasting some space here -you've mentioned The Guardian twice in
back-to-back sentences, and you're also
telling me that it's an article (I know that by
now!).

What I'm thinking is something like this:

To appease its global readers, The
Guardian incorporated information that
would highlight the issue from a worldly
perspective; a Pakistani Inter-Service
Intelligence describes the event as a
highly sensitive intelligence operation
(Walsh).

Instead of:

To appease its global readers, The
Guardian incorporated information that
would highlight the issue from a worldly
perspective. In the article, The Guardian
incorporates input from an official with
Pakistans Inter-Service Intelligence, as he
describes the event as a highly sensitive
intelligence operation (Walsh).
Zack De Piero 1/30/2016 3:55 AM
Comment [13]: I'm feeling a bit
overwhelmed -- this paragraph is packing
a ton of information, and when that
happens, the focus of the paragraph tends
to be lost. Right now, I'm wondering:
what's Medina's *specific* argument
again? Why am I reading this?
Paragraphs can help remind your reader
identify the parts of your argument and
understand how they fit together.

death marks a victory for America (Schabner). The only outside sources included in
this article were Bush and Obama in an attempt to keep the event an American issue and
to appeal to the intended American audience. The article written for History.com differs
from the other two articles discussed because almost no outside information is used in the
article. Because the purpose of its article is to share the event from a historical standpoint,
the only information used that was not provided by the author was Obamas input that

Zack De Piero 1/30/2016 4:04 AM

Comment [14]: Do you mean that Bush
and Obama wrote pieces that they're
using? Or the article is incorporating
quotes from them? Or just references to
them?

Be specific, always'n'forever. Doing that -and incorporating textual evidence to
support your claims -- can help reduce the
ambiguity here.

justice has been served (History.com Staff). The article is intended to remain as
unbiased as possible, so no supplements from outside sources could be used because the
information is meant to appeal to as broad of an audience as possible.
Understanding genre, and how audience creates differences within genres, I
believe can benefit any understanding. There are many different genres outside of textual
genres that are often overlooked, but as Dirk reminds us, all genres matter because they
shape our everyday lives (Dirk 22). Like any new invention, genres are created as a
response to a new situation, and once understood by many, genres can help illicit a
response that is widely understood. To be able to associate something with a genre can
help give further understanding by being able to compare that subject to others
categorized as the same. Dirk furthers this concept in that knowing what a genre is used
for can help people to accomplish goals (Dirk 21). Understanding the set intentions of a
specific genre can help plan for how to best effectively assess a situation. The
significance of genres is often overlooked, but they continue to evolve and to make an
impact on the literary world and beyond.
The goal for publications is to increase and keep readership amongst their viewers
and in order to differentiate themselves from others, they must detail their information

Zack De Piero 1/30/2016 4:06 AM

Comment [15]: Alright, so check it out:
using *I* in some assignments is
TOTALLY OK if it's relevant. And it *could
be* relevant to this assignment.

However, *you* are the one carving out
what IS and ISN'T relevant based on what
you lay out in your thesis statement.
Yours didn't really include YOU, J-Smith,
so now when I read this, I'm thinking...
huh... I wasn't expecting this.

What I'm saying is: if you're going to use
"I," you probably want to be consistent and
use it throughout your paper (that is, if it's
relevant to your argument); otherwise, it
seems like your paper is changing
directions a bit too abruptly.

according to their readers. As Dirk mentioned, every genre serves a purpose, and each of
these articles, in their unique way, tailored information to an audience and met their
intended goal with flying colors. Although all the news articles discussed shared the same
information, components of outside sources and background information differed
according to the platforms intended audience.




Works Cited
Dirk, Kerry. "Navigating Genres." Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. Vol. 1. Parlor.
Print.
Gove, Philip Babcock. "Genre." Merriam-Webster. Web. 19 Jan. 2016.
History.com Staff. "Osama Bin Laden Killed by U.S. Forces." History.com. A&E
Television Networks, 1 May 2011. Web. 20 Jan. 2016.
Schabner, Dean. "Osama Bin Laden Killed: 'Justice Is Done,' President Says." ABC
News. ABC News Network, 1 May 2011. Web. 20 Jan. 2016.
Walsh, Declan. "Osama Bin Laden Is Dead, Obama Announces." The Guardian. The
Guardian, 1 May 2011. Web. 19 Jan. 2016.

Writing 2 Feedback Matrix for WP1

Table of Textual Features

Did Not Meet

Met

Exceeded

Expectations

Expectations

Expectations

Thesis Statement

X+

Use of Textual Evidence

from Genres
Use of Course Readings

Analysis

X+

Organization/Structure

Attention to

Genre/Conventions and
Rhetorical Factors
Sentence-level Clarity,
Mechanics, Flow

Other Comments

Jessica,
,

What a cool topic -- glad you chose something that you,

hopefully, found interesting. (It seems like you did.)

Please read through my comments on some ways to help
get this paper to the next level. On top of some of my other
suggestions, Id like you to make friends with paragraphs -I want you to use them (as the writer) to help guide your
reader along. Each paragraph should enhance your
argument in a meaningful and specific way -- I felt that , in
some of your paragraphs, there was so much information
that I wasnt sure what to take out of it and how it related
back to your thesis.


Also, Id like you to consider making more tie-ins to our
course readings (beyond just that one source). You can use
them to really help explore the major concepts of genre and
add another layer to your argument and analysis.

Lastly, and maybe most importantly, Id like you to make
as much possible use of the textual evidence in these
sources as you can. Help me see what it is that youre
seeing and that you think is important. Convince your
readers with evidence and then explain to them how/why it
supports your argument/position.

Actually, lastly -- for real, for reals -- I want you to try to
incorporate more of your own voice. At times, I felt like I
couldve been reading anybodys paper; Id like to read a
JESSICA SMITH paper. Feel free to go for it and
include more of your own voice -- remember, as long as
its consistent with the overall style of your paper and its
aligned with your main argument, its perfectly fine (and
advisable to do so).

All told, though, great job.

Z
8.5/10