Discourse and Genre

What is Genre? Genre – is an activity that people engage in through the use of language. Two types of genre 1. Spoken genres – academic lectures, casual conversations, etc. 2. Written genres – reports, academic essays, etc. Refer to Figure 4.1 on page 63 Task 1. Examine the discourse structure of the written genre (letter to the editor)

Various definitions of genre Genre is viewed as a staged, goal-oriented, purposeful activity which speakers engage as members of our culture. (Martin, 1985:25). This definition has been influential in the work of the Sydney School of genre analysis. Further explanation: Social because we participate in genres with other people; goal oriented because we use genres to get things done; staged because it usually takes us few steps to reach our goals.

Other views Swales (2004:61) prefers the notion of “metaphor” than “definition” when talking about genres, saying that definitions are often not true in all possible worlds and all possible times and can prevent us from seeing newly explored or newly emerging genres for what they really are.

Miller’s notion of Genre Miller’s (1984) notion of “genre as a social action” has been important in the area of “rhetorical genre studies” The genre is not defined in terms of the substance or the form of discourse but on the action it is used to accomplish (Miller, 1984) This action is recognized by people and the genre is accepted overtime as a way of doing something. Therefore, Genre is a kind of “social agreement” about ways of doing things with language in particular social and cultural settings. Miller discusses also the notion of “Typification” in relation to Genre. That is there are typical forms a genre might take as well as typical content and typical action that the genre performs, all of which we recognize and draw on as we engage with the use of genre.

The Sydney School of genre analysis It is believed that the notion of genre is important in teaching writing and reading (Martin 2008, Rose 2012, Rose and Martin 2012).Martin The term “schematic structure” is used to describe the structure of texts. Martin’s notion of genre corresponds to the Malinowski’s notion of “context of culture” and is responsible for the schematic structure of a text. The “register” (Halliday, 1989) of the text corresponds to Malinowski’s “context of situation” and is responsible for the language features of a text. Genres – are culture specific and have particular purposes, stages and linguistic features associated with them, the meanings of which need to be interpreted in relation to the cultural and social contexts in which they occur.

Genre analysis and English for specific purposes Swales (1981, 1990, 20014) employed the teaching of English for specific purposes on the analyses of the discourse structure of research article introductions. Swales use the notion of “moves” to describe the discourse structure of texts. Communicative purpose was the key factor that leads a person to decide whether a text is an instance of a particular genre or not. Revision of the view: Genres may have multiple purposes and that these may be different for each of the participants involved (Askehave and Swales 2001).

Rhetorical Genre studies Refer to page 65. Genre is a part of social processes by which knowledge about reality and the world are made. Genres serve as keys to understanding how to participate in the actions of community and that the failure to understand genre as a social action turns activities as writing instruction from what should be a practical art of achieving social ends into an act of making texts that fit formal requirements, a view that has important implications for the genre-based teaching (Miller, 1984)

Choice and constraint in the use of spoken and written genre Bhatia (1998): Practicing a genre is almost like playing a game, with its own rules and conventions. Established genre participants, both writers and readers, are like skilled players who succeed by their manipulation and exploitation of, rather than strict compliance with, the rules of the game. It is not simply a matter of learning the language, or even learning the rules of the game, it is more like acquiring the rules of the game in order to be able to exploit and manipulate them to fulfil professional and disciplinary purposes.