Jacqueline Aguilar
Writing 2
Zack De Piero
21 May 2016
Reflection: WP3
Unconsciously we associate certain genres with specific age groups, but why are genres tailored to attract the audience? Genres always have a purpose, and how they are presented depends on the intended audience, as well as conventions that are distinguishable but importantly they add to the overall effect of the piece. When one thinks of a typical dance flyer posted on a bulletin board for example, assumptions on its appearance naturally emerge. Perhaps a colorful background, time, and setting for the dance performance comes to mind. They are all conventions of a genre that creates the core essence of this particular genre. For this assignment I chose to dissect a scholarly research report by attorney Devon M. Alvarez and transform it to accommodate younger audiences in the form of a comic strip as well in the form of an informative brochure for older audiences.
Hazing is a form of humiliation and harassment an individual's endures in order to be accepted in a certain group.This scholarly article by Devon M. Alvarez argues that there should be a uniformed law that prohibits hazing, if there is a common understanding of potential punishment, it would create a safe place for individuals to comfortably step forward about harassment they have undergone or hear about. Some states punish hazing as a misdemeanor and others just have a no hazing policy. Greek life on college campuses haze new members to determine how willing students are to the certain fraternity or sorority they are pledging for. In the past 11 years, at least sixty college students have died from hazing related incidents. Even though hazing occurs on the majority of college campus it is a form of cruelty that continues to remain mostly unreported due to the secretive of greek life. As Universities themselves refuse to take responsibility of these cases, it causes confusion amongst states when determining suitable punishment for this behavior.
Children are curious, adventurous and naturally gravitate towards colorful images, thus I thought a colorful cartoon comic strip would transform the heavy topic of hazing in a more practical and playful way. Although comic strips can contain broad themes and topics that can appeal to all age groups, I designed my cartoon comic strip in a way that allows younger audiences to resonate with the material. For instance the school/ playground setting I chose is a place that the vast majority of kids can relate to, in grade school children play with each other and form friend groups according to similar interests. I'm assuming that this young audience around the age of seven to twelve are reading this comic strip to be entertained with a story or interesting facts. To accommodate this aspect, I created a scene that is filled of color as well as a plot that doesn't directly state its hazing but becomes obvious there is a situation worth someone's attention. It very popular for children genres to have a moral because since they are growing and learning how the world functions, everything they read or experience has a significant influence in their life. Therefore I thought it was essential to teach the audience who reads my comic strip, that it's not morally correct to force others to do things in order to be accepted to a certain group.
A comic strip depends on its structure, what each frame captures affects how the audience will grasp the plot. McCloud discusses choice of moment, which its ultimate goal is to “connect the dots by showing the moments that matter and putting those that don't. ”(McCloud, 37) In my choice of genre I knew i would walk the audience through every character's thought or action because that would result in an excessive amount of frames; so I only included the core events that would build on one another as well as keep the plot in chronological order. I decided to exclude small moments like people the children getting on the bus to go to the field trip or the mom driving to school. These scenes do not affect the overall plot because the scenes that i did focus on are strong enough to stand alone, I also believe that the conversations characters have with one another summarizes the general idea. This can be seen when one of the girls falls and then the next scene was her in bed because she was hurt. The transition is logical or “scene to scene,” I believe the young audience can make the easy connection from one scene to another. Overall the comic stip emcompasses common conventions that engages and allows children to resonate with the plot.
For the older audience I focused on grandparents who have grandchildren entering college and potentially joining a fraternity, where they would face hazing. In the form of a informative club brochure I included an “About Us” section which is a common conventions because it gives the audience a brief background on what the organization is about. I mostly included all the basic information one might expect reading a brochure on one side and on the other I presented some information such as the greek life environment as well as hazing in a casual manner. In the scholarly article Mr. Alvarez informs the audience on the history of hazing and then adds all the real life cases that are results of hazing. By using pathos he makes the audience envision that this is currently happening and people we know can be harassed and put in danger in order to join a “brotherhood” or “sisterhood”. According to McCloud Choice of word can “clearly and persuasively communicate ideas”(McCloud, 25). Thus I choice to convey the idea of the controversial idea of greek life, through a detailed description of a party atmosphere as well as the respected organization that offers multiple opportunities in a professional atmosphere. Older audiences like grandparents tend to be retired and have plenty of time to read, so the choice of words I included were detailed and very descriptive to openly inform the audience the pros and cons of greek life. Overall the brochure is revealing in order to give the entire truth to older audiences who have time to read and care about their relatives who might be intrigues by greek life.
Works Cited
Alvarez, Devon M. "Death by Hazing, Should There Be a Federal Law against Frats." Http://web.a.ebscohost.com.proxy.library.ucsb.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=d41c97be-acef-44d9-97ae-f777972417c7%40sessionmgr4002&vid=6&hid=4106. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 May 2016.
McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York: HarperPerrenial, 1994. Chapter One: Writing with Pictures
LINK To Brochure for Older Audiences : https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fOJrV5Leib89oYm_2mUrMqL6Rp4PD_3HbaMrsnsoU00/edit?usp=sharing
LINK To Cartoon Comic Strip: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eW59tgXZJKYqMKirzI7F-ItOTFrzVaZvS_dV6b85s9o/edit?usp=sharing
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