Publishing Research
19
Genre
When composing a text, one of the key components is to know who the intended audience is. Every form of text is a response to a rhetorical situation. Whether that text is a time card to record the number of hours an employee has worked, or an airplane’s safety instructional pamphlet, they are each a response to who the author and audience is, and the exigence, purpose, constraint, and affordance of the situation.
The audience of a time card is an employer; hence the time card must be composed in a matter that addresses the employer in a way that they can understand. Since it is a response to the recurring rhetorical situation that occurs on a weekly basis, a time sheet can be considered as a genre. This genre is used as a means of communication in the relationship or discourse community of employee and employer, and if you were to compose such a text, you would first have to study the manner in which they communicate, lexis, tone, etc.
Appealing to Your Audience
Ethos, logos, and pathos can help us to better understand how to appeal to our audience in the best ways possible by grabbing their attention and convincing them of our own beliefs in order to make a change or difference within the wanted discourse community. The most effective of communication will touch on all three of these forms of rhetoric through their genre.
Ethos
Ethos can be looked at as the most important part of your genre because without establishing ethos, no one will listen to you or care about what you have to say. You are most likely to be convinced of an argument by someone you trust. In more detail, the discourse community that you are appealing to is more likely to agree with you if they truly believe that you are a fair person who is knowledgeable and has good judgement. The three strategies that go into establishing a good sense of ethos to your audience includes:
- Establish that you have good judgement
- Convey to readers that you are knowledgeable
- Show that you understand the complexity of the issue
These strategies are interrelated because a writer who demonstrates good judgement is most likely someone who is both knowledgeable about an issue and someone who acknowledges the complexity of it by weighing both the strengths and weaknesses of different arguments without being biased with their own opinions.
Most readers of academic writing expect writers to have good judgement, and this applies to all forms of writing, or even non-writing, to all audiences. For example, when going to the doctor, you expect the doctor to make good decisions that would benefit your health. How we can do this as writers would be to first identify problems that your readers would agree are worth addressing. Try not to debate things that experts in that field already know. By addressing problems that are worth bringing attention to, your readers will form an interest in your writing and keep on reading. Additionally, trying to grab people’s attention to a pr