Genre Analysis

Valerie Jacqueline Soto

RWS 1302
Instructor Veronica Cruz

The main focus of the following genres is animal abuse and neglect.
The two types of genres that will be discussed in this analysis are a website and
an article. The Humane Society of The United States website promotes
awareness for animal rights and abuse. Aside from the heart breaking stories the
website provides happy heart warming stories as well. The article written by
Michael Markarian in the encyclopedia Britannica, titled FBI Takes Important
Action Against Animal Cruelty provides information on how animal cruelty is
punished by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation. Both genres are
advocating the cease of all animal neglect and abuse in the U.S.
The audience that the Humane Society of The United States website is
addressing is the age group of 18 years of age and older because it has the
option to donate and help out the society. Although, the website also has a tab
meant for younger viewers. It is a family friendly website but children must visit it
with the guidance of a parent or guardian because some animal neglect pictures
or videos might be too graphic. On the other hand, the article is addressed to the
ages of 13 and older that can understand the lexis of the article. Younger readers
will have some trouble understanding the article. Both genres serve the purpose
of advocating and persuading the readers to help stop the cease of animal
neglect. However, the article provides the readers with more information
regarding the consequences of the crime while the website informs the viewers
of current events regarding animal cruelty and how to help out. The audience
plays a major role when it comes to the purpose of both genres. Since both are
trying to persuade the audience, all communities are being addressed with the

intention of convincing them to help out their own local communities with this
issue. Todays society should already have a general idea that this is an
important issue everyone should help put an end to. Learning how to help is
something they should want to be informed on. Because the only way to stop this
crime is to have the audience well informed on how to go about contributing to
the end of this problem. The amount of time the reader will need to fully
understand both genres is subjective since everyone is different. However, the
readers should expect to spend more time reading the website than the article.
The article is just one informative essay and the website has many tabs that
redirect the viewer to other links with many other articles relating to the Animal
Humane Society. The website also provides them with videos and photos. The
language of both genres is formal. Since they are addressing a serious issue it
would be inappropriate to use slang or informal language. Since the genres are
addressing the general audience, the specialized vocabulary does not include
the use of acronyms and is pretty ordinary so that no one struggles with
understanding their argument. The significant similarities between both of these
genres are their purpose. The difference is the amount of information they
provide.
The Animal Humane Societys website includes org at the end of their
URL which makes them credible because they are a non-profit organization. The
article is coming from an Encyclopedia, which makes it credible as well because
encyclopedias are a global educational source. It is effective in helping the
purpose of the genres because credibility makes the reader know that they are

not just reading non-sense. The article informs the people of the result of this
crime by telling an emotional story to help evoke emotion of the readers so that
this helps with the persuasion process. The website helps develop emotion in
readers by showing moving photos of animals in hope to persuade people to help
put a stop to the issue. The emotions that are portrayed are pity and sorrow for
the animals affected by this problem. Both genres exemplify these emotions.
Since these emotions are sad they do help achieve the purpose. The evidence
that helps support the claims in both the website and article are visual aids. The
sources also describe where they are providing these photos or videos from. It is
appropriate for the purpose because it helps prove the credibility of the genres.
The difference between the article and the website is the pathos because in the
article they show emotion only through writing and one photo. However, in the
website they show videos and photos along with different articles. They are both
the same when it comes to the ethos and that logos because they are both
credible sources and they are both persuading the audience to help. The genres
are not missing any components the article has less information but because it is
an informative essay and not a website.
The information is limited in the article because as stated before, it is not a
website. Meaning, that the websites structure and layout has more free space for
more information than an article from an Encyclopedia has. The messages that
both genres are conveying are well organized according to the type of genre. The
design of the Animal Humane Societys website uses dark blue colors to display
sorrow since the color blue is often related to sadness. The websites layout is

neatly organized to allow the reader for easy access to what the viewer is
searching for. The website successfully does this by categorizing their
information in six different tabs. For example, if the viewer is interested in helping
the organization, they have a tab in their home page that informs the reader on
how to go about doing so. Or if the person is trying to retrieve information about
the society, the website has a tab for that as well in the home page. The structure
of the article is formed in an essay layout displaying only one photo because of
the limited space. The colors used in the website are blue hues that reflect
sadness. They also use the attention grabbing color red, for their font on the tab
option that allows the reader to donate and help out these neglected animals.
The font is formal in the article to allow the articles message to look professional.
These communication elements contribute positively to the message because
they aid the genre to appear more persuasive. The major differences in structure
of both genres are their layout and design. The similarities are that they are both
professional and persuasive.
Both genres are effective in conveying the message they are trying to
send to the audience. However, the website seems to be more effective because
it has more information than the article does. Also, the article only focuses on the
effect and punishment of the crime while the website promotes more awareness
and ways to help out. The website also shows more photos that can help
persuade the audience to make an effort to help their local humane society. As
we can see both genres are very different from one another. If one wants to help
promote awareness for animal abuse the best way to go about it is creating a

website. The website not only informs the audience of current events on the
subject like the article but also allows the audience to help control or better yet,
stop this problem completely. If one wants to be as persuasive as possible, the
website seems to be the most effective genre to choose.

References:

Michael Markarian.2016.FBI Takes Important Action Against

Animal Cruelty. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved from:
http://advocacy.britannica.com/blog/advocacy/2016/01/fbitakes-important-action-against-animal-cruelty/#more-18990
The Humane Society of The United States. February 2016.
Retrieved from: http://www.humanesociety.org