Genre Analysis Outline Assignment Sheet

Rhetoric and Writing Studies 1302

Brooke Crisp
Part One
Write down the two genres you have chosen (include titles, who or
where they come from, and what genres they are), and answer the
questions that follow:
Genre 1: Typography, Is Graphic Design art?, Steve Durbin, website
post
Genre 2: Iconography, What is Graphic Design?, YouTube video
1. What is your topic of inquiry? Are graphic designers artists?
2. Why did you select these two specific genres? These two Genres
give a basic explanation to what is graphic design, and its basics.
3. How does each genre communicate about your topic of inquiry? The
first explain what it is and if it is art.
Part Two
Answer each of the following prompts for both genres as a way of
organizing the content of your Genre Analysis assignment.
Audience and Purpose
1. Who is/are the intended audience(s) and discourse community(ies)?
The intended audience for this article is basically everyone who has a
question about graphic design. Also, for graphic designers them self,
looking for an easy explanation to give to other people. Future students
looking for a career path can also look into reading this.
2. What does the audience already know and what do they want to
know? The audience, in this case, has a basic idea of what graphic
design consists, but wants to know a more in depth explanation to
what it is. It is also a way to look for a way to explain what it is to
people already in the field.

3. How much time will the audience spend with each genre? This
article is a short piece depending on the reading level the time taken
on this genre is about five minutes. Although short, it contains the
necessary information for the topic at stake.
4. What was the purpose (inform, persuade, and/or entertain)? The
article has both elements of persuasion, as well as, informative. The
author gives his personal opinion and encourages the audience to
think in the same way.
5. How formal/informal is the language? The article is in first person,
but informal language is not used. The first person point of view was
used to seem more personal and influence the reader to take a stance
with him and his opinion.
6. What specialized vocabulary is used? The article has specialized
language related to art. Some of these words include, of course,
graphic design, art, skill, text, pictures, advertisements, and
magazines. Also words that go along with art and designing.
7. What other language features do you notice (text, type, font, color,
visuals, etc)? The author of this article is a graphic design student, he
gives his personal opinion about the definition of graphic design. He
also includes a poster and some of his personal art work.
Rhetorical Issues: Ethos, Pathos, Logos
1. How does this genre establish (or attempt to establish) its credibility
with the audience? He establishes his credibility by stating that he is a
graphic design student is his last semesters. The fact that he has not
graduated takes away from his credibility, but since he is familiar with
the subject and topic, he is a reliable source.
2. What emotions is the genre attempting to evoke from its audience?
He wants to provoke anger in his audience as he himself is angry and
offended by the people who dont call graphic designers artist. He
wants his audience to sympathize with him.
3. What types of evidence are used to support claims? Is it
valid/reliable? If there is no evidence, what is used to help support the
information presented? There is very little evidence to support any of
his claims, he uses a definition to explain how it is so limiting. He uses
the fact that he is a student to hold up his arguments and information.

Structure and Delivery

1. How is the information organized to covey its message? The article
starts by informing the reader that he is a credible author by stating he
is a student. After stating he is studying graphic design, he goes on to
state the definition of graphic design and mentions that it is limiting to
the actual designing. The rest of the article is him explaining his
opinion and how he finds it offensive when designers are not called
artists
2. Are there limitations placed on the information because of the
genre? Does it have more freed to express what it needs to because of
the genre? The genre does not limit the amount of information. The
article has the information expected from the tittle of the article.
3. How does the structure facilitate its purpose? The organization of
this article is helpful to decide to continue reading of not. The
structure of the article is also helpful to find all the information in one
place and not scattered around.

Audience and Purpose

1. Who is/are the intended audience(s) and discourse community(ies)?
This video is intended for people with questions about graphic design
and what it is. It is found on YouTube, so the audience would have to
be familiar with the site to find it. It could also be for someone who is
looking for inspiration to make their own video.
2. What does the audience already know and what do they want to
know? The audience knows very little about the subject, they may
actually know nothing. The video is an explanation on what it. The
audience hopes to leave the video with a basic understanding of what
graphic design is.
3. How much time will the audience spend with each genre? The
YouTube video is two minutes and forty four seconds long. Depending
on the depth of interest of the audience, they may decide to pause of
watch again.
4. What was the purpose (inform, persuade, and/or entertain)? This
video contained elements of informing and entertaining. The video

was presented with graphics and music, but had all the information
about the topic.
5. How formal/informal is the language? The graphics were animated
so, this makes the language a bit less formal. The writing was
presented inside the animation but the actual language used was
formal.
6. What specialized vocabulary is used? There is more of a variety of
special language in this video, some examples include: shape, color,
images, typography, grid, layout, style, aesthetics, visual, and
message.
7. What other language features do you notice (text, type, font, color,
visuals, etc)? The visuals in this video are very well made, which
captures the audiences attention. The text in the video is very colorful
and appears in different fonts.
Rhetorical Issues: Ethos, Pathos, Logos
1. How does this genre establish (or attempt to establish) its credibility
with the audience? This video is composed of many different quotes,
which adds credibility. Also the video has ending credits giving credit
to the people whose quotes are in the video. Not to mention, it has
243,868 views on YouTube.
2. What emotions is the genre attempting to evoke from its audience?
The emotion here could possibly be excitement to learn more about
the topic. The bright colors could make the audience feel happy they
are watching.
3. What types of evidence are used to support claims? Is it
valid/reliable? If there is no evidence, what is used to help support the
information presented? There is no present support to any clams, as
the video is biased off of quotes. The quotes are related to the
graphics and animation of the video.
Structure and Delivery
1. How is the information organized to covey its message? The video is
organized by, again, quotes. It starts by giving a brief explanation of
what is graphic design is and further explains by adding the quotes.

2. Are there limitations placed on the information because of the

genre? Does it have more freed to express what it needs to because of
the genre? The information presented in this video is limited, but not
because it is a video. The way the video was made, using quotes as
the information is what limited the information.
3. How does the structure facilitate its purpose? By giving the
explanation at the beginning, the quotes become easy to understand
and to relate to. Its organized to help the audience understand the
video.

Reference
Durbin, S. (2009, February 7). Is Graphic Design Art? Retrieved
September 14, 2015, from
http://artandperception.com/2009/02/is-graphic-design-art-guestpost-by-brandon-hunter.html
What is Graphic Design? (2009, August 11). Retrieved September 14,
2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUeiZ6c6EBw