27 ENG 015 - Rhetoric and Composition (F'18, Section 27)

I wanted to post a message here that can, hopefully, remind you of what we're doing for WP1.

The best place to start is by asking, "Well, what exactly is a genre?" This is a great question, and we'll be thinking about it all semester long. (Really.) On the most basic level, a textual genre is any piece of writing that's bound by similar patterns in its form (the "look" of it) and content (what it's about). Another way to distinguish between genres is to consider their social action -- what a particular genre does in the world and why. Writers and speakers, each, invoke genres to accomplish goals.

Let's take a quick look at two genres: "Get Well" cards and car advertisements. One is intended to express sympathy and love; the other is trying to swindle you out of your hard-earned $$$. One is very personalized and generally short/sweet; the other is also probably relatively short but it's usually not tailored to a specific person -- I can't remember the last time I opened up a newspaper or a magazine and a car ad said, "Yo, Zack! How's that commute from Calabasas to Santa Barbara going? We've heard that you'd like to swap your "folkswagen" for a truck! Well, check this puppy out!" Car ads are generally depersonalized.

These are lots of other ways to analyze these two genres. You can consider what media they typically appear in (car ads occasionally appear on TV commercials -- have you ever seen a "Get Well" commercial?), what kind of specific (or broad) audience they're targeting, and what appeals or types of evidence they use, if any, to do so. Genres can be broad, loose, and somewhat vague or they can be nuanced, tight, and very specific. At its best, the concept of "genre" is an analytical tool that we can use to better understand texts and how/why the function in the ways that they do.

All in all, at this current point in the course/quarter (less than one week in!), I just want you to gain added practice with exploring genre. If you're still a little hesitant about "genre" and what it is/isn't, go back to Dirk's Navigating Genres piece and give it another read. (That's a million dollar study tip! It never hurts to slow down and revisit the material multiple times.)

There are a bunch of textual genres out there in the world. As I say each class, wherever you can "see language," there's a 99% chance that it falls into some kind of genre. Sometimes, even when you're "hearing language," it's coming from a textual/written source and it comes right back to a textual genre. News broadcasters, for instance, are typically reading a report that's been written, which has then been posted onto a teleprompter. (Genre is an incredibly "Matrix-y" idea. Once you begin to really see/understand the world through genre, it's almost impossible to un-see it.)

Before I bring this babble fest back down to Earth and get to your PB1A assignment, let me add a couple more dimensions to genre and genre theory that can help you dig down even further. By considering a genre's affordances (what it enables, such as bottom-up participation by its users/readers -- think of the co-creation that's enabled by a wikipedia entry or possibly how some commenting forums on online message boards can shape the ensuing analytical "conversation") and its limitations (what is restricted, disabled, or unavailable), you'll be able to evaluate a given genre for its strengths and weaknesses. One other way to explore genre to its fullest extent is to think about how its historical evolution and how it's been shaped over time. (PS: I'm not expecting all this for PB1A!)

Now, for PB1A, I want you to pick one specific genre -- and analyze an actual example(s) -- you're already fairly familiar and then gain practice with studying, deconstructing, and analyzing it. I'm basically asking you to take a long, hard look at one specific genre and then:

break down its conventions (just like we've been doing in class with the country tunes, the horror movie clips, and the letter of recommendation requests) and then take a shot at explaining why some of those conventions exist. One convention of (most of) the letter of recommendation requests was a formal tone. Why? To signal respect for the reader -- the person who would be writing the recommendation.
analyze its rhetorical features which include its intended audience, the author's/writer's purpose for producing it, the greater context in which, and any stylistic patterns. The reading that I've assigned for Monday (Carroll's "Backpacks and Briefcases") will help you better understand what "rhetorical features" means, so make sure you read this before you begin writing your PB1A. (Rule of thumb: always read the assigned readings first!)

Next class, I'll be giving you a "Genre Analysis" guide that's got a bunch of super-useful questions you can consider to help you "get at" genre. G'luck!