Piper Harris

De Piero
Writing 2
13 March 2016
WP1 Reverse Outline
Paragraph

Main Point

I was sitting in my friends living room watching Food

Network when it came to me. The idea slapped me in the
face like a sticky noodle that has yet to be buttered. After
an hour of watching Guy Fieri make delectable food on
TV, I decided my first writing project would be based on
something I am truly passionate about and enjoy pasta.
With that burst of inspiration, I grabbed my laptop and
hunted for recipes. After a long search through the
internet, I decided on Animals Punk Pink Pasta from
Disney Family, Penne with Vodka Sauce from the
Food Network, and Mushroom and Shallot Spaghetti
with Crispy Prosciutto by Rachael Ray. I chose these
three recipes because despite the fact that they are all of
the same genre, they employ conventions and strategies
in entirely different ways. Although the three sources all
present recipes for pasta, they are all aimed at different
audiences, ranging from children to experienced chefs,
and therefore employ different uses of the three
rhetorical appeals ethos, logos, and pathos and also
use the conventions of a recipe differently, specifically
with the type of cooking language used and how the
instructions are presented.

Thesis: Although the three sources

all present recipes for pasta, they
are all aimed at different audiences,
ranging from children to
experienced chefs, and therefore
employ different uses of the three
rhetorical appeals ethos, logos,
and pathos and also use the
conventions of a recipe differently,
specifically with the type of
cooking language used and how the
instructions are explained.

Although all three of the sources are all of the Recipe

genre, they addressed entirely different audiences
children, adults without much culinary skill, and
experienced cooks causing them to use the three
appeals in very different ways. Pathos is an appeal to
emotion, ethos refers to the credibility of the author,
and logos is presenting the facts of the matter (Carroll
52-54). Despite the fact that the three different recipes all
serve the same purpose of providing steps for making a
pasta dish, they must employ specific strategies for the
audience that they are addressing to best achieve their
goal of teaching someone how to cook a pasta dish. After
all, everything you write is influenced by what you
know about an audiences expectations (Losh 7).

The main point of this paragraph is

to explain to readers what ethos,
logos, and pathos are, and touch
base upon how the sources use
those appeals differently because of
their different audiences. This
paragraph serves to explain the
appeals to the readers, so that when
I refer to how the sources use them,
the readers will understand. Also, I
tried to lay out my argument in this
paragraph, so that the readers
would have a better time following.

Because the audience of the Disney recipe is children,

the authors must appeal to them through emotional
factors, as that is what children best respond to. Because
children are so young, they are best persuaded by things
that seem exciting and fun. The first strategy the authors
employ to appeal to their very young audience is pathos
through the title. The title Animals Punk Pink Pasta
includes a popular Muppets character, Animal, and is
playful, thus appealing to the younger age group. This
alone draws on a childs excitement and could make
them say I wanna make Animals pasta! In addition,
Disney uses pathos by making the activity seem more
fun and interesting to children by creating Animals face
in the dish (Animals). Using a character that children
love evokes an emotional response and draws children
into the activity (Carroll 53). What kid doesnt want to
make animals face out of pasta? The Food Network
recipe, on the other hand, addresses an audience that is a
little more mature.
The recipe Penne with Vodka Sauce from the Food
Network is aimed at people who are not too experienced
with cooking, and are expecting something quick, easy,
and tasty therefore, the authors try to employ a strategy
that will prove the recipe meets the audiences criterion logos. An audience that doesnt know much about the
matter needs to be convinced with evidence that they
should use that recipe, because they have nothing else to
base their opinion on. Thus, the Food Network proves
the quality of its recipes through actual ratings and
stars given to the recipe by every day users, just like
the reader (Network). The reviews also relate to the
audience well because they are from people just like the
reader. This use of raw ratings establishes the recipes
credibility and persuades the audience to use the recipe
through actual reviews from other people, unlike the
Disney recipe, which lures its audience in through
superficial factors. An older audience needs to be
persuaded by more facts, whereas a younger audience is
lured in more by excitement. Contrasted to both of those
recipes, the Rachael Ray recipe addresses a much more
advanced audience, and therefore must fit the situation
(Dirk 259) and use a different appeal for its specific
audience.

This paragraph explains how

because the audience of the Disney
recipe is children, the authors
employ pathos to appeal to them
because children are persuaded by
things that seem fun. The authors
draw on the childrens emotions by
using a character the children love
Animal in the meal. This
paragraph serves to highlight how a
younger audience responds better
to pathos, while the other two
recipes use different appeals for
their different audiences.

The main point of this paragraph is

that the Food Network employs
logos and build its credibility to
prove to the unexperienced
audience that they should use the
recipe. Rather than using the pathos
appeal like the Disney recipe, the
Food Network recipe persuades the
audience using ratings from other
users, to connect to the reader and
show that other people think the
recipe is good so they should, too.
This paragraph supports my
argument by showing how an
audience who doesnt know much
about the matter requires more
evidence to be persuaded to use
something.

The recipe from Rachael Ray is aimed towards an

audience that is extremely experienced with cooking, and
therefore uses ethos to prove to the readers that the recipe
is complex, advanced, and meets their high standards.
Ethos might need to be used with such an audience
because since they know a lot about cooking, they need
to see that the author does, too. To prove her legitimacy
in the culinary world, Rachel Ray includes advanced
cooking terms such as deglaze and al dente, to
appeal to the audiences culinary skills and also to
uphold the Rachael Rays gourmet status (Ray). Only
people who are experienced with cooking would be able
to employ such words, so Ray is showing the readers that
she knows her stuff, so they should read her recipe. This
appeal is also strengthened through ethos simply because
Rachael Ray is a well-known, credible chef people
believe that her recipes will be professional and fancy. In
other words, people feel that a recipe from Rachael Ray
will meet their expectations because she is a trained,
gourmet chef, so the recipe builds credibility just through
Rays reputation.

This paragraph explains how the

Rachael Ray recipe appeals to its
audience using ethos, because the
audience is people who are
advanced with cooking, so they
need to be impressed with things
like complex culinary terms such as
deglaze. Because of the nature of
the advanced audience, Ray has to
build her credibility by showing
she knows her stuff. This paragraph
serves to show how an audience
who is more experienced with
cooking requires the use of ethos to
prove how gourmet the recipe is,
because this kind of audience is
expecting something top-notch and
fancy.

The three sources have many typical conventions of a

recipe, but there are also distinct differences in how those
conventions are used because of the audience, such as the
type of cooking language used. Essentially, the
conventions of recipes are features that provide a
recognizable structure for a genre and prevent works of
that genre from being too different from each other
which results eventually in lack of meaning (Dirk
259). Although each recipe had to implement language
related to cooking, the word choice depended entirely on
the audience being addressed. For the Disney recipe, the
language had to be kid friendly; thus, they kept their
phrases simple, such as Strain the beets and let cool
(Animal). Using such language is necessary for a
young audience, so that they will be able to easily follow
along. The Food Network recipe addresses an older, but
not much more advanced audience, than the Disney
recipe the Food Network recipe therefore uses longer
sentences, such as Add the garlic and red pepper flakes
and cook, stirring 30 seconds (Network), while still
retaining the basic cooking language that inexperienced
readers will understand. On the complete opposite end of
the spectrum, the Rachael Ray recipe addresses an
experienced audience, and employs more complex

The main point of this paragraph is

that although the sources all
employ the recipe convention of
using a lot of culinary language,
they all employ it in different ways
because of the experience their
audiences have with cooking; the
Disney recipe includes the simplest
cooking language, the Food
Network also uses basic cooking
terms, with slightly longer phrases,
and the Rachael Ray recipe
implements language that only
experienced chefs would
understand. This supports my
argument because it exemplifies
that although a genre can have
some similar conventions among
works of that genre, the audience
can change the way that convention
is used.

cooking language. For example, an except from Rays

recipe is Working with a few pieces at a time, crisp
hamBreak ham into pieces or slice into thin strips;
reserve (Ray). If this type of language were used in the
Disney or Food Network recipe, readers might be lost.
However, it is appropriate for Rachael Rays audience,
showing how conventions are heavily influenced by the
audience.
Another convention of recipes that are used within all
three sources but differ due to the audience is the way
that the directions for cooking are presented. Because the
Disney recipe has to adhere to children, it uses extremely
clear, short numbered steps, such as 6. Add salt and
pepper to taste and 9. Place the pasta in the center of
the plate (Animal). The steps for cooking
convention of a recipes is used in this source, but is
modified for children, so that they can follow along and
not get confused. Some steps are accompanied by
pictures too, so that the children can have an even easier
time following the recipe (Animals). This convention
must be made extremely simple when made for children,
or else they wont understand how to do it. On the other
hand, for both the Food Network and Rachel Ray recipe,
the directions were written in paragraph form rather than
numbered steps. This kind of formatting would seem
overwhelming for children, but it is appropriate to
employ the convention in such a way when addressing
adults. Thus, directions are a key convention of a recipe,
but the way this convention is implemented differs
greatly from audience to audience.

This paragraph is used to show

another convention of recipes
directions that are implemented
differently within the three recipes,
such as using short, numbered steps
for the Disney recipe aimed at
children, and paragraph-form for
the Food Network and Rachael Ray
recipes, which are aimed at adults,
who are able to read large
paragraphs. This paragraph
strengthens my overall point by
showing another convention of
recipes that was used by all the
sources, but how they used it in
different ways to best suit it for
their audience.

Knowing how to use and navigate through genres

effectively will help one elicit a desired response from
the audience and better achieve their goals.
Understanding genre is important when trying to bring
about a certain response because specific choices that
writers make result in specific actions on the part of
readers (Dirk 254). That is why it is important for
authors to understand which strategies will work best on
a given audience, such as pathos being the best appeal
for children. Knowing the context and expectations of a
genre are key in getting a point across effectively and
provoking a certain reaction. Genres can be formed by
using their surface-level conventions, but they must be
tailored depending on the situation and audience in order
to make the biggest impact. Some things are appropriate
when addressing one audience, but not when addressing
another; like how using words like deglaze wouldnt
make sense for little kids, but is a good word to use
towards experienced cooks. The three recipes I analyzed
were all of the same genre, but still differed greatly from
each other because of the situation and audience. Thus, it
is crucial to recognize and to determine appropriate
responses to different situations that is, knowing what
particular genre is called for in a situation (Dirk 259).

This paragraph is about how it is

important to understand a genre in
order to best relay your message to
an audience by implementing the
conventions of that genre properly.
Although there are surface-level
conventions within each genre,
they must be adjusted according to
the audience being addressed. This
paragraph strengthens my overall
paper by tying my argument about
how audiences influence
conventions to genres in general. It
shows how genres can be formed
with conventions, but even works
of the same genre have many
differences between them, mainly
because of the audience.

This reverse outline forced me to change my thesis over and over and over. I kept trying to write
the main point of each paragraph, but I just kept finding that it didnt seem to relate that much to
my central point. At that point, the whole idea of a working thesis really made sense to me. As
I went back and fixed my paragraphs, I was also constantly revising my thesis, until the main
points of each paragraph finally tied back to one, central idea. Doing this reverse outline also
forced me to completely restructure my paper, as before, my ideas were kind of all over the
place. I first tried to do a reverse outline of my original paper, and found that I couldnt pull out
one main point from each paragraph because I was shoving so many ideas into page-long
paragraphs. Thus, this activity led me to separate many of my paragraphs, and keep each
paragraph related to one idea so as to not confuse my arguments. I feel like this activity really
helped me give my essay good structure and flow.