Marylou Mercado

Writing 2
Zack De Piero
June 5, 2015
Same Genre, Different Take
More than often, identifying and knowing genre plays a key factor in being able to
critically analyze a piece of rhetoric. Each genre displays unique conventions and utilize
rhetorical strategies which make a genre, a genre. One popular genre that media has been
covering a lot lately has been the fore coming 2016 presidential elections. These political articles
are becoming more popular as election season comes up. In more recent news, the announcement
of Hilary Clinton seeking the democratic nomination for presidency in 2016 has been a hot topic.
Media outlets like the Washington News, US weekly Online and Politico Online all have
covered this topic that everyone has been talking about. Each article is able to effectively use
rhetorical strategies such as knowing context, tailoring to an audience and using tone/style to
fulfill their conventions, however, because of this, the purpose of each article has become
significantly different.
Knowing the context of each article is essential to analyzing rhetorical strategies.
Different situations call for different approaches. Each writing situation has its own demands.
Its own expectations and its own sense of how writing is to be presented. When approaching a
new composing situation. We need to consider what writing means. What it does. And how it
moves from one context to another. (Losh and Alexander 9) For example, Jann Wenner, a
popular culture enthusiast, cofounded Inweekly. Because of who Wenner is and what she is
known for, chances are she will continue to pursue pop culture in her work. Because of this,

chances are readers will also be popular culture enthusiast. Inweekly is just trying to do what it
is known for, which is entertainment. Also, take into consideration the New York Magazine
article. There is a reason why the article is openly bias. It is important to take into consideration
who, why, and where the article is written. For starters, the author of the post, Jonathan Chait, is
an open democrat. Also, he writes for the New York Magazine, which caters to mostly people
from the region. Since New York is considered a democratic state, the readers he is appealing to
are most likely democrats as well. To add on to that, Clinton has a large political history with the
state of New York. Again, the context of situations plays a big role. Politico, for example, is a
highly respected political website. If they were to start taking sides, they probably would
probably not be as respected. Since the article caters to all political parties, the authors of the
article show no clear bias. In fact, they even show some input from Hillarys contender Rand
Paul. Senator Rand Paul, another Republican presidential contender, also jumped in, jabbing at
both Clintons use of private email and the foreign money that has freely flowed to the Clinton
Foundation. Its going to be hard for her to say shes for womens rights when shes accepting
money from sort of stone-age sort of regimes that really abuse the rights of women, said Paul on
CBS Face the Nation. (Karni) There purpose here is to simply inform its readers by using
clear political conventions and telling their stories. These are included with, but not limited to,
statistics, information on platform, facts and credible sources. This article shows the more typical
convention of what someone would expect to be a typical political article. Knowing context can
really assist in figuring out which audience will most likely be interested in each piece.
Knowing your audience is also critical for being able to understand each strategy and
display each convention of the different articles. All three articles have the same main idea,
which is Clintons entrance into the political race. However, they each tailor to a different

audience. For example, the US weekly article is clearly tailored for a younger audience. Since it
is more informal article, one can infer the audience is not as politically centered. Instead this one
is more concerned with popular culture and entertainment. People who are truly concerned on
the latest serious political news will not go to US Weekly which is know as a magazine centered
on the lives of celebrities. Just the title itself, Hillary Clinton Announces 2016 Presidential Bid:
Celebs Like Clay Aiken, Amy Poehler, and Lena Dunham React! shows that this is not a strictly
political, serious story. Unlike this article, the other two follow the more common convention of
a political article.. They both are geared towards older audiences. Nowhere does it ever express
Hilarys political platform or information on her campaign in the entertainment article. The other
two articles, however, show facts, numbers, and the use of more proper language. Another thing
that this article does is use a lot of sources and quotes. This displays the idea of a more
traditional political article. They want to get their point across in the way most articles want to,
which are accurate and credible. Political agendas are addressed and standpoints are taken into
consideration. Because of this, one can infer that the intended audience here is more politically
centered.
Tone also is a key factor on the presentation of genre. Tone is highly influenced by
audience because the authors try to appeal to their readers by their use of tone. For example, the
US weekly article has a more easygoing, casual tone. The articles head title read Hillary
Clinton Announces 2016 Presidential Bid: Celebs Like Clay Aiken, Amy Poehler, and Lena
Dunham React! (McRady) Just the use of informal words like celeb instead of celebrities
makes the article less serious Also, the heavy use of visuals adds gives the article a more
easygoing style. The author uses big pictures and popular visuals like gifs. Even the heavy
emphasis on social media adds to give the article a hip feel. The article is filled with tweets

from various celebrities opinions, with more emphasis on the opinion, rather than the actual
political facts. Authors tone and style says a lot about the authors themselves. This idea of tone,
style, and its influence continues on to the next article. For example, the New York Magazine
headlines Why Hillary Clinton Is Probably Going to Win the 2016 Election. Already a clear
bias has been presented. The article continues to view things one sided. Hillary Clinton is
probably going to win the presidential election. The United States has polarized into stable
voting blocs, and the Democratic bloc is a bit larger and growing at a faster rate. (Chait) Again,
it is important to consider who is writing the article and who the audience is. The tone here
highly influences the moods of the article. An opinionated bias plays a huge role in the authors
rhetorical strategies since the author shows a clear preference; chances are the article will display
Clinton positively. This idea of favoritism does not however leak through onto the final article,
which is the Politico one. The author here uses words such as both parties and fair chance to
show that they take no formal bias. Instead throughout the article, the author also uses more
monotone type of words; too show they are serious about what they are talking about. Tone and
style set the moods for what to expect and gain from reading the article.
These rhetorical strategies, although useful, have significantly changed each purpose of
the genre. Sure they all fall under the genre of the 2016 Presidential Election but they each get so
intertwined in fulfilling the conventions of their own pieces that their motives are no longer the
same. It is evident that the Inweekly article is trying to just catch readers attention and entertain
them because of who they are and who reads Inweekly. Same goes for The New York Magazine
article; it gets so caught up on their demographics that their purpose become to convince the
reader that they are right. The Politico article is the only one thats purpose sticks closest to the
original genres conventions, which is to be informative and somewhat neutral.

Being able to not only identify but know the reasons behind why an author does what
they so is essential in understanding writing techniques. It gives you the capability to know what
to look for in a genre and how they can be similar and differ. Also, it allows more adequate
understanding of the context of each articles and knowing what is best suited for which audience.
For example, a conservative republican probably will not be a big fan of the NY magazine
article. Often, articles have similar conventions, however, they do have some key factors that
differentiate them. Therefore, by being informed of genres and their different conventions, would
help to know that this article will not be for them.
Each article displayed adequate understanding of what it takes to effectively use
rhetorical strategies to their advantage. The knowledge of each audience was the stepping-stone
to being able to know how to please each different reader. Also, it assisted in knowing how to
utilize each convention of the genre. The problem was that each article began to take on their
own sub-genres that made each article geared toward a different direction, changing their
purpose, and ultimately making them different.