PB3A

It is difficult to begin processing what you are going to do for a writing project that has a prompt like this, but it is a very unique and interesting one because there is a vast range of genres and articles that you can choose from. After a very long time of processing what I wanted to do, I decided to go with this article, “Prevention of Premature Birth: Do Pediatricians Have a Role?” It is a topic that has sprang up in my mind as I was looking for a topic to cover for this project. I am unsure if this will be the topic that I will go with, but it seems like an interesting and unique subject to tackle into separate genres. I believe that it is important to educate younger audiences, such as myself to the issues we now face in pregnancies. It is also important to educate an older audience to these issues that they may or not be aware of.

For the younger audience, age ranges from 17-25. I would like to create a magazine article for the issue similar to “TIME” magazine. I would want it to have a bold and grabbing image that depicts the issue. In this way the younger audience will be captivated and interested in knowing more. It will not just inform this age range about prematurity, but also explain how it can be prevented. Young people are more susceptible to this issue because they may have an unwanted pregnancy and may not know how to care for it, thus leading to a premature pregnancy determined by many factors. This will also educate the audience on how to better care for a pregnancy. When the time comes and they are older, they will be ready for the responsibility.

For the older audience age range form 30-50, I would like to create a podcast. The credibility and expression of a well-known speaker or physician on the topic would sure grab the attention of this audience. In this way the audience will better understand the topic at hand through listening in on the valuable information the speaker may have about the issue. An older audience may have gone through a pregnancy or child raising, so they may know more about this issue than the younger audience. This podcast would be a good way to further educate them and raise awareness to premature births. In the end this may be a difficult topic to pull off since it is very dense in information and written to appeal the scientific community, but nonetheless a good way to express the transition between genres since this is what the assignment is for! 

PB2B: Whose "moves" are better?

When we think of “moves” many of us are thinking about a way certain wrestler executes his opponent’s, or how a superhero fights against a villain. What we don’t think about are the moves used by authors in their writings as well. If we were took look at a famous author like Stephen King, we would see all kinds of different ways that he writes in his books, the specific tone he uses, how descriptive he is, and even the language used. We are going to look at the similarities and contrasts of two different authors, and all the “moves” that they use in order to make their writings unique.  

               In the Essay, Teaching Two Kinds of Thinking by Teaching Writing by Peter Elbow. The author speaks about the differences between first order thinking, which is “free thinking” and second order, or thinking “critically. First off this author could have gone a totally different route in writing then the way he did. He could have chosen to write a very descriptive, monotone piece about writing in these ways but instead he chose to add his own “flavor” to it. As soon as you begin reading he starts the essay by setting it up for the reader so that he will know what he is talking about, but he does this by adding an example about the holidays and how it relates to the topic that is going to be covered. Throughout the reading you get the sense of the writer’s tone of voice, which leads you through what he is speaking about.  He uses a lot of personal quotes to give an idea or thought on the topic that he is currently speaking about in the paragraph. The author also uses italicized words and dashes to get a certain point across.  

               Now moving into the other reading called Annoying ways people use sources, By Kyle D. Stedman. We begin to see a vast range of moves as opposed to Elbows piece. His essay is about how people seem to ruin their papers by not looking carefully on how they cite things, using quotes, or miss placing information in their essay. As the author states, this leads to a sloppy written piece that gathers criticism by most readers of the piece. Now in this essay, similar to the previous one; this author could have also taken a different route on how to write about this topic. The author could chose to go a generic, textbook route in disseminating his ideas to his audience.

Stedman starts out his paper with a personal story comparing driving to messy writing by people who are unaware about the conventions of driving on the second lane. This is an instant hook for the people that are reading his paper due to the fact that it is conversational and informal unlike the beginning piece of an informative essay that would have had you feeling dull as you start reading the essay.  What I liked about this authors way of writing in this essay is that he totally went with his own form of conveying his idea to the audience. It was very unique in the sense that he did not follow the standard conventions seen in regular writings. Throughout his essay he had numbered reasons separating each paragraph explaining what the topic meant. I thought this to be very unique to his writing and considered a move because it added his tone of voice to the piece as I read along. He also had a personal quote, “What…? But, hey…oh come on!” which he used often as a sign of his thoughts on the idea that he had just gone over. This move was interesting because it also showed his way of thinking and personality that you would not find in a textbook essay. His essay was neatly organized by separating the paragraphs by s certain topic in bold letters, like “The annoyances” and then he goes on to talk about it, gives and informal example—one that he made up but fits perfectly to the argument. He then follows this up with a paragraph starting with “The Fix” in which he gives a brief but effective example on how to overcome a certain writer’s obstacle.

Although Elbow writes to his readers in this manner, he did not have as many moves Stedman had nor did it strengthen his paper as he had done with his “moves” Instead he decided to go with his very own personal style and moves which actually worked far better in his piece as opposed in Elbows. Both writings had great essays and were very good at obtaining my attention on their certain topic that they went over. It is only that  Stedman’s ways with his “moves” made his essay stronger and more successful in portraying his ideas.