Simanungkalit 1

Ferrin Simanungkalit
Professor Zack DePiero
Writing Project #1
7 December 2015
WP #1: #LoveWins
If you believe in God, then you must not encourage gay activity, said my cousin. As a
person that adopted the Christian lifestyle, I am put at a crossroads, as homosexuality is
considered bad in Christian values, although I have no problem with it. Same-sex marriage has
been a constant issue, and this concept has been a controversy that has gained the attention of
people all over the world for years now. Some people believe that marriage was made to be
between man and woman. Supporters of same-sex marriage believe that people should be able to
have the freedom of loving whomever they want. People in the middle of the spectrum do not
pay this issue any mind because it does not pertain to them and does not affect their lifestyle.
Regardless, people on any part of the spectrum have an opinion to voice on this issue, and they
usually turn to social media to do it. The way this issue is presented in these posts may influence
how the audience reacts to the post and absorbs the information. Social media posts--such as
Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram--show certain rhetoric elements and conventions, like casual
and relatable language, that affect the way a viewer sees same-sex marriage and may bring a
positive light to the issue.
As genres are explored outside of the academic world, it can be seen that something as
simple as Instagram captions, tweets on Twitter, and Facebook statuses and posts are a genre of
their own and have their own conventions and tones that set themselves apart from other literary
forms. The three different social media sites are all under one genre, despite the fact that they

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show different conventions to evoke different emotions or perspectives. Instagram is a site that
incorporates visual and textual content to convey same-sex marriage views. This site contains
rhetoric because Instagram is the way we use languages and images to persuade (Carroll, 46).
As many celebrities get the word out about their views on same-sex marriages, they take many
things into consideration before posting. The first, which may as well be the main, factor in this
is the followers, or audience. With such a vast following, these celebrities are able to influence
audiences from all over the world. Their followers may or may not agree with everything they
say, so they must take that into consideration before posting. The tone of their caption may be
soft-spoken and concise so that the picture is the one that says a thousand words. As same-sex
marriage can be a pressing issue, celebrities want to post something that will bring awareness to
their followers and educate them without trying to offend anybody. For example, when same-sex
marriage was legalized in all 50 states in July 9, 2015, many celebrities posted to celebrate this
monumental shift in history.
On Instagram, public figures such as Sam Smith and Beyonc celebrated this event in
different ways by evoking different emotions through the use of Instagram captions and
differentiating textual language. This site is pretty liberal in terms of use. The conventions in this
site typically go along the lines of a picture and a caption. People can post funny pictures, sad
pictures, and confusing pictures. The possibilities are endless for the most part. Beyonc posted a
little snippet of her 7/11 music video with the caption Never Too Late #LoveWins (Knowles,
Never). Beyonc may have posted something very simple and sweet knowing that her post
alone is more than enough for her followers to get the message. People that follow her tend to
worship her and support her stances in a lot of things, and this may as well be one of them. The
short and simple caption sets the tone for the flamboyant and lighthearted video being posted. As

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she is celebrating this moment, she wants to show the audience that this event is fun and should
not be condemned. Sam Smith on the other hand, showed a picture of two men kissing, which
might have had some people feeling some type of discomfort. The caption under the picture
further elaborates on the picture posted. He wrote a mini-paragraph to celebrate his pride and joy
for this event. Since he is gay, his post might have been more sentimental and more thought-out
compared to Beyoncs because he can relate to this issue more. He uses pathos because it very
effective appeal if the rhetor has to persuade the audience in a very short amount of time
(Carroll, 53). His passion for the issue shows as he writes, We have such a long way to go and
so much more fighting to do (Smith, ALL 50). His involvement in this battle for equality has
given him a reason to speak out more about the issue and get his audience to listen to what he has
to say and put themselves in a different perspective.
The way a message is composed through Twitter may very well be different than that of
Instagram. Twitters 140-character limit may put a toll to what people have to say. People have to
say what they want to say quickly without any opportunity to elaborate on the issue. They can
post their long message through multiple consecutive tweets or through Twitlonger, but the
message will not be as effective. People on Twitter typically just want to be able to skip through
their timeline without having to think twice about anything. If the writer were to write their
message through consecutive tweets, it may get confusing, as tweets can get lost within other
tweets. Twitlonger requires the follower to click on an extended link, but who wants to do
that? The best way to get the word out through twitter is to make things short and sweet. Harry
Styles, one of the four members of the boy band One Direction, for example, evokes his
recognition of same-sex marriage legalization through a tweet that says, Huge day for America..
Happy to see the news. All the love (Styles, Huge). This tweet gets his message across in

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such a short amount of words. This may seem rather insincere, though. Nothing is being
elaborated on and the lack of emoticons or any further details may be taken as a robotic and
forced tweet. No emotion is being evoked in this plain text format. The lack of pathos may not
persuade the reader to believe that Harry is actually happy to hear the news, but the fact that it is
Harry Styles may convince the readers that they, too, should support the cause. His name
instantly makes the tweet seem credible and authoritative through ethos (Carroll, 54). His
followers support whatever he supports because they might believe that he is a good person that
only supports good things, which may make them correlate same-sex marriage to something that
isnt bad as well.
Facebook is more unique than both Twitter and Instagram in different senses. Facebook
combines elements from both Instagram and Twitter that creates a portal in which friends and
family can gain a better understanding of ones views of an issue. In regards to the issue of samesex marriage, the user can post a picture alongside a caption or text post. Facebook allows for
users to write a message that can basically be as long as they want. Users such as Jacob Granado
posted something pertaining to same-sex marriage, as he is openly gay and speaks out about
issues that affect him. He writes, And also-a huge thank you to those friends with opposing
religious views that remained solid and strong enough in your faith to let a day as special as
today reign on. Nothings going to change-were all alright (Granado, And). He uses a tone
that is comforting and allows the audience to know that were all alright (Granado, And).
This may allow readers to believe that same-sex marriage is doing things to the world for the
better. More people are having the freedom to love whoever they please. The author can
elaborate on same-sex marriage views that they couldnt do on Twitter. There is no character
limit, so paragraphs are welcome to be posted. Since the audience on Facebook is usually

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composed of friends and family, they may be more inclined on reading about the opinion that
one wants to voice. By posting something on Facebook, Jacob, like many other Facebook users,
open up freedom to discuss and allow for people to see things in a different perspective other
than their own.
Rhetoric elements make a written work what it is. The way an issue is presented with the
different social media sites can bring different types of awareness to the issue at hand, such as
same-sex marriage. Instagram lets the picture do the talking, but has some caption that may or
may not enhance the quality of the pictures message. Twitter keeps things short for those
looking for something simple and easy to read. Facebook is where emotions and opinions can be
broadcasted and discussed freely amongst friends and family for a more intimate conversation on
issues such as same-sex marriage. This genre of social media sites helps bring something that
may be difficult to understand through academic text into something more relatable. Because
many people use social media sites, rhetoric can be analyzed more in-depth because the reader is
the audience everyday and every time he or she goes on social media. The concept of genre is
important because it helps readers understand what persuades the consumer into believing
something that they may not have been able to otherwise. As same-sex marriage is an issue that
cannot be one-sided, the use of rhetoric in social media sites may persuade the reader to support
same-sex marriage more than before they were exposed to this genre.

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Works Cited
Carroll, Laura Bolin. Backpacks vs. Briefcases. N.p.: Parlor, 2010. Writing Spaces. Parlor
Press, 2010. Web. 14 Oct. 2015.
Granado, Jacob. And also-a huge thank you to those friends with opposing religious
views that remained solid and strong enough in your faith to let a day as special as today
reign on. Nothings going to change-were all alright. Facebook. 27 June 2015. 14
October 2015.
Knowles, Beyonce. Never Too Late #LoveWins. Instagram, 01 July 2015. Photograph.
12 October 2015.
Smith, Sam. ALL 50 STATES. So Happy. Instagram. 26 June 2015. Photograph. 12
October 2015.
Styles, Harry (Harry_Styles). Huge day for America.. Happy to see the news. All the
love. 26 June 2015, 7:46 a.m. Tweet.

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Writing 2 Feedback Matrix for WP1

Table of Textual Features
Did Not
Meet
Expectation
s
Thesis Statement
Use of Textual
Evidence from
Genres
Use of Course
Readings
Analysis
Organization/Struc
ture
Attention to
Genre/Conventions
and Rhetorical
Factors
Sentence-level
Clarity, Mechanics,
Flow
Other Comments

Met
Expectations

Exceeded
Expectations

//-

Ferrin,
Nice work here; it was a pleasure to read. :)
To get this paper to the next level, Id like you
to consider some of the deeper questions Ive
asked you--specifically, how these social media
outlets/genres enable what you claim they did
in your argument, namely, bring a positive light to
the issue. Focusing more on that could make this an outtathe-park paper. :)
Also, did you include any evidence/analysis of
FB posts? I remember reading about IG and
Twitter but not FB.
Again, though: super-solid job.

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Z
9/10