Beach City is an
apartment complex for students located right next to SBCC and the person I
chose to do my future interview with is Chad Clark, the area manager of Beach
City. The property carries 450 beds in seven buildings (they do bed leasing so
that each student has their own lease) and to go with that they have a pool
area, game room, ping pong tables, parking and laundry rooms. The three writing
artifacts I got from Chad are their official lease (the lease all tenants need
to sign before they can get a spot), an incident report form and a document
explaining the judicial process of Beach City.
The first writing artifact, the lease, was the most interesting writing artifact to analyze. It is 16 pages long and mostly in a very strict, professional and formal language (since it is a legal document, it has to be) which sets a formal tone and when you are reading it, you know that this thing is important. They also have a lot of complicated words in there that an international student like myself may or may not understand. Using complicated words like that will make the reader aware of the fact that this is a legal document (all genres have different words they use, called jargon) but it will also make you believe and see that they are credible. If they had a lease where everything was written in the same way as a children’s book, it would not look valid. The genre of this piece, as stated before is legal. It is a legal document to make sure that the tenants know what the rules are, what payments that needs to be made and how to make them. It also states the company’s policies, duration of tenancy and what kind of unit they are signing for. The purpose is to make sure that the new tenant and Beach City are on the same page about rules, dates, and payments and so on so that the duration of tenancy goes as smooth as possible. Their main audience would be college students and their parents, since the students need to sign the papers but it is usually the parents who will take the time to read it through.
The first writing artifact, the lease, was the most interesting writing artifact to analyze. It is 16 pages long and mostly in a very strict, professional and formal language (since it is a legal document, it has to be) which sets a formal tone and when you are reading it, you know that this thing is important. They also have a lot of complicated words in there that an international student like myself may or may not understand. Using complicated words like that will make the reader aware of the fact that this is a legal document (all genres have different words they use, called jargon) but it will also make you believe and see that they are credible. If they had a lease where everything was written in the same way as a children’s book, it would not look valid. The genre of this piece, as stated before is legal. It is a legal document to make sure that the tenants know what the rules are, what payments that needs to be made and how to make them. It also states the company’s policies, duration of tenancy and what kind of unit they are signing for. The purpose is to make sure that the new tenant and Beach City are on the same page about rules, dates, and payments and so on so that the duration of tenancy goes as smooth as possible. Their main audience would be college students and their parents, since the students need to sign the papers but it is usually the parents who will take the time to read it through.
To
make sure that they get their argument through, as in everything else, they are
using rhetoric (how they are conveying the message). By using complicated
words, having a strict tone and being very organized in their lease they show
us that they are credible and that their lease is a valid one (ethos). The
majority of the lease is very straight forward, telling you what you can or
cannot do and what have happened before (just plain, logical information for
most people) which I want to consider as their logos. The last part (pathos) is
about emotion and how to get someone interested in the message you are trying
to give out. What is really interesting about this lease and what makes it different
from other leases that I have read (student complexes as well), is that they
use a big portion of humor on their first page. It is the opening page of the
lease so it is the first thing the new, potential tenant will see and it will
be a part of their first impression of the company. The logo they have at the
top (“Beach City”) is designed in a very futuristic and modern way, which goes
along with the overall style and design of the company. The building numbers have
the same font and the entire complex looks very modern and new. The logo is
also blue, and the color blue is often associated with sky and sea, which can
be a symbolic gesture for depth and stability. It is about showing the new
tenants that the environment at Beach City is a stable and loyal one and a good
place to leave your college students. After the logo, the entire page is
written in fat print mostly stating brief and fun information about what you can
and cannot do and here is where the pathos comes into this legal document. They
are stating things like “I love dogs, I will not allow you to have a dog”,
which is much less formal than just stating “dogs are not allowed on the
property”. Point seven in the lease says, “IV is only one square mile so do you
really need to drive your car? Please bike, skate, walk or crawl if you have
to.” This statement alone shows that they have some sense of humor in there and
that is what they are trying to get out there. That this is not just another
lease that is copied and pasted, they are trying to show what kind of company
they are (or at lease what kind of company they want to be).
The next writing artifact that I want to analyze is the judicial process at Beach City. A document written by Chad himself. This document is not yet official (the lease is of course official since all tenants have to sign it), but will probably be official eventually. This document is written in a very straightforward, formal and serious matter. It talks about serious issues on what you cannot do while you live at Beach City and what steps will be taken if you do anything that is against the lease or even the law. First of all, just by having this kind of documentation shows that this is a company who has to deal with a lot of “mistakes” and discussions with tenants (students) who are away from home for the first time. This is not really a legal document; it is more of an informative document stating the steps you would have to go through if you do something bad or illegal on the property. The audience for this type of artifact is the tenants (students), the employees at Beach City and the tenants’ parents since most of them are around 18-20 years old and does not have enough experience with this kind of paperwork. The purpose would be to inform their tenants (in general) or a specific tenant what the process would be and what happens next if they are subject for a judicial meeting. The tone and style, as stated before is very formal and important, you know that you have done something wrong if you are given this piece of paper with your name on it. It talks very specifically about what the steps are, who will do what and when and what could happen if you do not follow the steps and their guidelines.
It is organized with different paragraphs and is is clearly stated what is going on in bullet points with different headings. Organizing it like this also gives you the feeling of it being very formal and important. They are not sending you a private message with a personal way of solving whatever the problem is, this is a process that you just have to follow. However, reading it as a student myself I do believe that they have adjusted it to make sense to their tenants. It is not an easy read, but it is not impossible either. They still make it work in a way that is still formal enough to be a valid document about an important issue, but they also make it easy enough for a college student to know what is going on. This is a good thing and shows that they are really trying to provide good service for their tenants.
The last artifact that I am going to analyze is an incident report form. This is a form that will be used by staff members when something happens to make sure that the incident is written down and reported in the right way. Again, they have their logo "Beach City" in blue, modern print at the top and then it is very organized, as with most of their paperwork so far. On the top, left corner it says that the document is confidential, which gives you the feeling of an important and serious matter. However, it is very brief and straightforward throughout the entire document so it is not as "heavy" as the lease or the document about the judicial process. This is not really a legal document, it is more of a "form" so I am not sure what genre that would fall under. The audience for this one is mostly the employees of Beach City (the security team mostly), the management team and maybe a lawyer involved in a court case. The purpose is to make sure that Beach City has a sufficient record of what happened in case of an incident stating what was going on from the employees perspective since that person probably was involved in some way or just at the location.
The next writing artifact that I want to analyze is the judicial process at Beach City. A document written by Chad himself. This document is not yet official (the lease is of course official since all tenants have to sign it), but will probably be official eventually. This document is written in a very straightforward, formal and serious matter. It talks about serious issues on what you cannot do while you live at Beach City and what steps will be taken if you do anything that is against the lease or even the law. First of all, just by having this kind of documentation shows that this is a company who has to deal with a lot of “mistakes” and discussions with tenants (students) who are away from home for the first time. This is not really a legal document; it is more of an informative document stating the steps you would have to go through if you do something bad or illegal on the property. The audience for this type of artifact is the tenants (students), the employees at Beach City and the tenants’ parents since most of them are around 18-20 years old and does not have enough experience with this kind of paperwork. The purpose would be to inform their tenants (in general) or a specific tenant what the process would be and what happens next if they are subject for a judicial meeting. The tone and style, as stated before is very formal and important, you know that you have done something wrong if you are given this piece of paper with your name on it. It talks very specifically about what the steps are, who will do what and when and what could happen if you do not follow the steps and their guidelines.
It is organized with different paragraphs and is is clearly stated what is going on in bullet points with different headings. Organizing it like this also gives you the feeling of it being very formal and important. They are not sending you a private message with a personal way of solving whatever the problem is, this is a process that you just have to follow. However, reading it as a student myself I do believe that they have adjusted it to make sense to their tenants. It is not an easy read, but it is not impossible either. They still make it work in a way that is still formal enough to be a valid document about an important issue, but they also make it easy enough for a college student to know what is going on. This is a good thing and shows that they are really trying to provide good service for their tenants.
The last artifact that I am going to analyze is an incident report form. This is a form that will be used by staff members when something happens to make sure that the incident is written down and reported in the right way. Again, they have their logo "Beach City" in blue, modern print at the top and then it is very organized, as with most of their paperwork so far. On the top, left corner it says that the document is confidential, which gives you the feeling of an important and serious matter. However, it is very brief and straightforward throughout the entire document so it is not as "heavy" as the lease or the document about the judicial process. This is not really a legal document, it is more of a "form" so I am not sure what genre that would fall under. The audience for this one is mostly the employees of Beach City (the security team mostly), the management team and maybe a lawyer involved in a court case. The purpose is to make sure that Beach City has a sufficient record of what happened in case of an incident stating what was going on from the employees perspective since that person probably was involved in some way or just at the location.
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