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Tyrika Scott Professor Ingram English 1101-049 9 October 2013

Part 1: High School Genre During high school, there were many different policies that we students had to become familiar with. What to wear, what not to wear; policies that basically just controlled everything we could do. There were so many, it was hard for us to keep up with every single one. However, there was a certain policy that we became very familiar with. This was the cell phone/electronics policy. Since cell phones were a students best friend, we all wanted to keep them. Some explicit messages in the policy are: CELL PHONES & ELECTRONIC DEVICES WILL BE CONFISCATED IF USED, SEEN, OR HEARD IN SCHOOL BETWEEN 7:45-3:00. First Offense: 10 day confiscation, Second Offense: 30 day confiscation. Students who refuse to surrender a cell phone will be suspended out of school. They actually altered the policy during my time there. The only way your device could be taken away from you was if it was seen. Before, the first offense was a 30 day confiscation, and the second was in-school suspension. The board continues to alter this policy more and more after they encounter different situations. Most students have implied that if you have your phone out anywhere else besides the classroom then it was okay. That was not true at all since many students had their phones taken away during lunch and in the bathroom. Of course students try to bend the rules a little but there were consequences.

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The Craven county school board made this policy for all schools in Craven County. The board of educations purpose for enforcing this policy was so that students wouldnt use their cell phones in class or during educational hours. Cell phones are a very big distraction. Students would stay on their phones all day if they could. The board of education made this policy such a big deal and all the students hated it. This policy, along with more details are found in the Craven county school handbook. This handbook contains many other policies as well. A limitation of this informational document is that it doesnt show every single detail that a new student may need to know. Some students may want to know who is allowed to confiscate devices and where the device is stored after the confiscation. An advantage of this document is that it is brief and straight to the point. It tells the students what time a cell phone is permitted for use, and what happens when it is taken away. I think this document is a substantial way to let the intended audience, which are the students, and also the parents about the policy. It is important for the parents to know the policies because the board makes the rules and the parents input or participation could possibly alter some of them. I believe that this informational document is successful in fulfilling the Board of Educations purpose of writing this policy. It has made students aware and understand how serious the policy is. I wouldnt suggest a different genre because if a student or parent wanted any more information, they could easily look inside of the student handbook, which is given to each student and accessible at the school. If the actual audience is different than the authors intended audience, it drastically changes the success rate of the document. If students dont see the

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document, they will not know about the policy unless they do read their handbook. The handbook is filled with sheets of information on them, and most students dont read them. Teachers are told to go over some policies in the handbook with the class, but some dont do it. So if the document is handed directly to the student, they will read it and know about the policy. For someone who frequently uses their cell phone, I would definitely want to know about this policy. Im glad we were given this sheet to read over because otherwise I wouldnt have known. This policy became very notable, and the document became extremely famous around the schools halls. The values represented in this text are that students need to be in school to learn and to use those hours for educational purposes only. Its important to the author that students dont use their devices during school hours, and use their time wisely.

Part 2: College Genre College is different from high school in so many ways. One particular difference is that in high school, we took the same four classes for one semester. These four classes were everyday, at the same time, and in the same order. In college, we have about five to six classes per semester. These classes are on certain days of the week, and are at different times of the day. This was something that I love about college because some days you have a few classes, many classes, and maybe no classes at all. We all take different classes depending on our major. These classes must be taken or you will not graduate with that major. In order for me to keep track of the courses, my advisor gave me a nursing academic map of what courses to take and when to take them.

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The College of Health and Human Services advisors are the authors of the text. Their purpose for making these academic maps was to provide a display of all the courses a student needs to take when being admitted as a pre-nursing student. The genre of the academic map is in the form of a schedule. The schedule shows each year, and includes both semesters. It has columns named Courses, and Terms Offered. Some courses are only offered in the fall, summer 1, summer 2, spring, or all. The schedule also has a column named Milestones. This column tells us what overall GPA would must have and what letter grade is required from certain classes. Some explicit messages for example, are the milestones, Complete Chem 1203/L (or Chem 1251/L) with B or better and is required of me to obtain. Another milestone from the schedule says, Overall GPA > 3.0 at the end of these 32 hrs. Every piece of information on the schedule is valuable because it enables me to set goals for myself. The schedule is also printed on a lavender sheet of paper. I think that they possibly made it this color because it is a feminine color and nursing is dominated by mostly women. The fact that most nurses are women shows me that I do have a chance and I can make it to the top. A value that is represented in the text and is important to me is the fact that a person in pre-nursing needs to be intelligent and hardworking. These characteristics describe me perfectly and by passing all of the classes will definitely prove that I have what it takes. The advantages of this sample schedule is that it provides me with something that is tangible and organized, and easy to go by. It comes in handy when you are

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thinking about what classes to register for. All you have to do is pull out the lavender sample schedule and register for the courses it tells you to take. The limitations of this schedule is that if you dont know what a certain class is, it doesnt go into depth and give you a description. I want to know more about some of the courses and I cant get that kind of information from the schedule. As stated earlier, it is important for advisors to inform students about what classes they need to take, and also to get through college in the amount of time that is necessary for their majors. This sample schedule is successful because students dont take classes that they dont need. It helps make a blueprint or foundation for their college career. It also shows what grade is acceptable in each course. If the actual audience is different than the intended audience, which are the pre-nursing students, the success rate would change because those classes on the schedule dont pertain to anyone else.

Conclusion Some similarities of the two analyzed texts are that they both pertain to school systems, and they both are excerpts from another source of information. For example, if you wanted to know more about the cell phone/electronics policy, you could look in the Craven County School Board Policy Handbook, as stated in Part 1: High School Genre. To receive more information about the courses on the sample schedule, you could go to the College of Health and Human Services website. Another similarity of the two texts is that they both give you some form of restriction. For example, if you dont follow what the cellphone/electronics policy says, your phone will be taken away. Same as the schedule, if you dont take the classes on

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the schedule, your application to get into the upper division or nursing program, will be taken away or denied. The similarity that seems most important to me is being able to understand the information or message(s) that the texts bring. They each give you enough information for students to perceive the purpose. Some differences of the texts are the way they explain the message and the authors purpose. For instance, the cell phone policy states, Students who refuse to surrender a cell phone will be suspended out of school. This text explains the actual consequence of refusal. The schedule shows you the course, Chem 1203-Intro to General, Organic, & Biochemistry I, but doesnt give you a description on what is discussed or practiced in the class. Clearly expressed in Part 2: College Genre, the intended purpose of the schedule is to give pre-nursing students guidance on what classes are needed in order for them to be eligible for upper division. So to get more to the point, its mainly about education. As presented in Part 1: High School Genre, the intended purpose of informational document is to inform students about what could happen to their electronic devices or cell phone are seen during school hours. This is solely about the precautions. Two different purposes of the texts but they do have the same intended audience, which are the students. Based on my analyses, I think that these two genres are recurrent because they provide information that is straight to the point and accurate. They are also accessible, easy to make, and comprehensible. The rules or routine practices for making a schedule are to make sure you include column or row headings, make sure the grid and the size of the text are a good

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size for people to read, and the font is legible. The practices for an informational document are that it needs to have a nice big title and include the business, idea or place that it is informing the audience about. Also somewhere on the document show where a person can find more details. I think that the person who makes the rules on constructing different genres are by those people who use them to fit specific purposes. According to Kerry Dirk, When something new happens that requires a response, someone must create that first response. Then when that situation happens again, another person uses the first response as a basis for the second, and eventually everyone who en- counters this situation is basing his/her response on the previous ones, resulting in the creation of a new genre. I consider the idea of genres are very important when it comes to providing an audience with information. It was a smart decision to come up with these different genres. I also believe that whoever the actual person is using the genre are going to decide the way they want it to look. Though going by the format would be a lot smarter and clean. Even though the two genres are different in terms of context, they still show a difference in high school from college. You wouldnt get your phones taken away from you in college for using them in class. You still have to pass certain classes to be promoted to the next grade or academic standing. They also so how much more independent, and serious college is than high school. There is more to it than just showing up for class and getting a D to pass. You actually have to apply yourself in everything that you do. The expectations are much higher in college mainly because we are adults and it is the key to a better future.

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As a freshman, knowing that I will have to navigate many new genres in the near future, I can take what I learned from this assignment to new rhetorical situations such as, identifying the purpose, audience, and context of the genre Im writing. Also applying these key concepts to further analyze the writing. Most importantly, to challenge myself by explaining my thinking through words, and write about my ideas more expressively.