So, my process from getting from my original audience strategy to the final composition was relatively simple. My original strategy was to try to appeal to the target audience of the next generation. People under 30 that would be the new doctors, politicians, etc. The reason for this is so that we can take charge over the past generation and start changing things for the better that our ancestors left for us to solve. Issues such as pollution. This did not change from the original strategy. My targeted audience remained the same. Following the strategy however I had trouble finding a political cartoon and poster that coincided with each other in a specific way, using the topic of Marine Pollution to lead into World Pollution. After which I decided that if the political cartoon and poster reach the audience in the way I want, then world pollution will be a part of that as well. So, I found a political cartoon that was more general covering both fields. Following this I decided that using a meme or a small comic may work as a better visual que instead of a poster to inspire people to act. In our time posters are not as motivational as they used to be.
A meme seemed like the best way to approach the younger generation, so I found one that expressed my ideas and used that as well. So, in comparison to my original audience strategy, it did not change a whole lot. Either than the fact that I decided to use a meme instead of a poster to better appeal to my audience and changed the format in which I wanted to present it. Regarding rhetorical choices, everything just flowed honestly. For the rhetorical situation I wanted to express the ideas of future generations having to deal with the problem we started. Which I think turned out rather well. The genre stayed the same since I think people need to see or touch to believe, meaning visual genres would work better. Stance did not change; my stance is the same as it was before. In comparison to writing the Research Essay this was quite different. It had to be more focused on the rhetorical practice of pathos, which I realized I use a lot to attempt to prove or convey my ideas. I could not use factual evidence like in the research-based, so I focused on visual ques to do it. However, I did realize that I honestly still need a lot of work for my Rhetorical Analytics, I feel like I have issues properly expressing as to why something was written or created. I tend to over generalize sometimes as a result it ends up missing certain important elements. I think I did okay for this Essay, but either way I need a lot more work and I am planning on writing a lot more which will add on to my idea for the theory of writing.

My topic is continuing with the issue of Marine Pollution and Pollution as a whole. My target audience for this essay will be mostly people under the age of 30, new minds, that are either just becoming real adult members in society or just became members. The reason for this is to get the next generation of people, my generation to break the cycle of ignorance regarding the topic. They are the next politicians, doctors, and scientists. Its time someone took charge to fix the problems with the planet, at least let someone start with that then maybe move onto more humanity-based issues. Before solving other controversial social issues, lets make sure we still have a planet to live on. I am choosing a broad scope and focusing on pollution in general with Marine Pollution being the key to opening the door. My plan is this to use the visual genres of a political cartoon and poster in order to get my point across to have the poster be about marine pollution and the cartoon about pollution as a whole. Start small then think big. Use one issue to open the audience’s eyes to the bigger one. People believe what they see, until they see it, they tend to ignore it as if it does not affect them. So, a political cartoon and or a series of photos may be just the right thing to get people moving and acting on the issue. Which is the whole point I am trying to get across. To get people to Act.

So, for my 3rd essay I want to continue with the topic of marine pollution and pollution in general. I think that people need to start doing things about it. I feel like we could be doing so much more to help our planet instead of worrying about each other and our own pockets. We are all one people but live as if divided. I want to explore this topic more and try to motivate people to do more about it. I am planning on using two visual genres most likely a poster and a political cartoon. I might try to make my own depending on if I find on that I believe is on the level necessary to bring the point across. I think I will draw one myself though to really hit the reader in the head and make them see how bad it is. I will be focusing on the marine environment; however, the concept of pollution will be broader. I am thinking about maybe making a small cartoon showing a few ocean animals and their reaction to the pollution. The target audience will be the people, just people who are able to vote and act to solve these issues. I would focus on the politians and people in power as my targeted audience, however I dont think they are capable of looking past each other and their pockets. These are just ideas as of right now but that sums it up as of right now.

Each of my sources gathered have something that they bring to the table. The one I am using as my model is the article by National Geographic, as it clearly explains a breakdown of the issue, explaining what it is, how it works, and how we can fix it. I knew that National Geographic covered issues such as these and is extremely credible. The other sources took longer to find and make sure were from valid sources. The first source I will talk about next is coming from the Marine Debris Program which is a federal US government department which are the lead for addressing Marine Debris. Within their article they have two important sections that I will focus on when using this as a source. One being the impact on the environment and the second being the only viable solution experts believe exists. The MDP as well as the National Geographic both suggest that cleaning up the patch with nets and ships will take too long, cost a fortune, and be extremely tedious with some of the plastic being 5mm small. They suggest that instead the best way to clean up the patch is to prevent more plastic from coastlines and shores from joining the patch. The next source I have is an article published by Nature Communications titled “River plastic emissions to the world’s oceans”. It focuses on Rivers as being a source of plastic emissions into oceans and into the Pacific Garbage patch. At first, I was unsure of using this as a source however it brings up the importance of looking not only to the coastlines but to the rivers as well. It acts as further proof that pollution no matter what kind is connected. Factories pollute rivers and the air, which in turns pollutes rainfall, air and the oceans. The targeted audience of my paper must understand that the problem goes beyond the Pacific Garbage Patch and it is much more spread out than most might think. My next source is from Ocean’s cleanup which is a non-profit organization that works on technologies to rid the world’s oceans of plastic. From their breakdown of the Pacific Garbage patch I found a few of my sources. However, I unsure if I will end up using this article as a proper source as it is mostly a breakdown of the company’s studies and conclusions. Which basically cover the contents of said patch such as the mega plastics and categorizes them. The only part of this article I am considering using is their section on effects on marine life and human society. This part might be crucial in showing my audience the effect to which this can and does affect their lives, however I am still deliberating on it. A source I decided to remove is an article by the magazine Discover which doesn’t really bring anything new I would want into my paper. The only thing I found I would want more information on would be the impact on humans and the focus on the major source of garbage in the Eastern patch being the United States. The Great Patch is technical two parts on either side of Hawaii the bigger one being the one on the East side. I may focus more on that side during my paper, so I may want to look more into that. But this source didn’t provide me with enough credible evidence to base that on. So, I am no longer using it. The next 2 and last sources I will be using come from a website called Nature.com which is the world’s leading multidisciplinary science journal containing reports, journals, and articles from credible sources that have been working since 1869. The first one of them covers new information gathered in 2020, focusing on the plastic fallout that is now starting to vertically transfer to the underlying sea from the patch. The second one is from 2018 focusing on the continuous accumulation of plastic by the patch that is still only increasing. These are important sources for me to use in my paper to show that the issue is ongoing and is only getting worse. What I can conclude from writing this report on research progress is that I want to look into the impact the patch has on human society, and possibly have that as a section of my paper.
Works Cited:
Lebreton, L., Slat, B., Ferrari, F. et al. Evidence that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is rapidly accumulating plastic. Sci Rep 8, 4666 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-22939-w
Egger, M., Sulu-Gambari, F. & Lebreton, L. First evidence of plastic fallout from the North Pacific Garbage Patch. Sci Rep 10, 7495 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-64465-8
https://theoceancleanup.com/great-pacific-garbage-patch/
Laurent C. M. Lebreton, et al., “River plastic emissions to the world’s oceans,” Nature Communications 8, no. 15611 (June 2017), http://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15611
Merel Kooi, et al., “The effect of particle properties on the depth profile of buoyant plastics in the ocean,” Scientific Reports 92, 1-2 (March 2015): 170-179, http://doi.org/10.1038/srep33882
OR&R’s Marine Debris Division “Garbage Patches” Last edit was 10/18/20th https://marinedebris.noaa.gov/info/patch.html

So my original research question was “What causes school shootings, and how is this linked to the education system and social media?” my idea was to go from the rhetorical analysis essay into more issues regarding young adult death such as school shootings and how they are all linked. However, I could not find any credible source that would provide a decent essay model to go off that talked about how the education system in this country is also a relevant factor when it comes to school shootings and suicide. Which was honestly very strange to me, considering how many students are in depression (mostly because of the school system and the environment, rather than bullying, not to exclude that as also a relevant and important factor). Besides the point I decided to revisit some other issues I was interested in. So, my question is “How can Marine Pollution be prevented, what causes it, and how does it affect our environment?”. I chose this topic that for a long time now Marine Pollution was something that has been bothering me. There is a 20+ long island of garbage that is in the Pacific Ocean that has been growing at a steady pace over the last decade. It is now bigger than Manhattan and is continuously growing. Earth has been dying slowly over the past couple of centuries, issues like Global Warming, and Green House Gases are leaving our planet in a wreck. Its all because of the way we treat it. I want to break down one of the worst ways we do so. Garbage Pollution. So, it is my goal during this paper to reiterate the facts and opinions of professionals to raise awareness and thoroughly explain the topic.

My paper will be modeling the article/encyclopedia entry published by National Geographic on July 5th, 2019 called “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”. The reason I chose this entry/article is because it is almost the perfect breakdown of the issue, explaining what it is, how it works, and how we can fix it. The model essay used the information gathered by National Geographic’s experts and teams as credible information to present this issue to the world, so more people are aware of it. This article will help me structure and write my paper, with a lot of other articles acting as secondary sources that I will analyze to break down the issue even more. Going into as much detail as possible. The targeted audience of this research paper will be people who are unaware of this issue. Surprisingly despite its massive size very few people know about it or bring it up when talking about the state of the environment. So, the purpose of this paper would be to spread awareness regarding the garbage patch providing different perspectives, statistical analysis, and ways people can help. Furthermore, there are also people that may have heard about this issue and are trying to learn more because they see that action needs to be taken to help our planet.
Model Article/Entry: https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/great-pacific-garbage-patch/
Works Cited:
Lebreton, L., Slat, B., Ferrari, F. et al. Evidence that the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is rapidly accumulating plastic. Sci Rep 8, 4666 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-22939-w
Egger, M., Sulu-Gambari, F. & Lebreton, L. First evidence of plastic fallout from the North Pacific Garbage Patch. Sci Rep 10, 7495 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-64465-8
Thomas M. Kostigen Discover “The World’s Largest Dump: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch” July 9, 2008 8:00 PM https://www.discovermagazine.com/environment/the-worlds-largest-dump-the-great-pacific-garbage-patch
https://theoceancleanup.com/great-pacific-garbage-patch/
Laurent C. M. Lebreton, et al., “River plastic emissions to the world’s oceans,” Nature Communications 8, no. 15611 (June 2017), http://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15611
Merel Kooi, et al., “The effect of particle properties on the depth profile of buoyant plastics in the ocean,” Scientific Reports 92, 1-2 (March 2015): 170-179, http://doi.org/10.1038/srep33882
OR&R’s Marine Debris Division “Garbage Patches” Last edit was 10/18/20th https://marinedebris.noaa.gov/info/patch.html

My research question as of right now is “What causes school shootings, and how is this linked to the education system and social media?”. The reason I decided to choose this research question is because for a while now when me and my fellow classmates were having debates regarding topics such as school shootings we often only focused on the guns. Gun laws are important however I believe the issue is more geared towards the students themselves. People used to say that committing a murder splits your soul and takes part of it. To go from that to annual school shootings in America where hundreds die is a big leap. To have the mentality to commit such an act one would almost have to go through hell. However, we have kids going into schools and killing each other. Guns should be limited yes; however, I don’t think that will solve the problem. If someone decides “I will go kill people in my school and then kill myself” they will end up finding another way to do it. So, an approach from the psychological perspective might be the way to go, to avoid kids from even having a thought such as that. So, therefore I chose this research question, to see what causes these crazy acts and how we can help people calm down to avoid it.

Newspaper Aritcle

This New York Times article covers the issue of increased suicide within young people ages 10 to 24. It goes in depth on explaining how this issue is important and is often put to the sidelines and isnt explored. Showing the importance of the issue towards the reader. Following which is goes into details regarding statistics and possible causes. The article focuses on Soical Media as the main factor however it does not say that is the only primary cause. However it does  try to say that there is a direct link between the amount of time young people spend on their phones communicating with others and increase in young teen and young adult suicide.

Magazine Article

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/suicide-isnt-always-related-to-mental-illness

https://www.teenvogue.com/story/family-friends-seeking-justice-for-channing-smith-outed-teen-died-by-suicide

So I am uncretain about which one of these sources from teenvogue I will be using. One covers a specific suicide case regarding a 16 year-old boy named Channing Smith who commitied suicide becuase he was outed online by two other teens for being gay. A few hours later he killed himself. From one hand this article covers a specific case and goes in depth with the situation as well as how often the law gets involved in suicide and whether it is justified to punish someone else for making a child take his or her own life. The second article is more general explaining that suicide is never just as simple as someone wanting to end their own life but someone wanting to end the pain they are feeling. It is connected to self-esteem and other possible factors. I may try to use both articles or maybe just the one. I understand this is supposed to be a rhetorical analysis essay however when we were asked to choose a social issue, i decided that I wouldn’t pick something everyone else is already talking about. There are some seriously wrong things going on in peoples minds over the last 2 decades including my own, which I believe are worth exploring. So although I tried my best to find good sources that properly presented the issue I feel like the issue is so vast there might still be more out there and I may change these as the process for writing the essay continues. Depending on how much they fit within the analysis and within my own opinion which I may try to put in either in the conclusion and or otherwise, if that is allowed that is.

Open Web Source

https://www.thegriefgirl.com/life-after-loss—a-blog

So this is a blog on the internet, the blogger has written mmany books regarding different issues one of them being suicide. Within this blog post she talks about the issue and that the one thing is is missing like many others within our soicety is ACTION. Suicide has been one of the issues that has been put aside and almost avoided all together by governments and political officals. When teens and young adults go into schools kill others and then kill themselves (at an increasing rate for years) something should’ve been done a long time ago especially after collombine, many other issues like this are put of by governments for decades until they are solved. Just look at slavery, the founding fathers actually wrote all men are created equal, and even had a whole section of the original draft of the declaration of independence talk about why the issue was wrong. But they removed it and left it to the future generations to figure it out, its stupid. What gets accomplished if all we do is talk about an issue when nothing is done to prevent it. Same goes with racism, and other issues. People speak out regarding them and that is always something we need, however we need to do better than just that we should create a society in which instead of kids considering killing themselves because of bullying (cyber or otherwise), or killing others a long with them, they understand that religion, color, sexuality, and everything else at the end of the day doesn’t matter. We are all human, we all die in the end. People need to understand how to treat each other like people then most of the problems we have today would vanish. The article also mentions that “suicide prevention education is now mandatory in all California schools, thanks to the bill AB2246 passed in late 2016. But unfortunately, there is still no date on which schools are required to meet this mandate.” So even with the government finally getting involved to some degree its not even being enforced.

Scholarly Source

https://journals.lww.com/journalofchristiannursing/Fulltext/2016/04000/Teen_Depression_and_Suicide__A_Silent_Crisis.9.aspx

This Article breaks down suicide as depression in young teens as being the main cause. Its broken down very well showing the reader what depression is (although you cant fully comprehend something you never experienced) and then following up with how that leads to suicide and how we can prevent it. The lack of action and the action we could take.

The world today is extreamly complicated and the society we live in has a lot of social issues that all relate to each other in one way or another, and should all be adressed by governments so action can be taken. There are many issues worth discussing in society today; homlessness, poverty, climate change, gun control, domestic violence, etc. However there is one issue that isnt getting as much attention and that is suicide. The annual U.S. suicide rate has increased 24% between 1999 and 2014, the highest rate recorded in 28 years.  Not to mention that organizations such as the World Health Assosiation go as far as to run statistics on how many people with approximately die from suicide yearly. According to them 1.54 million people will die in 2020 due to suicide. The question we have left to answer is why. I think this is worth exploring, it has always bothered me the amount of people (especially teenagers) that either fall into depression or commit suicide because of pressures from multiple factors. Kids should not be killing themselves, this issue is one of just as much importance as gun violence and may be a direct link. School shooting have been increasing at an alarming rate as well ever since Colombine, people are focusing on the guns. But instead they should be focusing on the kids, what could be making a teenager think okay im going to go shoot up a school and then take my own life. No one should be thinking like that, I believe it is important to find the source of this. Whether it be social media, school, or otherwise, this issue should be explored so that whether or not our government puts limits on guns kids wont even think about using them to kill others. This is what I intend to epxlore within my essay. To analyze 4 different sources on this topic to try and find a common ground between them in which a solution might be hidden.

Author: The article “Belarus’ leader helicopters over Minsk with a rifle as protesters below demand his resignation” by Mary Ilyushina, CNN is written by Mary Ilyushina to inform people of what is going on in Belarus and how the president or more accurately dictator addresses the demands of his people.

Rhetorical Analysis/Exigence: So this article from a side view doesn’t focus on any specific social issue, however if you dig deeper it is displaying how corruption within governments subdues the desires of people often to a point that crosses moral standing. According to the article the president of Belarus “Alexander Lukashenko responded to huge anti-government protests and calls for his resignation by posting video of himself flying over Minsk in riot gear, with a rifle hanging from his shoulder.” The main point of the article is to inform people that revolting against oppression and corruption such as the government within Belarus is important for the freedom of people.

Audience: This article is primarily meant for people that want to know what is happening in other countries and want to help. From the way the article is focusing on the actions of the president and how he treats his people. It is almost designed to get anyone involved and speak out about it. It is targeted towards people that would see this and speak out against this oppression whether they are Belarusian or not. It also to a degree can be targeted towards society as a whole and could be compared to the actions of our current president in regard to his time in office and actions during the recent pandemic we have all been affected by.

Purpose: The main purpose of the article is to capture the oppression and injustice currently taking place within Belarus and to get people interested and to find out more about what is going on. As well as to show the point to which corruption and oppression can grow within a government. Almost as a warning. For people around the world to not wait to fight for their freedom and justice like the people of Belarus did by allowing Lukashenko to remain their dictator for 26 years. To stand up and fight for one’s country is something that can also be inspiring for other countries around the world. Lukashenko isn’t the only dictator out there and maybe someone in another country will see what is happening in Belarus and decide to take action within one’s own country to fight corruption and oppression.

Genre: the genre of this text is an informal article that is telling people about how far governments can go and what it can mean for people around the world. Its mostly informative and has little opinion if at all regarding the actions of the president however it feels like it is designed in a way to get people to get involved almost. For a president to walk out into protestors with a machine gun, that will get anyone riled up. Which goes back to the article we had to read which talked about how the way words are structured and change how people interpret them.

Stance: Since this article is almost free of opinion, it has no stance. It is however slightly biased in the opposition of Lukashenko.

Source:https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/24/europe/lukashenko-belarus-helicopter-rifle-protests-intl/index.html