Audience &
Genre
When I originally sat down to
begin brainstorming for my research essay, “The
Future Superpowers of the 21st Century”, I realized I
would need to put a twist on my topic that authors before
me had not yet successfully done. My topic was quite
complex, even for those somewhat familiar with economics,
and considering the fact that I would be writing this for
my 18/19 year-old peers, I realized I would somehow have to
simplify the issue without leaving out the main points. I
did not only want to do this to better convey my message,
but I hoped the twist would also make my paper more
interesting to read.
Throughout my essay, which discusses the rising power of
China and India and the impact they may have on American
society, I would come across very confusing and dull topics
that bored even me to read. I tried to approach these
topics in the same way my economics professor did when he
taught them to me—very, very slowly. I removed the
complex jargon of my sources, most of whom were economic
and political scholars, and tried to convey the main idea
in the most basic of terms. I viewed my research paper not
as a persuasive paper by any means, but rather a very clear
and detailed explanatory essay. My reason for approaching
the assignment this way was not because there is nothing to
persuade, but I felt I could write a better essay if I
wasn’t trying to focus on my ‘sales
pitch’ the entire time. I decided to let my research
do the persuasion for me, and I think that worked in the
final product. In my opinion, people—especially those
my own age—hate being told what to do or think. Often
times, they will disagree just for the sake of
individuality. I hoped to avoid this and merely express the
facts. To do this, I would allow experts to tell my
information for me. Almost every time I had an important
fact that I wished to convey, I would quote an expert as
saying it. I find that will often turn out to be much more
successful than an opinion from an 18 year old college
freshman. For this same reason, I wrote this paper in a
much formal manner. If the audience didn’t know who I
was, or what I was writing this for, they would never know
that I have virtually no credibility on the topic.
I kept my research paper as objective as possible by
avoiding the use of personal pronouns and unfounded
opinions or biases. This approach is significantly
different than one I would use to write an in-class assignment or personal piece of writing, as I often use
my own opinions to express feelings I
have on the topic, or simply release emotions inside
myself. I find that my writing can only be extremely
personal, or entirely objective. I cannot write an
opinionated essay without getting into it, and
expressing my opinions in a way that everyone will know
how strongly I feel. However, because I am such an
outspoken individual, it is often difficult for me to
write objectively. To overcome that challenge, I often
resort to the opinions of external credible sources and
unbiased facts. Due to the fact that these topics
sometimes conflict with my opinions, I try to distance
my personality as much as possible from the piece.
I hold a firm belief that without expressing one’s
emotions in a piece of writing, that piece is merely words
on a piece of paper, whereas expressional writing is an art form where you
can truly feel the passion of the author. I do
believe objective writing is essential in society, as it
lets us see things for what they truly are, but I do not
think it builds any character of the individual writing
it.