Prannik 1

Yevgeniy Prannik
Professor Olivia Zicherman
UWRT 1101-030
October 21, 2014
Reflection on Genre Creation
The genres we first chose were chosen specifically for their proximity in similar
characteristics. The meme and the twitter post are both remarkably similar in the way they
accomplish the action of passing along information. Memes and twitter posts both are short in
composition, and generally point out the big picture of the highlighted issue. The article,
however is at the opposite end of the spectrum as far as informative discourse goes. Articles are
lengthy, are written by many people and edited by even more, delve into deeper topics than the
overall issue, and pose a more analytical reflection on the studied issue, more so than simply
reporting the issue. Similarities between this article and the other two goes only as far as the
name of the author being revealed in both articles and twitter posts, as well as all of these
pertaining to the Ukrainian Conflict, which is the topic.
That being said, how could we relay these genres into other types and still keep that
general message that was trying to be conveyed by the originals? The article, for starters, was not
a very difficult genre to think about. The purpose of it was simply to relay vital information
based off of a particular topic of study, in this case, the Ukraine dispute. Now, to specifically
focus on this article when considering how to convert this genre seemed a bit gouache,
considering how much these articles differ in composition, variety of topic, writing style, and
many other vital areas. What we did, was take the basic premise behind writing just such an

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article and analyzed exactly how it accomplished the things that it did. Upon inspection, it was
revealed that the article takes an overall overview of a specific topic. As confusing as that may
seem, it accurately describes the way articles can maintain focus on an idea, while still remaining
distant from it in terms of taking sides. That being said, there are always undertones of bias in the
way these things are written. Taking all of these facts into consideration, we decided upon an
infomercial to be the genre we created as a representative of these articles. Articles are supposed
to paint a picture in your head, so we thought, why not put a picture in front of them? The
infomercial was really only a collection of photographs and news clips about Ukraine and what
is going on, but in order to accurately reflect the biased approach sometimes implemented in
these articles, we only used pictures that highlighted the bravery and commitment of the
Ukrainian rebels against the ruthless and wrongful Russian army. Not difficult to create, but
every bit as powerful as the article, if not even more powerful, this also is a digital media source
that would be televised, posted on the internet, maybe even used as a YouTube ad. The potential
to reach people is great, and perhaps would function more effectively than the original article in
this day and age.
The meme, one of the genres selected by us in step 1, was a bit of a tough one to peg.
One reason memes are so popular on the internet is because of their comedic value. Contrary to
popular belief, humor can do much to inspire a people and, without them even knowing it,
planting a seed of bias in them. That being said, its a stretch that even memes should exist about
the conflict in Ukraine, so to make a different type of genre that could also simulate a slightly
wry sense of humor while explaining the topic at hand in as subtle a way that a meme does,
seemed on the border of impossible. That is until, I remembered a flyer that I saw in New York
one day that simply said, in bold letters, Kimberly Renee Tworp is a lying, cold hearted bitch!

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You can imagine everyones surprise in Times Square when these things came rushing through
the breeze into people hands. I remember myself laughing intensely at this, even though the
message was not funny at all. There we had it, we were going to make a flyer. Tastefully brutal
in nature, this flyer was a riot to make. Tariq was almost in tears from laughing at how
preposterous what we were writing was. That being said, I feel that we did a good job, and that it
performed well.
The twitter post , which was one of our selected genres in step 1, was not all that tricky to
manipulate into our chosen genre to create, but it was a bit difficult to maintain the allure of a
twitter post. What makes Twitter so appealing to the masses is the ability to connect. If I may
skew on a tangent for a slight while, humans desire interaction with other humans for a myriad of
things. Acceptance, confirmation, humor, sanity, and other basic necessities to live a successful
and modern life can be seen in Twitter, so relaying that same aura in something that wasnt a
social media website was difficult to say the least. Naturally, Tariq and myself said, Screw it.
We dont need that. We came up with the idea of a brochure. Twitter posts are all about fast
firing information at you. As you scroll through your feed, you are bombarded with information
which your mind can filter seamlessly. You read posts which interest you, and gloss over the
ones that dont, but we dont have that luxury in a brochure. What we aimed for in creating this
brochure was making sure that there was a myriad of general information being relayed to the
reader through pictures, text, and bold titles that grab your attention. This involved transitioning
a message that was in the background into the forefront of an informational piece.
Overall, I would say that this experience has been very tiring, but very informative.
Along the journey of creating these genres and analyzing the old ones, you tend to learn a lot
about things that you would have never paid attention to before, and learn to implement these

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things yourselves. I learned that genre is all about the total view of the text. Of course, this is in
reference to the context of the piece, the format that its in, the options expressed, and the
audience the piece is written for. All in all, I am satisfied with our works, and am confident in
our retrieval of a good grade.