White Papers: An Accomodated Citizens' Genre

In a report by The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty and The National Coalition for the Homeless from July 2009 entitled “Homes Not Handcuffs: The Criminalization of Homelessness in U.S. Cities,” a lot of statistical information is provided on how the criminalization of homeless people is a detriment to society as a whole. As opposed to helping these people who are “doing things they need to do to survive,” by providing them with shelter, the government is choosing to enforce more laws that “appear to have the purpose of moving homeless people out of sight, or even out of a given city.” (9). Since this white paper is providing the public with insight on how the government is choosing to treat the issues with homeless people on the streets, it is in turn defining itself as a citizens’ genre while also having explanatory aspects. As the report continues to inform the public on what is going on within their communities, it also provides recommendations on how to potentially resolve the issues presented.

This white paper not only addresses issues of homeless criminalization, it also includes some hefty accommodations for public readership. Sources for this report originate from other complex reports and surveys on the matter. In order for the public to understand this information and why it is important to them, it must be transformed into simpler, more understandable terms. To enable the understanding of this information for the public there must be, as Jeanne Fahnestock states, a shift in genre and rhetorical situation. In her article, “Accommodating Science: The Rhetorical Life of Scientific Facts,” Fahnestock claims that “instead of simply reporting facts for a different audience, scientific accommodations are overwhelmingly epideictic; their main purpose is to celebrate rather than validate… they must be explicit in their claims about the value of the scientific discoveries they pass along.” (Fahnstock 279). So in transforming information for their public audience, The National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty and The National Coalition for the Homeless had to change their rhetorical situation in order to suit their new audience. They do so by not only simplifying their information, but also by applying the information to a situation that suits the citizen genre.

By clearly stating the issues with the criminalization of homeless people and applying simplified statistics that support their claim, this white paper successfully accommodates their material to suit their public audience. The way they intertextually fit their data into their report allows the reader to understand the information provided. By arguing from the stasis of value for the stasis of cause, this report allows for potential change in the future. With the potential for change that this report allows for the public community, it therefore falls under the category of citizens’ genre.