Throughout this class, I have learned the importance of rhetoric not as a singular skill, but as a strategy impacted by genre, audience, and purpose. Initially, I looked at writing in terms of content and structure. By the end of the course, I now see that effective communication requires a meticulous selection of the appropriate genre to achieve a specific rhetorical goal.

 

I began with the Investigative Field Essay on the impact of social media on young girls’ body image. This project introduced the foundational concepts of academic composing. The genre required me to appeal to Logos and Ethos. I learned that composing within this genre meant gaining credibility through peer-reviewed sources and writing the argument logically to build a strong case. For me, the challenge was shifting from just summarizing research to using it as the foundation for a critical argument. The constraints of the academic genre: formal tone, third-person perspective, and strict citation standards, forced guidelines when composing that required evidence over emotional appeal.

 

The second project, the Artifact Analysis, was much different, moving my focus from composing a single genre to analyzing the relationship between rhetoric and genre. By comparing a scholarly article with a TEDx talk, both on the same subject, I gained a good understanding of genre contingency. The scholarly article, targeting experts, relied on complex terminology, visual models, and Ethos; its genre needed density and specificity. In contrast, the TEDx talk, targeting a broad public audience, strategically deployed Pathos through personal stories and simplified language, using the oral/visual medium to generate engagement and empathy. This analysis tells that genre is essentially a contract with the audience, defining what rhetorical choices are permitted and expected. I realized that the best arguments are those that are better adapted to the platform on which they appear.

 

Lastly this foundational understanding was put to the ultimate test in Project 3. The multigenre persuasive campaign assignment fully demonstrated the complexity of composing and advanced rhetorical strategy. The goal required separating this communication into three genres: a formal email, an Instagram page, and an intimate journal entry. The act of composing these became a process of genre synthesis. I had to consciously switch rhetorical registers for each piece.

 

For the corporate audience of platform executives, the formal email deployed the Logos-driven language of risk mitigation and policy recommendations, speaking directly to the business-minded genre of institutional communication. Conversely, for the user community of the young girls impacted by social media, I made the Instagram page and journal entry genres required an immediate, empathetic appeal, heavy on Pathos and shared vulnerability. The journal entry utilized the genre of personal confession to bypass the defenses of skepticism, allowing the reader to recognize their own pain as shared and valid. I then learned that true persuasion digitally requires an overarching message delivered through strategy genres to meet each audience exactly where they are, psychologically, socially, and professionally.

 

This course shifted my understanding of writing from a singular act of generating text to a complex rhetorical mindset. I learned that genre is the framework that guides every choice, that composing is the strategic adaptation of message to medium, and that effective rhetoric is the purposeful deployment of Logos, Ethos, Pathos, tailored to the audience and used within the constraints of the chosen genres.