Analyzing My Audience

Analyzing My Audience 

Before writing it is important for an author to determine who he or she is specifically writing for. Below is the analyzation of the audience I am writing for. 

Ercegović, Marko. "EXIT Audience 2012 (1)" 7/12/12 via Wikimedia Commons. Creative Commons Attribution

• Who am I writing for? 
• I am writing for new students coming into the engineering field as well as the professor who has instructed me to write for these new students. This being so this writing will differ from just an informational article regarding the topic. 
• What position might they take on this issue? 
• Being students that want to pursue engineering it would be expected that these students would be proponents of genetic engineering. It is likely that they would understand the scientific concepts behind genetic engineering and in turn understand more about the issue and then be more accepting to it. 
• What will they want to know?
• The audience will likely want to know all of the concrete facts about the subject as well as how this topic affects each of them. Additionally, the probably will want to hear about example cases for both sides of the argument so they can formulate an opinion based on all the facts and logistics. 
• How might they react to my argument? 
• Again because the audience is comprised of engineering students they will be expected to react in an accepting way. Coming into engineering they most likely will not have predispositions to dislike many or any types of engineering and because of this they are likely to take the argument and understand it and in turn accept the information given and favor it. 
• How am I trying to relate to or connect with my audience? 
• I will specifically try to connect with my audience through use of all three of the appeal types. I will try to connect with the audience in many different layers rather than just having a surface level claim that won't make anyone think deeper. Additionally, I will try to relate to them in an engineering perspective through a mathematical and scientific approach in order to explain on the engineering level. 
• Are there specific words, ideas, or modes of presentation that will help me relate to them in this way? 
• I will not only provide statistical concrete facts for everyone but I will also try to appeal to the emotions of the readers in order to connect with them on a deeper level and also appeal to credibility through references to other credible sources. These three different types of appeals will help to make a good well rounded rhetorical situation for the reader to comprehend. 

Reflection: 

I read Olivia's blog post about analyzing audience as well as Grace's blog post about analyzing audience. When I read Olivia's blog post I realized she analyzed the audience of the article which she had read which is different than I did. That being said I still think she did a great job with the analysis and I really liked how she used direct quotes to make her points specific in who the author is trying to speak to. Grace's blog post was insightful in that she pretty much knows what the majority of what her audience will think but still respects the opposite side of the argument too. I think this is very important to do in the rhetorical project and I will keep this in mind as I begin to draft up my rhetorical writing.   

Cluster of "Genetically Engineered Babies? Experts Debate Idea Of 'Designer Baby' Ban"

Cluster of "Genetically Engineered Babies? Experts Debate Idea Of 'Designer Baby' Ban"

Cluster maps are very helpful when organizing one's ideas in order to convert them to a piece of writing. Below is an analyzation of the cluster map I made for the document specified above. 

In this cluster I made the main topic "Genetic Engineering" because this is the central issue that each branch stems off of. Each branch is something that relates to the rhetorical strategy and will be important in the writing later on in this deadline. Some of the branch topics have further explanations while some are very direct. The cluster map can be found here. 

Kent, Carrie Belle. "Genetic Engineering" 10/6/15 via Coggle. 

Analyzing Rhetorical Strategies in "Genetically Engineered Babies? Experts Debate Idea Of 'Designer Baby' Ban"

Analyzing Rhetorical Strategies in "Genetically Engineered Babies? Experts Debate Idea Of 'Designer Baby' Ban"

Ethos, Pathos and Logos are three different types of appeals used in writing. Below is an analyzation of these rhetorical strategies in the article above. 

• Appeals to Credibility or Character (Ethos): 
• References to credible sources are apparent throughout the article, one specific example being a direct quote from Lord Robert Winston, a professor at the Imperial College in London. Additionally, the author also made appeals to credibility by adding scholarly word choice with an informative tone regarding the subject. There was good acknowledgment of both sides of the argument as well as refutations to the arguments of each specific side. 
• The strategies listed above were used in order to allow the author to convey an informational message regarding the material at hand. The author made appeals to the credibility by employing the above examples. This ethos was bolstered up in order to make the author seem more credible. 
• Having credible sources, and writing in a way that sounds scholarly makes the author come across as a reliable source who is writing with the purpose of informing the audience with factual information rather than potentially incorrect information. 
• These appeals to credibility and character also work to develop the piece as a whole by tying together the whole writing. The use of quotes, references to credible sources and explaining both sides of the argument work to make the writing seem less biased and more informative. 
• Although overall it seems that the author has no bias, the fact that she focused more of the piece of writing on the opposition side of the ban of genetic engineering it would seem that she may favor that side as well. 
• Appeals to Emotion (Pathos):
• It is apparent that the piece has repetition of key words such as "designer babies". There aren't many other appeals to emotion other than level of formality which means the article is much more formal than a casual writing. Additionally, the writing contains some statistics in the "Unknown consequences" section of the writing but other than that there is not much.
• These appeals to emotion are employed in efforts to make the subject of the text relatable for people. 
• The text spoke to me in a way that made me imagine being a mother of a child and trying to imagine if I would ever want genetic engineering on him or her. 
• I believe these emotions are effective because it really makes the readers put themselves in the situations and understand how the process would make them feel. This is imperative to deciding what your stance on the issue is. 
• This increases the authors credibility because it shows that she understands how to convey the message to the audience and help them understand the controversy as well as determine their stance on the issue. 
• Appeals to Logic (Logos): 
• The article contains statistics, expert opinions and clear transitions throughout the body of the work. One example is seen in "Even [for] height, one of the most heritable traits known, scientists have found at least 50 genes that account for only 2 to 3 percent of the variance in the samples," Krimsky said. "If you want a tall child, marry tall." Additionally, the article has extremely effective organization for developing the author's ideas. 
• By using these strategies the author is trying to appease the audience and provide reasonable thoughts as to why the readers should favor one side or the other of the argument. Additionally this works to develop the authors main points in a systematic way that is easy to understand. 
• The intended result is the actual result for this type of appeal. The structure of a well written work allows the reader to understand better while having crisp and detailed reasoning to look at. 
• I think these strategies are effective because the author seems to make a claim and then expand through expert opinions. She keeps the text well organized with transitions and sub headings to inform the reader more thoroughly. 

Gene.png, "De-gene" 7/14/10 via Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.

Reflection:
I read Olivia's and Jon's  blogs about analyzing rhetorical strategies in their individual articles. Olivia's analyzation showed that her article and mine are a bit different due to the fact that the author of her article used no direct quotes or hyperlinks. Appeal to credibility is at a high in my article and it will be interesting to see how her writing is different then mine due to the face that the appeals are less heavy in that area for her. She effectively took quotes from the articles to analyze in her determination of different types of appeals. Jon's article did have quite a bit of emphasis on the appeal to credibility which was very similar to mine. The title of his article alone also shows an appeal to emotion by using the word "family" which should be an indication that the pathos will also be a big factor in the writing for him. 

Analyzing Messages In "Genetically Engineered Babies? Experts Debate Idea Of 'Designer Baby' Ban"

Analyzing Messages In "Genetically Engineered Babies? Experts Debate Idea Of 'Designer Baby' Ban"

Armbrust, "Messages (application) logo"2/18/12 via Wikimedia Commons.  Public Domain Dedication.

The way in which the message of a writing is interpreted is very important in order to fully understand a text. Below is the analyzation of the messages within the article specified above. 

• There are a few most relevant points of message and purpose in the specified article above. One of these is to inform the reader about a topic that is often misunderstood. I think this is a main part of the message of the text because not many people fully understand the logistics of the genetic engineering controversy. Although it is usually seen of as a very black and white controversy in reality there are many more parts to the genetic engineering controversy that really complicate it overall. Additionally, the purpose of the text seems to be to analyze and interpret the different sides of this debate and who has the better argument overall. There are some parts of the article which appear to show that the author may have a slight inclination to favor the opponents of the ban with more information to bolster their claims.  
• Some possible goals of the message and purpose of a text could be to persuade the audience, reflect on a topic or advocate for change. In this specific text the author doesn't appear to have a specific agenda in order to sway the audience one way and rather is more focused on informing the reader. 
• There does appear to be a few layers regarding the topic at hand. The surface level of the article conveys just a message of information in order to explain about the topic but after analyzation it is obvious that there are some instances in which the author specifically seems to favor one side or the other. Additionally, there does appear to be more evidence of logos within the article for the opponents of the genetic engineering ban which makes the reader think about what the author really feels. 

Analyzing My Own Assumptions

Analyzing My Own Assumptions

One's cultural assumptions can influence how a specific piece of work is read. Below is an analyzation of my cultural values in relation to the article on genetic engineering. 

Torra, Marc. "World Map of 16 cultures for "Cultural Mandala" 7/7/11 via Wikimedia Commons. Creative Commons Attribution

• Due to the fact that I'm in college there is quite a bit of self doubt and yearning for better qualities both internally and externally. This is important because it shows the culture that I'm living in is somewhat similar to that which the article was written in. Additionally, I have not yet decided how I feel about genetic engineering but I do think that to some extent it could be abused because of the idea of "designer babies". 
• One major difference is that the Arizona majority is usually Republican which is different from New York, where the article was written. That being said it would be expected that the majority of Arizona's population would be more favorable of proceeding with genetic engineering but more so in the context of increasing human health aspects. 
• The culture which the text was written in is not foreign to the one in which I live. That being said many of the values are the same and not very foreign to me. 
• This specific article about genetic engineering was only written two years ago so relatively speaking not much time has passed since then but there have definitely been some advancements in the world of science since then. That being said some of the material in the article could be inaccurate and quite a bit of information could have changed. Additionally, many different opinions of this topic could have changed since then depending on outcomes and science advancements.

Reflection: 

After reading Bailey's  post about cultural assumptions I realized that we are very similar in needing facts to back up ideas. It was interesting to delve into the necessity of these facts in order to understand why something is one way. After reading her post I realized that mine is not in depth enough regarding my cultural values and I think I need to think more deeply about them in order t effectively analyze this piece of writing.  

Austin's  post also made me think about the depth of my analysis. Our articles are similar because they are both in regards to current things within the US. While his is a bit more current than mine we both had to analyze cultural values within the United States and relate them back to our articles. He made an effort to really pinpoint what he doesn't agree with in the debate which I think is something I need to go back and do to really understand all the different aspects of culture around my topic of genetic engineering. 

Analyzing My Text's Cultural Setting 

The culture which surrounds an author when he or she is writing is extremely influential on the work. Below is an analysis of the cultural setting of my text, found here. 

• The article specified above was published to the Huffington Post in February of 2013. The author of the article is from New York City and she is writing about things regarding current times due to the fact that genetic engineering is a relatively new concept. She also has worked at Rockefeller University in the past. 
• New York City is a very fast paced and culturally diverse location in the United States. The city and the majority of the area around it is one of the more accepting cities in the United States with various socioeconomic statuses, as well as cultural attitudes. This would expect to be reflected in the article in terms of encouraging the ban of genetic engineering because Parry did write the article in the middle of such a Democratic state. The author definitely does give great points to show why this ban is appropriate but her overall stance is not obvious. 
• The text does give specific references to people potentially abusing the system of genetic engineering and using it for "designer babies" rather than for more reasonable reasons such as decreasing possibility of passing on a disease or chromosomal abnormality. 
• The text appears neither supportive nor critical of these beliefs. The author never outright says whether or not she agrees with these notions but she does focus the main part of the work on the more positive aspects of genetic engineering such as decreasing likelihood of inheriting diseases. Additionally at the end of the work she does state that the opponents to the ban of genetic engineering won the debate. 

G, Vlad. "Genetic Engineering"5/7/10 via Flickr. Creative Commons Attribution

Cultural Analysis of "Genetically Engineered Babies? Experts Debate Idea Of 'Designer Baby' Ban"

Cultural Analysis of

 "Genetically Engineered Babies? Experts Debate Idea Of 'Designer Baby' Ban"

When reading a piece of writing it is necessary to determine the culture and context in which the piece was written. Determining this will lead to better understanding of where the author is coming from and what his or her background is. Below is an analysis of the cultural attributes of the article regarding genetic engineering. 

Mayhew, Stu. "Genetic Engineering" 12/3/12 via flickr. Creative Commons Attribution

• Cultural Key Words: 
• Genetic Modification: This phrase is repeated a number of times throughout the article and it is a main point not only because it is the main focus of the article but also because it is a relatively new idea. This is different than saying "genetically engineered" because the word modification provides a different reasoning that makes the topic more relatable to the audience and helps it fit in the cultural context rather than implementing a more foreign term to sound more scientifically accurate. 
• Desirable traits: This phrase is a very subjective one that could mean different things depending on the person you talk to. This is very apparent in today's culture when it seems that much of the world revolves around social media posts and what they convey to other people about a specific person. To a teenage girl desirable traits could include being "thin" and looking "pretty" where as a mother's desirable trait for her child could be "healthy" and "happy". 
• Thesis: Proponents of genetic engineering believe that it could lead to reproduction of more health children with fewer diseases as will as mitochondrial abnormalities while opponents of this scientific concept believe that it could lead to societal attempts to achieve perfection by creating "designer babies".