Ryan Kelly

January 20th, 2016

Zack DePiero
Writing 2
Were Only Human
Whether it is your grandpa reading a World War II newspaper or your nephew reading a
Sesame Street book, all context is part of a genre. Genres can come in many different forms
which create and give life to everything we see or read. While they may range from the subdued
cute childrens story to the serious documentary, the genre I chose to give light to is the one that
exposes the human condition: the human interest story. Found most commonly in a newspaper,
magazine, or an online version of the two, human interest articles passionately communicate the
story of an obstacle or a struggle a main character has to overcome. Not only does this genre tell
a story about overcoming a struggle, but the struggle is told using pathos an appeal to emotion-,
conventions such as anecdotes, and rhetorical features such as audience, purpose, and context.
This allows the reader to connect every human interest article, regardless of the actual story, to
his or her own life. Three different human interest articles that I will be discussing are Japanese
train firm goes extra mile for single passenger (Student News Daily), Teen bowler finds
himself on path of perfection toward sport's holy grail (Tampa Bay Times), and USFSP class
travels the Suwannee River for class on outdoors leadership (Tampa Bay Times).
When first reading a human interest article, you usually read a sentence or two and think
to yourself Is this really worth my time to read? An anecdote a convention that is very
important when wanting to attract readers is a short story that is usually told before the start of
a discussion that relates directly to the upcoming discussion (in this case the upcoming

discussion is the article). The Student News Daily Japanese article article gives a great example
of how to use an anecdote in order to get the attention of the reader. Before getting into the
actual story, the article gives a background of what the title of the article describes. It discusses
how a train stops at a remote station in the far-north of Japan just to cater to a single girl going to
school. After giving a brief background, the author discusses why that short story was important
to the overall picture of the article. The Teen Bowler article also uses an anecdote in order to
attract the attention of the reader. The article begins with a story of a specific time the teen was
bowling, before he began his path to victory. By beginning with this short story, the reader
doesnt know exactly what is in store for the rest of the article, but they have an idea which
makes them want to keep reading.
Along with conventions, rhetorical features are also employed in many genres. One such
feature is the audience, which plays a big part in dissecting the exact features that make up a
human interest article. The audience is those who are the (intended or unintended) recipients of
the rhetorical message (Carroll, 49). In this case, the article caters not to one specific audience,
but to all living humans. For example, in the Suwannee Leadership Retreat article, the author
says everybody is anxious to head home. They are tired and cranky. This statement is very
relatable for most people because many have been in a situation where they are tired and just
want to go home already. No, this article probably wouldnt best be placed in a political section
of a business magazine, but human interest articles tailors to the emotions of a person. A more
suitable placement for this article would be in a magazine like People, because it is a more
casual magazine that has other personal stories alike.
Another rhetorical feature used in a human interest story that is hand-in-hand with the
audience is the purpose. The purpose is all about pathos the appeal to emotion (Carroll, 53).

The majority of the time when looking at human interest articles, the pathos is directly in the title
of the article. When looking at the three article titles I chose, you can make a connection that
there is some sort of battle that the people or person will be facing. For example, in the article
about the story of a high school bowler, the title is Teen bowler finds himself on path of
perfection toward sport's holy grail. This title gives the reader an idea of what they are about to
read. Looking only at the title, and not reading the article, it is easy to assume that this story is
one that is about a boy that overcomes some sort of struggle and finds himself on a path to
become one of the best bowlers in the nation possibly. The article is purposely named to draw in
the reader. Another example of pathos is the title Japanese Train Goes Extra Mile for Single
Passenger because the title implies that the train is physically and metaphorically going the
extra mile for a student which translates into a reader feeling happy and heartfelt for the
student.
Looking at the specific context of the article, the context is usually in chronological
order. Besides being in chronological order, the human interest articles vary in the way they are
written. Because each article is a narrative, it has the room to be a free form of writing. It isnt
like reading fiction because this is a true story that actually happened to someone. I also believe
thats why pathos plays such a big role in human interest articles. Since the is true, it gives you
(the reader) the courage and motivation to go out into the world and overcome struggles that you
are facing in your everyday life. Therefore, the style of human interest writing creates a sincere
and comforting tone that is expressed to the reader. As Kerry Dirk said in Navigating Genres, I
noted the warm, personal style that was prevalent through every essay; the tone was primarily
conversational (Dirk, 250). Dirks statement does a good job in describing and capturing the
essence of how a human interest article is written.

The surface-level features of human interest articles that make the genre specifically that
genre is the appeal to struggle and achievement. A surface-level feature that provides a clue to
the genre and the appeal to struggle is the exigence of a human interest article. Understanding
the exigence is important because it helps you begin to discover the purpose of the rhetoric. It
helps you understand what the discourse is trying to accomplish (Carroll, 49). When thinking
about why the human interest article is published in the first place, you can relate that directly to
the exigence. The purpose of this rhetoric is to tell a story about the overcoming of obstacles.
Stories about overcoming a struggle are historically known to be popular. For example, books
such as Anne Frank or Troy, two of the most popular books, are about overcoming a
struggle to end up a survivor or champion on the other side. Whether this theme is in a
historically popular book or a newly written human interest article, the purpose and the
connection is always similar.
Although human interest articles are a specific genre, the writing techniques between
each piece vary. When looking at the similarities, it is easy to realize that there is typically a
causal form of writing within most human interest articles. Each article is meant to be a story
and not a formal essay of any sort. Another similarity that plays off of the casual tone is, as I
have been emphasizing, the use of pathos. The writing techniques used are expressing pathos
through a similar use of wording in each article. For example, in the teen bowler article the
author says "It's a thing that I might never beat for the rest of my life," he says. "I could be on
my deathbed and remember that time when I was 15 and bowled two perfect games." Likewise,
in the Suwannee River article the author says "Sitting up there on that bluff by that bend in the
river, with water all around, I couldn't help but think about all those who had been in that same
spot before me," he said. "How lucky are we to get to still enjoy it. I can't wait to come back and

show my little girl." After I read both of these quotes, I was inspired and I almost took a step
back and thought about my own life experiences. Given these quotes, another convention of the
pieces is being able to place yourself within the text meaning that through the use of
description and the combination of each readers experiences in life, you are truly able to
surround yourself with the scene. Based on the writing techniques used, it is easy to understand
why human interest stories appeal directly to emotions and make these type of articles so
popular.
Genre is something that you are surrounded by and you use in your writing whether you
notice it or not. Genre allows people to determine what to write and when to write it considering
the context that it is in. As Kerry Dirk expressed We can see that more than form matters here,
as knowing what is appropriate in these situations obviously requires more rhetorical knowledge
that does filling out a credit card form (Dirk, 253). Genre allows writers to base their writing
off conventions the building blocks of all writing. I believe people should be taught genre
because it is the basis of all forms of writing. Genre is created because of writing and writing is
created because of genre. Genre allows writing to be categorized and gives a much more
structured way to go about finding different writing as well. Genre is important because it
sanctions writers to be able to deeply analyze their writing into specific conventions and
rhetorical features. Any person that wants to learn writing, whether young or old, should learn
genre. It is important for anyone that wants to have well organized writing because it permits the
expression of free form writing while also being organized. As Dirk said by studying the
genres that we find familiar, we can start to see how specific choices that writers make result in
specific actions on the part of readers; it only follows that our own writing must be to be

purposefully written (Dirk, 254). Genre gives writing purpose, and without purpose. what is
there?
Works Cited
"Japanese Train Goes Extra Mile for Single Passenger." Student News Daily. 18 Jan. 2016. Web.
18 Jan. 2016.
Montgomery, Ben. "Teen Bowler Finds Himself on Path of Perfection toward Sport's Holy
Grail." Tampa Bay Times. 3 Dec. 2015. Web. 18 Jan. 2016.
Tomalin, Terry. "USFSP Class Travels the Suwannee River for Class on Outdoors Leadership."
Tampa Bay Times. 30 Dec. 2015. Web. 18 Jan. 2016.
Navigating Genres by Kerry Dirk
Backpacks to Briefcases: Steps Toward Rhetorical Analysis by Laura Bolin Carroll