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In "We're All Cousins and Other Web Revelations" (page 141 of NextText), Michael Schuyler - like Henry Louis Gates, Jr. in "My Yiddishe Mama" (page 135) - traces his family history. However, the two pieces have different approaches to the topic and are written for different audiences. Compare the two essays, identifying - among other observations - how audience affects the style and tone of each.
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Well the two essays are very different. Both use this story mode tone but essay by Michael Schuyler uses dialog. Because the second essay was written as a dialog, I felt like it was much more interesting, and caught my attention more then the first one. In the second essay there was also a sense that the narrator was talking to the audience at some point (like asking questions). He also gave examples where the audience could search about the heritage.
The two essays, “We’re All Cousins and Other Revelations” and “My Yiddishe Mama”, are alike as far as the topic is concerned. Both essays are narratives of how one person traces their ancestors. Both essays use the power of internet research as an aid to tracing family history. What separates these essays, however, is that each has a different audience it is meant to draw towards.
The “My Yiddishe Mama” essay is drawn more towards African-Americans, who can barely trace their family history beyond their slave ancestors. She mentions a book titled Roots, which is a series of stories about the lives of African-American slaves, and throughout talks about finding her trace through Africa. In his essay, Gates Jr. sounded very inquisitive, most likely because his audience is one that probably inquires about their family history all of the time. There is more of trying to put in someone else’s shoes in “My Yiddishe Mama”.
On the other hand, “We’re All Cousins and Other Revelations” does not seem to be limited to a single audience. The writing is clear, modern in language, and understandable, much like “My Yiddishe Mama” yet it doesn’t exclude anyone. It is written so that anyone can understand it, at least those of a reading age group and above. As oppose to an inquisitive tone expressed in “My Yiddishe Mama”, the tone in “We’re All Cousins and Other Revelations” is less intrusive. It doesn’t really act like there is some sort of conspiracy going on like Gate’s essay.
Writing style and references can determine what type of audience the essay is drawn towards to. While the two essays were similar, both had a different audience to attract.
The intended audience in “My Yiddishe Mama” by Henry Louis Gates Jr., and “We’re All Cousins and Other Web Revelations” by Michael Schuyler, affect the style and tone of each article. Both articles are narratives focusing on the author’s success of tracing back family history and ancestry, but one of the articles is more narrow on the audience than the other.
Gates’ article is focused on African Americans trying to trace back their family trees. His article is narrowed down to a specific audience, mostly African Americans who are facing a hard time finding their ancestry. Gates’ language is complicated, he uses a lot of scientific terms to describe the history he found. The article shows the conflicts African Americans face while searching for their ancestors. Many African Americans that are having trouble finding family information may find this article useful. It shows that a lot of people are going through hard times finding their family history.
Schuyler’s article involves a lot of Internet reference, which shows that more tech savvy people would like it. Still, it isn’t narrowed down to one specific group of people. Anyone who is interested in finding their ancestors through research on the Internet will find this article helpful. In some sense, this article is a guide to finding family history. The headings used to organize his thoughts made it easier to understand the content. People in all age groups and ethnic backgrounds will find this article useful.
In the first essay “My Yiddishe Mama” Henry Louis Gates shows the complications African Americans face in tracing their family trees. This essay addresses mostly intelligent audiences. The way the author writes his essay demonstrates that it’s not for a general audience. Children and teenagers will hardly understand the terminology used in this article. They wouldn’t even be interested in reading further after the first paragraph. However, there’s a hint that the writer wants to engage wide spectrum of audiences by taking celebrity names like Oprah Winfrey, Chris Tucker and Whoopi Goldberg for example.
The second essay, written by Michael Schuyler, has the same topic as the first essay, but it’s differs in style and tone. He starts his essay with an anecdote involving his father’s past, which instantly grabs the reader’s attention. We can say that this article was written for a regular audience. It doesn’t have big words and jargon. It is easy to read. The author obviously has a sense of humor, which he showed in his article. He uses conversational tones as if he were writing to his peers.
Nevertheless these two articles have the same topic aimed at different audiences.
Despite similar premises, “We’re All Cousins and Other Web Revelations” and “My Yiddishe Mama” are written differently to better suit different audiences. The authors, Michael Schuyler and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., both set out to explore their family trees in individual fashions. Michael Schuyer wrote the former article for Computers in Libraries to focus on the technology involved in his historical research. He first details a brief history of online genealogy and how traditional researchers regard it. While searching through his family tree, the author explores various websites dedicated to genealogical research. He recommends some of theme and also explains the problems with several sites, usually relating to inaccuracy. This information is pertinent to the article; after all, Schuyer is writing for a publication dedicated to the technological aspects of society. The audience thus expects a technological slant to the reading. Gates, in contrast, has a different focus in his writing. His article for The Wall Street Journal is more closely dedicated to the emotional aspects of his search through his family’s history. Gates describes the desire to learn more about his background and uncover the stories of his ancestors. Also, his article is more of a narrative than Schuyer’s. This is not to say that Schuyer does not tell his own story in his piece. Gates simply tries to convey the story of him and his students in a more relatable fashion. Gates wants to help the audience learn more about the importance of one’s family tree by presenting his example. As part of a newspaper, the article is appropriately geared to inform and entertain. The authors of each piece may have different aims, but both have tried to keep their audiences’ expectations in sight.
Well the two essays are very different. Both use this story mode tone but essay by Michael Schuyler uses dialog. Because the second essay was written as a dialog, I felt like it was much more interesting, and caught my attention more then the first one. In the second essay there was also a sense that the narrator was talking to the audience at some point (like asking questions). He also gave examples where the audience could search about the heritage.
In the first essay the author told his story of him trying to find everything he could about his ancestors and how hard it was. He told what he has discovered, but I feel like he didn't really get the audience involved. It seemed like he was just going on and on without putting anything interesting in that could catch my attention except for in the end in which he included a humorous remark. But his tone seemed very serious and intricate, as well as scientific. His essay would probably appeal more to professors or someone who is a serious person. Schuyler's essay would probably appeal more to students.
The two essays are completely different in tone and how it is written. Both essays are narratives but different in that the audiences are thought of as being different hence the contrast in tones of both essays. One essay is generalized yet simplified while the other is a story(play by play) and more of something to be thought about. In "My Yiddishe Mama" the main character traces down their ancestry of African American descent but is having a hard time finding anything beyond their history of being slaves. In "We're All Cousins..." is basically talking about how you can find anything on the internet while it is easier to read than the other story. Both are also similar in what they were narrating. Both essays wanted to speak about searching ways to find your ancestors, while they weren't meant for the same people to read them.
Compare and Contrast
The two stories both discuss the fact of discovering heritage. The first story titled "My Yiddishe Mama", discusses how a man is in search of finding out more about his ancestors. Yet in the process he challenges others to join him in finding their African heritage. He later finds out that his own ancestry was not exactly what he was hoping for. This story is alike to the second one, "We're All Cousins and Other We Revelations" because they both discuss heritage and ways of learning more about their family history. Another similarity is the use of technology to discover ancestry. The first article uses a documentary to show different facts people discovered about their family history.
However, the two articles are very different. First of all, with tone. The first story is less comical. It discusses a serious topic such as slavery and how some African American ancestors worked to gain land for themselves. The second article is more of an up-beat story because the writer discusses how people today may actually be related to one another.
However, both articles are easy to read and are easily relateble. Each person in today's society wants to know more about themselves, especially if it is easily accessible by using the internet.
The two stories have the same topic which is a focus on a persons bloodline and how they can be traced. "My Yiddishe Mama" is based on finding the roots of african americans through the use library investigation. The story is written like a narrative and is actually interstingly written. Example of how african americans such as Oprah Winfrey have traced their roots as far back as possible only to get lost in the mess created by slavery. In “We’re All Cousins and Other Revelations” a more broad audience is adressed. The use of technology to trace roots is very wll explained. The author goes into detail about which sites can be used and what problems they have. This story has a more modern feel to it but did not capture my interest as much as the other.
In the story “We’re all Cousins and Other Web Revelations” talks about how a newspaper was worth a lot and in order to identify how much it is worth one of the family members goes through the experience of his identifying his family roots with the technology used now. The story is about the same as “My Yiddishe Mama” it also talks about the family and the roots where their ancestors came from. Both stories have some difference in them such as tone but the audience is the same. The stories had a narrative in each one of them explaining family details they shared. “My Yiddishe Mama,” audience was mostly the African Americans who would be reading a story like this because it is telling them about there ancestry and how they got to know there roots. In “We’re All Cousins and Other Web Revelations” audience are people who want to know their family but mostly both stories have similar audience.
In "My Yiddishe Mama" by Henry Louis Gates Jr. the article speaks about the family history of many "prominent African American" families. It begins with one person inviting many people to find out about their ancestry. This article is like a narrative and mainly aimed toward a specific audience. In "We're All Cousins and Web Revelations" by Michael Schuyler the story is also told as a narrative describing how h opened an evelope of his father that contained a proof sheet from sometime ago. In this story, the target audience is more generl and not aimed toward a specific audience. Overall, in both stories they both are told s narratives but aimed toward differet audiences.
The essays “My Yiddishe Mama” by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and “We’re All Cousins and Other Web Revelations” by Michael Schuyler contain similar as well as different elements which each uses to explain their journey in finding their ancestors, by tracing back in their family tree.
In the first essay Henry Louis Gates Jr. explains to the reader the difficulty for African Americans in tracing their roots. Gates is seen retelling his story in an intellectual fashion. However, it also can be seen as a self-search; to find a sense of identity. He explains that he has done an effort to understand more of his roots by learning and reading stories about his ancestors.
In the second essay, Michael Schuyler also explains his story in tracing his ancestors but by a different means, the internet. It was more informant of the use of the internet as a tool. It also contained a more casual narrative than the first essay by Henry Louis Gates Jr.
As far as audience, each author intended to right these essays to a specific group of readers. In his essay, Henry Louis Gates Jr. had more focus on the African American readers who have a similarity with him in tracing back to their roots. In the contrast, Schuyler addresses more of a general audience in that it is very open and casual but does mention technology with the internet that allows it to be taken a bit more serious because the technological generation we live in.
In “We’re All Cousins and Other Web Revelations” and “My Yiddishe Mama” both Michael Schuyler and Henry Louis Gates write about their experience and overall findings of their genealogies. Schuyler wrote mainly about the people he discovered and were they were from. He added some humor, which made the essay more likable. I would say Schuyler wrote to all different types of audiences. He described many online sources to find information on genealogy. When Schuyler wrote about the online sources not always being reliable, I thought of my mothers own investigation into our family tree. She had looked at several different sources and got slightly different answers from each.
With Gates Essay, He focused on the location of his and other peoples ancestors. He got 8 prominent African Americans to have their DNA tested to ultimately find out where their ancestors were from. Their reaction was not as he had expected though and it was much different. Both of these authors wanted to show in-depth research in these essays. Both Schuyler and Gates provided such information.
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