WP1: Statement of Purpose

My main purpose in this first writing project is to find and then present a main argument forwarded by the photograph American Smelting and Refining Company, largest iron smelter in the world, explaining how its technical elements develop pathos, logos, and possibly ethos, when tied to the cultural context, support this argument (my "Main" purpose is to get a good grade with a secondary purpose of learning, the means of both being the statement above). I want to find an argument that is strongly supported in the photograph, deriving it from an technical analysis of its many elements. Once I have the final argument which I'm going to pursue, I'll seek to explain how those technical elements of the photograph forward that argument through their respective developments of pathos and logos, and less likely ethos (which doesn't involve much more in a photograph than keeping in focus).

My primary audience is my teacher for this class, the one who assigned it and will eventually be analyzing my analysis and grading its presentation. It is for this audience that this text (Writing Project 1) is being created and considering which it will be sculpted. Specifically, first, I will be following the guidelines for analysis that we have discussed thus far in class and established by the text that our class was provided with (Compose, Design, Advocate: a rhetoric for integrating written, visual, and oral communication). Secondly for this audience, the technical wording from that text will be invoked in the explanations of the photograph with its elements and the arguments that they forward.

There are also secondary audiences that may find, and with the will to, read my project, the first group being my classmates. This includes not only those in my class currently (who will be looking more likely out of interest although possibly an after-the-fact peer review) but also those future students who may be taking this class (most likely with the same teacher) who may look back at my project as an example (hopefully not for things not to do), just as we have looked back at the project of a former student already.

The rest of the possible secondary audiences include nearly everyone that can read English and has Internet access. In this era of expansive and yet growing connectivity of all things information, the Internet has created a network facilitating authors, photographers, creators, etc, to reach nearly endless audiences. Posted on blogger, my project will be completely open to access meaning given the will to find it (possibly searching for information of the photographer or photograph specifically or the photograph's subject) or the coincidence of wondering upon it, the project will be fully visible to see. For this audience, although using the technical wording provided in our book, I will attempt to keep everything understandable for outsiders who may not know the language set up or may use a different wording of their own.

The main context of my Writing Project 1 will be as a blog post on this blog (given the links and hierarchy of the class' blog) and will thus be viewed from the Internet digitally, (although because of its open access and the adaptability of digital text it may be easily be moved or even transcribed to non-digital contexts; i.e. printed off for review). The main impact of this context is that it means that the audiences will also have access to the rest of the information available through the Internet, some of which I will be utilizing directly in my project through the use of multimedia elements and hyperlinks, just as I have been in this statement of purpose.