With a traditional essay, I conducted an immense amount of research to help supply the information that helped develop the essay.  As for composing the Composition in Two Genres, I applied the information already gathered to create the visual pieces that were to be used in the composition. This essay allowed me to be expand my creativity on the issue I was trying to present. It helped me get the message across to different groups of people and display the purpose with a new perspective. Unlike a traditional essay, I was able to provide rhetoric strategies within my visual genres to illustrate the issue being addressed.

The genres I chose include a political cartoon and a subway advertisement. For the political cartoon, I wanted to draw attention to the people in power. On the cartoon was a door, on one side of the door is a happy family discussing matters with a social worker, on the other side is two dark figures holding a cigarette and a belt while the kid hid in a corner crying. The purpose of this is to demonstrate the matters that go overlooked within a foster home, to target social workers, the Department of Child Protective Services, or Human Services and make them take notice on these matters. As for the advertisement, there are two images, one image shows a girl crying followed by a girl opening up to someone, the second image demonstrates a vulnerable boy followed by a group of boys with a happy family. The purpose of this is to express the changes that can be made in regards to abuse. The girl crying has been a victim to abuse and because she never spoke up, another boy was left vulnerable to that abuse. Meanwhile, the girl who opened up to an individual about the abuse she endured saved other kids and allowed them to end up in happy homes. The advertisement also includes statistics on the amount of abuse that occurs in foster homes followed by quotes encouraging people to make a change and speak up. This advertisement was made in hopes to reach previous foster kids that have been physically or sexually victimized and encourage them to speak up and make a change.

In these genres, logos and ethos was used to help develop the ideas presented. The statistics appeal to the audience’s sense of logic. While the images and drawings of kids crying, or kids being scared, appeals to the audience’s sense of emotion.

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