Kayla Ho

Megan Keaton
ENC2135-07
7 August 2015
Project #3 Draft 3 Rationales/Reflection
Part 1 (Comic Strip):
With my first genre, I chose the genre of a comic strip to appeal to my audience of
six to ten year olds. In my genre proposal, I used the idea of the Marvel Superhero Comic
Books that are most common to this audience due to its conventions that would attract
them, especially the written and visual modes. Comic strips can be easily read, and it
gives a system. For example, the borders create boundaries that include one single idea
within them, allowing the children to stop and ask, What happened in this part of the
comic strip? The first boundary, or frame is the title, while the second one has a single
idea: Genres can be a lot of different things! With these separate frames that are also
read universally left to right, it creates a clear and obvious organization for the children.
I also centralized the theme of the comic strip to be around Santa Claus, which
creates a basic but yet relatable story for the children. This allows them to understand the
term genre, in a way that is identifiable. By presenting a specific example of a genre,
such as the letter and post-it note written to Santa, the explanation of genre, talking with
written words, becomes clearer.
This genre also happens to be attractive due to its simplistic pictures. I chose
specifically to use clip art, not only to make it less difficult for me as a composer, but
also, too many details can cause a distraction. With the audience of six to ten year olds,

the ideas need to be evident, even if pictures are needed. Although the simplistic pictures
do not contain great details, they do contain great and vibrant colors that stand out. The
yellow background and vibrant clip arts essentially juxtapose against the plain text
balloons and texts. I chose the color white as the background text to efficiently separate
the text from the picture within the frame. I chose the color black as the font, as black text
is universal and could be easily read when juxtaposed correctly. However, the Comic
Sans font is in all capitals and bold, which is not only clear to read, but also used
universally in comic strips. By using something that is universal, it allows me to
accurately categorize the genre as a comic strip by comparing it to others with the same
details, such as the font.
These conventions are highly affective, because it creates a comfortable setting
for children to read. The genre includes pictures, which are known to be one of the first
things that children analyze. Children are handed a book with just pictures at first, rather
than a book with just full of words. Thus, the comic strip creates a sense of familiarity for
the children, while also creating a mildly new encounter by adding words. Lastly, the
comic strip is also highly effective because not only includes a relatable storyline, but the
story is rather humorous and joyous. When thinking of children, we must think of
something that would be enjoyable to them that would cause a greater attraction for them
to learn.
Part 2 (Childrens Book):
With my second genre of the childrens book, I chose to teach that a genre
includes a goal. I specifically chose this because a genre cannot simply be useful if it
does not have a purpose. Also, I chose this lesson to be second because children begin to

lose interest once something is repetitively taught. A childrens book used as a genre
creates a simplistic story that may not be familiar, but may be relatable.
Universally, a childrens book includes basic words that would be easily
understood by the audience. For the most part, I chose simplistic words that would fit a
six to a ten year olds vocabulary, so again, it could be easily understood. However, I
incorporated external rhymes that essential creates rhythm within the story line. By
creating rhythm, the childrens book becomes more attractive. It also helps the audience
to understand what is coming, since it follows a systematic pattern: an end rhyme. For
example, to introduce a solution to the problem within my story, I wrote, Her mommy
and daddy heard a sweet little sound, to predict that Sheer was found. Sound and
found both have exact and positive rhymes, allowing the a prediction that something
positive is coming within the story. With a positive ending, it is most likely to attract
childrens more, as we think of children to be joyous.
I also included, again, simple clip art pictures that follow the story line. Almost
each page has pictures that would relate to the chunk of texts within. For example, I
included a picture of sheep right next to One night, Sheer could not sleep, She even
counted all of the sheep. Although the words are basic and most likely understood by my
audience, the pictures also help the audience to understand. For example, if the children
could not understand what is going on, the pictures synchronically follow along with the
storyline, mirroring the words. However, alike the comic strip, I did not incorporate many
pictures because I did not want to distract my audience from the main idea.
With this genre, I also used the color yellow as the background. Universally, the
color yellow rhetorically means happy, which appeals to the audience. For example,

when thinking of the yellow sun and yellow sunflowers, happy thoughts are most likely
to appear. The font also seems typical in a childrens book, as it creates a bouncy theme
that appears joyous to my audience. On the contrary, the color yellow might also be too
bold and bright that may cause a distraction for the children, while the color black font
may be too boring, as well.
This genre of the childrens book is highly effective because it develops plot.
Children are less likely to listen to just an informational setting, while a plot evokes
engagement from the children. Most childrens book also implies a lesson subliminally,
or in the end. With my childrens book, the lesson is introduced in the beginning, whereas
Sheer was not accepted as a genre, because she did not have a goal. However, the lesson
is then concluded in the end, whereas, Sheers lyrics and rhymes were the key. When a
human picked her upthey sang her loud and loud, so they could be heard by a crowd.
This ultimately concludes that Sheer does have a goal: for humans to sing her so they
could be heard by a crowd.