Ana Perez

Prof. McIntosh

ENG 210

October 07, 2021

Reflection

Mental health is important and as a person who struggles with a mental health disorder, it is important that others are aware of what people like me experience and this essay is a result of my experience. The article targets young adults with mental health disorders, students from every grade level, and adults who have experienced similar disorders. I wanted people to be heard, understood and to know that they are not alone. For example, I instead of being too formal and direct, I was using a lot of “I” and how I felt during the pandemic to attract young adults to my article. In my article I added a section discussing the harsh effects in young adults after the periods of isolation. According to the article, “Students tend to be the most affected because we tend to still be growing and developing, and for this to happens we need human interactions” (Perez). Mental health should be everyone’s priority, but a child or students mental health should always be checked.

The publication I have chosen to mimic is Vice. I believe Vice is the best publication because it targets young adults, especially college students, through the style and structure. The articles in Vice tend to be formal but not too formal, they tend to have a more of a friendly tone but with facts to back up their claim. For example, the article I was mimicking tend to have information from psychologist and scientist. Vice tends to always have informative articles that are easy to read and interpret, it contains images which helps visual learners, and the wording is easy to follow, the font is fun and visible, due to its big letters. As a result, I incorporated a bigger font size, and I also used scholarly articles to support my claim. The specific article I am wrote is specifically for the health section at Vice.

 If I was writing this article for another publication, like The New York Times, I would use a different font and font size, like Times New Romans because it’s more professional and targets an older audience. I would also remove the images of my article and put a more serious image to portray the tone of my article. Finally, I would change the tone and go from a friendly and informal tone, like Vice, to a more formal, assertive, and serious, like the NYT. I believe my article would be a good fit for Vice because it embodies the style, structure, and flow of the company.

The genre of the article, aside from being an opinion editorial, is it a narrative and a journal, because I am sharing my own experience and informing others. Replicating an article is simple yet complex, getting the correct visuals to replicate the article is a hard task because some authors or even companies, like Vice and NYT, tend to have their own styles when writing these opinion editorials. Therefore, putting yourself in the author shoes helps evoke what the author is trying to convey. The opinion editorial I chose to replicate was fun to do because the author and I had similar audiences, young adults, and we also discussed mental health.

After reading my article, I would like readers to act and start bringing even more awareness to the topic of mental health. My main goal is helping people get more educated and further their education by doing even more research of the topic and get informed. I would also like those who are struggling with mental health disorders to take it seriously and get help. The pandemic affected all of us but there is help out there for those who need it and for those who want to help, there is people to help and guide through these hard times.