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Nathan Mai
Matt Wilson
Writing 2 Section 2000
7 December 2016
Portfolio WP1
Since the 1960s in America, drug use has integrated itself into our culture becoming a
normal, common activity. Because of the glamorization of drug usage, the activity has become
more popular in our society. With this popularization, more people have extended this drug
usage into drug abuse to escape reality. With drug abuse comes negative side effects, which
different media outlets are now bringing more attention to in some way or another. These
different outlets, which I will consider as genres, can express the negative effects or culture
surrounding drug abuse by employing genre-specific conventions, or characteristics that makes a
certain genre unique from others. I will discuss two examples of distinct genres, Kendrick
Lamars rap song, A.D.H.D, and Theodore Schleifers news article, Cruz shares emotional
story of half-sister's death after battling drug addiction, which employ different conventions to
convey the negative effects and culture of drug abuse.
Throughout Kendrick Lamars, A.D.H.D, he uses the common convention of firstperson point of view. Kendrick draws upon his personal experiences with drug abuse in his line,
Then I order someone to bring him Vicodin / I hope that take the pain away (Lamar 8-9). The
usage of I clearly shows that the audience is looking into Kendricks perspective. By
establishing himself as someone who has experienced drug culture, an example of ethos, he can
both convince and accurately portray these drug effects and culture to the audience. First-person
point of view allows the audience to create a connection with the authors thoughts and

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experiences. Kendrick is able to persuade the audience that our culture has become drugoriented by establishing authority and allowing the audience to connect with his experience.
Story-telling in rap music is rarely direct, and the use of word play, metaphors, and
similes to story-tell is prominent throughout the genre. Kendrick uses a simile in his line, My
generation sippin cough syrup like its water / Never no pancakes in the kitchen (Lamar 16-17).
Kendrick expresses that people of his generation are using drugs, such as prescription cough
syrup, as if they were a necessity in their lives in this line. The indirectness of story-telling using
word play, similes, and metaphors forces the reader to think deeply and analyze the meaning of
the content. The audience must take an interpretive approach to understand the contents of the
song, which in turn allows the reader to become aware of the contents in relation to real-world
problems.
The genre of news articles tends to be concise and direct. To keep the article about Ted
Cruzs half-sisters struggle with drug addiction concise and direct, Schleifer chooses the most
relevant information from Ted Cruzs story that would convey his overall message about the
negative consequences of drug addiction. Because of the tendency for news articles to be
shorter, quotes taken from Ted Cruzs story must meet the requirement of being relevant to the
theme of article and powerful enough to produce a reaction from the audience. A powerful quote
that Schleifer pulls from Cruzs speech is, And I remember telling her, 'Miriam, you've got a
son, Joey. He needs you,(Scheifler), Here, Schleifers purpose in including this quote is to
make aware to the audience that drug abuse, not only effects the user, but can also negatively
affect others around them. The involvement of emotional appeal, known as pathos, causes the
author to really focus on what information is going to be contributing to the article while still

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being concise. Every line matters, so the author is forced to focus on what information is going
to emotionally appeal, known as pathos, to the audience and contribute to the articles meaning.
It is often said that pictures are worth a thousand words, and articles often take advantage
of this by employing pictures as a convention. At the beginning of Schleifers article, he chooses
to use a picture of Ted Cruz with a somber facial expression with a hand over his heart. This
picture represents both authority and emotional appeal. Here the subject is a highly-regarded
politician speaking on a topic relating to drug addiction, where the audience can clearly visualize
the emotional effects of drug addiction on Cruz. The picture evokes to the audience a powerful
understanding of the negative effects of drugs because it shows how even powerful figures are
vulnerable to the effects of drugs. Pictures in news articles are multiheaded tools with several
purposes that can tie a whole article together.
Despite being different genres with different conventions, rap songs and news articles
have the capabilities of conveying negative drug effects and culture. For an audience to fully
understand the contents of a genre, they must recognize the methods used in the writing, as well
as how they are used. Lamar and Scheifler achieve their messages in different ways, forcing the
audience to interpret and approach the genre in a different way. What to take from this is that, in
order for you to understand the message or contents of any genre, you must understand the way
that author employs the specific conventions to fit its needs.

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Works Cited
Schleifer, Theodore. "Cruz Shares Emotional Story of Half-sister's Death after Battling Drug
Addiction." CNN. Cable News Network, 5 Feb. 2016. Web. 26 Nov. 2016.
"A.D.H.D" Lyrics." Azlyrics. Musixmatch, n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2016.