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Eugene Marshall III

English 102
Dr.Wynne
February 5, 2016

Child Abuse Genre Analysis

Introduction:
Child Abuse has been an issue within families that have broken families up for many decades
now. Child Abuse has no specific gender either, it can be done by either a male or female. The
direct definition of Child Abuse is when a parent or caregiver, whether through action or failing
to act, causes injury, death, emotional harm or risk of serious harm to a child. The two genres
being displayed: an article from the New York Times called The New Child Abuse Panic by
Maxine Eincher and a Poster from fredrickcountymd.gov. The poster from
frederickcountymd.gov; is a color pyramid with some very vital facts. According to the article,
Child Abuse outcomes have become extremely dangerous in this day and age. As for the poster,
the effects of Child Abuse has some unwanted consequences that are deadly.

What is the Purpose of the Genre?

Both the article and the poster are meant to enhance awareness. There shouldnt be any
persuasion when it comes to the abuse of children. The article and the poser are both trying to
implement a message in more depth about the effects of child abuse. It is a fact that Child Abuse
is something that should be taken seriously. As a parent or even as an adult in general, purposely
abusing your child or a child is not right. Children have suffered serious injuries, and some have

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even lost their life. Who in the right mind would want to intentionally hurt their child? If it ever
becomes an issue where thoughts are stirred, then that must get checked out for help.

Audience and Purpose Questions:

The intended audience and or discourse community for both genres is the general public. People
never know who they might run into. People can run into kids that have either gone through it or
are currently going through it. A little information is good to know so that if that situation does
occur they can encourage them to seek help. Children can obtain some serious damage from an
experience like that mentally, physically, and emotionally. Kids have suffered from Disrupted
Neurodevelopment, Diseases, Disabilities, and the worst of them all being Death. As a parent or
adult we understand that kids need to be disciplined but, it should never get to the point where
serious injuries as the end results. No matter what the child could have possibly, they dont
deserve that type of pain. Some of the pains can last certain people a lifetime.

The poster wont take that much time to process. The poster consists of a pyramid with some
of the problems that come with child abuse in it. As for the article, its over a page and a half. It
may take readers a few times to fully understand everything in the article. Both genres are formal
with their delivery. The grammar for both genres is normal with no problems. The genres relate
because they both help to try and upgrade awareness in child abuse. They are both different
because one genre give the effects of child abuse but its not in depth. The other genre goes into a
persons perspective of child abuse with different peoples experiences as well.

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Rhetorical Issues: Ethos, Pathos and Logos:

The article establishes the information credibility because it came straight from the New York
Times. It helps to achieve the purpose of the genre due to the length and topic of discussion. The
poster doesnt initially establish credibility because it was off of government site but it didnt
have a logo anywhere on it. Both genres evoke an emotional response from the audience because
they are on the same subject and attract the same audience. They just happen to present their
message in a different way. Child Abuse can really hit a nerve with everybody. Its upsetting for
those that hear about and depressing for the children that have gone through it. Its senseless it
should never get to that point. Theres no way that a child could have done something so horribly
that they deserved to be brutally beaten and abused. Thats unethical and by far illegal. There
shouldnt be any dismissal from a case such as that.

According to the poster children have suffered from health risk behaviors, adverse childhood
experience, and early death. In the article, it said that parents who perform medical child abuse
are good at deceiving the medical community. This information is appropriate to be displayed
because this need to be made known. Children who are going through it need help out of it.
Adults who are doing it to children need help to stop doing it. The similarities of the genres are
that they both reference child abuse. The difference in the genres are that one references a new
method of child abuse and the other gives brief side effects of child abuse. If these genres were
missing any of these components, the message wouldnt be able to be delivered properly. Its like
a statement without a legitimate reason for why it was said.

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Structure and Delivery:

The information for the article is unbiased. The author wrote the article how she wanted to
and didnt necessarily hold back. With the artist being able to retrieve insight and experience
from others, that opened a door of comfortability for possible readers. As for the poster, it was
only able to display a certain number of facts or even more detail of some of the facts. All of
those facts couldve been explained better. The problem was that there wasnt that much room on
the pyramid to really go in depth with the facts provided. The article shows a picture of a both
with a solid body and the outline of at least one to two more bodies. There are lines coming out
of the outlined bodies that are making their way to different parts of the body. The outlined
bodies are blue and the lines coming out of them are orange. The image implies that children are
abused from different adults and in different places. The article itself goes into different
experiences with Child Abuse. In the article is goes into how medical child abuse has become a
new thing. The author even goes into how she and her husband are lucky that they didnt get
charged with medical child abuse. For years they were trying to figure out what their daughters
mysterious illness was. The authors daughter had a diagnosis of postural orthostatic tachycardia
syndrome when she was 13. The poster gives a pyramid with different colored section as well
different facts in those sections. The facts give off the different effects of Child Abuse. The
different colors of the different sections stick out and catch peoples attention. The elements
contribute to the genres because theyre both trying to deliver the same message. Child Abuse is
bad, it shouldnt be taken lightly, and every kid deserves help and attention.

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Language/Style
The author of the article uses formal language throughout the whole article. The article
was both formal and informative. It was clear to see understand the message of the article as
well as getting a different point of view from the authors experiences. Some words that kind
of stood out the most were, child, abuse, and medical. Those words really stuck out because
child abuse was the subject and it done medically. The article displayed a picture along with
the article being about one page to a page and a half in total length. As for the poster, the
language was formal and informative. There werent many words that were used more than
once. Thats because a certain amount of words were displayed on a few lines with a big
pyramid. Accompanying those lines were a plethora of colors to allow the lines to be more
appealing to an audience.
Conclusion/Synthesis:
Experience and some other major facts was able to help show that the article was a more
reliable source. The article was able to not only display that child abuse is bad, but allow the
audience to see how it can really effect someone. Its always hard to hear a story like that
whether its about somebody you know or even somebody you dont. People who have come
in contact with this end up telling other about it. Thats because the people that have gone
through it done what who theyre talking to or anyone else around them to experience the
same thing or worse. Child Abuse isnt right and it shouldnt be tolerated. It doesnt matter
what the occasion is or had bad things are, it doesnt serve anybody justice.

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References:
Eichner, M. (2015, July 11). The New Child Abuse Panic. Retrieved February 05, 2016, from
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/12/opinion/sunday/the-new-child-abuse-panic.html?_r=0
Child Abuse Facts | Frederick County MD - Official Website. (n.d.). Retrieved February 05,
2016, from https://frederickcountymd.gov/6398/Child-Abuse-Facts