1. Genre as Rhetorical
Analysis Project
Brian Kawas and Carlos Owens

2. 1. Where is the Genre used? What kinds of activities
happen here? What kinds of people come here? Do these
people have a shared objective?
 Facebook wall posts- When posting on your wall or someone else's
wall. Sharing of opinions or activities with your group of friends.
Pretty much anyone that uses Facebook will make a wall post at
some point. The range of objectives that people have when posting
on Facebook can go from making plans with people, to asking for
advice, to informing others, or to just talk to someone.
 Private messaging- When you want to have a conversation with
someone or a certain group of people where only those included
can see the conversation. Personal conversations happen in private
messaging. Everyone who needs to talk to someone else privately.
Mainly depends on what the subject of the messaging is for.
 Facebook pages- Facebook, along with most other social media
sites, has pages that are run by admins that post pictures and wall
posts that get comments and likes from thousands of people who
liked the page. The admins of the pages will post pictures or wall
posts that get liked, shared, or commented on by their followers.
Everyone that uses Facebook for more reasons than to stay in
contact with friends. Their shared objective is that they all share an
interest in that page.

3. 2. What is the interaction it accomplishes?
 Facebook wall posts- Wall post are seen by every single
friend you have on facebook. So obviously you aren’t
going to post anything you wouldn’t want your
grandparents and family to see. Strictly public
interactions.
 Private Messaging- Private messaging is designed to
create one on one conversations that you wouldn’t want
anyone else to see. Deep person to person
communication.
 Public Facebook Pages- These are pages such as Nike.
Nike’s page is meant to promote their product and also
promote athletes who us their products.

4. 3. Who uses the genre and to do what? Does the
user change for each genre piece? Why? How do
you know?
 Facebook wall posts- Everyone that has a Facebook
page. Everyone has their own personal way of making a
wall post because they usually have something different
to post about than others.
 Private messaging- Every Facebook user that wants to
talk to someone online but in private. Depending on how
well they know the person and the topic of the private
messaging because there is a big difference from a
casual conversation and an emotional/personal one.
 Facebook pages- The admins and the followers of the
page. Depends on what page it is and which admin
posts what.

5. 4. What subjects does the genre discuss?
 Facebook Wall Posts- Meant to share feelings, opinions, and even
pictures. Designed to create public discussion/arguments on your
posts. People will discuss a topic such as politics, not only to
influence their personal opinion on others, but to also consider
others opinions.
 Private Messages- Designed to discuss things such as private
family matters, catching up with an old friend, or even getting in
contact with a friend who doesn’t currently have a phone. Not a
common thing anymore, because just about everyone has a cell
phone.
 Public Facebook Pages- Discusses a product, athletes who endorse
the product, and people can even comment and discuss how they
liked a product, or how they strongly insist on not buying the
product.

6. 5. What relationship does the genre
suggest?
 Facebook wall posts- Can show who your real
friends are when a painful post is made by
someone and the responses that it can generate
from others.
 Private messaging- When you want to ask
someone you trust about their personal opinion.
 Facebook pages- Debates between fans of a
page can be very entertaining and can get very
heated, especially on sports pages.

7. 6. What roles does the genre suggest for
participants?
 Facebook Wall Posts- There are only two participants in
a wall post, them being the individual who posted it, and
the individuals who comment on the status.
 Private Messages- There are two participants in this
specific form of private messaging, and they both play
the same role.
 Public Facebook Pages- There are three participants on
a page such as Nike, those being the creator of the page
who works for Nike, the endorsers who are also
necessarily working for Nike, and then there are the
costumers/browsers of the product.

8. 7. What kinds of language are used within this
situation and genre pieces
 Facebook wall posts- Can include proper
language or slang, when posting but not
everybody understands every slang term so I
personally feel it is best to stay away from using
extreme slang when using a social media site.
 Private messages- When sending messages to
a best friend you tend to use slang with them or
you talk to them in a way that you don’t talk to
anyone else.
 Facebook pages- Can range from insightful
thoughts to “douchebag” remarks, to picking
sides, etc.

9. 9. How does the situation shape the genre
pieces?
 Facebook wall posts- Depends on the
seriousness of the post.
 Private messages- There are many factors that
can shape the situation in a private message,
like who you are messaging, what you are
messaging about, and how you feel at the time.
 Facebook pages- People can create bad
situations with their comments on pages and the
admins of many funny pages can post
something that always triggers a reaction from
their fans.

10. 10. How do the genres shape the
situation?
 Facebook Wall Posts- By making wall posts completely
public you are creating a situation that promotes public
discussion.
 Private Messaging- By making private messaging
completely private you are promoting a situation where
conversation includes matters you would normally only
hear from your best friend.
 Public Facebook Pages- By making these pages
completely public you are creating a page where anyone
can follow you, and it helps you promote your product or
page to everyone and anyone who is interested.

11. 11. What does the genre allow its users to do and
what does it not allow them to do?
 Facebook wall posts- It allows them to share what they
are doing or other stuff with all of their friends. It does not
allow them to say anything fully private like in private
messages.
 Private messages- It allows them to talk to someone and
allow only the people in the conversation to see the
messages. It does not allow you to edit or delete a
message that you sent already which can be something
that can ruin some situations.
 Facebook pages- It allows people to see the thoughts of
thousands of other Facebook users on a topic. Generally
your comment wont get seen by that many people
unless you are one of the first to comment on it.

12. 13. Does the genre enable its users to represent
themselves fully?
 Facebook wall posts- Yes it does, because what goes in
your wall post is whatever you want it to go in it so you
have lots of freedom.
 Private messages- Somewhat, because Facebook
messages have grown to where they give people ways
to express themselves more like smiley faces and
picture messages for example.
 Facebook pages- No, because posts by Facebook
pages that have thousands of likes tend to be a first
come, first serve kind of basis since the first commenters
will get their comments seen by the masses.

13. 14. Does the genre create inequalities
among its users that lead to imbalances of
power?
 Facebook Wall Posts- There is only a slight difference in
wall posts. That is if someone posts something about
their love for President Obama and you post something
nasty about him on their status, they can easily delete
your comment.
 Private Messaging- There is no imbalance in power
here, but if someone wanted to show the whole world
what you are saying here they can. It is only private if
both members trust it be private and keep it in-between
the two of them.
 Public Facebook Pages- The owner of the page has all
of the power, and can block you from the page. They
also have full control of everything on the page.

14. Social
 Facebook wall posts- One of the most social aspects of
Facebook is the wall posts that allows people a basis to
talk to a mass of friends all in one place. One downside
of this is that not everyone has a large number of friends
and not everyone will see your post since there are so
many other posts going through their newsfeed unless
your post gets a good number of comments and/or likes.
 Private messaging- The closest thing to text messaging
on Facebook is private messaging and it is the best way
to have a direct conversation with one person or a small
group of people without outside interference. I personally
consider private messaging as the best way to talk to
people compared to commenting on a wall post or
posting on their wall.

15. Ideological
 Facebook wall posts- People share their ideological
beliefs all the time on Facebook and some of them have
actually made me reconsider the way I feel about
something. An example would be when a national event
happens like the Zimmerman case and how everyone's
emotions were raging all over all of the social networks.
 Private messages- If you want to have a direct
conversation with someone about religion, politics,
relationships, or even talking about someone that you
both know without having to deal with interference from
others.
 Facebook pages- Can have huge influence on peoples
beliefs because of how many people a Facebook page
can reach. It is ultimately up to