Leong

Sabrina Leong
Instructor: Zack De Piero
Writing 2
26 January 2015
Writing Project 1
Genres are in every part of the modern world, including the business of marketing in
franchises such as the pizza industry. The rapidly expanding trend of online ordering via
website homepages has heightened the importance of recognizing and studying genre.
Recognizing these conventions and rhetorical devices is crucial for marketers, businesses,
and consumersand these pizza companies advertisements are an example of the
importance of genre awareness. I am arguing that by being aware of the audience of their
specific genre and employing specific conventions, pizza businesses will tailor their
products more effectively to customers. Because a majority of the people ordering pizzas
online via website homepages are millennials, pizza businesses such as Woodstocks Pizza,
Blaze Pizza, and Dominos Pizza usually provide links to their social media pages and
employ pathos to draw customers in, which are examples of the many specific conventions
geared toward the younger generation.
One popular pizza restaurant in Isla Vista is Woodstocks Pizza. Like other pizza
homepages, Woodstocks Pizza gives their location/address in Isla Vista, their phone
number, hours of operation and places their copyright information on the bottom of the
page. They also have links to order online, see the menu, take a customer survey, see other
locations of business, and go to the About section with links to their history and mission
page. But Woodstocks Pizza in Isla Vistas main audience is college students, so their

Zack De Piero 2/7/2015 3:55 PM

Comment [1]: Nice job, Sabrina. I thought
that this was an effective Intro. My only
question is: what kind of pathos are you
referring to?

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website also includes eye-catching photos of pizza fresh out of the oven and students
sitting outside of Woodstocks Pizza enjoying their pizza with beers. Embarcadero Hall is
also in the background, with the UCSB logo and the phrase: Legendary Taste Meets Epic
Fun. Words like legendary and epic are colloquial words that are used primarily by
millenials that have to do with something exciting and noteworthy. In this case,

Zack De Piero 2/7/2015 3:56 PM

Comment [2]: This is a good follow-up
use of evidencethe actual images that
appear in Woodstocks ads.
Zack De Piero 2/7/2015 3:58 PM
Comment [3]: Yep. Nice job

Woodstocks is referring to customers having a great experience at their establishment.

Furthermore, these types of photos specifically take into account their audience and try to
draw them in using the rhetorical device pathos, which is appealing to the consumers
emotions. Many college students enjoy getting together with friends and staying socially
connected, and Woodstocks hopes the images will inspire them to do so at their
restaurant. There are also ads for weekly deals, and buttons that connect to Woodstocks
Pizzas Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter pages. This is important for consumers to stay
connected for deals and ads through social media, and also a very good way for
Woodstocks Pizza to network. This networking can lead to even more customers who may
come in to Isla Vista for vacation and may have heard about Woodstocks Pizza through
Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.
Another popular pizza restaurant is Blaze Pizza. Their homepage also has their
Blaze Pizza logo and they have links to other Blaze Pizza locations, their menu, fundraising,
franchising, Blaze Pizza in the press, About us, contact us, and FAQ. Like Woodstocks
Pizza, Blaze Pizza also has Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter buttons. Blaze Pizza also has
many pictures and advertisements about their new deals. There are two unique sections on
the Blaze Pizza homepage: an Instagram section and a Meet the Chef section and link. These
sections are important for marketing because they allow Blaze Pizzas customers and their

Zack De Piero 2/7/2015 3:59 PM

Comment [4]: Great points.

Zack De Piero 2/7/2015 3:59 PM

Comment [5]: This comment is in
reference to the whole paragraph:

When I see thiseven before I start reading
I think, Ahhhhhhh! Attack of the page-long
paragraph!
See if you like this metaphor:
Pretend your whole paper is a big, juicy steak.
Do you want your reader to enjoy that steak in
easy-to-chew, digestable bites? Or do you
want them to start eating the whole thing in
one piece (think: zombie).
Paragraphs are like those bites. Give your
reader your argument in little, digestable, oneidea-at-a-time bits.
Readers need to be able to see the different
parts/pieces/bites of the argument that theyre
chewing on.

Zack De Piero 2/7/2015 3:59 PM

Comment [6]: What kinds?
Similar/different to Woodstocks? How so?

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customers pictures to be on their homepage, which can be very entertaining for viewers
and customers. The Meet the Chef section and link is an example of the rhetorical device
pathos because it brings the restaurant closer to the consumers and gives them more
information about the roots of the business.
Likewise, Dominos Pizza also has a homepage with order online, menu, coupons,

Zack De Piero 2/7/2015 4:00 PM

Comment [7]: Hell yeah. Exactly.

and locations. Their homepage shows images of their pizza, along with other foods such as
sandwiches, pasta, breadsticks, and chicken wings. Similar to Woodstocks Pizza and Blaze
Pizzas homepages, Dominos Pizza also has a section on the bottom that they call Legal
stuff where they explain food allergy information, disclaimers, delivery tips, and copyright
information. Dominos Pizza also has Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus links. Dominos
Pizza also has two unique links: a Tracker link and an Espaol link. Both of these links are
extremely useful for customers. The Tracker link allows customers to follow their delivery,
and the Espaol link allows any customers who speak Spanish or feel more comfortable
with reading Spanish than English become customers. This broadens Dominos Pizzas
audience immensely, especially in the Southern California area.
In addition, these pizza businesses use rhetorical features such as tone and purpose
to customize their products more effectively to customers. The tones of these three

Zack De Piero 2/7/2015 4:03 PM

Comment [8]: Another solid observation.
It seems to me like youre getting at
audience a lot in this paperis it worth
revising your thesis to include this more?

homepages are energetic and happy. They are trying to convince the readers to come to
their establishments to have a good time. The tones are also comical at times. For example,
on Blaze Pizzas homepage under the Instagram section, they say, Look Mom, Im on the
Blaze Homepage. On Dominos Pizzas homepage, it says to Master the Art of Mixing and
Matching for their Choose Any 2 or More deal. These are humorous expressions meant
to make the reader laugh and enjoy the homepage. The purpose of these homepages is to

Zack De Piero 2/7/2015 4:03 PM

Comment [9]: For examples are almost
always good ideas. J

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make it more convenient for customers to order and for advertising. With this in mind, the
homepages are designed to be easy to use. They also have many pictures with ads and
deals, and the order online buttons are often stand out and are the first buttons noticed.
Genre awareness is acknowledging and understanding these conventions and
rhetorical features. It is key for marketers and businesses because they can focus their
ideas on certain target groups and expand their franchises through doing so. Consumers
benefit from genre awareness because genre can help them find what they are looking for.
For example, genres have categories and online tags that make it easier for consumers to
search online. If a customer wanted to search the Internet for popular pizza places in Isla
Vista, Blaze Pizza, Woodstocks Pizza, and Dominos Pizza homepages come up. This also
ties into another important use for genre awareness, which is that genres help tell readers
and viewers what to expect when they are searching online. For instance, if a customer
were searching online for a horror movie, they would expect to find many scary pictures. If
that customer were searching online for pizza websites, that customer would expect many
pictures of pizza with the restaurants weekly deals.
Another example is the importance of genre from the marketers perspective. In
Navigating Genres by Kerry Dirk, Dirk describes the importance of genre and genre
knowledge: this knowledge that helps us to recognize and to determine appropriate
responses to different situations that is, knowing what particular genre is called for in a
particular situation (Dirk). Similarly, in her essay Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking), Janet
Boyd defines rhetoric as what allows you to write (and speak) appropriately for a given
situation, one that is determined by the expectations of your audience, implied or
acknowledged (Boyd). Genre awareness tells marketers what is appropriate and what

Zack De Piero 2/7/2015 4:06 PM

Comment [10]: This paragraph was a
tough one for me, Sabrina: can genre
awareness help someone order pizzas more
effectively? How, exactly?

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readers want to see for that specific genre based on their expectations. For example, the
Woodstocks Pizza web designer would not want to design the homepage to look like a

Zack De Piero 2/7/2015 4:06 PM

Comment [11]: Exactly!

business contract or a science website. The web designer would want to follow the usual
conventions and rhetorical features of pizza homepages and make sure to keep specific
audiences in mind.
Consumers also need to keep genre awareness in mind when buying goods or
services. In her essay, Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps toward Rhetorical Analysis, Laura
Bolin Carroll explains why rhetorical analysis is so important: The more we know about
how to analyze situations and draw informed conclusions, the better we can become about
making savvy judgments about the people, situations and media we encounter (Carroll).
Carroll has interesting ideas on why rhetoric is important, and one of those is that media is
constantly asking you to buy something, act in some way, believe something to be true, or
interact with others in a specific manner (Carroll). And in having genre awareness, buyers
will now be informed consumers that understand the goals of the marketers and
businesses and know to test the companys credibility.
In conclusion, homepages for pizza places such as Woodstocks Pizza, Blaze Pizza,
and Dominos Pizza have conventions and rhetorical features that are geared toward
specific audiences, and recognizing these conventions and rhetorical features allows
customers to be informed consumers and more efficient in their online searches.
Recognizing these conventions also enables customers to know what to expect when
searching as well. It also allows businesses and marketers to understand the wants and
expectations of their audiences, to know what is appropriate when advertising, and to
expand based on each customer by using rhetoric and conventions of the genre.

Zack De Piero 2/7/2015 4:08 PM

Comment [12]: Although these are
effective uses of the quotes/readings, it felt
a bit squooshed in at the endlike you
were fulfilling a part of the assignment,
rather than organically integrating them
into your argument.

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Works Cited
"Blaze Pizza Homepage." Blaze Pizza. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Jan. 2015.
Boyd, Janet. "Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking)." Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing.
Anderson, South Carolina.: Parlor, 2011. N. pag. Print.
Carroll, Laura Bolin. "Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps toward Rhetorical Analysis." Writing
Spaces: Readings on Writing. West Lafayette, IN: Parlor, 2010. N. pag. Print.
Dirk, Kerry. "Navigating Genres." Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. West Lafayette, IN:
Parlor, 2010. N. pag. Print.
"Domino's Home Page." Domino's Home Page - Domino's Pizza, Order Pizza Online for
Delivery - Dominos.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Jan. 2015.
"Woodstock's Pizza Homepage." Woodstock's Pizza Isla Vista. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Jan. 2015.