GEN 145 – Step 1 - Topic & Source Identification 1:

Student Name: _______________________

COMMODITY: SOCIAL MEDIA

A) Planning the rhetorical situation:

1. Identification of the commodity or topic?

- What is the information you want the readers to learn about this commodity?
- What is the impact of this commodity on the environment, culture, society…?

- I want readers to learn both the advantages & disadvantages of excessive use of social
media.
- Social media has both positive and negative impacts on the culture and society as it helps the
users to enhance their mental abilities, academic performance, and knowledge about the
surroundings but also its excessive use cause time wasting and young adults seems away
from their family due to its addiction.

2. Identification of the audience

- Who do you want to persuade?
- Why do you want to address this group in particular?
- Consider the age, gender, language, culture, religion, level of education, economic class, geographic
location, and/or other circumstances of your audience.
- Is this audience hostile, sympathetic and/or neutral to your message? Why?
- If your audience is the consumer of this commodity, what cultural factors or belief systems are
fueling their demand for the commodity?
- How much does your audience already know about the commodity?

- I want to persuade or argue with the Emiratis on this topic.

- The reason I want to address the Emiratis on this topic is first because I am also Emirati
and second I want to tell people how excessive use of social media is transforming our
lives and socio-cultural practices in UAE.
- The targeted audience is teenagers’ and young adults, males and females, high school
and university students, and middle and upper class adults with no cultural, religious
and discrimination.
- The audience is neutral to my message because my targeted audiences that are young
adults and teenagers admit that social media has both positive and negative impacts
depending on the intention of its use.
- The ongoing phenomenon of globalization and technological advancement is fueling the
demand of the users for social media.
- The targeted audience is aware of the social media and its excessive use impacts on
individual but very few already know about its impacts on culture and society.
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 GEN 145 – Step 1 - Topic & Source Identification 1:

Student Name: _______________________

3. Purpose
- What is your argument and position?
- What is the message you want to convey to this audience?
- Why do you wish to convey this message? What do you hope will be achieved?

- My argument and position is to know how excessive use of social media is impacting
the culture and society of UAE both positively and negatively.
- My message that I want to convey to the audience is to ensure balanced use of social
media because it’s excessive use can lead towards psychological disorder and many
more.
- The reason I want to convey this message to the audience is because of ongoing
transformation of culture and society and the negative impacts of social media that is
discouraging the academic performance of the students instead of enhancing it due to
time waste on different social media site without any use. Also, the reason to convey
this message is to encourage users to ensure balance because social media positive use
can help them in several ways.
- I believe that my audience will able to draw line between the excessive use and
necessary use of social media benefitting the society as a whole.

4. Strategy
- How do you plan to affect your audience emotionally?
- How do you plan to appeal to your audience’s sense of logic?
- Do you plan to use ethos? How?

- I plan to affect my audience emotionally by telling them about care, affection and love of
spending time with family members and friends that will help to discourage excessive
negative use and time waste on social media sites.
- I plan to appeal audience’s sense of logic by sharing the real life examples and researches on
both positive and negative impacts of social media that will support my argument’s
authenticity.
- Yes, I plan to use ethos by telling people how excessive use of social media is welcoming
transformation of Emirati culture and traditions as young adults are spending more time on
social media instead of their families that discourage Emirati family culture.

5. Research
- List of academic sources that will inform your argument; at this point if you only have one article,
just provide the link of the article in the box below.
- For the conferences with your instructor, bring the articles/books that you have read with
highlighted sections you find relevant
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 GEN 145 – Step 1 - Topic & Source Identification 1:

Student Name: _______________________

https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1004&context=writ

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?type=printable&id=10.1371/journal.pone.0169839

https://www.igi-global.com/chapter/cultural-differences-social-media-usage/55565

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Khadeegha_Alzouebi/publication/
333055569_Exploring_the_Learner_Perspective_of_Social_Media_in_Higher_Education_in_the_United_Arab_Emir
ates/links/5cd96d8692851c4eab9b539e/Exploring-the-Learner-Perspective-of-Social-Media-in-Higher-Education-in-
the-United-Arab-Emirates.pdf

B. Write a tentative thesis statement in the box below:

The use of social media must be balanced because it has both positive and negative impacts on individual, culture,
and society as it enhances the mental abilities, academic performance and knowledge about surroundings but its
negative excessive use can lead towards psychological disorders.

C. Task Annotated Summary of Source 1.

1. APA Citation (Write the full reference here in APA format).

Phoon, A. (2017). Social Media and its stark influence on society. WRIT: GSW Journal of First-Year Writing,
1(1), 1-6.

2. Provide web link to your article in the box below:

https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1004&context=writ

3. Summarize the main ideas in the space provided.

Consider the following in your summary:

 What is the article about? Start with a topic sentence and extend your summary with the main
ideas.
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 GEN 145 – Step 1 - Topic & Source Identification 1:

Student Name: _______________________

 Use your own words (i.e. paraphrase). Do not forget to add the in-text citation.

Social media is paying significant role in our lives impacting the individual, culture, and society both negatively and
positively because of technological advancement and phenomenon of globalization. In the article “Social Media and
its stark influence on society”, Phoon (2017) write about the influence of social media on society considering both
advantages and disadvantage of using social media. It has impacts on the interpersonal relationships, family
relationships, communication, and also the behavior of youth. It can be a powerful tool for the youth because they
can use it to give their opinions and in education by which they can explore creative ideas & learn how to manage
risks. On the other hand, it can cause low self-esteem, disconnection among family members and friends, and also
health issues both physical and mental. Moreover, it breaches the privacy of its users if not handled with balance.

4. What are some ideas in the article that can support your thesis statement? Where in your essay do you
plan to use them?

There are a lot of ideas that I can use in my essay from this article such as the article gives different positive and
negative results of using social media that supports my thesis statement that the use of social media must be
balanced, otherwise it can cause several issues. Also, the outcomes both positives and negatives of social media
mentioned in this article can be used in my body paragraphs because these idea show the impact of social media use
on the culture, society, and behavior of youth. However, the information available in this article is not specific to
Emirates that will help me to first build a general argument about overall impacts and then found its connectivity with
the Emirati people. Besides, this article will strengthen my position when I use the ideas in my introductory part and
help to encourage my audience to read it with more focus and interest.

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 GEN 145 – Step 1 - Topic & Source Identification 1:

Student Name: _______________________

Sample Annotated Summary

COMMODITY: Illegal fishing

THESIS STATEMENT:
Illegal fishing must be stopped because it affects human health, the economy of the countriesinvolved, and it
destroysmarine life.

SOURCE 1:

1. APA Citation (Write the full reference here in APA format):

Beke, M., &Blomeyer, R. (2014). Illegal fishing, unreported and unregulated fishing: sanctions in the EU.
Brussels: European Parliament .

2. What is the article about? Summarize the main ideas here. Start with a one-sentence summary and
extend your summary with the main ideas. Use your own words (paraphrase). Do not forget to add
the in-text citation.

In the book “Illegal fishing, unreported and unregulated fishing: sanctions in the EU”, Beke&Blomeyer (2014)
write that the illegal fishing is a big problem that the world is suffering from and that there are a lot of fishing
boats that don’t have a licenses. These operate in the oceans such as the Indian and Atlantic Oceans .
Moreover, the fisheries who are practicing illegal fishing are using tools that are banned and they are using
these tools just because it is easy for them to get large amounts of fish in a short time without thinking about
the consequences and negative effects.

3. What are some ideas that can support your thesis statement? Where in your essay do you plan to
use them?
There are a lot of ideas that can support the introduction in my essay in this source such us the meaning of
illegal fishing, the ways of it and what the places in the world that are suffering from illegal fishing are . On
the other hand, it also supports my thesis statement because the book includes some of the consequences
caused by illegal fishing that I can use it in the body paragraphs.
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 GEN 145 – Step 1 - Topic & Source Identification 1:

Student Name: _______________________