Whitesman 1

Jena Whitesman
Amy Cicchino
ENC 2135
September 22, 2015
Just a Month Away from Home
Once you pass the gate into Camp Coleman, there is no going back. You disconnect from
your phone, video games, and computer for a whole month and actually appreciate living, so to
speak. With the silly distractions gone, one is able to reflect and contemplate on the life they
would like to lead. Some of the conveniences of modern society disappear, such as air
conditioning, and cabin survival now depends on your battery operated fan and your reusable
water bottle. A toilet and shower is now shared between fifteen people and hot water is scarce.
Lacking what most have become accustomed to, camp has now become an entirely different
world for hundreds of impressionable campers. The beautiful landscape of North Georgia makes
it easy to appreciate the world around us and not just the virtual world we live in today.
Colemans sole purpose is to help kids grow and become independent, active members of their
communities at home and away. Approximately eight hundred campers attend Coleman, about
four hundred per session. A session at Coleman is a whole month, one session beginning in June
thru July, and the latter, July thru August. The numbers grow each year as the camp grows in
popularity. Living in a different environment can be a big step toward independence, and camp
allows me to learn and grow in a safe and comfortable space. Not only is this what Camp
Coleman wants potential campers and families to believe its goals are, it is also how the camp is
perceived through specific genres of communication used for and within the camp. Since the
average ages of the campers are between seven and seventeen, parents must have the ability to

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somehow communicate with their precious children. And thus, Camp Coleman becomes letterwriting central, a genre that allows for kids to send home their true feelings about camp in a
letter and let the parents catch a glimpse of how life-changing this summer camp can be. The
community to which I feel most connected to in my life is my camp community in Cleveland,
Georgia amongst the Blue Ridge Mountains. This sleep-away camp gives parents the
opportunity to get rid of their children for an entire month, believing that they will be having the
time of their lives because of all Camp Coleman has to offer. Whether it be sports, arts and crafts,
canoeing, or the ropes course, there is always something to do at camp, and there is something
for everyone.
Genres are the basis of this sleep-away camp and its ability to operate smoothly during
the summer and year-round. At Camp Coleman, genre is used in a variety of ways, whether it is
to keep parents informed or campers entertained, genres have a great purpose at camp. According
to the Bedford Book of Genres, genre is a type of composition. This definition gives genre
limitless possibilities. I agree with this definition, allowing a genre to be a style or category of
anything. In music, there are many genres of songs such as classical or rock and in movies, there
are many different genres of films such as a drama or comedy. Genres are used to express
something specific and at camp, some genres are geared towards different audiences. Camp
Coleman focuses on genres of writing that enable better communication and skill development.
The Camp Coleman websites intended audience is parents and it enables a variety of
information and notices to be obtained easily by these parents and basic access to the camp
community. This simple to use site includes many features that are helpful to parents of campers
and potential campers and their families. Genres are also used solely within camp, the audience
being campers and counselors, such as the newspaper and video presentation. The newspaper is

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printed each week at Coleman, along with a showing of the video presentation, both genres,
created entirely by the campers. Genres are present at Camp Coleman to allow campers to
express themselves and have limited but useful interaction with technology.
Try to remember a time where letters were used predominately for catching up with a
friend or family member who lived far away, and not just for bills and birthday cards. One does
not need to travel back in time to write such letters, for there is a community today that still
communicates in this way, the lovely Camp Coleman. I am proud to be one of those campers that
writes letters home to loved ones proclaiming how amazing camp is, and I have been one of
those letter-writing campers for the past 10 years. Although the genre of writing letters is
effective, it is not timely. Parents get antsy waiting for a reply from their children and want to
know exactly what is happening at this so-called sleep-away camp they sent their beloved
child to. For all they know, their kid could be doing hard labor ten hours a day. A constraint of
letter writing is that it takes a few days to get to its destination, so another genre of writing the
camp uses to inform and update families is their website. The Camp Coleman website is
designed with a section for daily pictures, taken by the camp photographer, depicting campers
doing their every day activities. The website also includes a section for weekly blog posts that
sum up what each unit has been up to for that particular week.
Through this website, families are now informed about the great program their child
participated in the other night or yesterdays field trip. The blogs are written by either a camper
representative, a counselor, or the Director himself, giving community members of all ages the
opportunity to inform the outside world of what is really happening at Coleman with friendly,
humorous language that matches the perception of camp, a happy and welcoming space. In Kerry
Dirks, Navigating Genres, it becomes apparent that tone is a key factor to how someone is

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perceived. In this case, genres are playing a major role in how a place can be perceived. The tone
used by the authors of these blogs are always positive, thus allowing camp to be perceived as a
positive place. The section dedicated to the daily photographs are organized by what are called
units, meaning the campers age group. This setup gives parents easy access to their kid by just
clicking on the age group of their camper. The pictures on the website add validity to the blog
posts and camp as a whole. When my mother sees a picture of me biking down a hill, she has
then seen for her own eyes that I am playing outdoors, challenging myself, and having a blast.
This form of communication is convenient and nerve-calming, especially to those who are
known as helicopter parents who like to hover over their kids and know exactly what they are
doing at each moment of every day. One constraint of the Camp Coleman website is that not
each feature is updated every single day. The blogs are updated weekly, so parents are not always
knowledgeable about the activities until a few days after they have occurred. That is why the
pictures become extremely helpful, giving parents a glimpse into daily activities.
So if a child begins attending sleep-away camp, not only are the parents experiencing a
change, a month without their child, the campers are also experiencing a new world, one away
from their parents. This separation plays a large role in shaping the identity of Camp Coleman.
Coleman becomes a place to learn and grow in new ways and be exposed to new values and to
create ones own values. The website plays a large role in this, appeasing both the campers and
parents by ensuring safety and providing communication between the camp and the outside
world.
Now that it is known how to keep the parents at ease through a couple of different genres
of communication, next, it is time to move on to genres just within the community. These genres
are only for the staff and campers. Every week, there is a newspaper that comes out and

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entertains the whole community. It is made by the campers, for the campers. It has a front page
with the biggest headlines, and many other pages such as a comic page, survey page, story page,
and a page for photography of nature and of members of the community. This newspaper is
courtesy of the media specialist who has campers draw and write and take pictures within the
hour that they choose to come to the media room. An affordance of this genre includes exposing
many campers to a whole new form of writing, separate from the academic essays that they are
accustomed to at home. The newspaper is a genre that enforces camps identity, a place where
youth can learn new skills, such as working with others and working alone as well. This gives
campers a newfound sense of responsibility and an opportunity to begin cooperating well with
others in their community, and learning the importance of hard work as well as supporting
others. Skills taught at an early age are more likely to stick around throughout ones life and
Coleman believes in utilizing these skills each summer. A constraint of the newspaper is that,
unlike the website, it is not digital. The websites pictures and blogs stay for months or years at a
time, while the newspaper is thrown out after everyone has read it. Of course, one could save it,
but supposing it got lost, there is no way for the newspaper to be retrieved, for there is always a
new media specialist each year with a different computer in use.
Camp Coleman also has a weekly video presentation called Friday Night Live, which is
a video composed of short skits created by each unit. This show is courtesy of the video
specialist. These forms of media are purely for creative use and help campers find their passion
in writing and performing if they dont happen to have one in sports or arts and crafts. The Camp
newspaper and Friday Night Live are great ways to bring the camp together and feature the
creativity of the campers. At camp, technology and the lack thereof is an affordance, with
technologys relationship with the campers being limited. It is primarily for growth and

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creativity, unlike at home, where there are many negative aspects of technology. Campers are not
the ones typing up the newspaper, but are the ones that created it, and they are not the ones
editing the video, but instead the writers and performers. Technology is present but not in the
same way as it usually is in the real world. The tone and language used in the newspaper and
video are ones of humor and kindness. Many times social media can represent a place for
negative tones and fowl language, so at camp, technology is learned to be used in the best
manner possible.
Camp Coleman yearns for the families, parent and child, to see the magic of sleep-away
camp and how it transforms youth into more outgoing and productive members of society.
Through these genres, these types of communication, Coleman is trying to appeal to these
families and persuade them to send their child away for the month, knowing that the campers
will be in good hands. The pictures and blogs make use of the three modes of persuasion: ethos,
pathos, and logos. Camp is showing a safe environment for children through well-trained staff
and specialists, appealing to the emotions of a child and parent with photos of campers having
the time of their lives, and using factual blogs that tell of programs and activities that enable
campers to become strong and open-minded individuals.
Now, as I become too old to attend camp as a camper, I am living proof that this
community can really change an individual and help them to shape their identity and values. I
feel strong, confident, and prepared to venture out in the world thanks to spending 10 years of
my life as a Camp Coleman Camper. These genres help both camper and parent, and as the
amount of campers increase each year, I do believe that these genres have effectively
communicated the camps goals, and greatly influenced many parents to send their kids off to
camp. While camp instills its values within the campers, camp also gives you the freedom to find

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your own values. By living a month out of each year without the virtual world, one is able to find
what is truly important.

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WORKS CITED PAGE

Dirk,Kerry."NavigatingGenres."WritingSpaces:ReadingsonWriting.By
CharlesLoweandPavelZemliansky.Vol.1.WestLafayette,IN:Parlor,2010.
24961.Print.
Braziller,Amy,andElizabethKleinfeld."UnderstandingGenres."The
BedfordBookofGenres:AGuide.2nded.N.p.:n.p.,n.d.437.Print.Florida
State.