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​K​arla Leiva Palacios

Mariel Aquino

Writing Project 1

Determining a genre is very useful to help analyze the purpose of different forms

of writing. Every genre has different writing conventions that change based upon who

their audience is. For this Project I chose three different genres that talk about the same

topic; Immigration, specifically illegal immigration and the policies that have been put in

place to deal with this crisis. For my non academic genre I chose a blog that discusses

potential solutions to thousand of immigrants who will be left undocumented after the

termination of their temporary protected status. For my Visual genre I chose an

instagram post made by a first hand activist who is involved in this issue; she takes a

more emotional approach by using different vocabulary and tone. Finally for my

scholarly article, I chose an online detailed article about the effects of immigration in this

country and all of policies introduced over the years, including the establishment of

TPS. Authors use different genres with the same purpose to clearly develop a message

directed towards a specific audience. Some are meant to be read by researchers,

others by bloggers, or someone with no interest in the topic who happened to see an

instagram post. Although they have many differences they all have the same purpose,

which is to inform the people of the current immigration crisis in the country.
 The non Academic genre that I chose Is a blog titled “​What Comes Next:

Potential Relief Options After the Termination of TPS” by ​David Isaacson​. In this blog

entry he discusses the various ways immigrants affected by the removal of TPS could

keep residing in the country. The tone of this blog is very candid and critical therefore

this gives away that in fact this is a blog. Blogs are usually full of the authors opinion or

knowledge on a subject. However It is definitely more casual than most news articles

and scholarly articles. It was also very bias although informational. He also provides

hope for the people affected by this by stating that “​It is important to know, however,

that the termination of TPS may not equate to the termination of all ability to remain

lawfully in the United States”. 1We can sense the bias on the subject of matter by the

way he informs that there are different possibilities to help the people affected; he uses

encouraging and positive vocabulary and a very informational tone to get his purpose

across to the audience. His main audiences is first hand victims of this issue, therefore

he not only has to show empathy and hope, he is also providing useful information that

could help the nearly 300,000 immigrants to stay in the country they call home.

“materially affecting the applicant’s eligibility for asylum can also excuse late filing under

INA §208(a)(2)(D​) and ​8 C.F.R. §208.4(a)(4)(i)​ as long as the applicant files with in a

reasonable time given those changed circumstances.” 2He is giving legal advice to the

1
Isaacson, David. “What Comes Next: Potential Relief Options After the Termination of
TPS |.” ​The Insightful Immigration Blog​, David Isaacson
http://Blog.cyrusmehta.com/Wp-Content/Uploads/Sites/2/2016/01/CDMA_IIB_Logo_201
6.Png, 18 Jan. 2018,
blog.cyrusmehta.com/2018/01/what-comes-next-potential-relief-options-after-the-termin
ation-of-tps.html.
2
​ Isaacson, David. “What Comes Next: Potential Relief Options After the Termination of
TPS |.” ​The Insightful Immigration Blog​, David Isaacson
families that will be facing deportation in light of the circumstances and therefore

establish a personal connection to the audience. The blog layout is different than other

genres too, for example the column consisted of about 80 character, and paragraphs

were kepts short. This makes readers maintain engaged and interested in . This is in

contrast to what I observed in the scholarly article that I used; although it was also very

informational it was much more formal. The layout also changed from having short

paragraphs to long informational ones

For my scholarly article I chose an article called “Immigration and Immigrants:

Setting the Record Straight” by Michael E. Fix, Jeffrey S. Passel. He discusses the the

history of immigration and the policies that have been placed in the past few years. He

also discusses the pros and cons of immigration and how immigration has affected the

US economy among other statistics. For example “The United States is now

experiencing the largest wave of immigrants in the country's history. The first major

in-migration began in the late 1840s and peaked in the 1880s, a decade during which

somewhat more than 5 million immigrants arrived on U.S. shores (​Figure 1​).”3 In this

piece of writing the author is straightforward and less opinionated. This quote was

followed by a graph showing the growth of immigration throughout the years. This

makes this piece much more reliable and less opinion based which is therefore better

http://Blog.cyrusmehta.com/Wp-Content/Uploads/Sites/2/2016/01/CDMA_IIB_Logo_201
6.Png, 18 Jan. 2018,
blog.cyrusmehta.com/2018/01/what-comes-next-potential-relief-options-after-the-termin
ation-of-tps.html.
3
Fix, Michael E., and Jeffrey S. Passel. “Immigration and Immigrants: Setting the
Record Straight.” ​Urban institute nonprofit social and economic policy research​, The
Urban Institute, 1 May 1994, webarchive.urban.org/publications/305184.html#IV.
for academic research. I also observed that his writing is organized differently than a

blog. He divides his information into sections and bullet points. This piece of writing is

obviously much more accepted in an academic setting because of its research based

information and the way it is organized. By observing the characteristics of this article I

can make a conclusion as to the purpose of this document and its intended audience.

Since the content of this piece is researched based and has many graphs and statistics

we can conclude that it is for students or anyone who might be working on a research

paper. It also is very informational and not bias; this lets us know that it is a trusted

resource and can be used in an academic setting. The main purpose is to inform

anyone about immigration in the United States. There is also no political bias therefore it

is very neutral and can appeal to anyone interested in learning about the history and

effects of immigration. This however is the complete opposite to the final genre that I

chose to discuss the same topic: an instagram post.

The visual genre that I chose was an Instagram post made by a first hand

activist who is involved in this issue; she takes a more emotional approach on the

matter. This piece is artwork by Yocelyn Riojas accompanied by a caption. Her painting

is depicting two hands holding, between them they are holding three flags from central

american countries that are affected by the removal of TPS. There are also flowers

between their fingers; the hands are brown which depicts the main groups affected by

this. Her caption is also very lengthy and emotional, she is appealing to the audiences

emotions rather than logic. “​As of right now as many of you know or I hope you do, the

Temporary Protection Status is ending for Haiti, Nicaragua, and now El Salvador...Many
families under TPS have been here 17+ years building roots. Even though they are all

small countries ...this situation still matters. It’s disappointing to see how little of this is

being discussed in the media and community if at all. Just because this doesn't involve

you it's still wrong, and therefore deserves your attention and action. I stand with

#DACA​ and ​#TPS​”. 4Considering that this is an Instagram post this would be a lengthy

caption which would incline more people to read it because of how rare it is to see

something like that on instagram. Usually instagram post consist of trivial things with

short caption and sometime no actual sentences. This form of Activism is becoming

more and more effective today among young adults and teenagers, which is who the

audience for this post was; young activist who want to take action in today's issues.

Although her vocabulary is more casual it is also very emotional. This post serves as

political propaganda by targeting the audiences emotions. The caption is lengthy for an

instagram post but very short compared to a news article or blog, this catches the

audience's attention. The purpose of this is to spark a curiosity on the topic and cause

the audience to inform themselves on this issue. This post serves to raise awareness on

a subject not often talked about.

Each of the genres chosen discuss the same topic of immigration, although each

have a very different approach to it. Both the instagram post and the blog had very

opinionated content, unlike the scholarly article. The scholarly article was very different

than both of the other genres as it was not emotionally driven at all and had no opinion

4
“@Yocelyn.riojas on Instagram: "As of right now as many of you know or I hope you
do, the Temporary Protection Status is ending for Haiti, Nicaragua, and now El
Salvador....".” ​Instagram​, www.instagram.com/p/BdzFvJiAUcc/?taken-by=yocelyn.riojas.
based content. The scholarly article had facts, statistics, and conclusions based upon

these facts and statistics presented. The tone was also very different from genre to

genre. Despite all of the differences in genres we can observe that the purpose doesn't

change as much. In each piece the author's purpose is to inform the audience of a

current crisis in the country, although some are bias.

 Work Cited

@Yocelyn.riojas on Instagram: "As of right now as many of you know or I hope you do,
the Temporary Protection Status is ending for Haiti, Nicaragua, and now El
Salvador....".” ​Instagram​, ​www.instagram.com/p/BdzFvJiAUcc/?taken-by=yocelyn.riojas​.

Isaacson, David. “What Comes Next: Potential Relief Options After the Termination of
TPS |.” ​The Insightful Immigration Blog​, David Isaacson
http://Blog.cyrusmehta.com/Wp-Content/Uploads/Sites/2/2016/01/CDMA_IIB_Logo_201
6.Png, 18 Jan. 2018,
blog.cyrusmehta.com/2018/01/what-comes-next-potential-relief-options-after-the-termin
ation-of-tps.html.

Fix, Michael E., and Jeffrey S. Passel. “Immigration and Immigrants: Setting the Record
Straight.” ​Urban institute nonprofit social and economic policy research​, The Urban
Institute, 1 May 1994, webarchive.urban.org/publications/305184.html#IV.