Finucane 1

Haleigh Finucane

Wharton

RC 2001

26 March 2019

Rhetorical Rationale

When working on an idea for my ethnography project, I knew I wanted to address the

summer camp profession/experience, but I was unsure what to focus on. When I started to work

on it, I established my audience as those interested in signing up their kids for camp, and along

with that possibly gain interest of young adults considering working at a summer camp. When

getting into research for this topic, most of the information I had a general idea about from

personal experience. To learn more about the proven benefits of camp, I looked through

numerous popular websites and studies that had information on the emotional and physical

benefit of summer camp. When putting together my final project, The majority of my research

was present in the “Why Camp?” page on my website. There was also some research put into the

“Types of Camps” columns, but my personal camp experience was all about my memories and

time at camp. I feel that providing substantial research while also relying on a great deal of

personal experience was beneficial to the audience interested, as camp is not something that can

just be explained through numbers, but also experiences. By using pictures from my own camp

experiences in my website, there is a very personal and emotional energy present, as readers can

see how passionate I am about the camp experience and really see the positivity and joy that

camp has on others, further intriguing them.

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When writing the content for the website, I found myself to be talking a lot about how

everything at camp impacts the children. I feel that I took on the tone of a counselor addressing

the parents, which was very familiar for me. Looking back on my work, I can see that this

website is very much geared toward parents, as I address the pros and cons to every type of camp

for different children. The whole page called “Why Camp?” was a page I believe would be

especially important to parents, as they want to see their children grow through these kind of

experiences, especially when camps cost so much money. Parents are going to see the “Why

Camp?” page and gain much more insight into the benefits of camp, which they might have

missed if they had just looked at specific camp websites. While I still have much to learn on this

subject, I believe that I created ethos for myself through addressing my camp experience on the

“Personal Camp Experience” page, as well as through numerous pictures of me as a counselor

with my campers.

When finally figuring out my target audience, I decided to create a website for this topic.

I believe that a website is very effective in gaining parent’s attention, because the majority of

parents deciding to send their children to camp are going to do extensive online research to

figure this out. The website I created would be very helpful for this audience, as it is specifically

focused on the reasons to send children to camp, and would contain all the information multiple

sites normally would when researching this. I considered creating a video at the camp I work at

on a weekend, which could potentially provide more interest to both campers and their parents.

However, I believe my poster along with my website would contain more researched backed

information, and read less like an advertisement for an individual camp.

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When entering the website, it is divided into three different pages at the top, and opens on

a homepage entitled “The Power of Camp”. The three different pages: “Why Camp?”, “Types of

Camps”, and “Personal Camp Experience” address the three different things on the audience's

mind in an organized fashion. The “Why Camp?” page outlines the benefits of camp on

children’s well being, while the “Types of Camps” page explains the two main types of summer

camps, and how each might benefit different families or children. Finally, the “Personal Camp

Experience” backs up my knowledge on the subject and provides assurance for parents that I am

well versed in the world of summer camp. When including my own camp pictures, I thoughtfully

included pictures on each page that I felt most accurately represented the information present, or

mood in place. For my personal information page, I used more pathos by including pictures

throughout my years at camp, even one of me as a camper.

While conducting researching into this subject, I was surprised to learn that I feel even

more confident on the information than I did before. Previously, I was somewhat aware of the

proven benefits of camp for children, but getting into the research was very interesting to

discover and furthered my passion for camp. Overall, I feel that I did an effective job informing

the audience on this subject. However, I feel that there is definitely room for the website to

improve. If I had more time to work on the website, I believe it could be even more informative

and detailed.
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Works Cited

“8 Benefits of Summer Camp.” ​Indy's Child Magazine,​ 8 Jan. 2019,

indyschild.com/the-benefits-of-summer-camp/.