1. Who do you think is the target audience for the articles and why?

• I felt like both of the pieces of writing reached a broader audience, however they both could be narrowed down. In “Next In Line for Donuts” Kallermeier reaches a broad audience through her various reasoning on why anyone would enjoy the Apple Hill event. However upon further reading, I realized that because Placerville is a small town in Northern California, non California residents might not understand where it is as well as not want to travel there just for an apple festival. I think it accurately reaches the audience of the UC Davis student body because Davis is just an hour drive away from Placerville and the festival takes place in the fall time. Similarly, in “My Dad and His Persistence” the piece reaches a broad audience through it being a touching piece about work ethic and perseverance. However Lee’s piece is also probably very relatable and resonates with people who have English as a second language. Although I could not really relate to the story and maybe I might not have been the intended audience, it was still an inspiring story about perseverance that one could apply to other aspects of life. So while both articles could reach a broad audience, they are also intended for smaller, more specific audiences, in one I fit the intended audience and for another I did not but I still enjoyed it nonetheless.

 

2. What do you think are the authors’ purposes and why?

• The purposes of the authors were very different and had different levels of seriousness. In “Next in Line for Donuts” Kallermeier is sharing her family tradition of going to Apple Hill Festival and urging her readers to travel to Placerville to enjoy her family's tradition of getting apple donuts in the fall. She expresses this purpose by giving reasons on why this event is for all ages, and tells her audience to not “take my word for it” and for them to go out and try it themselves. The purpose in Kallermeier’s multimedia composition is pretty lighthearted and fun. On the other hand, Lee’s “My Dad and His Persistence” was more serious in its purpose. Through sharing the story of his 50 year old dad learning English alongside him, his struggles, and how his dad inspired him, Lee’s purpose is to show that you can accomplish things you once thought were impossible through perseverance. In summary, Lee wrote that he originally thought that his father would never be able to learn English, but watching him try and not give up even though the process was incredibly difficult inspired him to do better. Lee’s purpose is inspiring and serious compared to Kallermeiers purpose, but both were good in their own ways.

 

3. What is the genre (type of writing) of the articles? Briefly describe the expectations of this genre.

• The genre of the article “Next in Line for Donuts!” was a podcast, but I personally read the transcript. The genre was also somewhat of a review and an advertisement. The expectations of a podcast are that the writer speaks out their ideas into a listenable form. The expectations of the review is to be honest and share your likes and dislikes, that's where it is a little blurry to me whether this could be classified as a review because Kallermeier doesn’t really critique the Apple Hill Festival. It might be more accurate to call the genre an advertisement because Kallermeier mostly shares only the good parts of Apple Hill as a way to get people interested in trying it. The genre of “My Dad and His Persistence” was a personal narrative. He told a story that was personal to him and his father that was part of the reason why he ended up at UC Davis as well as why he is the person he is today. In a personal narrative, you would need to be telling a story with characters and a plot. In Lee’s personal narrative he follows these guidelines by introducing his father, and having a plot being his experience learning english and then ending up at UC Davis. 

 

4. How would you describe the language and tone of the articles? Use evidence from the text to support your analysis. How does the language and tone of the articles relate to the authors’ purposes and audiences?

• The language and tone of the Kallermeier project was lighthearted, chatty, and informational which was perfect for her purpose as her project was meant to show how fun and amazing Apple Hill is and to get the reader interested in it. She was very casual in her introduction of herself when she wrote “Hi everyone, my name is Callyn and I love nothing more than holiday traditions.” She also wrote almost as if the reader was a friend she was making the suggestion to when she concluded with “...and you can thank me later for the apple donuts!” On the other hand Lee’s tone and language is more serious and motivating. His tone relates to his purpose of sharing a story of someone never giving up in order to motivate and encourage his audience, whether they can personally relate to the story or not. An example of this would be when he explained that he and his dad would compete weekly in memorizing vocabulary and he writes “Of course, I was always the winner, but he never lost his confidence or stopped working.” His tone shows how impressed he was with his father and how much he loved him, it made for a sweet story about determination and pay off. 

 

5. What kind of evidence do the authors use to support their arguments? Give examples of the type of evidence used. How does the evidence used relate to the authors’ purposes and audiences? Do the authors use visuals as evidence (tables, graphs, images, etc.)?

• Both of the authors use personal experience and anecdotes as evidence to support their purposes. In “Next in Line for Donuts!” Callyn Kallermeier accompanies her personal experiences throughout the years with quotes from the Apple Hill Website. For example when describing the friendly atmosphere that is perpetuated through the staff, she used a quote that said “‘We have great employees, every year the season starts up again it's like a big family reunion.’” When describing her personal experience she says “I have grown up around the people of Apple Hill, and it serves a nostalgic place in my heart that transforms me back to my childhood every time I revisit it.” Her usage of anecdotal and quoted evidence are especially important in getting people to want to try Apple Hill because if she was able to enjoy it so much, other people are too. Similarly in Lee’s article he uses his personal experience as anecdotal evidence on how his dad's perseverance inspired him to keep trying in learning english and how that allowed him to have positive results with his testing and college admissions. He also used conversations and advice his father had given him to also prove the point that persistence is key to success. 

 

 

6. How are the articles organized overall? Are there subheadings? How do the authors make transitions between ideas?

• The articles are organized pretty differently, in “Next in Line for Donuts!” Kallermeier follows a structure where she introduces what Apple Hill is and her memories growing up attending the festival every fall. She then breaks up her paragraphs with every argument for what makes the festival the amazing atmosphere it is. Finally she finishes her article urging her readers to go try it out for themselves. I will say that she follows a very standard format with an introduction, body paragraphs with specific points, and a conclusion paragraph. Her transitions between ideas are through starting new paragraphs. Lee’s article “My Dad and His Persistence” is organized where he introduces his problem of not knowing very much English and wanting to go to an American university, he then talks about his pathway to learning English with his father, he explains that although he didn’t think his father could learn English at his age he still persisted, he finishes by sharing the accomplishments he was able to make with the support and inspiration of his father and shares the overall theme that you should never give up. It was organized in chronological order to allow the article to flow as a story. 

 

 

7. Describe the introduction and the conclusions of the articles. What do the authors do to introduce their topic and argument or questions? How do the authors conclude their articles?

• In “Next in Line for Donuts!” Kallermeier opens up by explaining her personal love for tradition and how she and her family have been going to Apple Hill for years. I think that this gives her some credibility and is the initial argument as to why Apple Hill is so amazing, is that it is so fun and available for a broad range of age groups that her family never grew out of it and continues to go year after year. In her conclusion Kallermeier reiterates her points and urges her readers to go try it out for themselves. This matches her purpose of advertising how amazing Apple Hill is and making the recommendation to go there. In Lee’s “My Dad and His Persistence” he opens up his article by describing the journal his father used for practicing english. He described his journal as ugly, illegible, and filled with grammatical errors, but also as his most valuable possession. Throughout his article he then explains the story of him and his father learning english together. Then for his conclusion he circles back to his fathers journal and writes that when he looks at it, it’s telling him to “use my persistence and never stop.”