Professional Documents
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Yworkkrkrkr
Rachel Feldman
Writing 2
21 March 2020
I was twelve years old when I saw my first makeup tutorial on Youtube by Michelle
Phan. I was immediately mesmerized by how cosmetic makeup can enhance one’s beauty, allow
the artist to express themselves, bring their best selves forward, and act as a confidence booster.
Watching that video sparked my passion for makeup due to how beautiful it can make a woman
feel. Since that moment, makeup has been a huge part of my life. The beauty community is
tremendously massive, resulting in the topic spanning numerous platforms across many different
types of genres. My essay focuses on the genre of blog posts. These three blog posts are
compared with some being more effective representations of the genre than others: Project
Vanity’s “Eleven Women on How Makeup Empowers Them,” by Katkat Baluyot, Bustle’s “Why
Do Women Wear Makeup?” by Michelel King, and Get The Gloss’ “ The Makeup Maniac:
Empowering Makeup” by Anna Hunter. According to Navigating Genres, “genres often have
formulaic features” (Dirk 253). All three blog posts have very similar features classifying them
as “blog posts,” but the Project Vanity post on cosmetic empowerment does the best job at
following those formulaic stylistic features of a blog post like an eye-catching format or sparking
conversation within an intended audience, making it the most effective at being a blog post
An eye-catching format is one of the most essential things a blog post must have to fulfill
its purpose. An eye-catching format ranges from using relevant photos to the text layout, and
each blog post did it differently. The Project Vanity blog post took quotes from many important
women communicating how they feel makeup empowers them and adds two photos on top of
each quote. A common characteristic of a blog post is to split up the big chunks of texts with
pictures or videos and format them to make the text easier to read. This allows the chunks of text
to be spaced-out, making it easier to read and more appealing to the eye. The font is also very
soft and feminine relating to the theme of the content. The Bustle blog post talking about why
women wear makeup also splits up the text by paragraph and makes it more appealing but does
not use pictures to split it up. This emphasizes that visual rhetoric that is extremely important in
an effective blog post. It does have some ads on the side allowing the text to lay to the left,
making it nicer to look at; however, it does not have a font that pops post as the Project Vanity
does. The visual rhetoric only adds to the overall look and format of the blog. The Get the Gloss
blog post does have photos that split up the chunks of text as well as a soft font adding to the
visuals, but what makes the first blog post more appealing to the eye is the width of the text is
shorter. This blog post has wider-looking paragraphs making it look like more of an article. All
the visual elements combined make the Project Vanity blog post the most effective as it follows
Every blog post has some sort of purpose,audience, and is meant to spark some sort of
communicating a purpose in some way are two huge elements that make your genre what it is
(Dirk 253). While all three blogs do a good job of making the tone more conversational and not
using intense jargon, thus allowing them to talk to their readers easily and personally, the Project
Vanity c ommunicates its message most effectively. The reason for this is that Project Vanity uses
“you” questions like, “Do you feel like you ‘need’ it to correct and cover up imperfections?” in
the introduction four times to connect to the reader (Esmerna). This tactic allows the reader to
think about the purpose of the content before even reading it as well as be more direct and
personalBoth the Project Vanity and Get the Gloss posts are published on more feminine sites,
allowing it to target their intended audience, women. The Bustle website has more of a broad
audience, and is really meant for anyone as it adds males into the conversation when it states,
“Even fashion is becoming a more prominent way for men to express themselves” (King). This
immediately adds them to the content and the site is perfect for targeting a broader audience as it
reaches a broader range of readers due to the content including both men and women and title of
the blog being more general rather than feminine. The content in the Project Vanity
communicates its purpose clearly, “Project Vanity has always been and will always be about
helping women to be more confident about who they are and how they look” (Esmerna). The
other posts mention their purpose as well, just not as clearly. Another thing that sets Project
Vanity’s post apart is the discussion portion at the bottom of the text. The blog did a good job at
sparking conversation and the comments section is an integral feature in a blog. Carla
commented in the comments section, “When I put on makeup, I don't think about what other
people will say about how I look. I don't even put it on for my husband.” The blog’s main
argument is women put makeup on for themselves, and her comment supports that argument for
anyone reading the blog as well as numerous other women that mentioned the same. All three
blogs fulfilled their duty with communicating their purpose to their audience, but the Project
Vanity p ost was able to spark discussion on the opinion it argues with the discussion portion as
“About Me” section, and some sort of “Connect With Us.” The publish date at the top is
important as blogs are meant to be relevant and current so it allows readers to see how updated
the content is. All three blog posts include a publish date, but the Project Vanity one is the most
recent, maybe being a reason the content is more relatable than the other two. The “About Me”
section is also very common and only the Project Vanity post includes this section at the end of
the content. This allows the reader to connect with Baluyot, the author,and get to know them a
little more. All three blog posts also have their social media on the post as a way to connect with
them as a way for the reader to stay in touch with the blog and read more articles. A blog’s
revenue comes from readers, so this allows them to keep them coming back. Project Vanity’s
“subscribe” button is the easiest to find as it is right underneath the blog post. The Bustle post
has it underneath multiple articles as a faint link and the Get The Gloss p ost has it with a bunch
of other links, making it harder to find. This is another small detail that puts the first blog post
above the other two with effectiveness. The Project Vanity blog’s format as well as the “About
Me” section make it easier to navigate and connect with the author and the blog as a whole
whereas the other blog posts do not have an easy to navigate connect section and nothing about
The blog posts have some of the essential formulaic features of a generic blog post with
the header, format, photos, broken up chunks of text, “About Me” section, and the way they
communicate their purpose and audience that classify these genres as a blog posts, but Project
as the only one that had a persuasive sample text and included all of these stylistic,
Vanity w
skeletal elements of a blog post. These work with each other to make this genre effective and
fulfill its overall purpose, making it the best of the three. It includes numerous aspects a blog
post should have and molds them all very well from format to content to relevance. The visual
rhetoric adds to the genre as a whole and is done appropriately as it pertains to the article well
with the photos above each quote. Every component in the post is done to a tea and makes the
whole genre interesting to read and look at as well as the content being relevant in my life over
the other two, making it arguably the best for the topic. This blog only redefined my beliefs of
the power of cosmetics on myself as a woman and how it lifts my confidence and judging by the
discussion at the bottom of the Project Vanity blog, many other women felt the same.
Works Cited
Bennett, Elizabeth. “The Makeup Maniac: Empowering Makeup.” Get The Gloss, 16 Mar. 2020,
www.getthegloss.com/article/the-makeup-maniac-empowering-makeup.
Bickmore, Lisa. “Contingency: How We Situate Writing to Create Meaning.” Genre in the Wild:
Dirk, Kerry. “Navigating Genres.” Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, edited by Charles
Esmerna, Charlie. “Eleven Women on How Makeup Empowers Them.” Project Vanity, Project
King, Michelle. “Why Do Women Wear Makeup?” Bustle, Bustle, 7 Aug. 2013,www.bustle.com
/articles/3243-why-do-women-wear-makeup.