Assignment part 1

I.

Genre 1: Straight Talk about Vaccination (article)

1. Rhetorical Situation: Audience and Purpose
a) Who are the intended audience(s) and discourse community(ies)?
The intended audience is the community in general, in particular, the parents that are
unsure about if they want to vaccine their kids.
b) What does the audience already know and what do they want to know?
They know that recently a lot of people are arguing about vaccination, there are
people that believe that some vaccines can cause autism and they want to know if are
true.
c) How much time will the audience spend with each genre?
It depends in how much they want to know and if they want to know all the
arguments pro and anti-vaccination.
d) What is the purpose (inform, persuade and/or entertain)?
To inform the people that wants to know more about vaccination and persuade the
people that doesnt believes in vaccines.
e) How formal/informal is the language and what affect does this have on the
audience and/or purpose?
Is not formal but it has information that make the article seems more professional, it
doesnt affect because is not difficult to read.
f) What specialized vocabulary is used and what does this tell you about the
intended audience?
It uses some medical vocabulary, but it doesnt mean that is only for scientific and
medical community.
g) What other language features do you notice (text, type, font, color, visuals, etc.)?
The format is easy to read and it has the form of an article similar to the ones in
magazines.
2. Rhetorical Issues: Ethos, Pathos and Logos
a) How does this genre establish (or attempt to establish) its credibility with the
audience?
Yes, because is an article written by people certified to talk about the subject. People that
write scientific journals, have studied the subject matter for years.
b) What emotions is the genre attempting to evoke from its audience?
It tries to impact the audience with facts and information.
c) 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 and is it effective?

It uses evidence like past events and medical terminology to prove their point, it is valid
because if you google the facts and news there are several sources that prove that
information.
3. Structure and Delivery
a) How is the information organized to convey its message?
First it talks about recent events related to vaccination, and then informs how vaccination
helps to prevent tragedies and how you can start the process of vaccination with babies
and little kids; it helps because the audience can inform themselves about the truth and
gives them a guide to start.
b) Are there limitations placed on the information because of the genre? Does it have
more freedom to express what it needs to because of the genre?
The only limitation I can think about is that because is an article a lot of people doesnt
give themselves time to read it complete and inform themselves.
c) How does the structure facilitate its purpose?
Yes, because it informs and it gives instructions.

II.

Genre 2: Penn and Teller on Vaccinations (video)

1. Rhetorical Situation: Audience and Purpose
a) Who are the intended audience(s) and discourse community(ies)?
The intended audience is all the community, specially the people that is interested in
vaccinations.
b) What does the audience already know and what do they want to know?
They know that is being questioned the credibility of the vaccinations and they want to
know if the rumors are true.
c) How much time will the audience spend with each genre?
With this genre the length of the video is one and a half minutes.
d) What is the purpose (inform, persuade and/or entertain)?
Inform the people that want to know more about vaccines, to persuade persons that dont
believe in vaccination and to entertain people that want to know about the subject but
not in a traditional way.
e) How formal/informal is the language and what affect does this have on the
audience and/or purpose?
It is almost an informal language and it affects because some people would question the
credibility of this source.
f)What specialized vocabulary is used and what does this tell you about the intended
audience?
It uses some medical vocabulary but it doesnt mean that is for doctors.
g) What other language features do you notice (text, type, font, color, visuals, etc.)?
They use a lot of visual help to help the audience to have better understanding.
2. Rhetorical Issues: Ethos, Pathos and Logos
a) How does this genre establish (or attempt to establish) its credibility with the
audience?
With facts, they talk about how the world changed with the vaccinations.
b) What emotions is the genre attempting to evoke from its audience?
They try to impact the audience with different facts and they try to do it with some
humor.
c) 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 and is it
effective?
They talk about how the world changed with the development of vaccines.
3. Structure and Delivery
a) How is the information organized to convey its message?
First they talk about the facts and then they make a visual representation of the situation
to state their point.

b) Are there limitations placed on the information because of the genre? Does it
have more freedom to express what it needs to because of the genre?
It has limitations because it is a video and it can lead to make people believe that isnt a
valid source.
d) How does the structure facilitate its purpose?
Yes because is visual and it helps to attract attention from the audience.

Assignment part 2
The audience for the article Straight Talk about Vaccination can be less than the
audience for the video because there are more people that prefer to watch a one and a half minute
video, rather than read an article of 3 pages. The audience of the article is more concerned about
the issue and they decide to investigate more. The article of vaccination can be more effective
because it has more information about the issue.
The first genre, the article in the Scientific American Magazine, it uses a lot of ethos and
logos to persuade the audience. For example, when they talk about how they have made studies
to better quantify the risks of not vaccinating. In contrast the video of Penn and Teller uses more
pathos when they use humor and jokes. The video is more effective if you want to appeal pathos,
but the article is more effective when you want to appeal ethos and logos.
The structure of the medical article is similar to the one of a magazine and the structure in
the video is more similar to a short segment. The different structures help reach different
audiences. The article is aimed towards people that are very concerned about the issue and want
to know more about it. The structure of the video is for an audience that wants to know about the
issue but they dont have the time to read medical articles. I think that both genres are helpful to
know more about the issue, but it depends of the interest and time that the audience has.