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Jazmyn Colon-Johnson

Dr.Wynne

English 102

17 February 2017

Genre Analysis

Throughout the world, women are treated worse than men. For example, in Africa women

are treated poorly and looked at as less than men because their culture teaches them to depend on

men. The two pieces entitled African Women Battle for Equality by Gumisai Mutume, and a TED

talk named, A Girl Who Demanded School by KaKenya Ntaiya, discuss African womens

struggles. In the article African Women Battle for Equality, Mutume discusses the achievements and

struggles that African women face. In the TED talk, Ntaiya discusses the educational struggles that

African women face. These two genres may share the same content but the way the message is

conveyed to the audience differs based off of the genre used. This affects how the audiences receive

and understand the message.

The article by Mutume intended audience is people who want to learn about African women

struggles. The audience may have some knowledge of the African womens struggles. A language

feature that this article has is a chart table. This chart table shows the gender disparities in Africa in

2001. This visual helps the audience understand the information presented in the article but in a

visual form. This article was made to inform the reader. It is shown in the article that the author

wants to inform the reader because the author is stating facts. Mutume states that Dr. Farkhonda

says that African women face major challenges and obstacles (Mutume). This shows that

Mutume is using information from other sources to help her get her message across. Because this is

an article, the audience should be spending 10 minutes to read this material. Being that this is an
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educational article, the language is formal. In the article it states that women are still at the same

place they weretrying to sensitize the world to the unwarranted and unacceptable (Mutume).

The language used in this quote is formal and the vocabulary is specialized. One of the specialized

words used in the quote is sensitize. This shows that the articles language is more formal and this

can cause the audience to have less of a personal connection with this type of genre. The purpose of

using this word is to grasp older audiences attention because of the type of vocabulary that is used.

Likewise to the article, the next genre intended audience is people who want to learn about African

women struggles. The TED talk intended communities is also African women. The purpose of this

TED talk is to inform listeners that African women are denied an education and forced to do things

they do not want to do. In the video, Ntaiya states that she was forced to get married as soon as she

reached puberty. This shows that Ntaiya is sharing her own experiences and this helps the audiences

become more connected with her. While the two genres may have some things in common they do

have some differences. This genre takes up more time to gain information than the article. It will

take the reader 13 minutes and 20 seconds to finish. Because this is such a long video the reader

can be more engaged with her life by following her life story. The TED talk included visuals of

Ntaiyas family and culture. This can help the view become more connected with Ntaiyas words

because she is showing her own struggles. Unlike the article, there is not any specialized vocabulary

used. Ntaiya wanted the audience to be connected with her so she stayed away from confusing

words. When Ntaiya used different words she explained them well so that the viewer can

understand. Because the way the message conveyed to the audience differs based off of the genre

used, the way that the audience receives the message may be affected.

Furthermore, the article and the TED talk use ethos, pathos, and logos to inform the readers

about the struggles of women in Africa. These articles use this rhetorical idea in different ways.
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This will lead the audience to understanding each genre message in different forms. The article

African Women Battle for Equality uses logos to help the audience understand the message. This

genre states facts throughout the article. This leads the audience into thinking that this genre is a

credible source. Mutume states that setbacks such as the HIV/AIDS pandemic [are] destroying the

health of more women than men in Africa (Mutume). This fact gives the reader more confidence

that the author is knowledgeable of this subject. The genre wants the audience to feel remorseful

towards the struggling women in Africa. This is why the author presents certain facts pertaining

diseases and food deprivation towards African women. The author of this genre made her work

credible by citing it. Because she citied her work the audience can be comfortable with believing

that this information is true. While the article uses logos to help the audience understand the

message, the visual genre uses ethos. KaKenya Ntaiya is telling her own experiences in the TED

talk. She is describing the struggles that she faced throughout life. Ntaiya explains how her mom

was not able to own any property and how everything belonged to her father (Ntaiya). By doing this

she is using the rhetorical issue called ethos to get her point across. This genre attempts to use ethos

to evoke an emotion of remorsefulness from the audience. In the TED talk, Ntaiya states that when

she reached puberty her dad made her get her clitoris removed even though she did not want that to

happen (Ntaiya). Since she stated this, the audience will become remorseful to the struggles that she

went to. The article just stated facts but this TED talk talks about Ntaiya real life experience. The

audience may feel more interesting into the TED talk because Ntaiya chose to use ethos to connect

with her audience.

Lastly, the structure and delivery of the message of these two genres affects how the

audiences receive and understand the message. In the article, Mutume starts off by stating some

achievements made by African women. She states, During the last 30 years there have been a
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number of signs of improvement (Mutume). This informs the audience that changes are being

made within the African women community. The article progresses by stating the educational

struggles that African woman still face today. She states that the majority of African women are

still denied education and employment (Mutume). This structure shows that even though there are

achievements being made within the African women community, there are still changes that need to

be made. The structure is facilitating its purpose by showing the great things that African women

have accomplished but also showing that they still need help. Because this is an article, the author

has more freedom to express their feelings of the struggles of African women. In the TED talk, the

information is organized by sequence of events. Ntaiya begins to express her struggles from when

she was young until she was an adult. This structure allows the audience to see how Ntaiya grew as

a person and how she progressed through her struggles. The structure of the video allows Ntaiya to

have more freedom to express her ideas because she is telling her own story. This structure

facilitates its purpose by giving real life experiences and examples of how women in African are

treated.

The two genres both discussed the struggles of women in Africa but they took different

approaches to get their message across to the reader. The online article African Women Battle for

Equality by Gumisai Mutume took the approach of logos and focused on factual evidence for the

audience. The TED talk by KaKenya Ntaiya, took a ethos approach and focused more on personally

experience to get the audience to understand the message. Though these two genres differ in many

ways, both discuss the issues of solving the problem of helping women in Africa.
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Works Citied

Mutume, Gumisai. African Women Battle for Equality | Africa Renewal Online. United Nation.

July 2005. Web. 15 Feb.2017.

Ntaiya, KaKenya. "A Girl Who Demanded School." TED. Feb. 2014. Lecture.