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Running head: GENRE ANALYSIS FINAL DRAFT

Genre Analysis Final Draft

The University of Texas at El Paso
Grace North
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Introduction
This paper analysis two different genres, meme and a documentary. Genre: a topic, a

category of certain events, e.g. book genre, movie genre, music genre, science fiction, comedy,

documentary, etc. A lot of people think genres are only found in books and movies, but it is all

around us. As the years go by, the world becomes more modern and revolves more around social

media and now memes, which are another form of genres. The two genres being compared on

this paper is on a vegetarian meme and a vegetarian/vegan documentary.

Structure and Deliver

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The first genre is found Peta2 Free for all Blog. It reads as follow, How many people do
You know who have died of a protein

deficiency? Now how many people in your life

have died of heart disease and cancer? There

are a lot of people who are against vegans and

vegetarians because they dont know how or

what to vegans and vegetarians eat, and they just

simply dont understand why someone would

chose this certain type of lifestyle. It is true that

humans need protein to survive and be

instagrams@thatveganaussiebla
ke].

healthy, but a lot of people think meat is the only supplier of protein. Protein can be found almost

everywhere, especially in plants and legumes. This meme depicts how vegans would answer to

meat eaters when they tell them they are going to die without protein.

Audience and Purpose

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There are a lot of people who are against vegans and vegetarians because they dont

know how or what to vegans and vegetarians eat, and they just simply dont understand why

someone would chose this certain type of lifestyle. It is true that humans need protein to survive

and be healthy, but a lot of people think meat is the only supplier of protein. Protein can be found

almost everywhere, especially in plants and legumes. This meme depicts how vegans would

answer to meat eaters when they tell them they are going to die without protein.

The meme genre is a great modern example, especially for the new millennial students.

The new millennial generation is constantly involved in selfies, social media, memes, and

YouTube. A meme is born when someone captions any picture, whether it is of someone from the

1800s or a celebrity with a smart or sassy caption and is shared all over social media. For

example, last year, Steve Harvey accidently announced the wrong winner for Miss Universe and

then promptly corrected himself and apologized for his mistake. Within twenty-four hours of

Steves mistake, a lot of memes appear with his Miss Universe picture and funny mistake

captions. A year later, fast forward to presidential campaign winner, another meme resurfaces

with Steve Harveys face and a caption of him announcing the wrong presidential campaign

winner. That is what a meme is, someone takes a picture and puts a caption to match what the

picture resembles.

The other genre is a documentary called Vegucated; it is about three people who are meat

eaters but have an open mind of trying to be vegan. The tour guide of this film, Marisa Miller

Wolfson, is a vegan food activist who guides these three people, Tesla Lobo, Brian Flegel, and

Ellen Mausner, and teaches them the right way to eat vegan. She first takes them to a doctor to

get their lab work and weight done so they can know where their health is at as meat eaters. They

also meet an older woman who turned vegan, lost 80lbs, and her health is much better and has
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even stopped taking prescription medicine. The group also meets a vegan body builder who has

grew muscles by eating protein foods like tofu, tempeh, power plants, and legumes. The group

then goes grocery shopping to buy their new vegan food.

During the documentary, the group faces challenges because they are not used to this life

style, Tesla, doesnt like beans and vegetables, Brian loves bacon, and Ellen has children who are

trying vegetarian diet, but she is trying the vegan diet. Tesla comes from a Hispanic family who

think she is crazy because she is giving up meat. A few weeks go by and Marisa, their vegan

guide takes them outside of animal slaughter houses and to watch a documentary on how animals

are inhumanely killed to become food. The group grows stronger by this and before their time

together comes to an end, they go see the same doctor to do more lab work and check their

weight. To their surprise, they have lost weight and their labs look even better than when they

were eating meat. They get checked up on later and they are still following a vegan and

vegetarian diet.

Rhetorical Issues: Ethos, Pathos, and Logos

A documentary is another type of genre. A documentary can be a book, movie, or

anything that contains facts and report. It is based on a true story. The purpose of a documentary

is to teach people about different things. Documentaries can be about food, history, politics,

people, etc. The difference between a meme and a documentary is that is created by pictures and

captions people come up with and shared all over the internet, and a documentary presents facts

and a report to the viewers and readers. The Vegucated documentary goes hand in hand with the

vegan meme because in the film, friends and families of the three people who volunteered for

this vegan challenge told them they were crazy for not eating meat. Some worried that they were

going to get sick and not have enough nutrients, some said meat just taste good. This meme is a
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good answer on what some vegans might say to meat eaters who try to shame them for their

lifestyle. This meme also hints on the health difference between a vegan and a meat eater. The

documentary showed facts and report, a before and after on the lab work and weight of these

three people. As meat eaters their lab work and weight was higher than at the end of the six week

challenge.

Conclusion/Synthesis

Being able to analyze is very crucial to writers. To write any paper, whether it be on

memes, documentary, scientific research, a simple movie or book, the writer must be able to

understand the message and present it to the audience through a paper. Genres organizes the

worlds entertainment. If there werent any genres established everything would be the same.

People wouldnt know what comedy, horror, fiction, none fiction, etc. would be. Memes

wouldnt exist because there wouldnt be any context to refer them back to. Life would be a

gloomy black and white movie. Comparing different types of genres relating to the same topic

allows the reader to have a more in depth view of the topic. Being able to analyze the vegan joke

meme and compare to a documentary; I was able to let the audience know how those two genres

tie everything together.

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References

Staff, P. (2016, April 29). The 13 Sassiest Vegan Memes Ever. Retrieved February 3, 2017,

from http://www.peta2.com/blog/funny-vegan-memes/

Miller Wolfson, M. (Director), & Bagley, D., & Mataska, F. (Producers).

(2011). Vegucated [Video file]. United States. Retrieved February 3, 2017, from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegucated