Azucena Quinones

Writing 2
Matt Wilson
27 May 2016
Baseball. Interesting or not?
What is a genre? You may have limited perceptions of what a genre is applying it to
movie genres like romantic comedies or horror right? But in reality a genre can be anything. A
genre can be an amazon review, a love letter, even your own journal entry. But what makes these
genres, genres? What classifies a love letter as a love letter? Conventions. When we think of a
love letter what does it have to contain in order to classify as a love letter? The word love would
be an important convention. Would a love letter be a love letter without the word love? Would
the love letters purpose be executed well without this convention? No. Conventions are what
constitute genres and help get the author's rhetorical purpose across. Without them a genre would
not be a genre. Of course we find some genres more interesting than others, and I will take news
articles and satirical articles on baseball to show you how each genre uses its conventions
effectively to show that America's pastime is more or less interesting while getting the author's
rhetorical purpose across.
The first article I will talk about is the news article Highlights and Analysis of Marlins
vs Mets in The New York Times. The conventions in this article are simple. They include the
date of the game, the inning, the location of the game, the teams who are playing, stats, and
baseball terms. Lets take a look at an example Top of the Eleventh Mets 3, Marlins 3: Still
Tied Entering the 11th- In the top of the 10th inning, Josh Thole struck out with two outs and
bases loaded. This has the inning, the players name, the score, and even baseball terms like

bases loaded. When we think about the purpose of these conventions are they there to
entertain? Date, location, and teams who are playing are all conventions that inform. And that is
the author's rhetorical purpose. Informational conventions are not the most entertaining because
of their lack of pathos. In Carroll's Backpacks to Briefcases she talks about how it is hard to
persuade us only with our minds, it has to be with our heart too. This article lacks that
substantially but it does inform well. But why would the author write an article that is not
entertaining? In Bunns How to Read Like a Writer he says that knowing why a piece was
written and who its for can help explain why the author made certain choices. When we consider
the audience of this piece it has to be baseball fans. It is baseball fans because first off, they are
the only ones who would be interested in reading this piece and because the author does not
explain the conventions like what the baseball terms mean or where the teams are from. The
author expects the audience to know this and this explains why the piece is not entertaining.
Because it is not meant for non-baseball fans. The conventions are completely effective in
getting the rhetorical purpose across for the appropriate audience.
The next article I will talk about is News Report Suggests Its Kind of Weird Baseball
Uniforms Have Belts from The Onion. The conventions of this article are also simple. First
come humorous titles. This is a very important convention. In Dirks Navigating Genres she
stresses the importance of The Onions headlines saying that while many of the articles are funny
the majority of the humor is produced through the headlines and the purpose of the headlines is
simple. To make the reader laugh. If the purpose of satirical articles is to make the reader laugh
let us discuss the other conventions it must have. This article also comes with the convention of
informal language. The article uses phrases like kind of weird or they should just wear pants
with an elastic waistband or something. The use of informal language contributes to the purpose

because satirical articles are meant to make fun of or mock something. In Zinsers Simplicity he
discusses how word choice is key in writing an essay as every word should serve a purpose. In
this case the informal words serve the purpose, making satirical baseball articles humorous.
Another convention used is absurd evidence. In this article the author uses evidence from
someone with the name of Dr. Gibbons who has apparently written as 350 page paper on why
baseball pants have loops to begin with. Because most of the conventions used in this article
appeal to pathos unlike the previous article, it is a lot more interesting and therefore the audience
is broadened. This article does not contain baseball terms or teams so the author does not expect
much from the reader. Really all the audience needs to know is that baseball uniforms have belts.
So the audience can be anyone who reads The Onion. All of these humorous conventions
contribute to the rhetorical purpose of making the audience laugh and make America's pastime
interesting for all.
So as you can see, conventions are incredibly important in contributing to the genre and
its rhetorical purpose. Different genres have different conventions and different purposes are
meant for different audiences. In this case dates, locations, baseball terms, and team names are
important for news articles as their purpose is to inform baseball fans while humorous titles,
informal language, and absurd evidence are important for satirical articles in The Onion as their
purpose is to make anyone who reads The Onion laugh. So now you know how important
conventions are to genres. Consider these when youre trying to get your purpose across to your
audience.

Works Cited
Keh, Andrew. "Highlights and Analysis of Marlins vs. Mets." Bats. The New York Times, 2 Oct.
2012. Web. 03 Apr. 2016.
"New Report Suggests It Kind Of Weird Baseball Uniforms Have Belts." The Onion. The Onion,
24 June 2014. Web. 03 Apr. 2016.
Dirk, Kerry. "Navigating Genres."Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. West Lafayette, IN:
Parlor, 2010. Print.
Bunn, Mike."How to Read Like a Writer."Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. West Lafayette,
IN: Parlor, 2010. Print.
Carroll, Bolin Laura. "Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps toward Rhetorical Analysis".Writing
Spaces: Readings on Writing. West Lafayette, IN: Parlor, 2010. Print.
Zinsser, William. "Simplicity." On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction. New
York: HarperCollins, 2006. N. pag. Print