Reem Zaitoon

Artists Statement: Why and How I made my ePortfolio

The purpose and intent behind this website is to demonstrate my

writing skills in different genres and genre conventions, to display my

concerns and passions for social change in regard to the Syrian refugee
crisis, and to showcase my research and topic selections for the pieces that I
have written. The intentions of this website include promoting knowledge
and information about the necessity for education for Syrias children, a
subject that is very important and close to me.
In project one I wrote about a certain memory that strikes me still
to this day. I wrote about it because I thought that it was too heavy of a
memory to not write about. My intended audience for the piece is others
who have experienced days similar in sorrow of the day that I wrote about
in project one. I think that it takes a great deal to reflect on a burdensome
and sad memory, so the audience is made up of strong-willed people who
are willing to think back on heart wrenching experiences as well. The
purpose of the piece was to reflect on and accept on a sad time in my life. I
wrote it so that I could receive closure on the experience and to accept that
it was over.
Project two was a piece that I wanted to create for a long time
simply because of its pressing issues and its demanding urgency to be
penetrated into the media. I researched the impact that the Syrian war
had on education in Syria because I found it unfair and unjust that
Syrian children were stripped of their education because of some bloody
and unyielding war. The doomed and hopeless future of Syria without an
educated population was what stood out to me in my research. It struck
me as crucial for Syrian children to receive an education in order to give
Syria a chance for a better and more peaceful future. Therefore, the

purpose of it was to educate other people my age and older of the dire need
of education for Syrias children. I wanted other people to be aware of the
fact that without an education for Syrias children, Syrias future would be
nonexistent. My intended audience is people my age and older who are
capable of helping or funding the cause for education in Syria. I intend to
target anyone who is willing to aid Syrias children through sponsoring,
advocating the cause, or donating to humanitarian organizations.
I made three different genre pieces about the destructive effects of the
Syrian war on education in which I laid out different rhetorical strategies
in each of them. In the newsletter that I constructed I included a lot of
striking colors and images so that I could grab the readers attention. I
used pathos to convey the helpless Syrian children who desperately wanted
to receive an education. I included personal quotes and portraits of
children in order to sway my audience emotionally and to persuade them
to help the refugee children get closer to a classroom. I made a diary in
order to convey the raw emotions of a Syrian girl whose mother had been
killed by a bomb. I used pathos again in order to penetrate the girls
sorrow into my audience. I also use logos by grounding my purpose in
trying to get as much empathy from my audience as possible using my
genre conventions. The final piece is an advertisement that asks the public
for their help in teaching Syrian children abroad and for their skills in
building schools and educational facilities in Syria. The audience is made
up of those who are particularly empathetic about the critical situation for
the lack of education for Syrias children. Through all three of the genre
conventions I hoped to not only offer information about the importance of
educating Syrias children but to also reach my audience emotionally
through striking images and attention-grabbing headlines.