February 3, 2007

XXL
1115 Broadway, 8th Floor
New York, NY 10010

Dear XXL magazine:

I want you to know that I have been a subscriber for about a year now and I’m one of your loyal readers. You guys have everything in this magazine to the new up coming CD’s, the new urban clothing styles, the hottest movies on B.E.T, gossip, news and so much more. I also wanted to inform you about my close family friend in prison right now. He wanted me to let you guys know that he wants to give big-ups to the staff over at XXL magazine for putting his boy T.I on the cover and that while reading about T.I’s come ups, inspires him to do right when he gets out of prison.

I have to say that your Tupac issue was on point. It was refreshing to reminisce on memories of Pac. It’s so unbelievable the impact he had on our people. It’s funny how, whenever a Black person starts to do something to benefit his/her community, he/she gets shot or killed. Ever since he passed, there’s been a dent in hip hop that no other MC will ever be able to come close to filling. With all these so-called beefs, it seems like most of those rappers are taking a step back in the game. While they may be getting rich, they are doing it at the expense of hip hop. It’s not about inspiration anymore. Remember Pac’s “Keep Ya Head Up”? or “Brenda’s got a Baby”? Classics. No matter whose polluting hip hop, the late, the great Tupac Shakur will always be remembered as a legend in and outside of the hip hop community. Thank you for your time.



Sincerely,



Simply Innocent




Simply Innocent
Professor Matthew Jolly
English 102 MW
February 3, 2007
Letter To XXL Magazine Reflection
I established my ethos by letting XXL magazine know a little about myself. I told them that I am one of their loyal readers. I let them know that I’ve been a subscriber and reader for about four years, ever since I was a freshman in high school. It all started when my grandma told me to pick up a book and read it because I would always say I was bored. I asked her would a magazine be ok. She said “as long as you read it”. She explained that if I promised that I’m going to read a magazine, she would subscribe for a years worth. I picked XXL magazine because it had everything I liked. XXL had everything to the new urban clothing, the new up coming CD’s, news and lots of gossip about music artists. Everyone loves gossip. I now pay for the magazine since two years ago, its affordable.
The organization of my letters was pretty understandable. It took three drafts to get my letter able to be published. The first draft of my letter was the one that I had to take to class for a class review. We didn’t get to go over my letter and outline, but the two letters we did go over in class was extremely helpful. I had to shorten my letter because most of the letters that got published in the XXL magazine were a lot shorter. I only had to cut off a paragraph. I had three paragraphs before, now I only have two. The second draft of my letters was so much better although I had o edit my letter for misspelled words or anything I might have left out. The third draft of my letter I asked my grandma to look over my letter to see if it had all they elements I told her it needed. I explained that I needed to involve ethos, purpose, pathos and I had to be able to have a clear audience and a clear occasion for my letter. I’m also supposed to have a clear tone, voice and genre. I succeeded by the time I got to my third draft.
XXL magazine was the perfect magazine for me to write a letter to because I have been a subscriber and reader for a good four years. The magazine contains many articles on music artists talking about what’s going on with their music and about life in the music industry. The magazine always has the hottest music artist on the cover of XXL and inside the magazine they give interviews to who ever they have on the cover. XXL also has many urban clothing and shoe advertisements. My second favorite thing in this magazine from the stories, is knowing when the new upcoming CD’s come out. XXL gives you the dates and stores the CD will be sold at. The magazine also has a section called mail, where the public can write to XXL expressing their opinions and feelings about anything that was said or read in the magazine.
In my letter to the editor, I didn’t state the occasion because I felt that it would be better in my reflection. Well, after coming home from school, this months XXL magazine was sitting on my desk in my bedroom. XXL magazine is some what of a stress reliever for me, since I’ve been reading it for so long. I came home from school already upset about the large amount of math homework I had in store for me. I sat down in my lazy boy chair to read XXL. When I got to the letters section, it made me think because over the years so many people have negative comments to say about the magazine and the material in the magazine. I decided to write to XXL giving them credit to my all time favorite celebrity issue in their magazine.
The purpose of writing a letter to XXL magazine is to give them credit for doing such a great job with putting the magazine together and given the readers some other piece of entertainment other than watching TV all day. I’m such a positive person, so I thought that maybe by writing a positive letter to XXL that people who read my letter would also give positive feedback about the magazine and what’s inside it.
The genre of my letter is writing in business letter format. The tone of my letter is calm because there are very few letters in the magazine that are calm and have a positive thing to comment on. My letter is also in a calm tone because I’m not into sending unpleasant letters to a magazine, hoping to criticism published. I wouldn’t want my friends and family to read the XXL and see my negative comments. I think my friends and family would think differently about me, depending on what I have written.
In the XXL magazine I found a lot of facts but in the magazine letters, there were hardy and facts. You couldn’t really tell if the comments made by readers were true. In my letter I used the logical appeal called logos. My claim was that XXL magazine gives correct dates of when and where the new upcoming CD’s will be stored. I support the claim because a reader wrote in a letter to the editor, talking about how she has been so long for the new Game CD called The Doctor’s Advocate which XXL said it drops on 11/14/06. The reader also wrote that she went to Best Buy to buy the CD and it was there under the new release isle.
I also used the pathetical appeal which is pathos, in my letter to the editor. I noticed by using pathos in your letter, you are more likely to get your letter published because people can relate to your situation. I my letter I explained to XXL that I have a close family friend who is in prison right now. My friend knows that I read XXL, so he decided to start reading it too. He explained to me over the phone that the article about T.I inspired him to do right when he gets out of prison. I wanted what he said to being my letter because I believe he will do right just because of the T.I issue.
My actual audience would be the editor and the readers, if my letter gets published. The readers of my letter would be the people who read XXL magazine on a regular basis and people who love listening to Hip Hop, Rap and RnB music. My imagined audience would have to be the real Tupac Shakur, if he was still alive. Rest in Peace Pac. He would be my imagined audience because I would want him to read all about the good things I have said about him in my letter to XXL magazine.

Surprised!!

Man i was so surprised that the class was asked to create a blog. I never really knew what a blog was until my instructor showed us in my last semesters english class. I thought blogs were pretty cool but i have a lot of other things to do besides a blog. Don't get me wrong it's pretty fun i guess when your bored and have nothing else to do in your spare time. Since i have do write entires in my blog for class, i will try to make the best of it. Lol