JSTOR v. Op/Ed

Great. More reading. Did anybody read the “Liberals Are the Sort of People Who…” article? Don’t. It’ll kill valuable brain cells. We’re in college we need those. Anyway, I don’t know, it’s hard for me to read anything that doesn’t involve things I’m interested in. Like I don’t even watch “Stranger Things” so that article had no draw for me really. Alright so I guess I should probably talk about the two different types of articles now. Yaaaaay. One thing I will say though is that I find opinion pieces easier to read and they’re more enjoyable if it’s an opinion I share. That’s why I hated the “Liberals” one because it was an opinion that I find completely wrong and stupid so it just made me angry. The op/eds feel more like newspaper articles and read as such. They feel more like a regular person wrote them, not a scholar or a researcher in the field that the article is about. The information presented seems a bit more subjective because the author usually finds evidence that supports their opinion and morals rather than presenting both sides of the story. Each op/ed piece has a title that sounds like it could be a headline on the front page of a newspaper or a news website. They seem to focus on current events and popular culture that appeal to a wider range of people rather than a specialized area. These articles appeal to ethos in that they sensationalize issues and question their morals. It feels like they’re constantly asking “Would YOU let this horrible thing continue to happen?” or “Look at this dumb thing Donald Trump said. How are we gonna deal with it?” along with several other questions that sound like a PSA from the 50s. In an opinion piece, the author tries to seem like the end-all, be-all wealth of knowledge on the subject so as to seem the most trustworthy and gain supporters on their side. The author tries very hard to seem believable by including facts and evidence from reliable sources, using specially crafted language that will speak to the reader, and sometimes providing a solution to the “problem” at hand; sort of an “everything will be alright if you just do this with me” thing. We see logos in the hard facts and evidence the author has gathered, plus they make their argument seem like the obvious choice, like “duh why wouldn’t you pick this? It’s only logical, Captain.” Little Star Trek humor for you. This genre is different from others in that it appeals to the common man; it uses easily understood language, sometimes has videos or pictures, it doesn’t look like such an undertaking to read the way a scholarly journal article does. If you ask me, I’d rather read an editorial article that that godforsaken Devitt article again. This type of article reinforces the expression of opinions, but in so doing, limits the reader’s ability to think freely. It attempts to sway the reader one way or another while making it seem like they’re thinking for themselves and making a conscience choice. This genre can sometimes cause people who read them to question their morals and feelings in a way that can either side with or against the author. The author might feel like they’re bettering society by putting this information out there and are helping people “see the light” or whatever. JSTORs, on the other hand, read more like scholarly pieces. They are more for a specialized audience and people who are really interested in the subject matter tend to follow up on them. The have hard facts researched by the author and sound incredibly professional, even if they are talking about something like “Stranger Things.” It reinforces using hard facts and presenting a more objective, but still opinionated, argument. It minimizes the ability to relate to the common man. Average Joe would probably pick up his newspaper and read an editorial column rather than look up a scholarly journal. Alright I’ve reached my mental capacity. It’s like 10:30 at night, I’ve been busy all day and I have written about 668 words that are relevant to the topic of interest. That’s all you get for now. Hopefully I’ve provided enough information for you to judge me in the comments about. Half the time I feel like I’m rambling, but hopefully you can find something in here. I pray the next blog will allow me to write a coherent blog with decent subject matter.   

My Thoughts on Genre

Genres indeed are everywhere. Even the way we speak is tailored to whom we are addressing. Even that last sentence I just wrote is a completely different genre than this one. And this one. You get it. At school, especially at the collegiate level, we are expected to write in an academic genre and are expected to sound professional in our writing. Boooooring. If I may speak freely for a moment, I quite like that I don’t have to be incredibly formal in this blog and can voice my opinion in a manner that doesn’t make me sound like a stuffy busybody (no offense to people who like sounding like that). I’ve only really had one job: I was a barista in a grocery store Starbucks. I was an employee of the grocery store, so I was expected to uphold their values in the way I addressed customers (an expectation that sometimes went out the window after a long day of serving Frappuccinos to snotty teenagers and cranky adults). I didn’t do much writing besides people’s names on their cups, but when I was applying for that job, again I had to sound professional and like I knew what I was doing (ha funny). Without sounding like I was pleading (low key I was), I had to convince my future employers I could be trusted to do a good job and that I would be an asset to their workplace. I have yet to have an internship, but when I do I’ll be sure to include that. My life consists of many genres. I speak and write very informally outside of school and work. I cuss, I use words that don’t exist, I’m lazy with my language, but I don’t really care. It’s my mouth, I’ll say what I want to (in the wise words of Miley Cyrus). However, when I write something like a Facebook post, I try to use full sentences and correct grammar so I don’t look like that much of an idiot. Each of these genres are unique in that each differs so vastly from the other. The way I speak and write naturally is so different from one of my essays, or my resume. In this aspect, I think genre is important; you don’t want to sound incompetent to a future employer or a professor and you still get to express yourself. Genres serve to provide variation in our writing. Can you imagine if we all wrote the same way? Harry Potter would be awfully boring, that’s for sure. It’s designed to allow different forms of expression among different writers. J.K. Rowling can write in a completely different way from Stephanie Meyer (meaning she can write something that doesn’t sound like a love struck teenager wrote it. Sorry if anyone still likes Twilight, but Stephanie would be better off writing fan fiction. At least she’d be able to be less PC about a sex scene. Anyway, I digress). Devitt believes genre awareness is important because it generates a kind of rhetorical awareness which produces critical awareness and more deliberate action. It helps to know what makes one genre different from another because you learn to pick and choose when and where to use them in order to, I guess, in a sense, make yourself sound better and fit in with that community. When Devitt writes that "When writers take up a genre, they take up that genre's ideology" (339), she means that we as writers adapt to that style’s “personality” and write the rest our paper or whatever it is we’re writing in that vernacular. A genre’s ideology is the area of thought it sits in and the so-called “rules” that go with it. If you’re writing something like a blog, the genre is informal and doesn’t really follow any set of rules other than the author’s personal style. Harry Potter and Twilight are fantasies and are written as such, with elements of the supernatural and mystical. An academic paper is structured as a professional piece of work meant to be taken seriously and it is written as such. Alight, I’m gonna be honest, I’ve reached my limit with this genre nonsense. This word count tis killing me and I have just about run out of things to say on this subject so now I’m just gonna write for a little bit. Genres are cool; they give us a wide range of different things to read and write and are a great source of creativity.