Definitional Essay Marissa Mariotti

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    Marissa Mariotti

    Fredrik Deboer

    Wrt 303 Public Writing

    February 14, 2011

    Public Writing is Writing for the Public

    While I have never formally been introduced to public writing, the definition was

    something I thought I had a good understanding of. When assigned this paper I was forced to sit

    down and think about exactly what public writing means. The most obvious part of the definition

    of public writing is that it is available to whoever wishes to read it, hence the word public. A key

    aspect of public writing is that it invokes a reaction; the intent of the author is to share an issue

    and gain support of readers. Intent is a large factor is deciding what is and is not public writing.

    Another way I found helpful in defining public writing was classifying the types into four

    different categories: argumentative, informative, activist, and legislative and administrative.

    Sometimes it is helpful to define public writing by deciding what it does not do. This often

    portrays a better example of where the writing falls in the different categories. However there are

    many grey areas and more are vastly approaching. I think this makes public writing more

    interesting. Between the subdivisions of public writing, negation definitions and grey areas I will

    solidify my definition of public writing.

    The purpose of argumentative public writing is to persuade the reader. The most obvious

    is writing that focuses on dilemmas in society or political issues. This may be a newspaper

    editorial, in-depth article in a magazine, etc. Discussion between reader and writer are useful in

    evoking passion from others who have access to the document (which is everyone because it is

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    public), and take advantage of it. The authors of argumentative public writing pieces address

    problematic public issues, attractive to our lines of reasoning. Feedback, while not necessary for

    argumentative public writing, is helpful in facilitating the awareness and concern of the public.

    Something is likely to be done about the dilemma if more people are protesting it. War

    propaganda is an example of argumentative public writing. My favorite piece from World War

    II, Keep Calm Carry On, was never actually published until after the war had ended. While war

    propaganda is used to distract society and the media away from the hardships and tragedies of

    war, and some may not agree with the purpose, this does not take away from the fact that it is

    public writing.

    Informative writing is a great subdivision of public writing. Similarly to argumentative

    writing, it brings to light a public issue and creates a better understanding of the problem. By

    using informative reports, in-depth feature stories and research reports, the author is presenting

    multiple viewpoints without being biased or trying to sway the audience in one direction or

    another. Informative public writing does not always need to be about a problem however. A

    heavily debated topic in our class in regards to informative PW was social media sites. First of

    all, is twitter even considered public writing? If you believe yes, then it would fall under the

    category of informative public writing. Twitter falls under the grey areas of public writing, which

    will be addressed later on in the paper. Another example of informative public writing, in

    political terms, would be the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. This brings

    a different light to the informative style of public writing. Documents like these aim to present

    numerous viewpoints on a problematic issue without showing bias or prejudice. They do not

    state how they (the author) feel about an issue, simply reports on the findings.

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    The activist style of public writing is similar to the argumentative, but its format and

    appearance can be very different. Activist writing is done by those who are invested in a belief or

    cause, usually hoping to inspire readers to feel the same way and take action. Activist writing

    does not simply come in the form of print on a piece of paper. Political activist public writing

    could be on a button. It could be a bumper sticker with a slogan or a flier. My favorite form of

    activist public writing is online blogs. This is a fast-pace market of writers that has been exposed.

    There are blogs for every reason: weddings, fashion, food, etc. Many blogs advocate helping a

    cause, like helping Darfur or the people of Ghana. These blogs are updated frequently, drawing

    the attention of readers, and are available to anyone on the web. Their aim is to get other people

    involved and have them commit to the cause the writer is campaigning for.

    Legislative and Administrative public writing is the most unfamiliar to me. Mostly it has

    to do with rules that help define our roles and responsibilities in society. While the majority of

    these pieces are written by higher ranking individuals in society (i.e. administrators, politicians,

    etc.), everyday people can write them as well. It is simple to rewrite the rules of an organization,

    which are available to not just the members of the committee, but they should be in town hall as

    well. The negative aspect of this type of writing is that following these standards is mandatory,

    where as many types of public writing is simply inspiring change.

    In order to better understand public writing we need to take a look at what does not

    classify as public writing. Any writing document that has a limited or controlled audience is not

    public writing. The document must be available for anyone and everyone to read if they so

    choose. Journal entries and notes, for example, are not types of public writing because of the

    intent of the author: no one else is going to read this; its just for my friend. This brings up a

    good question. If the intent of the writer is to keep the document private, but somehow it

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    becomes available to the public, is it now considered public writing? I must say that no, this does

    not make the document public writing. I strongly believe that that depends on the intent of the

    author. While that is not the only factor, as I listed the 4 subdivisions at the beginning of my

    paper, it is a large deciding one. Documents such as emails and memos between co-workers are

    not considered public writing because they lack an essential detail: they are (typically) supposed

    to have the intent of inspire the audience to act on a problematic issue or topic of discussion. I

    would to point out that while change is not necessary, there needs to be a passion behind the

    writing, a sort of issue that bothers the writer.

    A topic that was heavily debated in our class was the length of a document: is there a

    certain amount of text necessary to be considered public writing? I dont believe so. Nikes

    slogan Just Do It is only three words, but it has convinced people worldwide to purchase their

    gear. Most political buttons do not have a lot of words on them. In fact Rock the Vote is a

    campaign that was started by MTV to encourage young people to vote because they were the

    future. As long as the word or phrase is intended to inspire, there should be no limit to the

    amount of words necessary to call a document public writing.

    The grey areas of public writing make things much more difficult, however it is much

    more thought provoking. A large topic of conversation in our class that fits under the category of

    grey areas is social media websites. Lets look at this logically, using the checklist steps

    mentioned earlier in this paper. One: what is the authors intent? If you decide that the author

    was trying to reach people all over the world, then the intent was to distribute information about

    a cause or problem. You are one step closer to defining public writing. Two: Is it available to

    everyone? That depends on the restrictions the author chooses to enforce. So if tweets are

    unprotected and anyone can see your Facebook page it is available to everyone, and we are one

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    step closer to defining whether or not social media sites are public writing. Three: is it inspiring?

    Sometimes people tweet about a cause or charity event. That is considered inspiring, so this

    specific type of social media outlet would be considered public writing.

    I briefly discussed blogs in the paragraph about activist writing. Tumblr is a new online

    blogging website, notorious for picture images as blog posts and not just journal entries. Many of

    these pictures have words on them, but some do not. Is this a type of public writing? I will argue

    that it is. While there is no physical writing on the document, the intent of the post-er was for

    others to see their picture and hopefully reblog it: be inspired by the picture and pass it on for

    others to view as well. We already established that there is no limit to the amount of words, so no

    words at all are acceptable.

    In one of the class forums, a student discusses whether PerezHilton.com is public writing.

    Perez is a gossip website with all the details about celebrity lives as they happen. This is

    certainly not meant to invoke change. But it is available to anyone who wants to read it. As much

    as I try to stay away from documents like Perez, by the definition I have collected throughout

    this paper I must accept PerezHilton.com as a type of public writing.

    Many people do not realize the ways in which types of writing differs. While public

    writing may seem like the easiest type of writing to understand, it is a much more difficult task

    than anticipated. Nailing down a definition is hard. It does not give black and white answers to

    questions about public writing documents. It makes a person think, decide for themselves if a

    specific piece is public writing or not. I have created guidelines for public writing, instead of a

    simplistic definition: the author must intend for the public to view their document: it must

    inspire, and possibly put into action a change; there is no limit to the amount of words included,

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    however few or long. Public writing is tricky to define. But by using these steps, you will make a

    definition for yourself about what public writing is.