Easy Meal for kids under 6 years- “Bunny in a Hole”
Purpose: I hope to write instructions for a meal that is easy enough for children six years old and younger to participate in creating. I want the child to feel like they are a part of the cooking process and they were able to contribute as much, if not more than the parent who is helping. Children sometimes get left out of “grown-up” actions and I used to feel that way when I was younger, so I wanted to help put together kid friendly meals. My goal for when a child attempts to cook the meal is that it will turn out delicious and the child will have had fun creating it. I wouldn’t want the child to feel that the parents took over the cooking process and that the child did not have fun in making the food. I believe that the purpose of these instructions will give the best outcome and the child/children involved will have had a great time.
Audience: The people that will take part in cooking this meal are children under the age of 6 years old and their parents, guardians, or babysitters. It will be people that are able to buy the ingredients needed, have a stove, and are able to spend time creating the meal. I believe the children that chose this meal as what they want to cook will want there to pictures and colors on the recipe. Children are drawn to things that are bright and cheerful, so that is how the recipe will be designed.
Context: This recipe will be used during breakfast time and only if the user is hungry. The creation of the meal will take place in a kitchen because of the need for a stove. The meal will probably be made on a Saturday or Sunday because those are the days when parents have more free time to spend with their children. If there happens to be a stay at home parent/guardian or babysitter then the meal could be made during the week for breakfast.
Strategies: My strategy would be to create a very eye appealing document, especially for the child. If the child wants to use the recipe solely because of its design and color usage it doesn’t matter because that means they are going to try out the recipe regardless. It is like picking out a book to read to children before they go to sleep. If the child likes the pictures in the book, then that is the one they are going to pick out for their parents to read. The parent/guardian/babysitter will definitely pick out the recipe of the child’s choice, so the goal is to cause the child to want to pick out my recipe.
Medium: This will overlap my strategy because I am planning on making the recipe extremely colorful and attractive to a child’s eye. The words that stick out will be words that a 6 year old or younger could read and understand. There will be step by step pictures of how to put together this breakfast. It will be very kid friendly, but also appeal to the guardians because of the safety precautions that will be taken. My goal is for the people cooking to have a great time together and be successful in putting together something that tastes good.
Arrangement: For this particular material I would make a cover page with a large colorful representation of the food that the consumer is going to be making. The second page will have the ingredients because that is the most important part of a recipe. Along with the ingredients there will be pictures of the ingredients and the words that are used will be colorful. If there is room on that page I will begin to give the steps of how to put together the breakfast. With each and every step there will be pictures as well; one, because children love to look at pictures and two, if someone were to not understand the directions they can refer to the pictures.
Testing: When it comes to testing this material I would probably talk to a mom who has a child of the age I am targeting and see if the way I am going about my recipe is the right way to go. For this particular matter it would probably be easy to show the guardian and child the finished product and let them test it out because it would not be hard to go back in and revise the recipe. I want to make sure that the recipe will end in happiness for the child, so I will test out the process myself to see if it will work.
Comment
The purpose is the most clear of the seven rhetorical elements. You chose an interesting audience, because it is true that children often get left out of certain "adult" activities, when they want to help and be involved. I'm interested to see how successful the child would be at creating their own meal.
I think medium is the rhetorical element that is least elaborated on. All of them are described well, but you might want to include in the medium section that you will actually be creating a book, if that is what you decide to do. Or, you might want to say that you are posting the receipe online. Just make sure to mention how it will be presented.
Your instructions connect with my project "how to french braid" in that it is often children who want to learn things like this. Mine is not necessarily targeted towards children, but I might change and incorporate them as one of my audiences.
Obviously this instruction set would provide steps to making a more advanced meal if the audience was adults instead of children. The instructions might not be as colorful, or include as many pictures.
Seth on your Left
I found the most thorough element of rhetoric that you covered was your audience as well as your context. I totally understand who your righting for and under what conditions these intructions would come into play. Younger children are always looking for responsibilities in the kitchen.
The one element you need to focus on a little more is your medium. Where did these children go about encountering the instructions. Did them print them offline after a google search, or did mommy pick a brochure from Harris Teeter?
This connects with my instruction in that I too am giving step by step instructions with an audience who has almost no experience in the subject I am dealing with, similar to any small child in the kitchen. It is unfamiliar territory.
If this same recipe was for an older audience then obviously the entire arrangement would be affected. The pictures might have to and the steps would be all that is left for an adult to quickly follow.