Genre Analysis

Typography and Iconography

Gustavo Ortega II

University of Texas at El Paso

RWS 1302

03/21/17

Professor LaPrade
 The two genres I decided to use for my investigation of my topic were typography and

iconography. We were asked to use typography as our first, but given the freedom to pick one of

the other two genres, iconography and oral, for this assignment. The genre of typography is

finding articles or any other bit of information through certain sources such as books, websites,

laws, diaries, and essays. Iconography is the genre that requires one to gather information from

sources like webcasts, YouTube, comics, photography, and televised interviews. I chose

iconography as my second genre because I felt it would be better to get valid information and

simpler to get the right information I was looking for.

The purpose of a genre analysis is to put people in a situation where they must read,

write, and think critically. It is also to compare the three different types of genres, I previously

discussed, to see what type of information can be found on a specific topic. It is also used to

compose using a writing process, and understand how different genres work within different

discourse communities. I feel this a great way to get students out of their comfort zones and get

them to enhance their critical analysis skills.

For my typography genre, I chose an article talking about the protests that occurred

around America last year. The title is Protests against police violence continues for forth night

across the U.S. It was written by a reporter for CBS, but there was no specification on who

wrote it. Around this time was when there was a lot of tension between civilians and police

officers because no one knew if the protests were going to stay peaceful or explode into riots. All

of this began because there was out cry of a police officers shooting and killing people who

others thought were innocent.

The intended audience for this article is the citizens of the U.S. that either did not attend

any protests or could not attend for their own reasons. It was written to inform them of how long
the protests had been taking place. What was the environment like at the locations whether be

peaceful or potentially hostile. How many protesters showed up and how many officers were

called out to try and keep the peace.

The article is a bit short, but it is packed with viable information on the events. It should

take someone an average of ten minutes to completely read the article. This is in no way a fault. I

feel that if this article were longer people would lose interest quickly and move onto either

another story or another source for the same news. CBS was smart in just getting straight to the

point with what they wanted to report and did it quickly.

This article had no evidence of formal language. They knew that in order to keep the

news available to all Americans they needed to keep the type of language used to a less advanced

level to make sure everyone understood what information they were trying to give. Had they

used language with a high diction people might not have been able to understand what was going

on and they would lose those people to competitor news sites. Some of the only specialized

language I thought could be considered as such was the words used to describe peoples ethnic

backgrounds. To make some of the words more prominent than others they typed them in bright

colors and bold print. To make sure they were emphasized.

This article establishes credibility by having reporters from a credible news station like

CBS at the locations of the protests and reporting back what they saw. It is credible because these

reporters had first-hand knowledge of what was occurring because they were there. I feel that the

main emotion that this article was trying to convey was fear. I believe it is fear because there has

been a big concern on whether these protests which usually start out peaceful end up in riots.

This is due to either protesters getting into the personal space of the officers and the officers

defend themselves or if some protesters get fed up and just attack the officers.
 They begin the article by stating that the protesting against police violence continued.

Then informed the audience of the specifics of what was happening in each area a protest was

taking place. I believe this genre has a lot of freedom to tell the news as it feels necessary to its

audience. This is because there is almost no limit to what must be censored or how much news

they can give. Because this is a website, it is difficult for CBS to not give as much news as

possible to the public concerning topics that impact the audience.

As I stated in the introduction, my second genre is iconography. To represent this genre I

chose a speech that was given at the GOP Convention on July 18, 2016 by Sheriff David Clarke,

that I found on YouTube.

The intended audience of this genre is also the people of America, but to those who

especially either support the police, those who do not feel safe, and President Trump supporters.

The audience already knows that violent people exist, but they want to know that someone will

make sure a plan will be considered to subdue as many violent people as possible, police or

criminal, and stop innocent lives from being destroyed. The audience should spend around eight

minutes watching Sheriff Clarkes speech and be glued from beginning to end.

The purpose of this this speech is to persuade as many of the American people as possible

that President Trump is the right person to make that a reality because he cares for the safety of

America and its citizens. The language used by Sheriff Clarke during his speech has evidence of

formal diction and was very well given. This is proven by many elements such as his upright

posture, his ability to speak loud enough and clear enough for the entire audience to hear, also hi

usage of words like percentages.

This genre establishes credibility by having a high-ranking Sheriffs Officer give a

speech on a subject he has first-hand knowledge on. He also speaks on how President Trump
supports law enforcement officers and wants to help keep them as safe as possible which in turns

keep American citizens safe. This genre evokes a sense of passion and concern for officers and

citizens. We are able to hear this through Sheriff Clarkes speech in his voice, more so at the

beginning when he mentions the three officers who were killed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and as

he speaks of Lieutenant Brian Rice being acquitted of killing Freddie Gray in Baltimore,

Maryland.

Sheriff Clarke has no evidence on hand to support his claims. He relies on the hope that

everyone in attendance and watching at the time has heard from the news all the facts that he is

talking about. The support he has is his hope that people trust what he is saying because he is the

Sheriff of Milwaukee county, Wisconsin. he also hopes they trust him because of his position

which proves that he has experienced with the events discussed at some point in his career.

His speech is organized to first grab peoples attention then hype them up to keep them

interested and listening. It starts at the beginning when he makes the statement Blue Lives

Matter which is a slogan used to support police officers and what they go through to keep us

safe. That is when he states that earlier they had buried the three fallen officers from Louisiana

and about Officer Rice being found innocent of any wrong doing to get people excited and to

keep their attention. The rest of his speech is an explanation to the audience of his concern for his

fellow officers around the country and why he believes that President Trump will help keep law

enforcement officers safe.

One limitation is time. Im sure that if given the chance Sheriff Clarke could have kept

talking, but because there is a schedule to keep so that all other speakers can give their speeches.

He was only allowed a certain amount of time to give his. The structure was to grab the attention

of the audience watching and to strike their emotions so that they can get fired up about stopping
the violence towards officers and towards protesters. Then informing them that President Trump

is the right person to do something about this.

I truly enjoyed learning about what a genre analysis is and constructing one by using the

writing process. I learned a lot more about my topic by researching for the information I needed.

I look forward to more challenging and enjoyable assignments.

Reference Page
CBS. (March 19, 2017). Protests against police violence continue for 4th night across U.S.
Retrieved from http://www.cbsnews.com/news/protests-against-police-violence-persist-for-
fourth-night-in-a-row/

Donald Trump Live Rally Speech & Press Conference. (March 19, 2017). Sheriff David Clarke
Gives Fiery GOP Convention Speech: Blue Lives Matter! Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6AD3lOPR9A

Kevin Rector. (March 21, 2017). Judge acquits Lt. Brian Rice of all charges in Freddie Gray
case. Retrieved from http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/freddie-gray/bs-md-
ci-rice-verdict-20160718-story.html

Steve Visser. (March 21,2016). Baton Rouge Shooting: 3 officers dead; shooter was Missouri
man, sourses say. Retrieved from http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/freddie-
gray/bs-md-ci-rice-verdict-20160718-story.html