WP1

            Advice Columns are present in many media sources. Three of them are newspapers, blogs, and magazines.  Advice columns are present in today’s media to guide readers and provide answers to questions some can’t answer on their own.  Advice columns in newspapers, blogs, and magazines all have similar conventions, but also provide a few differences.  When comparing and contrasting the conventions used in three genres from different sources, it becomes easier to understand what makes up a genre. 

            Blogs tend to be a place where writers feel they have freedom to express themselves.  Advice column blogs follow this freedom of expression which makes them similar to newspaper and magazine blogs, with a few key differences.  All three types of blogs give advice to the person who has written in to the advice giver.  In the case of a blog, the set up of question and answer differs from that of a newspaper.  When visiting a blog, you will see a few headlines such as “Wait Management.” By clicking on the link the question and advice givers answer will appear on the page next. I believe the blogger does this to catch website visitor’s attention.  This is a similar technique used by magazine advice columns that might have a catchy title in the table of contents making the reader wanting to turn to that page.  The audience in a blog site is aimed viewers who are into technology and social media.  Therefore, being big on social media the audience is assumed to be younger, or middle aged viewers.  Since the audience is going to be a younger crowd, most blog advice columns are about more  adult topics.  There are some blogs for older men and women, but not as many as there are for younger audiences.  The tone of blog advice columns is relaxed and personal.  Unlike a newspaper advice column, or even a magazine advice column, a blog advice column has a more relaxed tone because it usually isn’t being overseen by a company; it is the writer’s free speech.  The purpose for a blog column, which is the same for a newspaper and magazine, is to provide advice.  In the blog “The Advice Goddess” by Amy Alkon, she states , “How long should you wait? Well, that depends on whether you're hoping to go on your first date with him in a flying car,” when a woman asks her if she should continue waiting for her ex boyfriend even though he broke up with her for being too overweight.  Alkon clearly is able to give more harsh criticism than other sources might.  In a blog, she cannot get fired like someone in a newspaper can because she has created it herself and it is her free space to state her opinion, whether people like it or not.  Her readers are also choosing to go to her site unlike a newspaper reader who comes across a column while browsing their daily paper. 

            Magazines are known for catching people’s attention in stores or on the street, and a magazine advice column follows similar pattern. In Elle magazine, the advice columns are full of almost shocking headlines enticing the reader to read it even if they don’t want advice.  Magazine advice columns are different than that of a newspaper or blog because the question being asked is almost more important than the answer being given.  In a blog or newspaper, everyone knows who is answering the question because they are usually a well-known writer and their picture is shown next to the article, or blog.  In a magazine the questions chosen to be published seem to be the most shocking or head turning things you can think of.  In Elle magazine one headline is “ I want to date, but I still live with my ex-husband.”  Even if a reader was just flipping through a magazine, they are probably going to stop and read that page when they see that line.  Similar to a blog, a magazine seems to appeal to a younger audience, although magazines are still appealing to older ages too.  Both are defiantly not aimed to appeal to children or young teens, because they mostly have some older-audience subjects. 

            Newspapers have regular readers that get it delivered everyday.  Having a newspaper as such a household item, their advice columns tend to be more family appropriate.  Their audience is also more broad than a blog or magazine.  A newspaper advice columns tone is more friendly and attempting to give advice, but also please the reader.  In a blog, the writer has a little more freedom of expression than a writer in a newspaper has. In The Washington Post Carolyn Hax, an advice column writer, responds to more appropriate questions from what seems like older readers.  Hax responds to a reader asking if she should spend money going to many of her friend’s weddings with,  “I’m well past my days of eight weddings in one summer, but in retrospect I am glad I rallied, even when it left me broke and tired. It’s a moment and it passes. If you can’t pay bills, then, okay, stay home.”  This quote follows a similar formula that blog and magazine advice column writers use which is giving the reader advice, as well as explaining why the other option would probably work as well.  This convention pleases the reader, making them believe that either option will work, when really they could have come up with that conclusion themselves. 

 Although all three sources of advice columns have differences, there is a similar formula all advice column writers use to create this genre.  Every advice column writer has to set up a page where is states the question from the writer and their advice giving response.  In some sources the writer has more freedom of expression, but all of them have to write in a somewhat friendly tone in order for people to want to ask them for advice.  Another technique all the sources use is making the reader feel like they know you and truely care.  When reading advice columns from a newspaper, blog, and magazine, all three writers first wrote about sympathizing with the advice seeker.  They then state their opinion of what the advice seeker should do.  They then state that the advice seeker could do what they are telling them, but often times state that the advice seeker should “follow their heart” and see what they think is write.  Leaving this a little open ended allows the readers to take advice, or thinking they are and really just do what they wanted to do all along.  Another thing that all three sources advice columns had in common was the response was a lot longer than question. 

After studying what genre really means and what conventions are in order to create a genre, I believe it is a very important topic for all people to learn.  Genre is important because genre could be anything. If someone knows what genre is, and knows that conventions make up genres than it will be easier for them to figure out what that specific genre is.  Genres are all around us and everyone should learn and practice genre in order to better their knowledge of different texts and even social media.  Genre is important for everyone because everyone is influenced by genre everyday even if they don’t know it.  Facebook, twitter, and instagram are all made up of conventions creating their own genres.  If everyone studied genre, people would be able to better understand what makes up everything we read and are influenced by everyday.