Montemayor 1

Carlos Montemayor

Dr. Sharity Nelson

English 1301-124

20 September 2022

Genre Analysis of a Residential Learning Community Email Invitation at TAMIU

On September 1, 2022, the Office of Housing and Residence Life sent an email out to the

residents of students living in Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) Residential

Learning Community (RLC) dormitories, inviting them to an auction event. This email followed

the conventions of the genre, for example they provided a subject line, time and location, and

signed off with a banner containing their office and contact information. This specific example

did something special to further appeal to its community. It added a flyer, used persuasive

diction, and appealed to the reader's emotions. The Office of Housing and Residence Life uses

the email genre with an embedded flyer to foster a close community among residents.

Using the subject heading, the Office of Housing and Residence Life informs recipients

about the upcoming event but leaves it vague enough to entice the reader to read the rest of the

contents. For example, the subject line reads, “Auction Program Day :0” (Onuorah). Due to the

lack of information in the subject line, interested readers must open the email to see the rest of

the information. For this specific email, the author even added a text emoji, :0, to give off a

friendlier tone. The author uses the content to further convince readers to attend the event. One

example emphasizes the opportunity for residents to “win some chique prizes!” (Onuorah). The

time and location are both key components which are to be included in any invitation. “Stop by

the RLC clubhouse at 6:30 pm today…” (Onuorah). To emphasize the importance of the

time-sensitive information, she underlines and bolds it. In this specific email, Ms. Onuorah’s
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signature has a banner which includes the contact information for the Office of Housing and

Student Life. Knowing this information can enable the RLC residents to contact them and

receive further information about any housing-related topics. Additionally, this specific genre

also includes a flyer. Information presented in flyers is concise and straight to the point. This is

more visually appealing than a paragraph full of information. These components combined do

the ideal job of informing the residents about upcoming housing events.

The publisher of this e-mail made careful use of diction by writing in a manner which

persuades the recipient into attending the event. The recipients are the residents of the RLC

dormitories, which are mostly first-year students. Some students may find it troublesome to meet

new people as college is a new environment. Because of this, Ms. Onuorah wrote lines such as,

“I am excited to announce my program day is finally here!” (Onuorah) to give off an

approachable tone. The author also includes her position in the Office of Housing and Residence

Life. “This is RA Amanda…” (Onuorah). This is to show that she is a figure of authority and is

someone the residents can approach if they happen to have any questions or concerns. The

publisher mentions the opportunity to win free ‘chique’ prizes. These chique prizes are an

incentive for the residents to come by and check the event out. These different utilizations of

diction all play a part in persuading the receivers to attend the events to build and strengthen the

bond within the RLC Community.

The way the author uses phrases also has an important role to play in how it appeals to

the reader's emotions. Referring back to when the author wrote “I am excited to announce my

program day is finally here” (Onuorah), this excerpt was perhaps meant to hype up the event and

excite the residents who read this. The way they included the word ‘finally’ could be perceived

as if the event was long in the making. Exclamation marks also signify Ms. Onuorah's
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excitement, and that could also be communicated to her recipients. Ms. Onuorah’s use of words

and symbols to promote excitement and anticipation for the event among the readers all play into

enticing the members of the community to take part in this and other future events.

The Office of Housing and Residence Life used this email to attract the attention and

persuade the students to attend their event. This specific genre used a flyer alongside many other

common components to convince the residents at the RLC dormitories to come and take part in

an auction event. It also used persuasive diction that promoted excitement and anticipation to

further entice and offer up the opportunity to make new friends and create new bonds across the

RLC community. Email invitations are effective ways to communicate to audiences because

every TAMIU student checks their email at least once a day. The writing of an effective email

invitation involves many components, but when used properly, the results can be very effective.
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Appendix
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Work Cited

Onuorah, Amanda. “Auction Program Day :0.” Received by Carlos Montemayor, 1 September

2022.