Welcome to my portfolio!

My name is Angel Campos Jimenez and this is my portfolio for English 21003. Throughout the semester with each assignment, a major focus for each of them was how we were supposed to tailor our content and writing to the audience of our choosing.

When it came to the science feature, there were many problems I faced while I was writing that interfered or made it more difficult to write for my proposed audience which was the general public. My science feature being about a relatively new field of science (epigenetics) and connecting back to its broader and larger field (genetics) with mental illness. There was a lot of prior knowledge needed that the general public may not have. It was challenging to stay on track with making the science feature accessible to the public instead of being hard and making the audience for scholars or people who are more knowledgeable in the subject. In writing the science feature, I felt like it was very important to include visuals of what I was attempting to explain to make it easier to understand. If people are able to put the words to the graphs to understand the process, it makes it more accessible and reader friendly to all types of people.

The purpose of my science feature also affected how I was going to present my information. It made sense that my genre was in an essay format because I wanted to make it more informative instead of something more argumentative. The purpose of my feature being to inform people was because the topic has not reached a conclusion on the connection and a lot of the research is still underway. It also was meant to use more optimistic wording to give off the impression that there was a consensus being shown with more and more research being done and the benefits that could come from the research such as more effective treatment options for mental illnesses.

For our second big project of the semester, the public awareness campaign, we had to be more creative when it came to the interaction between audience and genre. For me, I found that the use of a slideshow was the right way to go for my campaign of bringing awareness to the drinking water quality of NYC. I had thought a lot about my audience; everyone drinks water but I wanted to not only target the general public to bring awareness to but also bring this issue to light to people who can make a bigger difference. These people would be the people in the NYC Department of Environmental Protection who are responsible for managing and distributing the water supply, the treatment/cleaning of the water, and monitoring the infrastructure of the water systems. The New York City Department of Health can also fall into this category because they enforce the water quality standards that are put into place and they would be involved if people were to start getting sick.

The slideshow idea is convenient for both the general public and the NYC agencies because they present information that is visually appealing and often include graphs, images, and other additional information. Being able to present the public with images such as pictures of dirty water sources, graphs of the water samples containing amounts of particles that are harmful can help have an emotional effect and cause people to take action. For the NYC agencies, the slideshows are beneficial because these agencies often look at data and statistics, which would be easily accessible and included in the slideshow presentation.

As I reflect on the interactions that dictate how we write effectively, I recognize the importance of striking a delicate balance between purpose, audience, and genre. It is through this harmony that my writing becomes more effective, captivating readers and achieving its intended impact by actively changing the presentation of my content. I have come to appreciate that consciously considering these elements is essential for creating well-crafted and meaningful pieces of writing. Moving forward, I will continue to refine my understanding of purpose, audience, and genre, and use this knowledge to make more informed choices in my future writing projects.