Composing these two genres was extremely different compared to the traditional essays that I have written for the majority of my academic life. This is because since the two genres I have chosen were creative genres I had to do a lot more expressive thinking by creating visuals instead of bodies of texts and mountains of paragraphs to effectively convey my message clearly to my targeted audience. I’ve always believed in the phrase “A picture is worth a thousand words” I believe anybody of any age can clearly analyze a picture rather than bodies of texts. Also, because I am a resident of New York City I want people in my city to be safe and educated about the matter at hand, therefore, the selected audience of my genres was targeted towards residents of New York City and the younger generation (specifically teens). For my first genre, I used Pathos because my first genre was a meme, I want to invoke the emotion of joy and happiness in my audience because I believe that the emotion of joy will maintain itself in the person’s memory and helps them remember what was conveyed by me in their memory. In my second genre I used logos to appeal to my audience, my second genre was a poster whose intended audience is people who ride the MTA every day. I used logos in this genre because the MTA is used by an extremely wide variety of people from different cultures with different ethnicities. I thought the most effective way to persuade and inform these people is through logic and reasoning. I portrayed logos in my poster by posting the correct way to wear masks and the misconceptions that people may have about the transmission of the virus.

For my third essay I want to make sure the audience I will be targetting will have little to no misconceptions towards the information that is being provided. This way, the audience I want to target can take the information the way it is supposed to be taken in. Therefore, For my third essay I want to use ads/posters that can be seen when a person is scrolling through social media going to work, going to work on a public transportation system, or simply strolling through the streets of their city. I feel like this genre is very suitable for the type of essay I am trying to write because one of the main focuses I’m trying to achieve is to get rid of misconceptions that may lead to large consequences. The rhetorical strategies that I will use for my essay would be would mainly be pathos and logos. The reason why I will be using pathos is because since the audience I am targetting are mainly people that are going to stick around for a short while I want to make sure the information I am giving will give a lasting impression and the most effective way to do that is through pathos. In addition, I will also be using logos in my essay. Without logic and reason the audience may have some doubts and might not take the information that I am providing seriously. Overall, I want to make sure the audience that I am targetting will have no misconceptions and are clear on the message I am trying to deliver.

For my third essay, I have decided to stick with the topic regarding coronavirus and the publics’ misconceptions regarding the disease. In my previous essay I’ve addressed how in social media there are cases where the audience can misinterpret the information you are providing and therefore reaching a conclusion that is incorrect. Therefore, for my third essay I want to make sure the audience I will be targetting will have little to no misconceptions towards the information that is being provided. This way, the audience I want to target can take the information the way it is supposed to be taken in. Therefore, For my third essay I want to use ads/posters that can be seen when a person is scrolling through social media going to work, going to work on a public transportation system, or simply strolling through the streets of their city. I feel like this genre is very suitable for the type of essay I am trying to write because one of the main focuses I’m trying to achieve is to get rid of misconceptions that may lead to large consequences. By picking a genre that can be shown in public areas where many people will access allows me to put my work/writing in an area that is exposed to many people which will allow me to achieve my goal to rid of misconceptions regarding the violation of human rights resulted from the coronavirus as well as the misconceptions of masks and their effectibility as well.

In the beginning, I was deciding between choosing a new topic to write about or sticking with the topic I have chosen for my first essay. However, after an interesting conversation regarding the current world affairs with my parents and siblings, I found myself deeply intrigued in how the public reacted to government policies regarding Coronavirus.

I had some trouble finding some information regarding my research question because of the wording I chose when searching for scholarly articles. So, my solution was to be more specific in what I have in mind, by doing so I was able to get articles talking about a specific idea I want in my essay.

Some problem that I have encountered while analyzing my text was how sometimes the information that was being given to me through the text wasn’t helpful and I couldn’t use it in my essay because even though it was related to my topic it would be difficult to expand on the information that was given to me and implement it to the rest of my essay.

A major role my audience played was how I was trying to target people who are protestors, I want to understand the way they thought and why they made such claims. I was also targeting Americans in general because I myself am an American that is going through lockdown in America.

This process helped me understand the different types of essays there are and the purpose each one of these have. In this case, I realized that this entire essay started from a question, we began to build upon that question by researching about it which lead to information being built on top of each other. As a result, an inquiry-based research essay emerged.

At the current time, I am writing this report on my research for my essay, I have found 4 scholarly sources and 2 media sources. I found my scholarly sources using Google Scholar and my media sources online. The scholarly sources I have chosen are credible and reliable since they were constructed by experts within a specific field that has been peer-reviewed by others.

For my first scholarly source, I have decided on “Human Rights and Coronavirus: What’s at Stake for Truth, Trust, and Democracy?” by Alicia Ely Yamina and Roojin Habibi. This article states how the effects of coronavirus in terms of the government’s actions regarding the public and the health care system. I feel like this article will be really useful in my essay because it discusses how WHO has never published a specific way, in government policies to prevent the spread of COVID, therefore, each country has to find their own way to deal with this pandemic which can involve in the violation of human rights. The authors explain how not every country follows the same government policies therefore, some governments may act differently in such a case. Also, the authors also state how people are not the same, everyone has their own circumstances, positions, ethnicity, and etc. This scholarly article is useful for me because it shows how the violation of human rights is circumstantial and it depends on several points since not every government is the same and not every person are the same.

For my first media source, “Still Confused About Masks? here’s the Science Behind How to Face Masks Prevent Coronavirus,” by Nina Bai while it isn’t a scholarly source it will be really useful to include the information that is given in this text. Within the article, the author included experiments and data from tests regarding the effectiveness of masks in preventing the transmission of COVID-19. This information is crucial to me since I am writing on how people believe the quarantine and safety measures taken by the governments are a violation of human rights. One of their major arguments is that masks are useless and do not prevent the spread of diseases. Therefore, by having information on the effectiveness of masks I can conclude the validity of people’s claims.

I have yet to finish analyzing all of the sources since I decided to drop some of my sources. For example, I have decided to not use “Indian uses coronavirus pandemic to exploit human rights in Kashmir,” by Omer Aijazi. The reason for not including this in my reesearch essay is because while it is discussing about Coronavirus and it’s affects on human rights, I believe since the audience I am trying to connect to are generally those of the United States. The difference in government and environment isn’t ideal for the audience I am trying to target. Since every government system is different in policies and objectives it wouldn’t make sense for me to use a source that is discussing about COVID in India.

Bibliography:

Cheng, Vincent Chi-Chung, et al. “The Role of Community-Wide Wearing of Face Mask for Control of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Epidemic Due to SARS-CoV-2.” Journal of Infection, W.B. Saunders, 23 Apr. 2020, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0163445320302358.  (Scholarly Source)

“Still Confused About Masks? Here’s the Science Behind How Face Masks Prevent Coronavirus.” Still Confused About Masks? Here’s the Science Behind How Face Masks Prevent Coronavirus | UC San Francisco, 16 Oct. 2020, www.ucsf.edu/news/2020/06/417906/still-confused-about-masks-heres-science-behind-how-face-masks-prevent.

“Human Rights and Coronavirus: What’s at Stake for Truth, Trust, and Democracy?” Health and Human Rights Journal, 2 Mar. 2020, www.hhrjournal.org/2020/03/human-rights-and-coronavirus-whats-at-stake-for-truth-trust-and-democracy/.

Additional informationNotes on contributorsYi ZhengYi Zheng is a lecturer in Human Resource Management in the School of Management and Tourism at Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, and ReferencesABC News. (2020). Coronavirus is a public health emergency. World Health Organisation declares. www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-31/who-coronavirus-global-emergency/11916276 [Google Scholar]BBC News. (2020. “The Effects of Misleading Media Reports about COVID-19 on Chinese Tourists’ Mental Health: a Perspective Article.” Taylor & Francis, www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13032917.2020.1747208.

Aijazi, Omer. “India Uses Coronavirus Pandemic to Exploit Human Rights in Kashmir.” Https://Theconversation.com/India-Uses-Coronavirus-Pandemic-to-Exploit-Human-Rights-in-Kashmir-137682, The Conversation, 7 May 2020, hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:31629/.

Question: Is the government’s requirement for people to wear masks a violation of human rights?

Model Essay: “A New perspective on Gun Control,” By Aristotle Aung

A New Perspective on Gun Control

In the beginning when trying to make a decision to choose a question to focus on I found myself constantly thinking about this specific question. Personally, my life has been impacted severely by the pandemic, this is the first time remote learning is introduced to me and personally adjusting to school at home has been difficult due to several factors. Due to the huge impact, the pandemic caused it changed many people’s lives economically, socially, and even politically. Due to the long duration of quarantine people are becoming restless due to frustration, income lost, and many other reasons. These people have been going into the streets protesting for the release of the lockdown. While educating myself on this situation I found it kind of unique. Everyone knows the purpose of the lockdown but protestors are now saying that the lockdown and quarantine are a violation of their human rights and is socially unjust. Many people are speculating and debating whether or not the requirement for facial covering in public areas is truly necessary. There are also people who are beginning to claim that masks are useless and do not prevent the spread of the virus and that the government is simply violating people’s human rights by creating the hoax that masks prevent the spread of diseases. Even our president, Donald Trump, is making outrageous claims on the usage of masks and the necessity of them. Due to this reason, people are protesting against their government so that quarantine may be lifted. I on the other hand wonders if this is truly an example of social injustice. When writing about how this event affects people I will look for secondary sources to find people’s experience regarding the pandemic and their opinion on whether or not the policies the government made for this pandemic are socially unjust or not. The intended audience I am trying to focus on is the people who are currently stuck in quarantine or lives which have been severely impacted both negatively or otherwise by the pandemic. The reason why I am targeting this specific group is that I have personally been affected a lot because of Coronavirus and by writing this essay I hope I can reach out to other people who are experiencing the same problems and going through the same thought process during the quarantine and help people understand the situation we are currently in and whether or not our social rights are being violated. The model essay I will be using will be “A New Perspective on Gun Control,” by Aristotle Aung. I really like the way the author structured their essay, for me it really elaborate and precise, and straightforward, the author addresses the issue, elaborates on it, and further expands on their idea through the implementation of their sources which leads to a clear conclusion. While writing my own essay I hope I can also structure it similarly to Aristotle Aung so I can make sure my points are clear and precise.

Bibliography:

Cheng, Vincent Chi-Chung, et al. “The Role of Community-Wide Wearing of Face Mask for Control of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Epidemic Due to SARS-CoV-2.” Journal of Infection, W.B. Saunders, 23 Apr. 2020, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0163445320302358.  (Scholarly Source)

“Still Confused About Masks? Here’s the Science Behind How Face Masks Prevent Coronavirus.” Still Confused About Masks? Here’s the Science Behind How Face Masks Prevent Coronavirus | UC San Francisco, 16 Oct. 2020, www.ucsf.edu/news/2020/06/417906/still-confused-about-masks-heres-science-behind-how-face-masks-prevent.

“Human Rights and Coronavirus: What’s at Stake for Truth, Trust, and Democracy?” Health and Human Rights Journal, 2 Mar. 2020, www.hhrjournal.org/2020/03/human-rights-and-coronavirus-whats-at-stake-for-truth-trust-and-democracy/.

While I want to continue my research on my previous topic, racism, there are several questions that have been on my mind recently.

How do masks affect the transmission of COVID-19?

I find this a really interesting question right now. On the media, there are people who are saying masks do not work and it’s useless to wear them. There are also people who are claiming that wearing masks is a violation of their first amendment rights and because people are thinking this way they are starting protests to lift the lockdown and the requirement to wear masks in public. I am hoping when researching this topic I understand the purpose of masks and whether or not they truly work. This is an important topic to talk about because human lives are at risk. If masks do serve their purpose of preventing/limiting the spread of viruses it is extremely important people continue to wear masks to prevent more casualties. I plan on researching on this topic on google scholar by researching the purpose of masks and using scientific data and research to further understand the effectiveness/ineffectiveness of masks.

Why do we still have racism today?

Continuing from my previous essay I still find this topic really interesting to discuss and I am very interested in deepening my understanding of the topic of racism.  It is clear to everyone that racism still exists after countless instances of racial profiling within the past decade. This is an important topic to talk about because it is unfair towards people who are being racially profiled, this could affect their livelihoods and their social lives. I plan on using google scholar to further my understanding on the topic of racism by understanding the circumstances that could lead to racism.

Why is it important to focus on/understand mental health?

Being a teenager in today’s society can have a lot of stress on certain people. It is important to understand and educate people about mental health because it’s a very important topic to discuss. When I was researching suicide rates In the US I found it really surprising that suicide rates are increasing every single year. I find this an important topic because not many people understand how mental health can affect anybody and it’s important to be open and understanding when it comes to mental health. I plan to research on this topic by reading and researching psychological effects on a person with poor mental health and the consequences that can happen when help isn’t sought for and how people can improve their mental health.

I believe that writing is one of the most effective ways of expressing one’s point of view. After learning about rhetorical situations and sources it taught me how often writing is created in response of a certain event that was happening during that time. It fit with what I already know because authors were able to put their thoughts and perspectives onto paper and influence and educate students and people all around the world. However, I only thought that a piece of text is only written with the thought of the author in mind, however, when finding rhetorical sources I found out that there are writings that are consisted of other people’s writings. A piece of writing doesn’t necessarily need to reflect on the point of view of an individual but it can also be informative and including both sides of an argument.

When writing the rhetorical essay a strategy that I often used was providing examples for each claim that was made. In addition, for the examples, I would have to provide evidence that is given in the text. This was successful because I was able to use the sources to expand on my topic. However, if I were to write another rhetorical essay I need to keep in mind how I can expand and elaborate on a topic I am writing about. Also, when writing the rhetorical essay I found out how important it is you understand what the author is trying to say to you. I was having trouble differentiating between purpose and stance and it is important to understand why the author is writing something and what he/she thinks about the topic he/she is writing about.

Scholarly Source:

https://osf.io/w2h73

In, “The Psychology of American Racism,” Written by, Steven Roberts and Michael Rizzo, they discuss how differences, in general, can result in racism. For example, in their research, they explained how there are several differences that are significant causes of racism, such as, segregation, hierarchies, power, media, and etc. Since the authors are researching solely American Racism all the factors that are listed may not all contributes towards racism in America. The author’s purpose for researching on this topic is to help readers understand the different major factors that may contribute towards racisn. By understanding what causes racism the author hopes the audience understands why racism is occurring in the first place.

Open Web Source:

https://www.globalissues.org/article/165/racism

In this open web source titled, “Racism,” By Anup Shah,  the author describes how racism occurs not only in America but all across the world. The author gave examples of racism in different continents such as Europe, Australia, North America, and Africa. What the author is trying to portray here is that racism isn’t a problem that is being dealt with locally. Instead, racism is a global problem and is not unique to a specific race in a specific region but a global issue that every race can and has faced.

Magazine, Time

https://time.com/5858649/racism-coronavirus/

In this magazine titled, “‘I Will Not Stand Silent.’ 10 Asian Americans Reflect on Racism During the Pandemic and the Need for Equality,” the author brings to light on how the recent pandemic, COVID-19 had increased the amount of racism Asian Americans are facing. In this magazine, the author talks about how not only are Asian Americans facing racism from fellow American’s but the government itself is being racist towards Asians in general. For example, President Donald Trump called the virus “Chinese Virus,” or, “Kung Flu,” because this pandemic is affecting millions in America this leads to aggression towards Asians in America.

Newspaper, New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/02/us/politics/african-americans-china-coronavirus.html

In this newspaper article, “‘We Need Help’: Coronavirus Fuels Racism Against Black Americans in China,” by Elizabeth Williamson and Vivian Wang, they explain how because of this pandemic there are growing cases of racism against black Americans in China.  In the newspaper, the authors brought up cases where a black American was denied renting a place specifically due to the color of his skin. This comes to explain that racism can come from people of any race and it doesn’t matter where those people are since racism can be felt globally.

A social topic that interests me is racism. A couple of months ago began a huge protest regarding racism against African Americans called Black Lives Matter. The reason why this topic interests me is because of how racism is universal, it is something everyone can experience, which is not only limited to Caucasians and African Americans but every single race on the planet. Besides, racism isn’t a new concept, despite the recent outburst of racism in these past few months, racism has been a problem not only in the United States but in other countries for a long period of time. Also, racism is the cause of many issues that are occurring in modern history, such as, racial profiling, ethnic cleansings, and slavery. As a minority in America, I have gone through my own shares of racism from people of other races and not only Caucasians, I wish to understand what causes these negative perceptions each race has on other races. I want to learn what causes racism, I myself find it ridiculous to hold prejudice against a particular race based on their physical traits. Also, I want to understand if there’s a correlation between the population of certain races and the direction racism is projected towards. For example, in a country heavily populated by a specific race would the minorities of that country face racism from the more populated race? Finally, I also want to know is how humans can stop discriminating against each other solely based on racial differences, and how as the human race as a whole can move forward from this continuing problem.