pb3a: genre creation proposal??

For my scholarly, peer-reviewed text is a scientific breakdown of “streak shooting” in basketball. It was published by professors from Cornell and Stanford. It explores the independence of every shot and proves that there is little to no correlation between either a successful or unsuccessful first shot and a successful next shot. The researchers were prompted to end the myth of a “hot hand” in basketball by fans and announcers using these phrases to describe a player who has scored on their last couple field goal attempts.

I think that this is an interesting topic to explore and great genres for because the audience for massive, televised sports is so diverse. This should make the task of representing the given information in a more interesting manor worthwhile. The intended audience of the scholarly article is probably a peer review board, but the people that could best use this information are the people watching these basketball games. This is a case of research being published that will never reach the light of the mainstream media, even though kids reading about their favorite players and parents checking the sports news at work should, in my opinion be the original intended audience of such a piece. Making this set of newly found data and statistics more readable or understandable for a less scholarly audience could mean for the public debunking of a sports myth: that momentum plays a great deal in the outcome of a player’s shot.

As for the young audience, I’ll probably create a factual graphic with a simple colorway and clean design. I’ll provide the statistics in a way that is visually appealing so that someone without an extensive understanding of the principles of statistics can understand the point being made by the researchers. When I was a kid, my eyes were always drawn to the images in newspapers (I know, reading newspapers is crazy, but I have always been a sports journalism geek), whether they be informational graphics or the pictures alongside articles. From first hand experience, these are the most efficient and easiest to understand when trying to reach the younger demographics of an audience.

As for the older audience, I might write a fictional newspaper article including quotes from the researchers (drawn from the essay) and present the new discoveries as breaking news in the sports world. Every so often, news outlets like ESPN or Sports Illustrated will publish articles regarding some new study that changes the outlook of athletics in one way or another, and even though this essay was published in 1985, the idea of “streak shooting” is still ever present. It still gets mentioned in almost every game broadcast and it seems that every game has a “hot hand” at one point or another.

I’m interested in looking more into this topic because it seems fascinating to a. learn more about [possibly] one of the most incorrect of sports myths and b. present it in a way that is helpful and more legible for unintended audiences of the researchers’ discoveries.

pb2b: some title or some shit or something

Moves are the tactics deployed by writers to enhance their argument. A strong move can be as simple as leading off an essay with an anecdote, to something more complicated such as creating parallels in sentence structure that stay consistent from paragraph to paragraph. Both of these two moves can be equally effective when practiced in useful places within an essay. Authors such as Lamott and Boyd in particular seem to focus the practical purpose of their styles on creating relatable pieces that are easy reads as well as informative. Through the use of either bold or conservative moves in proper situations, writers create the styles that make one different from the next, keeping their writings interesting and individual.

Anne Lamott, in her essay “Shitty Rough Drafts,” a piece in which her moves’ successes derive from their more relatable approach to explaining the importance of rough drafts. By using the word “shitty” in the title, the author immediately steps away from traditional writing techniques and customs, which can provide a source of intrigue before the written text even begins. Additionally, Lamott writes in with a more conversational style and her words and phrases flow as if they were spoken, such as the natural pauses created by the commas: “all right, one of them does” (22). This keeps the reader engaged and personal tone makes the content more easily absorbed, such as when Lamott outlines the common image of a successful writer—“enthusiastic and confident” (21). She does this only to quickly strike down this vision by providing a more realistic depiction of a writer. They write ‘shitty’ first drafts, only to tear those preliminary versions apart on their way to a more polished second or third draft. After efficiently explaining why the drafting process is necessary for ‘good’ writing, Lamott smoothly transitions into instructions for a constructive revision process, listing the major steps in her writing process such as writing too much, cutting it down, and marking up hard copies (24-25). The author is able to stress the importance of putting ideas on paper in an unofficial, unfinished manor because approaches a, frankly, rather mundane subject from an unorthodox angle, making it more effective in conveying her purpose.

Janet Boyd’s “Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking)” showcases a different set of moves, one with several obvious differences. The most prominent, perhaps, is Boyd’s ability to further her argument on the importance of purpose, audience, and context awareness through an extended example of the analysis of a crime investigation (88). She then goes on to explain how the list of facts of this imaginary crime can be read within the scope of a multitude of genres. By leading with a list of provocative details, Boyd plants an idea in her reader’s head, allows them to think over said idea, and then points them into the direction she intended. This move, stylistically organizing her argument so that the reader is allowed time to mull over the reading, improves the logical structure of the essay as well as maintains a strong level of reader interest. The author also periodically takes a break in argumentation to present the audience with bullet points containing questions that lead the reader to better understand genre (88, 94). This strategy, like Lamott's approach to the task of teaching writing, emphasizes relatability as a key path to reader attention. Boyd leads the reader to the conclusion she wants them to make, and the reader, in turn, develops a more comprehensive understanding through the step by step process provided by the writer.

Lamott and Boyd, as mentioned above, share one glaring similarity: they both try to connect with the reader by appropriating their linguistic and organizational style. These unique approaches to writing instruction offer a new-look way of capturing the reader and then delivering the information. This style, in contrast to dry textbooks, are more likely to keep a student turning pages. Lamar and Boyd are both interestingly driven by creating this casual relationship with their audience through their respective rhetorical devices. These two writers successfully shape their arguments in an understandable and intriguing ways, and through their moves are able to inform students more effectively and enjoyably than a normal course text.

PB2A

When an author is forming his or her argument, they must form it in a way that can be understood by the intended audience, but it also needs to convince, and convincing the reader that the argument is realistic and purposeful through organization, content, tone, etc…

The scholarly articles being discussed are a SCIgen article from the genre generating website and an article observing cultural effects of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa by Steven C. Dubin published in the African Arts magazine and found in the "Newspapers" guide of the list of UCSB's discipline catalogues.

The two authors build their argument’s pathos by writing to their audiences’ expectations for the publications. In a scientific theater, the author has to use technical terms, proper organizational structure, credit all who assisted in the research, among an endless list of other norms associated with any given genre. The soccer article, published in a journalistic publication, is presented in a way so that it belongs in the journal. It’s formatting is what one would expect when someone is reading a magazine, providing the reader with a sense of familiarity with the topic before it is even read. This sense of familiarity stems from reading other pieces within a genre, and when the reader jumps from one source to another, he or she will see similarities that group the sources under a single umbrella, but also will be presented with differences that make every work its own.

Both writers present their arguments so that they are tailored to the readers, so both are written using scholarly vocabulary. The structure of the two pieces develop strong senses of ethos by offering reliable sources presented in an organized fashion. This helps build an aura of reliability around the author and his or her writing that makes their argument far more appealing to its audience. In the SCIgen scholarly source generator, the organization is formally separated into subsections. In contrast, Dubin’s article is formatted much like a newspaper article, with paragraphs serving the primary and lone-standing function for categorizing thoughts within the authors’ arguments. As for more technical conventions, the SCIgen scholarly publication cites its sources with footnotes leading to an extensive, fourty-three-source works cited pages, while the soccer piece credited its quotes and/or evidence in text, with parenthetical citations listing the author of the quote followed by the year it was said or written, proper APA format. The SCIgen article, by citing other papers, which seem to be other research discoveries based on title and layout of listing on the work cited page, gives the reader a sense that this essay has been peer-reviewed by fellow scholars. Peer-review is preached and enforced by the research community allowing a sort of approval system for proposed research or new findings (De Piero). These formats are deeply related to the pieces’ forms, as the research essay follows a very academic layout; likewise, the news-like article follows a strict set of professional patterns, but seems a bit more casual.

Both writers are able to create their texts’ logos by including their claim followed by reliable evidence, capped off with the authors’ input and analysis. In order to support the purpose and claim in the “Introduction” of the SCIgen article, the author provides graphs, scientific discoveries, and general explanations of the findings and their importance. By gathering a multitude of sources into one research essay, the writer creates a clear message of what they are actually saying. Similarly, Dubin argues the cultural importance of the 2010 World Cup for South Africa by offering several professional observations of the culture of the even, then linking them back to his claim that “the World Cup generated a profusion of cultural expression.” Providing sound evidence in an order that makes sense to the audience builds the writer’s argument by offering the reader a sense of comfort with the subject material and the logic that moves the argument along.

Building an argument lies in building credibility and reliability in the reader’s eyes. By providing good textual, presentational support, a work becomes more attractive to read and understanding the purpose and argument becomes easier.

PB1b: Genre Generators

This was my favorite generated comic. I went on to generate twenty some odd alternatives to look at the consistency or inconsistency of the generated genre of weird, confusing comics. The hilarity lies within the randomness that created a genre of three panels and two awkward characters. Most of the quotes included in the formula to create the short dialogue are interchangeable in that they are independent statements—most of the time—and require minimal context for their humor to be displayed. The facial expressions or actions of Simon and Finlay are all random and make for unexpected turns in the story conveyed, such as Finlay shooting himself through the bottom of his head. The genre of these comics is characterized by goofy senselessness, but, in the first few goes at the “generate” button, repeats already surfaced, showing the lack of depth in selection pool for the website, but as advertised on the site, the tens of thousands of possible outcomes are impressive when evaluating the assumed lack of funding or manpower for Pandyland. The audience is probably varied for such a genre generator, as comics are funny to almost anybody, as long as the content is demographically appropriate. For example, it would be difficult to expect a kindergarten student to laugh a joke about Ann Coulter.

As far as the meme generator goes, the function of the site was a bit confusing and I didn’t fully understand its purpose. It provided pages of viral memes such as Bad Luck Brian and the Buzz Lightyear image. These pictures have been on every website on the Internet. Twice. And this website possibly was created to allow people to post new, random memes to their Twitters and Facebooks. Nearly all of the memes were simple square pictures captioned with a basic phrase on the top, and the punchline at the bottom. The punchlines vary in topic; some are social commentaries and some are just short non-contextual jokes. Regardless, memes took over the web in recent years and it is no surprise that the genre has expanded as virally as it has due to the simplicity of most of the jokes and the fact that they are contained to about ten words total for each meme. The site allows people to explore the inner workings of the genre such as selecting a picture and adding text as well as simplifying the process to a simple input with an immediate end product.

The last genre generator created a research paper you input a name for the author of the article. The “Abstract” section explicitly states the purpose of the essay or technological discovery. The “Table of Contents” is oddly followed by the separate sections, rather than a list of titles and identifiers (such as page numbers) for the sections, which is the expectation of a reader when they see the words “Table of Contents” at the beginning of any work. The generator works independently of the user input (the author’s name), so the genre is already created, but for a few phrases strung together to form a semi-cohesive paper. The genre also uses highly academic or specialized vocabulary throughout the product, because an audience of a research paper will usually be fellow researchers who fully understand what is being said. But for an eighteen year-old, the selected vocabulary is highly confusing, and if one of the researchers were a professor as well, they would sometimes have to dilute the thoughts presented in their professional publications in order to explain the content in a way that an undergraduate student can absorb what is being presented.

PB1A: Dissecting a Genre's Rhetorical Features and Conventions

To define a soccer game summary, one must look at the setting, the news article’s form, and the audience and it’s expectation and response. In the digital age, most soccer stories will be found online, ceaselessly updating the world’s fan base, so the audience must expect to find these articles on sports websites, particularly on a European newspaper’s site if the reader is interested in one of the more popular international leagues. These articles can also be found in print newspapers daily or in sports magazines. These stories will also usually be published in the short hours following the game’s conclusion. As for the structure of the article, it is usually written in a normally objective manor by journalists who specialize in the coverage of soccer. The text includes a headline and byline followed by the meat. The headline usually contains the two teams’ names and an interesting action verb intended to draw in readers scrolling through all of their search results. The byline credits the writer and for cases in which the writer is well known or respected, this too can draw in readers. The body provides the information, and it is made up of several features. Most articles follow at least a semi-chronological path in describing the course of the match. Usually towards the end of the article the writer includes quotes from the postgame conference or other interviews conducted to intertwine reactions from players and managers. These traits are commonplace in articles throughout the sports world, so in that, soccer game summaries are extremely similar to game recaps in other sports. Because of soccer’s European influence, there are slight differences that separate the international game’s media customs from more Americanized, commercialized media sources for other sports. For example, the articles use oft larger vocabulary in comparison to that of, say, a basketball story. This is likely creditable to cultural differences between the USA and England, per say; nonetheless, the discrepancies with other sub-genres of sports writing make soccer articles particularly interesting to read. The aspect of online reading of soccer articles that is often nearly as appealing as the article itself is the comment section. Unlike in physical newspapers, though, online comment forums allow for fan (audience) response. As exemplified in any big story’s comment section, soccer fans have a balance between humor and knowledge, and there are plenty of readings in the post-story text that are worth the time for a good laugh or an impressive bit of input or opinion. The purpose of the article is to provide a synopsis for readers who missed the game or who are looking for a different take on the match from what the announcers had to say during the game. The audience, easily recognizable as those who are interested in a game or league or player enough to read more on the subject, expects almost entirely impartial summarization of the completed contest and possibly to be linked to other articles extending from the game, such as expert analysis. The game summary provides basic information for those looking for a quick bunch of notes to recap the happenings of the Saturday morning rivalry game or a foundation from which to form more advanced opinions on the formation deployed by the manager. Regardless, the simple form of writing offers several purposes within a semi-refined audience, and like every other genre, this one is similar enough to fit in the category of sports writing, and specialized enough to qualify for its own genre.