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Revision Sheet

Out of all the writing projects, this one was the one that came easiest to write and the one

I felt most confident in. I clearly remember the writing process I had for this project, I would

revise the paper then give myself a one-day break in between to then revise it again. This

allowed me to have fresh eyes on the paper to then see errors easier. Its been over two months

that I last saw my paper and for this revision I was able to alter some things in the paper.

Although I did perform really well, it was a bit difficult to think of how I could still further

improve it.

For this writing project, I mostly revised the structure of the introduction and conclusion

paragraph and reframed some sentences throughout the essay. I cut down some sentences that

had repetitive ideas. I took into consideration many of the comments marked on the margin of

the paper and changed what was suggested. For example on the original paper the first sentence

of the introductory paragraph had some yous and I wanted to revise that because I didnt like

the tone of that and didnt want to be so direct towards the reader. On majority of the paragraphs

I rearranged the structure of the topic sentences to sound smoother. I cut out a lot of unnecessary

sentences for the conclusion paragraph and focused more on stating the main points, because I

remember when I first wrote this essay I did not give much focus on the conclusion paragraph

and am not taking this opportunity to improve upon it.

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Alondra Islas
Robert Speiser
Writing 2 MW 11am
4/26/17
Global Warming Through Different Mediums

The weather and climate is something people dont pay attention to on the daily basis,

just like many people choose to not act upon the rising effects of climate change. Not too long

ago California experienced a drought because it was not receiving enough rainfall. Now that

most of California is no longer in a drought, we can see that California experienced a climate

change. Although some people might choose to ignore climate change and global warming, these

are effects we have personally experienced in our own environment. Global warming is the

overall increase in global temperature of Earths atmosphere due to the intensification of the

greenhouse effect of the planet. While climate change is the actual weather change pattern

caused by global warming. Over the years, major observations on global warming effects have

been brought to the publics eye. Scholars have communicated this topic through various types

of genres, such as articles and videos. Each genre has its own structure, style, voice/tone, and

purpose causing a different effect on the audience. Both news articles and videos succeed in

educating the audience about global warming, but each genre is effective to a certain extent.

Between both genres, videos are more effective because they capture a larger audience,

incorporate visual learning, and material is quicker to understand.

We can all communicate through various mediums with the sole purpose of using

creativity to share ideas. News articles are one example of a form of communication; despite the

topic being discussed they all follow the same structure. The ultimate goal of a news article is to

inform the public on events, issues, or ideas across the world or our community. News articles

are formal, academic, and professional so they can be taken serious by the public. They contain
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the use of outside sources, statistics, graphs, and pictures to be credible. If an article did not

contain evidence or research then it would be considered a blog or opinion. On the other hand,

videos can have more than one purpose, they can inform, persuade, call to action, etc. Videos are

composed of visuals and a narrator. They have a time constraint usually between 3 to 10 minutes,

just enough time to be as informative but not too long where it will loose the audiences focus.

Creativity is a large component in making videos, while articles are less creative because they

are formal and academic. Although they both have distinct differences, one thing they have in

common is a hook. An article has to have an engaging introduction in order to hook the reader

and a video needs to keep the viewer entertained to hook the audience. Now that we established a

clear distinction between these genres, we can compare how the topic of global is effective in

news articles and videos.

Audience is a key factor when choosing which genre to write in because each captures

different groups of people. An article on the Washington Post by Chris Mooney titled, The U.S.

has caused more global warming than any other country. Heres how the Earth will get its

revenge, immediately targets American people because it focuses specifically on Americas

contribution towards global warming. The audience in this article is American teenagers and

adults. It targets teenagers when Mooney states, The consequences would be staggering. We

dont know what the United States will look like far in the future, when such an amount of sea

level rise might be realized (18). The author draws attention to the future and as teenagers

continue to grow older they will soon be the ones filling in societys current jobs. The current

teenage generation is the future of the country; eventually they will be able to make decisions

towards global warming. Mooney targets young adults when he alludes to the future of American

by getting them to start thinking of the consequences they will deal with later on. In addition,
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adults are usually the ones who watch or read the news, so articles like this would be mostly be

read by adults. NASA posts an article, Global Warming, where it ends by stating, The degree

to which global warming changes life on Earth depends on our decisions now (67). Adults are

targeted because they contribute to society the most through the workforce and by voting. If

adults changed their living habits they would be leading by example for young generations. Also,

adults can vote for laws or nominees that could change habits that best benefit the environment.

Articles usually have an audience of adolescents and adults.

In contrast, the audience in videos has a larger range in groups of people starting from

young kids to adults. Videos can present the same ideas as articles but ultimately gain a larger

audience; this is a factor that sets genre apart from each other. Both the National Geographic and

NASA have a narrator in the background explaining the visuals, so an adult would be able to

understand the information being presented. Further on, young kids are visual learners so they

could also learn some information based on the visuals and details displayed on the videos. For

example, the video from NASA has a part where it shows the physical effect of the suns rays on

Earths atmosphere and how it causes global warming, young kids would be able to see this and

grasp an understanding of what is happening. Likewise, if they tried to read this phenomenon

they would not understand due to the academic language and not being comprehensive readers.

Since this issue is controversial, the more people educated in this will lead more to seek for

change. Videos have a larger audience group than news articles because they are composed of

visual learning, while reading articles requires more skill. Comprehensive reading can be a

harder to master while visual learning is self-taught since we are young kids.

Another key component that contributes to the effectiveness of genres is their purpose.

Each genre has a purpose whether its trying to persuade, bring awareness, call for action,
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inform, or send a message. Articles are meant to inform people because they are supposed to

remain unbiased and only provide information for the reader takeaway based on the facts

presented. Both authors in the articles do not contain an argument; instead they only present

information they gathered. The articles present a strong foundation of logos by providing outside

sources, Mooney states, Climate Central researcher Benjamin Strauss

has calculated that, 12.8 million Americans live on land less than 10 feet above their local high-

tide line (18). The author clearly provides research done by other scholars to build trust between

him and the audience. There are multiple times where Mooney and Riebeek reference scholars

and research throughout the article to make him credible and more likely for people to trust the

information. Both articles have an open-ended conclusion because they have no call to action,

Greenhouse gases are long-lived, so the planet will continue to warm and changes will continue

to happen far into the future, but the degree to which global warming changes life on Earth

depends on our decisions now (Riebeek, 67). Showing that the author intends for the audience

to have their own takeaway.

Likewise, the videos have several purposes. It is assumed the information mentioned was

first researched because the videos are posted on websites that conduct studies, giving a sense of

logos and ethos. In addition, pathos can be accomplished in videos due to the background music

choice and the visuals they display. Music is a big impact on setting a mood. For example, in the

National Geographic and NASA videos, the background music is calm and soothing. The effect

of this is to make the environment serious for the audience. If the music were more up beat, the

audience would not take the topic very serious. To add on, in the end of both videos there is a

call to action that suggest ideas on how we can move forward with global warming and climate

change. In the end of the National Geographic video they mention that we could start using other
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methods that could cut greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere, like changing to fluorescent

light bulbs or driving less miles every week. This serves as a call to action when suggesting

changes we can make. Both genres inform the audience on global warming, but videos are more

effective. The ultimate purpose of news articles is to inform while the videos in this case inform

and have a call to action.

Each person has there own strengths and weaknesses when it comes to learning. Some

people will either favor visual, textual, or auditory learning for their personal needs. For

example, reading a news article is less appealing because they are lengthier and more

comprehensive. Videos have more creativity and an engaging tone, causing the audience to be an

active learner. Both genres succeeded to provide the audience with enough background

information on global warming, yet the extent of their effectiveness differs. If the audience

wanted to learn about global warming, watching videos would be most effective for several

reasons. One being that most people are better visual learners, something articles fail to have.

Not all people have time to read and dig for knowledge in long articles where a video is usually

short and teaches the material faster. Videos also catch a readers mind more than reading words.

Therefore, educational videos are more effective in teaching important issues because they grasp

a larger audience, serve multiple purposes, and attract visual learners.

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Works Cited

"Global Warming - A video by NASA." NASA. NASA, 16 Sept. 2011. Web. 24 Apr. 2017.

"Global Warming 101." National Geographic. Web. 24 Apr. 2017.

Mooney, Chris. The U.S. has caused more global warming than any other country.

Heres how the Earth will get its revenge. The Washington Post. WP Company, 22 Jan.

2015. Web. 24 Apr. 2017.

Riebeek, Holli. "Global Warming." NASA. NASA, 3 June 2010. Web. 24 Apr. 2017.