Elly Jiang

ENG 1302

Dr. Johnson

4 May 2023

This semester in Writing and Rhetoric II, I built on the skills I learned in Writing and

Rhetoric I and further learned how to research a topic in detail. I learned ways to find quality

information from reliable sources and how to organize my learning efficiently. I also learned

how to write a reflection on my work and describe my thought process. In this final reflection, I

will be discussing my three genres, their intended audience, and the reasoning behind the formats

of each genre.

The goal of my work is to inform the audience on the importance and relationship

between social media usage and mental health issues in students and teenagers. For my first

genre, the intended audience is students and teenagers in school classrooms, and I chose to create

a PowerPoint presentation as the format. I decided upon this audience because I am a student and

teenager myself and I believe it is important to learn about this topic in school because it impacts

us daily. As a part of Gen Z, social media is a huge part of our lives, and we spend a good chunk

of our time on online platforms. Therefore, we are “at more risk for developing serious mental

health problems” (Bashir & Bhat, 2017). It is our job as students and teenagers to understand the

consequences of high social media usage and how it can impact our mental health negatively. I

believe as part of the generation that is most impacted by this issue, we are not educated enough

on this topic as we should be. Everyone knows that social media can be harmful but not many

know the statistics on the number of students affected by mental health disorders. I chose to
present this information on a PowerPoint presentation because it is easy to be shown in class to

students by teachers. PowerPoints are simple and easy to navigate. Teachers have most likely

accessed and presented a PowerPoint before and students are used to seeing PowerPoint slides in

school, so it is a familiar platform for everyone. Also, by using a PowerPoint presentation, it

focuses on the key points that need to be.

addressed. I learned from the reading “What to Think about When Writing for a Particular

Audience” to use language that is appropriate to the audience. Keeping the presentation short and

using simple language will make it easier for students to understand and keep them engaged.

My second genre is intended for someone outside of my discipline. The specific audience

for this genre is researchers and educators studying this topic. Experts should be able to have

access to a scientific review article like this to gain knowledge from multiple studies at a time. I

decided on this audience and purpose because research is a huge part of why we have valuable

information. Researchers should be experts in this area and should be educated on the scientific

studies conducted to support the claim that social media use leads to mental health problems. But

even experts need to read others’ work for interpretation, so I chose to write a review article. It is

a common platform to read about scientific studies. Researchers are often familiar with review

articles; they provide descriptions of various studies along with their results and conclusions. In

this genre, I used more advanced vocabulary to adapt to the audience, from what I learned when

reading “Adapting to Your Audience.” This format meets the needs of the audience and purpose

because using a review article keeps the information straight to the point, starting with an

abstract and followed by the introduction, body, and conclusion. It’s a simple format for

researchers to get the most information out of.

 The third and final genre is intended for the general public. The specific audience for this

genre is anyone on social and willing to learn more about the effects social media has on mental

health. I decided upon this audience because I believe that the general public should be educated

on this topic because it impacts a majority, if not all, of us. As part of the general public, it is

important to understand the consequences of our actions. Social media is something we take part

in almost every day of our lives, so it is essential to understand how it may negatively impact our

health. I decided to create a social media post for this genre because it is an easy way to spread

information. It is also ironic because the topic I am informing people on is how social media is

harmful, yet the format itself is a social media post. As the article “Audience: Determining Your

Audience and Purpose” said, it’s important to know who your audience is and find the best way

to capture their attention. Because most people use social media, it is more likely to reach a

larger audience and spread this information. Using a social media post keeps the audience

interested. It can be created with “aesthetic” fonts and designs and seem “trendy,” to capture the

attention of more people, especially teenagers, to read about the information. It can also be easily

sent around to reach more people.

Writing and Rhetoric II has taught me much information that I will remember for my

future classes. No matter what field of study, writing is a common skill, and this class has

definitely prepared me for more advanced writing in college and in the work field.