1 Genre
In this chapter, we will practice:
- understanding what genres are and how they move in the world
- thinking about how genre shapes texts and audience expectations
- identifying different kinds of genres, what types of writing they are made of, their voice, and their organization
Genres are categories for composition, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter. Pop, jazz, and heavy metal are examples of music genres; romance, horror, and magical realism are examples of literary genres; manuals, reports, blog posts, resumés, letters, emails, Tweets, and medical journal articles are examples of writing genres.
Genres do not exist in a vacuum but emerge from different communities’ needs, desires, and distinct rhetorical situations. For example, the scientific method was developed by wealthy men in Europe in the eighteenth century who were dedicated to Enlightenment ideals of empirical rationality and who were determined to understand the material world according to universal laws. Over time, so that their experiments could be replicated amongst themselves and thus “proven,” they developed through their letters the scientific method—-a genre we recognize today of questions, research, hypotheses, experiments, data analysis, and conclusions (Bazerman). In the late 19th and early 20th century, across Northern Mexico and the Southwestern United States, epic corridos sung in town squares and other gathering places developed as a genre as a way to quickly and covertly spread news of state military violence against Mexican and U.S. citizens and engender resistance for the developing revolution (Paredes).
Genres create and depend upon community expectations and they signal belonging to particular communities. A song artist who wishes to be seen as a Americana singer is going to use similar instruments, chord progressions, and subject matter as other Americana music to identify themselves as belonging to this particular music community. A politician who wishes to be identified with a particular political party is going to write speeches, market their campaigns, create slogans, and debate in ways that align with their audiences’ expectations and with other texts produced by their chosen political party. A student who want to go to graduate school for psychology emulates the voice, methods, jargon, and text structures used in psychology journals. Writing genre expert Amy Devitt tells us, “Genre exists through people’s individual rhetorical actions at the nexus of the contexts of situation, culture, and genres” (Writing Genres 31).
Carolyn Miller, a leading professor in the field of technical communication, argues that “a rhetorically sound definition of genre must be centered . . . on the action it is used to accomplish” (151). How might this look? These actions don’t have to be complex; many genres are a part of our daily lives. Think about genres as tools to help people to get things done. Amy J. Devitt writes that:
Genres have the power to help or hurt human interaction, to ease communication or to deceive, to enable someone to speak or to discourage someone from saying something different. People learn how to do small talk to ease the social discomfort of large group gatherings and meeting new people, but advertisers learn how to disguise sales letters as winning sweepstakes entries. (Writing Genres 1)
In other words, knowing what a genre is used for can help people to accomplish a goal, whether that goal be getting a job by knowing how to write a stellar resume, winning a person’s heart by writing a romantic love letter, or getting into graduate school by writing an effective personal statement.
Genres in Action
By this point you might realize that you have been participating in genres your whole life—whether you are telling a joke, writing an email, or uploading a witty Instagram post. Because you know how these genres function as social actions, you can accurately predict how they function rhetorically; your joke should generate a laugh, your email should elicit a response, and your updated Facebook status should generate comments from your online friends. Possibly without even thinking about it, you were recognizing the rhetorical situation and choosing to act in a manner that would result in the outcome you desired.
Knowing what is appropriate in these situations helps you make effective decisions as a speaker and respond appropriately as an audience member. Devitt argues that “people do not label a particular story as a joke solely because of formal features but rather because of their perception of the rhetorical action that is occurring” (Writing Genres 11). That is, we get the joke (or don’t) because of the degree to which we understand key elements of the story, from context to format. True, genres often have formulaic features, but these features can change even as the nature of the genre remains the same (Devitt, Writing Genres 48). What is important to consider here is that if mastering a form were simply a matter of plugging in content, we would all be capable of successfully writing in any genre when we are given a formula.
Fortunately, even if you have been taught to write in a formulaic way, you probably don’t treat texts in a strictly formulaic manner. When approaching a genre for the first time, you likely view it as more than a simple form. That is, we treat texts that we encounter as rhetorical objects; we choose between horror movies and rom-coms not only because we are familiar with the forms but because we know what response they will elicit from us (nail-biting fear and dreamy sighs, respectively). The bottomline is that all genres matter because all genres shape our everyday lives.
Audience and Purpose
By studying the genres we find familiar, we can start to see how writers’ specific choices result in specific actions on the part of readers; naturally, it follows that our own writing must be purposefully written, too. For example, let’s consider a publication whose writers and editors have a specific purpose and a specific audience in mind. You may be familiar with The Onion, a fictitious newspaper that uses real-world examples to create humorous situations. Perhaps the most notable genre convention of The Onion is the creation of hilarious headlines that serve a simple purpose: to make the reader laugh. While many of the articles are also entertaining, the majority of the humor is produced through the headlines. In fact, the headlines are so important to the success of the newspaper that they are tested on volunteers to see the readers’ immediate responses.
These headlines are all quite brief; otherwise, they share no specific stylistic features. The Onion titles embrace a particular rhetorical action to bring about a specific response, which differentiates its writing style from other related genres. For those of you unfamiliar with this newspaper, here are a few examples to ponder: (politically charged or other possibly offensive headlines purposefully avoided):
- “Archaeological Dig Uncovers Ancient Race of Skeleton People”
- “Don’t Run Away, I’m Not the Flesh-Eating Kind of Zombie”
- “Time Traveler: Everyone In The Future Eats Dippin’ Dots
- “‘I Am Under 18’ Button Clicked For First Time In History Of Internet”
- “Commas, Turning Up, Everywhere”
- “Myspace Outage Leaves Millions Friendless.”
- “Amazon.com Recommendations Understand Area Woman Better Than Husband”
- “Study: Dolphins Not So Intelligent On Land”
- “Beaver Overthinking Dam”
- “Study: Alligators Dangerous No Matter How Drunk You Are”
- “Child In Corner To Exact Revenge As Soon As He Gets Out” (The Onion)
If at least one of these headlines made you laugh, ask yourself why? Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that headline writers are rhetorically aware of who reads these headlines—college students, like you, and more specifically, educated college students who know enough about politics, culture, and U.S. and world events to “get” these headlines.
While we may not think of genre as rhetorical, genre is in fact another tool for persuasion, which identifies it as such. And whenever we’re working with something rhetorical, we’ve got to think about our specific purpose and a specific audience. Each time we write or communicate, we’re relying on particular audience expectations in order to be successful in that writing and communication.
Here’s how this might play out with a medium we interact with regularly: movies. Let’s say that we are watching The Proposal, another rom-com featuring an executive who falls for her assistant. What do we expect to happen? First of all, we expect to laugh, right? We also expect that after some foolish situations, a few obstacles, and a little character growth, the protagonists would end up falling for one another. In an alternate scenario, let’s say we are watching SuperBad, a coming-of-age story of two friends—Evan and Fogell—about to leave for college but not before a night of mishaps involving such plot twists as a fake ID incident before Evan wins his true love’s heart. What would we expect to happen in this young-adult, “buddy” movie? First, we expect it to be funny, right? Second, we expect various shenanigans to occur as a result of Fogell’s mistake with the fake ID. Both comedies include a clear romantic plot and silly situations that produce humorous moments the audience can relate to. However, the humor hits differently in these movies. The Proposal’s humor is lighthearted and charming while SuperBad’s humor is a bit more crude and specific to younger viewers. In terms of genre, what do these examples show? Genres diverge depending on purpose and audience, both of which determine our expectations. These movies are similar in genre.
Think back to our discussion of genres. This section tells us that while certain movies are classified as specific genres, most have sub-genres that fit the overall expectations but vary key elements for new or different situations, purposes, and audiences. The conventions used in the film show which audience the script writer has in mind, and what they hope to accomplish by relating to that particular audience. Likewise, with written composition, the genre conventions present in your work reveal your purpose and audience. By the same token, your audience and purpose shape and inform your writing. Each point, paragraph, and moment of insight connects your reader to your purpose.
Genres and Contexts
Interestingly enough, two texts that might fit into the same genre might also look extremely different. Let’s think about why this might be the case. Devitt points out that “different grocery stores make for different grocery lists” (“Transferability and Genres” 218). Those differences stem from such factors as the store’s location, brand, and products, but the genre is still recognizable as a grocery list; only the context or location have changed.
Recognizing or knowing a genre is about much more than simply knowing its form, in other words. Think about a time when you were asked to write a research paper. You probably had an idea of what that paper should look like, but you also needed to consider contextual elements, such as how your teacher’s expectations would help to shape your assignment, what the level of the course was; or what kind of topics fit the course. The research paper you might be required to write in a first-year composition class might be completely different from the research paper you might be asked to write for an introductory psychology class. Your goal is to recognize these shifts in context and to be aware of how such shifts might affect your writing.
Genre Framing
Genres also establish expectations through frames, which are the ways information is presented to an audience. Communication expert George Lakoff tells us, “You think in terms of structured frames. It’s the most ordinary thing you do” (“Idea Framing”). Imagine you were planning to have surgery. As you’re wheeled into an operating room—what might you expect to see there? What people might you expect to be there? You might expect to see surgical instruments, medical equipment, surgeons, anesthesiologists, and nurses. But what if you saw a bunch of balloons in the operating room? We would not expect to see balloons in an operating room because those objects don’t fit with our expectations for how surgery is to be conducted.
Similarly, if you were going to receive written instructions on how to prepare for surgery, you might not expect them in comic book format. Our surgery example shows us that our expectations of people’s actions in a context also influence the kind of communication we expect there. Frames are how we describe our and our audience’s expectations. Check out this great description of frames from cognitive science and linguistics scholar George Lakoff.
Lakoff also tells us how the physical neuroscience of our brains recognizes the expectations, boundaries, roles, and scenarios from different genre frames. Notice how Lakoff describes frames as political? That’s because frames are contingent on our perspective. As writers, we need to consider how our own perspective might be representative of or different than our audience’s perspective. To write successfully in any genre, we need to clearly analyze the situation to determine how we can frame information and fulfill our audience’s expectations.
DISCUSSION: THINKING ABOUT REVIEWS AS A GENRE
What is this genre about? Reviews summarize and evaluate relevant information about a particular subject for a specific audience. The purpose of a review is to share relevant information to help readers make a decision based on the writer’s evaluation of a subject under review, which could be almost any object, event, person, place, or process. Reviews are often the first point of contact between an audience and the subject of the review, so writers need to include a detailed description of the topic in order to adequately inform readers before offering an evaluation. Similar to reports, review writers need to determine what their readers want from their review, whether a suggestion, explanation, or both. Writers can persuade their audiences to accept their evaluation by offering an authoritative tone on the topic.
A review will need to:
- Make claims about the particular subject under review.
- Cite specific evidence to support your claims.
- Define criteria for evaluating the media under review.
- Target a specific audience.
What are the expectations? Readers expect reviews to inform and persuade them about the value of a particular subject . For example, if a reader wants to know which movie to watch for the evening, they might read some reviews of different movies to help make their decision. Writers need to provide criteria for evaluating subjects like movies for readers to know its value (or lack thereof)
To create criteria, writers need to define how they are measuring and evaluating the subject. If the writer is reviewing a restaurant, they might define their criteria as restaurant cleanliness, waitstaff friendliness, and the quality of food preparation. The writer then needs to support their evaluation of these criteria with evidence drawn from their topic. This evidence can include primary and secondary research but needs to be relevant to the audience’s needs and expectations.
Finally, readers expect that a writer won’t give away all the information about a topic in a review because the reader might want to experience the topic firsthand. For example, rather than providing “spoilers” about a film that give away crucial details of a plot, a writer needs to entice the reader with key details so that the reader still has something to learn when they watch the film. In short, a review needs to inform the reader just enough to help them make a decision.
Why does this genre matter? More than other genres, reviews are probably the writing genre you interact with most. Think of the daily decisions you make about where to shop, eat, take your car for repair, get a haircut, or seek medical treatment: you can read reviews of all of these services online. Reviews help readers know what’s good and what’s bad, so this genre helps people make strategic decisions that impact their daily lives.
What are a few examples of this genre?
Analyzing vs. Composing in Genres
Analyzing
Analyzing a genre means paying close attention to the writer’s choices and thinking about the group of texts and group of humans to which they do or desire to belong. We can successfully analyze genres by examining the author’s stance, key moves the author makes, the text layout, design, organization, and structure, the use of language and style, evidence from outside sources, and other elements to help us determine how the author’s choices communicate information within genre expectations.
To understand genre, we first need to identify the key elements of a text and how those elements might change between genres. Texts feature information like a title, author, publication date, venue, and other elements that we can recognize in one genre and analyze across genres.
To analyze genres, we need to use active reading skills to determine the complex textual elements at work. For example, we can easily identify an author of a piece using the byline, but analyzing the author’s stance is a more in-depth task. An author’s stance is the attitude that the writer has toward the topic of their message (“Stance and Language”). To analyze genres, we also must read across texts to understand
- what they have in common that makes them a genre
- and where they are different to see how
EXERCISE: READING REVIEWS AS A GENRE
Below are two student reviews from Purdue OWL about the same campus event. What are some elements these texts have in common and what do their similarities tell us about reviews as a genre? Do you see similarities between these and other reviews you have encountered in the world? What do the differences in the two texts tell us about the author’s different stances and their desire to belong to different groups? How do you think they want to be perceived and by whom?
EXAMPLE 1
Once we got to the food section of the event, I immediately realized that there was little to no organization. There was trash all over the place, with no trashcan in sight. There was a serious lack of tables to eat at, so many people were forced to eat standing up, which got really messy because of the nature of some of the foods. Many of the organizations that were selling the foods apparently didn’t talk to each other, because I saw many of the same kinds of rice, fish, even bread at the different tables.Furthermore, many of the dishes were either cold or too little. And of all the tables, only one group also thought of bringing the drinks, so getting a drink meant standing in line for half an hour, mainly because they kept running out because of the high demand.One would think that an event whose focus was mainly food would put a little more thought and planning into it.
EXAMPLE 2
Almost all Asian student organizations have participated in this event. There were plenty of foods from different Asian countries and areas. Fried rice from China, spring rolls from Vietnam, curries fish ball from Hong Kong and chicken from Singapore. Though these foods are not exactly like they would be tasted like in real Asia, these still give you a basic idea about how are Asian food look and taste like and how large is the diversity of Asian food. Among so many choices of foods, I definitely will recommend the curry fish ball from Hong Kong Student Association. It tastes exactly like what you would taste in Hong Kong, so it might be the most original taste of Asia.
In short, analyzing a genre means paying close attention to the writer’s choices. We can successfully analyze genres by examining the author’s stance, key moves the author makes, the text layout, design, organization, and structure, the use of language and style, evidence from outside sources, and other elements to help us determine how the author’s choices communicate information within genre expectations.
Composing
On the other hand, to compose in a genre means making these specific choices that you might have already analyzed. We can compare these experiences to the differences between reviewing a movie versus creating a movie. It’s a reviewer’s job to determine what makes a movie worth watching or avoiding and explain the reasons for such an analysis to the reader. Let’s examine how acclaimed reviewer Roger Ebert wrote about reviewing Adam Sandler’s remake of The Longest Yard:
I often practice a generic approach to film criticism, in which the starting point for a review is the question of what a movie sets out to achieve. “The Longest Yard” more or less achieves what most of the people attending it will expect. Most of its audiences will be satisfied enough when they leave the theater, although few will feel compelled to rent it on video to share with their friends. (Ebert, “‘Yard’ Catches an Outside Pass”)
We can see in this excerpt that Ebert recognizes his own role as reviewer is to capture what a movie sets out to achieve—in short, how it might work within genre expectations. We can see that most clearly when Ebert describes the movie as “a fair example of what it is,” which in this case means a comedic remake. When you analyze genres, remember that you don’t have to like what you analyze, but instead appreciate the object of analysis for what it is trying to accomplish. But when you compose in genres, remember that you’re the moviemaker—your writing shows your reader what you hope to achieve in your chosen genre.
Recognizing Corollary Genres
Writing in different genres can help us see the connections and overlap among genres. Some writing genres have similar expectations to them, like journaling and blogging, but different audiences. Other writing genres might have variations based on how people have used these genres, like comic books and graphic novels, where subtle changes can make huge differences in how audiences perceive the writing. A corollary genre is a concept that can help us recognize similar writing strategies used across related genres.
What is a corollary genre and why does it matter? As defined by the Genres Across Borders network, a corollary genre is “a genre variation engendered when actors revise some of the discursive qualities and expectations of a particular genre but do not completely transform the genre itself. Such modifications bring about derivative or ‘corollary’ genres.” Genres are adaptable, in other words, to suit new purposes and audiences. The scientific method, for example, has been evolved across time and the academy to suit the needs of different academic disciplines from “hard sciences” like medicine and aerospace engineering to “soft sciences” like psychology and sociology. In the context of first-year writing courses, corollary genres help us determine the different kinds of writing moves you’ll want to make as you compose.
Corollary genres also help us connect similar kinds of information and expectations in multiple genres. As we discussed above, genre expectations can determine how and what information we frame for the reader. You’ll write in a variety of genres in your writing courses and life, so it’s important to ask: what is the bigger communicative purpose for this particular genre? Who is the specific audience? Corollary genres help us resolve these questions! For example, journals, blogs, movie reviews, and narratives are all examples of critical reflection, which asks writers to consider the significance of their experiences and communicate that significance by telling specific stories. If we’re writing in one of these corollary genres, we’ll need to reflect on important information and communicate the significance of that information to our reader.
Grouping Genres
But as we mentioned earlier with our research paper example, we can group genres and corollary genres by their common features and expectations. Think about holiday films. Whatever winter holiday you celebrate, some networks like to air marathons of films connected to the Christmas holiday. Amazingly, Christmas movies can range from the romantic comedy Love Actually to the action film, Die Hard. Both films take place around the Christmas holiday and have key plot elements related to Christmas. Love Actually, as a romantic comedy, includes its fair share of Santa costumes and awkward gift-giving scenarios that get the characters into trouble. Alternatively, Die Hard takes place during a Christmas party that gets crashed by some burglars and results in a lot of Christmas-related action scenes.
While the debate over whether Die Hard “counts” as a Christmas movie continues to this day, in the context of this chapter, we can recognize how the genre of holiday films is interestingly expanded by its inclusion. Ultimately, corollary genres show us that genres are not monolithic—they contain varied examples that are connected by common features and expectations.
Writing across Genres
As demonstrated in previous sections in this chapter, our understanding of corollary genres evolves constantly. However, most genres rely on these key building blocks: summarizing, analyzing, synthesizing, and using multiple communication modes. Why do you need to master these skills? First, these skills are foundational to many composing tasks. In fact, they’re so useful across genres that you can apply these skills to a variety of situations in the classroom, at work, and in everyday life. Second, these skills build in complexity from summary to analysis to synthesis; multimodality also ranges from simple to complex as you gain confidence. Therefore, once you learn these skills, you will be better prepared to make complex arguments, problem solve, and communicate persuasively. In the next sections, we outline these foundational skills.
EXERCISE: P.A.I.D. GENRE ANALYSIS
According to the National Council of Teachers of English, “Texts are socially constructed from particular perspectives; they are never neutral.” Every text can be analyzed to help the viewer understand what perspective the author brings to the creation of the text.
Hillary Janks provides a useful framework for evaluating the socially constructed nature of texts, which she discusses in terms of four constructs: power, access, identity, and design (or PAID). Below is an activity to help you determine the perspective of a creator and how the genre they’re composing in helps them communicate their message.
Activity
First, identify which genre you’re composing in, i.e., are you creating a traditional paper, an infographic, a TikTok, a poster, etc.? Second, select a text that resembles the genre you want to compose in or inspires your work.
Third, do a little research on who the creator is, where the text first appeared, how it was created, and why. Find as much information as possible on the text, and then do your best to answer each of the PAID questions listed below.
PAID Genre Questions
Power— within the rhetorical situation of this text, what power or influence does the creator have? What power don’t they have? Or how might their composition help them gain or lose power? What is the relationship, in terms of power, between the creator and the audience?
Access— what resources, skills, or information are needed to create this composition? To view it? Will these resources, skills, or information be easy or difficult to access? How does that support or limit who is able to view the text?
Identity— what do we know about the creator of this piece? Who are they? Where do they come from? What values or social positions do they hold?
Design— how does the choice of medium or media shape the message of the piece? What modes of communication are most prominent? What design elements communicate the power, access, and identity the creator has? What elements do or don’t connect the creator with the audience?
Discussion
When you’re finished answering the PAID questions, compare your notes with the notes of a classmate who analyzed a different text. Discuss what key takeaways you’ve learned about how texts are socially constructed and how genres can enhance or detract from the creator’s intended message for a text.
Attributions
Bazerman, Charles. “Scientific writing as a social act: A review of the literature of the sociology of science.” New essays in technical and scientific communication (2019): 156-184.
“Corollary Genre,” Genres Across Borders, CC-BY-NC-SA, https://genreacrossborders.org/gxb-glossary/corollary-genre.
Miller, Carolyn R. “Rhetorical community: The cultural basis of genre.” Genre and the new rhetoric 6778 (1994).
Paredes, Américo. ” With His Pistol in His Hand” A Border Ballad and Its Hero. University of Texas Press, 1958.