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Norberto Cardenas

Dr. Nelson

English 1301 119

September 10, 2022

The Use of Genre in the Herbal Academy

The Herbal Academy, an online school, offers many services such as herbal courses, an

herbal library, herbal workshops, and a blog. These services are accessible via their website,

theherbalacademy.com. The community around the Herbal Academy are people who use plants

daily in life for medicinal and health purposes. On August 18, 2022, Paula Saalfeld, an herbalist

in this community, uploaded an article to theherbalacademy.com titled "How to Use Flower

Petals in 5 Creative Ways." The article talks about five ways to use flowers in the kitchen. This

article is easy-to-follow and has four helpful components that aid her in her message: a tag

section and pleasant diction, casual language, simple recipes, and bullet lists. these components

make the article attractive to new viewers and promotes engagement in the content.

Saalfeld uses a tag section and specific diction to entice readers and create a positive

experience. The tag section is made up of luring diction that plays an important role in the

experience the viewer feels. Because of the attractive tag section and diction, readers are more

likely to want to copy the recipes in the article. She gets the readers excited about the text with

the tag section that sits below the main title (Saalfeld). The tag section highlights topics in the

text: Floral chocolate bars, flower butter, and flower petals. Placing the tag section at the top

where the eyes land first makes the article more attractive to viewers. The words "chocolate" and

"flower" provoke pleasant thoughts and emotions, so readers are likely to follow the article's
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instructions. The use of pleasant diction repeats itself throughout the article; the following is one

example: "These floral preparations are not only a way to embrace the summer season, but also

make wonderful gifts," (Saalfeld par. 19). The words "wonderful" and "embrace" follow this

trend of appealing diction. Saalfeld’s use of exciting words leave an impression on readers

because they create a positive attitude; hence, Saalfeld’s message is memorable.

Saalfeld uses words like "my" and "you" to create a casual text style to make readers feel

more welcome and more likely to join in on her recipes. The unprofessional feel of the article

helps the purposes of the author to make readers more likely to finish the reading the entire

article. Having a friendly tone keeps audiences engaged because of the positivity they feel. For

example, "My favorite combination is . . .," sounds friendly since the author is giving personal

advice (Saalfeld par. 9). So far, the author is trying to use the genre to grab viewers' attention and

be friendly in her text to make the audience feel positive. The previous discussion all took place

in the beginning of the article. The next part of the text further proposes the idea that the author

wants to be beginner friendly.

Saalfeld wants to attract and keep new users engaged with her content, so she uses simple

recipes to galvanize readers to participate in herbal creation. The recipes are part of the

instructional section of her essay where she lists them; the instructional part starts after the

phrase, "Here are a few creative ideas for using edible flower blossoms" (Saalfeld par. 6). This

section gives viewers the information needed to start implanting flowers in their food and

beverage; Saalfeld wants her audience to incorporate herbs into their lifestyles with little effort.

She wants users to commit and not give up; this is evident from this line from the text, "Blossom

butter is made very easily and quickly" (Saalfeld par. 8). Here is an easy floral application

provided in the article: blossom butter (Saalfeld par. 11). This recipe only calls for butter,
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flowers, salt, and a lemon. Floral ice cubes, another feasible recipe, are made by adding flowers

to ice cubes—the most straightforward recipe in human history (Saalfeld par. 14). 

Saalfeld wants things to be understandable and easy to read because she doesn’t want to

lose her audience, so she uses bullet lists. The bullet lists are in chronological order and instruct

the user. If she had used a paragraph instead, the instruction would be harder to follow while

making one of the recipes. Bullet lists allow someone to follow along as they recreate Saalfeld’s

methods. Also, Saalfeld puts much detail into the directions portion of the article to avoid

confusion among her readers. For example: 

"Transfer the mixed butter into a butter dish or onto a sheet of parchment paper. If

choosing the parchment paper, roll up to form a cylinder. Twist both ends tight and

refrigerate for at least one hour. The butter is ready to serve when cold and solid"

(Saalfeld par. 11)

In the direction above, Saalfeld describes how to perform the step if the user uses parchment

paper. Detailed steps lead to successful attempts in recreating her recipes, so previous audiences

will be more likely to return to the text for her other floral ideas. 

In conclusion, the analysis of the genre and text points to the fact that Saalfeld wants

readers to follow along easily, for she wants users to act rather than just read and move on. Her

casual text style and structure create a helpful guide to her floral recipes. This ease of

communication was possible with the correct choice of genre; furthermore, analyzing the type of

genres used in the Herbal Academy and any other community is crucial so that communication

does not become diluted. The author also does an excellent job of attracting new herbalists.
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Understanding a community’s reason for written genres is a helpful skill because it can help

create other strategic texts. One should constantly analyze texts' genres to improve their

communication skills. 
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Works Cited

Saalfeld, Paula. “HOW TO USE FLOWER PETALS IN 5 CREATIVE WAYS.” Herbal

Academy, August 18, 2022, https://theherbalacademy.com/how-to-use-flower-petals/.