Cordova 1

Emilia Cordova

Darcey Brown

English 12

9/16/19

Introduction

To start, the message that I am conveying throughout my genre pieces and portfolio is

mental illnesses are a real issue and affects the majority of teenagers in today’s world. Before I

created this message, I chose a portion of screenplay from the pilot episode of Euphoria, an

eight-part television series that is currently streaming on HBO Now. This portion of screenplay

describes, through narration, the life of an american teenage girl who grew up struggling with

OCD, Anxiety, Depression, and Bipolar Disorder. This writing piece uses word choice and literary

devices to convey the difficult experiences that are caused by mental illnesses. I chose this

piece because I feel that it conveys mental, emotional, and physical struggles in a way that only

the author’s intended audience can relate. After reading through my challenging text, I found a

scholarly article that dissects the way today’s television shows use real life issues, such as

mental illnesses. After annotating and reading the article, I found that many writers of TV

shows use serious issues and themes as a way to attract larger audiences and more viewers.

They do this because audiences are more attracted to risky themes and ideas because they are

more interesting and relatable. Overall, these resources helped me receive enough information

to write my own message and create three genre pieces that convey that message to different

audiences.
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For my first piece, I decided to write out a state legislative bill. The legislative bill I

created changes the state law to allow students to take excused mental health days in public

schools. Before this change, the state law only allowed excused days off for physical illnesses or

injuries. The purpose of changing this law with a written bill is to spread the intended message

that mental illnesses are very real and common amongst young people. My intended audience

for this genre piece is school administrators and teachers, because my intended purpose is to

show those working in the education system, the importance of supporting teenagers who

struggle from mental illnesses. I accomodated the audiences needs by creating a bill that is

formatted realistically and accurately. I formatted my bill by using a template that is currently

used to create bills being presented in California’s mock legislature program, Youth and

Government.

My second genre piece is an advertisement that would commonly be found in

newspapers or magazines. This piece compares brain scans of people with or without

depression, compares symptoms of the different people, and provides resources that will help

people who have depression. This piece tells the intended audience, parents, the message that

mental illnesses are common and real amongst teenagers. My intended purpose of this is to

convince parents to check in with their children or relatives who may be struggling and to take

those diagnosed with mental illnesses seriously. I accommodated by audiences needs by

formatting the advertisement in a way that is eye-catching and informative. I met the

requirements of creating a realistic advertisement by using online images and formatting the

piece through google drawings.

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For my third genre piece, I created a comic book strip. The strip consists of six drawings

that include colorful characters who tell the audience that mental health is important. I chose

to send the message that mental illnesses are real and common to kids and young teenagers

since the majority is struggling by they don’t think others would understand or relate to what

they are going through. Therefore, my intended purpose is to let teens and kids know their

feelings are valid and should be taken seriously. I accommodate my audience by including

vibrant images that would attract the eyes of young people. Also, I kept the amount of boxes

for the comic fairly short in order to maintain the shorter attention span of kids and young

teenagers. Lastly, I met the requirements of style, structure, and vocabulary by hand drawing

my own images online, and creating fairly short captions that would maintain the audience’s

attention.

In conclusion, I discovered many different parts about myself as a reader and writer

while I created this portfolio. Firstly, I found out that, as I annotate writing, I need to use

different colors to clearly understand different ideas and descriptions. Secondly, I found that, as

a writer, I enjoy using professional language in my writing over using casual language. Overall,

this will help me when deciding what topics or books I plan on reading or writing about in

future English classes.