Olivia DeBerry

UWRT 1102
Ingram
March 26th 2015

Multi-Genre Project Reflection

When I began to brainstorm about what goals I wanted to fulfil in my MultiGenre project it was quite simple for me to determine this. With the help of blog
post number four, and creating a roundtable of individuals that I could possibly have
as my audience I was able to narrow down who would be the best to present an
argument to. After I completed the post, I found that I would define my audience as
the authorized personnel of the university here at UNC Charlotte. I chose this
audience because I felt as if it were a good idea if I presented my information in a
more academic form.
With this project I had to define a purpose and along with an argument. After
a semester long research project, I found that I did not have a clear and concise
decision on if I believed that the use of Adderall on college campuses was to be
considered cheating or not. With this I found that I would argue that the use of
Adderall and Ritalin was not to be considered cheating, but rather unethical in the
academic community. In one source that I stumbled upon while during my research
thats main focus was to examine how individuals judge those who use
performance enhancing drugs in two different domains: the athletic domain, and the
academic domain. (Dodge 678-82) I found that I began to believe that one who
used steroids to win in a competition was more of a cheater than one who used

Adderall to help themselves study or take a test. Although these two instances are
in different contexts it allowed me to see that a student that was using Adderall was
not winning or achieving a place over another student I could not justify it as
cheating.
In a second source that I found, that is quite familiar to many UNC Charlotte
students; the academic code of integrity defined cheating as Intentionally using or
attempting to use unauthorized materials, information, notes, study aids or other
devices in any academic exercise. This definition includes unauthorized
communication of information during an academic exercise. (UNC Charlotte
University Policy 407, the Code of Student Academic Integrity) With this definition I
was unsure if I could define Adderall as a study aid. In the code of integrity there
was no information that talked about the misuse of drugs. This allowed me to see
that UNC Charlotte did not see that the misuse of Adderall was not an important
factor for the authorized personnel at the university.
Yes. Adderall is our generations answer to the cheat sheet. Its powerful,
stealthy and available to only a select few. The exclusivity of this drug lends an
unfair advantage to those who take it without being prescribed it. (Anonymous.
"Adderall: Cheating Perfected.") I would have to say that this is one of the sources
that allowed me to determine my stance on this topic. This anonymous writer is
correct when they say that it is an unfair advantage. Which is how I defined my
argument for the Multi-Genre project. It is unfair in the academic community, and
unethical in many ways.
With my argument being presented to the authorized personnel of UNC
Charlotte I knew that I was going to need to choose two genres that would help me

reach out to them in an appropriate and businesslike way. With this I chose to write
a letter to the dean of students and write a newspaper article in the campus wide
newspaper NINERTIMES. I decided that the letter to the dean would be a good way
to present my argument because the dean is a very important person. I went online
and looked up information about the dean and how to contact the dean of students
and I found that a letter was the best way. The dean is not likely to talk to a student
about important things unless they are through email, a letter, or in person. This
genre is likely to exist in a business or professional profession. It can also be found
in everyday life, depending on the context. In my letter I was sure to use a formal
academic context and to be polite while getting my point across considering the
person that I was trying to present my argument to.
The newspaper article that I wrote was meant to make a campus wide
statement. With acting as this genre was put into the NINERTIMES newspaper it
would make a statement not only to the students but to authorized persons on the
university campus. They would see that this is an opinion of a student and with it
being an important topic in colleges today, they will be forced to make some type of
action to respond to the article. The newspaper article is found in all contexts as
certain newspapers are used for different purposes. My audience can gain access to
this newspaper through the campus in many places they can find it and they can
also find access to this online.
When working on this Multi-Genre project I found that I used the linguistic,
spatial, and visual modes the most. As both of my genres were heavily written
compared to visual I used words to communicate with my audience. With the use of
paragraphs I was able to divide up my topics to make it easier for the audience to
read and understand. In the newspaper article I used pictures to help draw the

audience in. although they had no relation to the writing in the article they were
placed in an area that helped zero into the article.
It is always important on how you appeal to your audience. It just might be
one of the most important aspects of writing to someone you are trying to
persuade. I appealed to my audience by using informative information that provided
statistics about the usage of Adderall. I organized my writing to make sense to the
audience and set the tone of a professional environment. The introductions and
conclusions of my genres started the reader off by coming engaged into the topic
and left them thinking about it and what they could do to make a change.
I feel that the kairos were important to my audience. I believed that they
needed this message conveyed to them in this specific way because this way is
more familiar to them. It is important that they learned about this issue now
because it is importatnt to make an impact on our school now, while this usage of
drugs is new compared to later when it could become more prevalent in many more
colleges. With my target audience being authorized personnel at UNC Charlotte I
feel that I have been effective in reaching out to my audience and persuading them
to make a change on the UNC Charlotte campus. I think that if I were to present my
genres to the university it would make them want to make a change and try to end
the misuse of drugs like Adderall on campus.