American Literature / Unit 3 AML 0215 short lesson, about 20 seconds
The Promotional Tract: Writing to Recruit
Captions available
The idea
Much exploration writing was advertising. Its authors wrote to attract investors and settlers, so the soil is always fertile, the harbours deep, the natives friendly or conquerable, and the hardships brief. Recognizing the purpose is the first step in reading the genre, because the purpose selects the facts.
In practice
Written to sell a voyage.
Where people slip
The genre's optimism is commercial, not naive.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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