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Joselyn Avila

Professor Douglas

ENG-112-01

06 April 2017

Proposal

My line of inquiry is on: are zoos ethical or not? Lonely, frustrated, and stressed are the

emotions that zoo animals experience every day. Conserving, caring, and repopulating are the

contributions that zoos make every day. Do you notice the contradiction? My line of inquiry is a

debatable topic in which the discussion of many topics within this line of inquiry is brought up,

such as: is there enough space provided in enclosures, are the diets nutritional, is conservation

education taught, and have zoos contributed to communities and species? For my multi genre

project, I will be incorporating five different genres into one huge project. Below, I will mention

what each genre will be, what the audiences will be, and how my genre ties into my line of

inquiry.

For my first genre, I will be creating a scrapbook page, which will have a collage of zoo

animals that I will be capturing through a camera. My plan is to visit the North Carolina Zoo and

take pictures of various different zoo animals in their enclosures. The point behind this idea is to

captivate in person, the sizes of the enclosures. I understand that one zoo does not represent all

zoos worldwide, but this one zoo will still be a representation of what other zoos possibly look

like. The audience for this genre would be the individuals in charge of creating the designs of the

enclosures and the reason for this is for them to see whether enclosures should be built with more

space or should be left as they are.

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The second genre will be a newspaper article on the death of the famous gorilla,

Harambe. The death of Harambe triggered various emotions in different people, but not many

thought about the process that Harambe had to go through after its death. The audience would be

the general public that is interested in the long and tedious process that a zoo animal goes

through after its death because after all, what happens with the animals remains is just as

important as how the animals are treated when alive.

For the third genre, I will be creating a poster that will cover the topic of conservation

education. At zoos, information on animal skills, habitats, diets, etcetera are taught and then you

have zoos making efforts to conserve species, but nothing on conservation education is taught,

which is why I will be covering this topic for my genre. My audience is the general public

because it is necessary for the world to understand the importance of protecting wildlife and their

habitats. Many individuals are not aware of the risks that this planet and we humans are put in

with species becoming endangered and extinct at an alarming risk, so teaching about

conservation education will help the public become familiar with what the dangers are and how

they can help.

For my fourth genre, I will be making a timeline on how zoos have evolved over the

centuries. Many years ago, zoos purposes were to entertain and over the years it changed to the

purpose of research then education and now conservation. The audience will be zoo critics so

they can learn that although zoos are not one-hundred percent perfect, zoos have evolved for the

better and are still continuing to find more ways to enhance zoos and the lives of the animals in

the zoos.

For the final genre, I will create an original graphic narrative. The graphic narrative will

be about an animal being let back out into the wild and not surviving. The point behind this idea
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is to teach that sometimes when an animal is held captive and released back into the wild, it will

not always survive. In fact, hundreds of animals that are taken in by zoos and are taught skills by

humans, do not get to apply the skills to real life situations or depending on how long the animal

has been held captive, it can forget its survival skills and die as soon as it is released. This genre

is to be directed towards trainers at zoos, so they can learn that new steps need to be taken when

it comes to how long they hold an animals captive for and what exercises they need to implement

for the animal so it can truly be able to learn skills that will allow it to survive once released back

into its environment.

Overall, the purpose behind my multi genre project is to teach the general public that

zoos may not be ethical, but some zoos have good intentions and are huge contributors when it

comes to restoring specie populations. It is important for zoos to continue working on enhancing

their pars in order for the animals to benefit from the zoos improvements. It is also imperative for

the public to learn the importance of protecting animals and their environments in order to ensure

a prosperous life for animals, humans, and this planet.