Reem Zaitoon Artists Statement: Why and How I made my ePortfolio

The purpose and intent behind this website is to demonstrate my writing skills in different genres and genre conventions, to display my concerns and passions for social change in regard to the Syrian refugee crisis, and to showcase my research and topic selections for the pieces that I have written. The intentions of this website include promoting knowledge and information about the necessity for education for Syrias children, a subject that is very important and close to me.

In project one I wrote about a certain memory that strikes me still to this day. I wrote about it because I thought that it was too heavy of a memory to not write about. My intended audience for the piece is others who have experienced days similar in sorrow of the day that I wrote about in project one. I think that it takes a great deal to reflect on a burdensome and sad memory, so the audience is made up of strong-willed people who are willing to think back on heart wrenching experiences as well. The purpose of the piece was to reflect on and accept on a sad time in my life. I wrote it so that I could receive closure on the experience and to accept that it was over.

Project two was a piece that I wanted to create for a long time simply because of its pressing issues and its demanding urgency to be penetrated into the media. I researched the impact that the Syrian war had on education in Syria because I found it unfair and unjust that Syrian children were stripped of their education because of some bloody and unyielding war. The doomed and hopeless future of Syria without an educated population was what stood out to me in my research. It struck me as crucial for Syrian children to receive an education in order to give Syria a chance for a better and more peaceful future. Therefore, the

purpose of it was to educate other people my age and older of the dire need of education for Syrias children. I wanted other people to be aware of the fact that without an education for Syrias children, Syrias future would be nonexistent. My intended audience is people my age and older who are capable of helping or funding the cause for education in Syria. I intend to target anyone who is willing to aid Syrias children through sponsoring, advocating the cause, or donating to humanitarian organizations.

I made three different genre pieces about the destructive effects of the Syrian war on education in which I laid out different rhetorical strategies in each of them. In the newsletter that I constructed I included a lot of striking colors and images so that I could grab the readers attention. I used pathos to convey the helpless Syrian children who desperately wanted to receive an education. I included personal quotes and portraits of children in order to sway my audience emotionally and to persuade them to help the refugee children get closer to a classroom. I made a diary in order to convey the raw emotions of a Syrian girl whose mother had been killed by a bomb. I used pathos again in order to penetrate the girls sorrow into my audience. I also use logos by grounding my purpose in trying to get as much empathy from my audience as possible using my genre conventions. The final piece is an advertisement that asks the public for their help in teaching Syrian children abroad and for their skills in building schools and educational facilities in Syria. The audience is made up of those who are particularly empathetic about the critical situation for the lack of education for Syrias children. Through all three of the genre conventions I hoped to not only offer information about the importance of educating Syrias children but to also reach my audience emotionally through striking images and attention-grabbing headlines.