The University of Texas at El Paso

Leslie I. Rodriguez
Major assignments: Genre Analysis
Ms. Sara B. Large
02/13/2016

Genre analysis
We the people have been replaced and money is all that matters is
the phrase that the organization Represent.Us (2012) uses to explain and
refer to corruption in its YouTube video called Introducing: The American
Anti-Corruption Act. It is clearly stated in the video that this organization
votes against corruption, and that it is trying to promote the Anti-Corruption
Act they are proposing, by showing all the problems that society faces, as
well as how the country and the whole world is affected by corruption and
how could it change if corruption was not an issue. On other genre, Peter
Cohans article on Forbes magazine titled How business corruption pays off
is mainly about how corporate corrupt practices can pay off and what factors
make it possible. Here the author states that corruption rates have been
increasing, explains what the costs and benefits of it are, and proposes a
solution. In order to have a better image of what the organization is trying to
reflect on its video and what Peter Cohan talks about, this paper will analyze
the authors audience, purpose, and the use of the rhetorical appeals ethos,
pathos and logos to prove a point.
The audience for which the YouTube video is intended, is people with
access to a computer and the Internet; especially those who are American
citizens affected by the problems that corruption in this country brings. The
author makes it clear when he says this is not the America that we were

promised (Represent.Us, 2012). The purpose of the video is to raise

awareness and motivate people to join their movement to fight against
corrupt practices in the United States, as well as to promote the AntiCorruption Act. This goal was remarked when the author showed how society
was in the present and what changes could be achieved in the future with
the act they are proposing. The organization wants to convince Americans
that the Act proposed would be the solution to corruption. The audience will
probably have a very general notion of what this problem involves and they
might be interested on learning a bit more about it when they start getting
involved with the video, which is a couple minutes short and delivers the
message fast.
For the Forbes article, the intended audience is highly educated people
that are involved in the business sector and the economy. The purpose of
Cohan when writing this article is to inform about specific cases and to
persuade into cooperating with the solutions he is proposing. The author is
trying to raise awareness about this controversial issue. The audience
probably knows what the problem represents but they would still want to
know more about the examples and specific cases. In this genre, the
audience will spend more time than with the video, Probably ten minutes or
more.
The tone on the video is a little bit more informal since it is targeting a
broader audience, the whole American population, which belongs to a totally
different discourse community than the intended audience for Forbes

magazine who are more educated people. On Cohans article the tone Is
formal, since it is more professional and serious writing. Some business
jargon is used similarly in both genres, and other specialized vocabulary that
can be seen are specific company names and parts of the Constitution.
In the video Introducing: The American Anti-Corruption Act, the use
of the rhetorical appeal of ethos is strong because of the credibility and
trustworthiness that the author reflects. This can be inferred from the
transparency, the ability to find contact, authority and funding information
and credibility of the sources, the outside sources the author provides and
the fact that it is updated and factually correct. The rhetorical appeal that
the author uses the most, in order to get to the audience, is pathos meaning
that it appeals to the emotions of the people watching the video. It tries to
bring out not only one emotion. Those emotions that the video tries to
project are frustration and stress when the problem is presented, and then in
the last part of the video, hope for the solution. This is reflected with the
phrase and well keep on standing until we dont need to ask our broken
congress to pass this law, well simply tell them, the time has come
(Represent.Us, 2012). Last, we have the rhetorical appeal of logos, and even
though it is not the strongest appeal the author uses to support its work, its
not weak either. The video has a good organization of the ideas that are
presented; it also provides facts, statistics and good examples to
demonstrate the point that the author is trying to make.

In the Forbes article, How corruption pays off, the rhetorical appeal of
ethos is strongly portrayed. The authors information and biography is
included with the source and this provides credibility. Credibility is also
provided by giving outside sources, and specific names and cases. Then we
have the rhetorical appeal of pathos, the emotion portrayed in this article is
mostly fear of the consequences of participating in corrupt practices, and a
sense of empathy towards the solutions. The most strongly used rhetorical
appeal for this article was logos, since the author provides vast evidence
such as real life cases and statistics. For example, the fact that 25% of Wall
Street executives see wrongdoing as a key to success (Cohan P., 2012). For
both genres analyzed, all three rhetorical appeals where used strongly and
accord. Even when the two are very different in many aspects, they both do
a good job at delivering the message intended.
The YouTube video has more freedom to express and bring out feelings
since it can show images and music that sets the mood. The limitation for
the genre is that, not much detailed information can be given due to the
short duration. The information is structured so that first an emotion is
moved, with sad music and moving images, then the solution is proposed,
and finally the audience is motivated to support the change. On the other
hand, for Cohans article, the genre is helpful when delivering the
information since it gives the author the opportunity to expand on the topic
and provide specific examples which are easier to understand. The author
organizes the article by first giving specific detail about the problem, then it

gives examples of real cases, later it talks about the consequences and
finally about the solutions. Some images relating to the topic, which is
business corruption, are also included to better illustrate the message being
delivered. On both situations, the respective genres used in each case work
efficiently to help with its purpose.
After analyzing the elements above, it could be said, that the genre
that is better at achieving its purpose and conveying the message intended
is the YouTube video. This video introducing the American Anti-Corruption
Act, uses and exploits different aspects of the genre that it has. Since the
purpose is to move people and promote their Act, the genre is useful
because it gives the opportunity to portray feelings by using music, images
and different fonts. The fact that it does not take that much time is also
helpful so the audience can focus on the message for a few minutes and not
get distracted or lose interest. When selecting the genre various elements
have to be considered, such as audience, purpose, intended message, topic,
the tone, etc. There are many different genres, and they all have specific
strong suits or are better for a specific type of message.
References
Cohan, P. (2012, July 11). How Business Corruption Pays Off. Forbes. Retrieved from
http://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2012/07/11/how-business-corruption-pays-off/2/.
Represent.Us (2012, November 12). Introducing: the American anti-corruption act [Video file].
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGECjjoJ3KE.