Statement of Purpose

For this photo essay, my audience will be the general public, specifically anyone who travels through any mean, whether it be by train, car, bus, or plane. My audience will also include anyone interested in aviation, safety, my fellow classmates, and teacher. This photo essay will be placed on an online blog, so anyone searching the web about the topic of safety may stumble upon my essay. Most people would probably be viewing this at home, on their computer, but it could also be viewed at a library or on a smartphone. The time at which a person views this essay could easily shape how they perceive its information. For example, if the person viewing it was just in a car crash, or saw plane crashes all week in the news, it could skew their thought process about the information they are viewing, and make the viewer think of my information as false or bias. The purpose to which I am writing this essay is pretty simple: I want the general public, or any person that travels, to be informed and more aware about the safety of the main types of transportation, cars, trains, and buses, compared to air travel.  Most people assume flying is inherently dangerous, and travelling via ground is always much safer, so my purpose in this essay is to inform people who travel about the safety of airplanes vs. means of travel on the ground. I need to do this by not being biased towards air travel, since I am a pilot, and give all of the facts and safety data for all means of travel presented in a coherent manner. This way, I can assure that the audience has a clear sense of what the information I am presenting means, and they can take away a clear message from the essay. 

Design Plan

Purpose:

My main purpose for this essay is to get more people informed about how safe air travel, especially in the US, really is. I wish to do this to get more people boarding flights instead of using ground travel because they think it is safer, and also to get more people involved in aviation. Many people who would otherwise be interested in an aviation career do not pursue it because of safety concerns, and there is a declining amount of pilots each year.

Medium & Production:

            I will be using photographs of planes, cars, trains, and buses to present my information in a visually descriptive way. I want to show what the safety equipment is like on each type of transportation, as well as showing what the average vehicle for that mean of transportation looks like. These will all be included in the photo essay, along with a description next to them, which will then be posted on an online blog.

Strategies:

Ethos – I will try to use descriptions and pictures that show that I am not biased towards any mean of transportation, and that I am just trying to get general information of means of travel out to anyone who is interested. I do not want to make my essay seem that my viewpoint on travel is the only correct one.

Pathos – I would want to evoke the emotions of my reader by showing them different pictures of car, plane, train, and bus crashes alike, so they can see how deadly each one is, in order to sway their view about safety. The essay will be mostly serious and descriptive.

Logos – I will use statistics about the amount of crashes, deaths, and number of people who use each mean of transportation. I will do this in order to get the viewer the most information possible about the topic.

Arrangement:

            I will have my statement of purpose in the beginning of the essay, which will give the viewer a brief overview about what the photo essay will include. After this, I will have multiple slides, each containing at least one photo, and a description next to each photo, to show why it is in the essay and what its importance is. I will attempt to end the essay with an overall statement of what I think the viewer should reflect on as most important at the end of the essay.

Testing:

            I will show my photo essay to friends during the drafting and finalization stages. I will do this to get their opinions on the essay, ask them what I should change, and see if they got the overall message I was trying to convey. 

Photo Essay

Closing Comments on Photo Essay

I believe my photo essay came very close to what I had envisioned for it during the design plan stage. My goal was to give out general information about the safety of air travel compared to cars, buses, and trains, to the general public, or any person that travels using any of these means. I believe I put the information and statistics in a clear and coherent manner, where any third party viewer could look at the essay and see what the intended message is supposed to be. The only thing I did not get in  my photo essay that I wanted was pictures of train/bus crashes, and instead showed what normal ones looked like. I believe I gained some good knowledge on what a photo essay is, how to make one, and how to convey an overall message using this type of essay. Overall, I think the photo essay turned out how it was planned, and gives the intended message.