High School vs. College Writing

            Upon writing this piece to you, the subjects presented at hand are as follows: audience, genre, and rhetorical situation. Throughout your High School Careers you have been immersed in a world of writing, introduced to various nationally acclaimed authors who have established themselves as timeless artists. From these examples, it was required of you to learn from their works and gather your own theory of writing, simple enough right? Well college is a little different than high school, sources are picked by yourselves and not the other way around. As far as structure goes, organization is a little more loose. The standardized five paragraph essay is thrown out the window for a universe of composition. On that note, let us begin with the first concept, audience. Essentially, audience is who the writer is addressing in his or her writing. Since ones writing has a purpose regardless if it is informative or persuasive, audience holds an obvious importance. It gives a writer a community to write to in order to reach said goal. Billy Collins wrote and delivered commencement address to high school graduates, much like yourselves. In it he spoke to not only the graduates, but their friends and relatives. He kept in mind the varying demographic of his audience and managed to encompass all with words of wisdom for the quickly approaching future. This may not have been as effective in the form of a poem or haiku, because he’s purpose was to inspire and give appropriate advice. This brings about the next concept of genre. Genre can be defined as the form of writing one utilizes to most effectively communicate to his or her audience. Consider this post for example, it is a blog post. Were I writing a short narrative or poem, the structure and syntax would be presented in a very different light. The perfect example for this subject proves Martin Luther Kings “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” His chosen genre was to compose a letter. Why? Because it presented a more personal approach to connecting with his audience, a tactic that conveyed his beliefs fully. King was a man of peace and wanted unity, by choosing to write a letter, he could keep his cognitions consistent. Now lets move on to our next focus, rhetorical situation. We all have a purpose for writing. My purpose of writing this moment is to display to you, the difference between High School and College writing intensities. With that in mind, rhetorical situation can be defined as the motivating force behind our call to action and why we write or speak in the first place. If you have not yet noticed, all of the concepts depicted each play their own part in the formation of an essay. However, they also play their part in balancing and bouncing off of each other. Audience, genre, and rhetorical situation create the strong foundation of an essay which gives the author the means by which to compose his or her piece. With all of these concepts in mind, remember how each of these topics interconnect and develop your own theory of writing. While packing up don’t forget to use this concept to transition into college level work.

--Jonathan Muench and Jackie Young