By: Ellis Chase and Jared Silverstone Boy meets Girl. Boy typically doesn’t know what to do when He meets Girl. Well, this is the solution. ?

Mr. Jared Silverstone Hometown: Bethany, CT Major: Poli Sci Fun Fact: I own a horse named Maxwell Silver Hammer Miss Ellis Chase Hometown: Richmond, Virginia Major: Strategic Communication/ Minor: Journalism Fun Fact: I’m Gluten Intolerant English 110 Professor: William Duffy

A more sophisticated understanding of the relationship of purpose, audience, and voice and an awareness that writing expectations and conventions vary within the academy and in professional and public discourse. We came to the conclusion that these are all very vital factors in contributing to an effective imitation. Therefore, while constructing the piece itself we were focused on this relationship constantly – and realizing the impact that these factors play in an overall greater understating of the true factors of effective writing.

The assignment from Mr. Duffy, Himself…. “For this assignment, select a piece of argumentative writing that you believe is persuasive and write an imitation of it, substituting different subject matter… In your imitation, strive to reproduce the feel of the author’s writing— his or her way with language… The key to effective imitation is that you identify and isolate the rhetorical features of a text that you believe make it persuasive, convincing, and/or enjoyable to read…. That is, it’s not practical to attempt a close imitation of every feature within the text, so you will have to decide which ones are most important.”

We chose to imitate the book Got Fight by Forest Griffin Why? Well we chose this solely based on the book’s sarcastic twist of ‘how to be a man.’ Many factors of Got Fight inspired us to write a sarcastic ‘how to’ piece – including the tone, diction and structure. We ultimately chose to write our final piece ‘Got Date’ – a sarcastic, instructional piece with an overview of dating tips.

We focused on emulating the (author’s) voice and diction by maintaining his humorous tone, diction and overall demeanor within his writing. We also aimed to utilize the structure of his book as the foundation for our paper: Just as Griffin did, there are different chapters on specific topics in progressive order. Just as Griffin’s intended audience was an aspiring man, our final result was a mini guide for aspiring (or struggling) daters.

We struggled with focusing on the audience. The specific type and amount of humor we used really narrowed down our audience. We concluded that this is what Mr. Griffin did in his piece (by focusing solely on men) so we chose to continue on with our generation-based diction. But as we continued writing, we began to feel as if the sarcastic tone of the piece was universal; we felt that any age reader could understand the context. The structure and the different chapter titles also contribute to an overall understanding of the advice being given throughout the piece. With that said, we struggled with finding that certain connection between the purpose, audience and voice. In the end, we feel that the final result exhibits effective writing, with a clear purpose, context and structure – which is the basis for a universal understanding.

- Exploring the subject of imitation forced us to look closer into the ‘nuts and bolts’ of writing – and the factors that truly matter and contribute to an effective piece. - It also caused us to realize what a huge role an intended audience plays in any type of writing – and how it is intertwined with other factors such as purpose, tone and structure. - The assignment, for us, really pieced together our previously fragmented conceptions of ‘good writing’. But in the end, we have learned through the assignment that they all are important factors when it comes to good writing.