Genre Repurposing Project: Dating Apps

This was one of the writing projects for this senior seminar class. The purpose of the project was to repurpose something we had written for a completely different audience. I repurposed my piece on dating apps which is also in this portfolio. I thought it would be interesting to have both of them in the portfolio so you can see how I write different for two very different audiences. The original one is written for an academic audience whereas this one is written for a more popular audience such as the audience of the Atlantic. The argument of this paper is very similar to that in the original piece though it is reworded to portray a slightly different tone. The argument is as follows, “As a result, it seems that dating apps have become a mindless form of entertainment centered around self-affirmation, which seems to mark an overall shift in how people particularly in this generation have begun to think of dating, leading to a rise in casual dating” (Fountain 1). This sets up the paper for the rest of the anecdotal and statistical evidence woven throughout.

This piece was eye-opening to me in how we can have different voices as a writer and how we can transform a piece from one audience to another. I did find it difficult to rewrite something I had already written especially something that I was proud and happy with how it turned out. I had to completely rethink the structure of the piece and what details were important to include and what elements I should add. But it was an interesting writing adventure and something I had never done before. It is something that I feel like could be helpful in the future when rewriting things like cover letters to fit different employers, while it isn’t a completely different audience it is learning what key elements are fitting for different people who value different things.