Extracurricular activities: Genre Analysis of a Scholarly
Article and a Poster
Karla Rodriguez
University of Texas at El Paso
Extracurricular activities can be anything from playing soccer or even doing community service with friends. There are many things that the community, specially kids and teenagers can do in order to stay active. It can start by joining a club in school like student council, chess club, and even a joining a sport like
volleyball, football, basketball, baseball, soccer and many more. It may be hard at first to get used to being in a extracurricular activities but once they get more involve they may even want to join in more than one activity.
Parents play a big role in kids and teens joining extracurricular activities. They may not know if the extracurricular activities are good for kids. They may ask questions like how are they going to help my kid? What different activities are out there? Why should my kid be involved outside and inside of school? These
is when parents and kids turn to the internet, articles, posters, teachers and coaches to answer these questions and learn more information about the activities.
The way the different resources are constructed can play a big role in how the audience responds to it. The way they used specialized language, colors and the evidence that they use to support their point are very important. There can be the same opinion about the topic but the way that they portray it can be so different and one may have a bigger impact than the other. The scholarly article “Extracurricular Activities: The Path to Academic Success?” by John H. Holloway explains the different benefits that extracurricular activities provide for all the kids and teens, and the poster “Come and try sports festival” promoted by Youth Sport west, promotes extracurricular activities in a whole different way by inviting teens and kids to actually experience some of the activities, are two completely different genres but both of them have information on extracurricular activities and how it can help kids. One way to see what genre is more effective will analyzed their purpose, audience, structure and style.
Audience and Purpose
In the scholarly article “Extracurricular Activities: The Path to Academic Success?” by John H. Holloway, the intended audience may be parents, teachers and adults that would like to know more information and resources about the benefits of extracurricular because it has some sentences actually referring to parents and teachers. This may be available to all the individuals who have internet access because it is an online scholarly article and limited to those who don’t have internet access. Schools and other organizations may have printed the article in order for parents and children to have this information available in their hands. However, it may only be read by those who want to be informed about this subject while others may not read this article. Parents, teens, and kids may already have some kind of knowledge about the benefits of
participating in extracurricular activities, and what kind of activities are out there. They might want to know if kids participating in these activities may have a big impact on their school performance or in their leadership
skills. They would also would want more information on how they can get started getting involved in these different activities and what would be the first step to start this process. The scholarly article seems to cover all the information that would be satisfying for the intended audience. The article can be read easily because they don’t use a certain type of specialized language. It is normal English language that if the audience can read and understand English there would be no problem. The article can be read in approximately ten to fifteen minutes depending on the readers speed and if they want to re-read it again, however it may take more than twenty minutes for people to actually read it and analyze all the information. This article is to
inform the intended audience that extracurricular activities have a lot of benefits for the kids.
The poster “Come and try sports festival” promoted by Youth Sport west provides information about the different extracurricular activities there and the benefits of it. It also promotes a summer camp for all the
kids. The intended audience for this type of genre is very different from the scholarly article. This genre is
especially for kids from the ages 7-14 who want to do something during the summer and they would ask and show this poster to their parents to see if the can go. The poster actually has big letters in the front of the poster that says KIDS! Which means that they want to get the kids attention. They may be posted
on schools or different restaurants or organizations that may be promoting this event. The audience may already be familiar with the organization that is making this event possible. What the intended audience may not know is where this event is going to take place and what activities they are promoting this year. They
may also want to know how much the summer camp would cost and by when do they have to register for the camp. The audience would not take longer than 5 minutes to read all the information in this poster but they can take three more minutes to write down all the information. The purpose is to inform the parents and kids
about the summer camp that they are hosting this year.
Rhetorical Issues: Ethos, Pathos, Logos
The scholarly article talking about the benefits about extracurricular activities is successful in including ethos to establish credibility with the audience. The article was written by John H. Holloway, he is a member of the ASCD (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) and it’s the global leader in delivering innovative programs which is an organization well-known. The way the author of the article conveys pathos is by giving actual stories about families that are participating in extracurricular activities. On the first part of the article it describes how a family is so happy because, thanks to extracurricular activities, their son did not dropped out of high school and graduated. It also gives examples of how extracurricular activities has helped kids be more outgoing and developed some leadership skills. These examples evoke the emotion of being proud of the kids that overcame their shyness thanks to these activities. After the story and the examples people would know that extracurricular activities are good for kids. The article gives logical evidence by given all the references that they used in order to make the article. They used other information from other reliable
sources and by putting it all together, for example they used information from the Journal of Educational Research. These make them more trustworthy because it is noticeable that they did some research about the
subject.
The poster “Come and try sports festival” does not really establish rhetorical issues as well as the article. It an event that is promoted by Youth Sport west and its inviting all the kids to try there summer camp and
gives a little explanation on why it’s important to participate in activities. The poster uses ethos by referring all their information to the main offices of the Youth Sport west. Even though it does not give other resources for
evidential support and credibility people can still call the number provided for any further information and many people that attend this event may have already attended previous one. The poster establishes pathos by providing different pictures. In the first picture they show four kids hugging and laughing and this picture is trying to evoke comfort for all the parents showing them that the kids would be safe there at the summer camp. The other picture is a group of about ten kids showing their project that they finished by the end of the summer. This is giving the emotion of productiveness because they showed that through all the summer they were working hard to finish their big project. In the last picture they show kids playing soccer. This is trying to convey happiness because you can see all the kids having fun and they look that they are enjoying all their
time there. I think they left logos put in order for kids to go and experience it by themselves.
Structure
The article has titles and subtitles in which you can guide yourself while reading the article. The article does not have structural limitation because there is not a certain length or space that they have to keep in between. The letters in the article do have to be the appropriate size in order to loo professional and for people to be able to read it. They try to break up the article in several paragraphs so that it would be easier to read than just one big long paragraph. The structure is well organized it does help you read the message more easily. As the audience is reading the article the information allows the individuals to make certain questions that are later on answer with the rest of the information. Overall the article is really good and it can be easily understood. It is important for people to understand the article not just read it, so that they can get the right
information.
The poster “Come and try sports festival” has the limitation of space. Most of the posters have to be short and concise. In order for a person to look and read a poster, it cannot have a lot of writing in it or the people
would not read it all. The author of the poster had to make sure that the poster was eye-catching and people would actually take their time to read and look at it. However, the poster was well organized and it had all the information that needed to be in it. It was all constructed in a way that was so easy to read and follow. It had the title in big and bright letters and when you would start reading it all the questions that you would have they would be answered in the next sentence. They also say that a picture is worth more than a thousand words and that is what this poster had. It could have had all the explanation in writing but instead they put pictures in order to get their point across. In comparison with the article this had a little more limitations but it think it gave as much information as the article.
Style and Language
In the scholarly article the text was formal. It had to be this was so that the article would look professional and would have credibility of the message. The article has the normal font that would be 12 and formal colors
in black and white. They had to do this in order for the audience to take the article serious; they could not just have the words in a bright red color or in a 24 font. These maintain all throughout the article. They had no big fancy words that most of the people would not understand they had normal and basic language.
In contrast the language in the poster was very informal. They still used the Basic English language but they had fragment sentence or sometimes run-on sentences. The poster was way more colorful but it was because
it was meant for kids. They had big letters with a large font and words everywhere. They also had pictures and different drawings. Even though there were words and pictures all over the poster at the end it made perfect sense and it was what the author of the poster wanted.
Conclusion
After looking and reading the two different genres, the scholarly article Extracurricular Activities: The Path to Academic Success?” by John H. Holloway was more effective in delivering why extracurricular activities
are more important. Parents may actually read this article than looking at the poster. The ASCD (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) is well-known and can be more reliable. The article gives actual stories that some people can relate to them and feel more comfortable with the article. Of course they all have different audiences but they have to be well organized if they want to get their message across. The different genres make huge impact when they get all their information available for all their audience and when they get their information across the right way.
References
Holloway, J. ( 2000). Extracurricular activities: Path to academic success?. Understanding Youth Culture, 57. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership
Youth Spost West. (Designer). (2011). Come & try sports festival. [Print Graphic]. Retrieved from
www.google.com/images/extracurricularactivities
Genre Analysis Evaluation
I think I did an okay job. I know that I could have done a lot better. It was my first assignment so I did not know how they were going to grade it. I was not satisfied with my grade even though I got a “B” I wanted something higher. I would have spent more time on Audience and purpose since that was the area that they scored me low in.
Article and a Poster
Karla Rodriguez
University of Texas at El Paso
Extracurricular activities can be anything from playing soccer or even doing community service with friends. There are many things that the community, specially kids and teenagers can do in order to stay active. It can start by joining a club in school like student council, chess club, and even a joining a sport like
volleyball, football, basketball, baseball, soccer and many more. It may be hard at first to get used to being in a extracurricular activities but once they get more involve they may even want to join in more than one activity.
Parents play a big role in kids and teens joining extracurricular activities. They may not know if the extracurricular activities are good for kids. They may ask questions like how are they going to help my kid? What different activities are out there? Why should my kid be involved outside and inside of school? These
is when parents and kids turn to the internet, articles, posters, teachers and coaches to answer these questions and learn more information about the activities.
The way the different resources are constructed can play a big role in how the audience responds to it. The way they used specialized language, colors and the evidence that they use to support their point are very important. There can be the same opinion about the topic but the way that they portray it can be so different and one may have a bigger impact than the other. The scholarly article “Extracurricular Activities: The Path to Academic Success?” by John H. Holloway explains the different benefits that extracurricular activities provide for all the kids and teens, and the poster “Come and try sports festival” promoted by Youth Sport west, promotes extracurricular activities in a whole different way by inviting teens and kids to actually experience some of the activities, are two completely different genres but both of them have information on extracurricular activities and how it can help kids. One way to see what genre is more effective will analyzed their purpose, audience, structure and style.
Audience and Purpose
In the scholarly article “Extracurricular Activities: The Path to Academic Success?” by John H. Holloway, the intended audience may be parents, teachers and adults that would like to know more information and resources about the benefits of extracurricular because it has some sentences actually referring to parents and teachers. This may be available to all the individuals who have internet access because it is an online scholarly article and limited to those who don’t have internet access. Schools and other organizations may have printed the article in order for parents and children to have this information available in their hands. However, it may only be read by those who want to be informed about this subject while others may not read this article. Parents, teens, and kids may already have some kind of knowledge about the benefits of
participating in extracurricular activities, and what kind of activities are out there. They might want to know if kids participating in these activities may have a big impact on their school performance or in their leadership
skills. They would also would want more information on how they can get started getting involved in these different activities and what would be the first step to start this process. The scholarly article seems to cover all the information that would be satisfying for the intended audience. The article can be read easily because they don’t use a certain type of specialized language. It is normal English language that if the audience can read and understand English there would be no problem. The article can be read in approximately ten to fifteen minutes depending on the readers speed and if they want to re-read it again, however it may take more than twenty minutes for people to actually read it and analyze all the information. This article is to
inform the intended audience that extracurricular activities have a lot of benefits for the kids.
The poster “Come and try sports festival” promoted by Youth Sport west provides information about the different extracurricular activities there and the benefits of it. It also promotes a summer camp for all the
kids. The intended audience for this type of genre is very different from the scholarly article. This genre is
especially for kids from the ages 7-14 who want to do something during the summer and they would ask and show this poster to their parents to see if the can go. The poster actually has big letters in the front of the poster that says KIDS! Which means that they want to get the kids attention. They may be posted
on schools or different restaurants or organizations that may be promoting this event. The audience may already be familiar with the organization that is making this event possible. What the intended audience may not know is where this event is going to take place and what activities they are promoting this year. They
may also want to know how much the summer camp would cost and by when do they have to register for the camp. The audience would not take longer than 5 minutes to read all the information in this poster but they can take three more minutes to write down all the information. The purpose is to inform the parents and kids
about the summer camp that they are hosting this year.
Rhetorical Issues: Ethos, Pathos, Logos
The scholarly article talking about the benefits about extracurricular activities is successful in including ethos to establish credibility with the audience. The article was written by John H. Holloway, he is a member of the ASCD (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) and it’s the global leader in delivering innovative programs which is an organization well-known. The way the author of the article conveys pathos is by giving actual stories about families that are participating in extracurricular activities. On the first part of the article it describes how a family is so happy because, thanks to extracurricular activities, their son did not dropped out of high school and graduated. It also gives examples of how extracurricular activities has helped kids be more outgoing and developed some leadership skills. These examples evoke the emotion of being proud of the kids that overcame their shyness thanks to these activities. After the story and the examples people would know that extracurricular activities are good for kids. The article gives logical evidence by given all the references that they used in order to make the article. They used other information from other reliable
sources and by putting it all together, for example they used information from the Journal of Educational Research. These make them more trustworthy because it is noticeable that they did some research about the
subject.
The poster “Come and try sports festival” does not really establish rhetorical issues as well as the article. It an event that is promoted by Youth Sport west and its inviting all the kids to try there summer camp and
gives a little explanation on why it’s important to participate in activities. The poster uses ethos by referring all their information to the main offices of the Youth Sport west. Even though it does not give other resources for
evidential support and credibility people can still call the number provided for any further information and many people that attend this event may have already attended previous one. The poster establishes pathos by providing different pictures. In the first picture they show four kids hugging and laughing and this picture is trying to evoke comfort for all the parents showing them that the kids would be safe there at the summer camp. The other picture is a group of about ten kids showing their project that they finished by the end of the summer. This is giving the emotion of productiveness because they showed that through all the summer they were working hard to finish their big project. In the last picture they show kids playing soccer. This is trying to convey happiness because you can see all the kids having fun and they look that they are enjoying all their
time there. I think they left logos put in order for kids to go and experience it by themselves.
Structure
The article has titles and subtitles in which you can guide yourself while reading the article. The article does not have structural limitation because there is not a certain length or space that they have to keep in between. The letters in the article do have to be the appropriate size in order to loo professional and for people to be able to read it. They try to break up the article in several paragraphs so that it would be easier to read than just one big long paragraph. The structure is well organized it does help you read the message more easily. As the audience is reading the article the information allows the individuals to make certain questions that are later on answer with the rest of the information. Overall the article is really good and it can be easily understood. It is important for people to understand the article not just read it, so that they can get the right
information.
The poster “Come and try sports festival” has the limitation of space. Most of the posters have to be short and concise. In order for a person to look and read a poster, it cannot have a lot of writing in it or the people
would not read it all. The author of the poster had to make sure that the poster was eye-catching and people would actually take their time to read and look at it. However, the poster was well organized and it had all the information that needed to be in it. It was all constructed in a way that was so easy to read and follow. It had the title in big and bright letters and when you would start reading it all the questions that you would have they would be answered in the next sentence. They also say that a picture is worth more than a thousand words and that is what this poster had. It could have had all the explanation in writing but instead they put pictures in order to get their point across. In comparison with the article this had a little more limitations but it think it gave as much information as the article.
Style and Language
In the scholarly article the text was formal. It had to be this was so that the article would look professional and would have credibility of the message. The article has the normal font that would be 12 and formal colors
in black and white. They had to do this in order for the audience to take the article serious; they could not just have the words in a bright red color or in a 24 font. These maintain all throughout the article. They had no big fancy words that most of the people would not understand they had normal and basic language.
In contrast the language in the poster was very informal. They still used the Basic English language but they had fragment sentence or sometimes run-on sentences. The poster was way more colorful but it was because
it was meant for kids. They had big letters with a large font and words everywhere. They also had pictures and different drawings. Even though there were words and pictures all over the poster at the end it made perfect sense and it was what the author of the poster wanted.
Conclusion
After looking and reading the two different genres, the scholarly article Extracurricular Activities: The Path to Academic Success?” by John H. Holloway was more effective in delivering why extracurricular activities
are more important. Parents may actually read this article than looking at the poster. The ASCD (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) is well-known and can be more reliable. The article gives actual stories that some people can relate to them and feel more comfortable with the article. Of course they all have different audiences but they have to be well organized if they want to get their message across. The different genres make huge impact when they get all their information available for all their audience and when they get their information across the right way.
References
Holloway, J. ( 2000). Extracurricular activities: Path to academic success?. Understanding Youth Culture, 57. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership
Youth Spost West. (Designer). (2011). Come & try sports festival. [Print Graphic]. Retrieved from
www.google.com/images/extracurricularactivities
Genre Analysis Evaluation
I think I did an okay job. I know that I could have done a lot better. It was my first assignment so I did not know how they were going to grade it. I was not satisfied with my grade even though I got a “B” I wanted something higher. I would have spent more time on Audience and purpose since that was the area that they scored me low in.