Genre Knowledge and Genre Analysis: 2 readings on Genre Thanks in part to Dr. Angela Rounsaville, Assistant Professor, Department of Writing and Rhetoric, UCF

Continuing our discussion of Bawarshi, Reiff, Devitt “In this way genres help counter the idealized view of discourse communities as discursive utopias constituted by homogeneity and consensus” (552) What is a “Discursive Utopia?” and why don’t we want that?

Bawarshi ctd. “Recognizing the presence of genres helps us to recognize the palpability and complexity of our discourse communities, to reduce their abstract, symbolic status, thereby making discourse communities more visible and accessible to ethnographic inquiry” (552)

Genres are “rhetorical maps” “As typical responses to repeated social situations, genres are rhetorical maps that chart familiar or frequently traveled communicative paths and provide guideposts as writers adapt to unfamiliar academic terrain and study parts of society beyond the classroom” (Reiff 553)

“While students don't have extended periods to carry out ethnographic studies, they can carry out what Bishop has labeled "mini-ethnographies,“ smaller-scale studies that explore particular literacy events or local phenomena in a community” ( )

Next Assignment: Genre Analysis You’re going to collect 2-3 texts from your discourse community that are all examples from the same genre. Your default genre should be research publications, though there are other genres that might work. Here’s why: Devitt says, “To develop our new genre theory, we begin with rhetorical situation and expand it to encompass a semiotic situation and social context” (576).

Genre Analysis: Discourse Community, Situation, and Genre Discourse Community: “Place” where communication happens between people with shared objectives Disciplinary communities: engineering, linguistics, art, chemistry, english “Sub-communities”: classrooms, labs, lectures, conferences

Genre Analysis: Discourse Community, Situation, and Genre Situation: Repeated rhetorical interactions and practices (rhetorical situation) within a discourse community

Genre Analysis: Discourse Community, Situation, and Genre Genre: Typical ways of responding to a repeated situation within a discourse community that has developed over time Syllabus (Genre) What is the repeated situation that the syllabus developed out of? What is the discourse community out of which the syllabus emerged?

Genre Analysis Genre analysis helps you gain access to the patterns of communication that will enable you to write more effectively within different discourse communities. Rhetorical knowledge Content knowledge Formal knowledge

Rhetorical Knowledge Understanding persuasive appeals (ethos, logos, pathos) Understanding organization and structure Understanding sentences, words, and tone Understanding how to frame and incorporate sources Understanding the features of an effective text (unity, coherence, readability)

Content Knowledge Understanding what content is typically included and excluded Understanding how to position one’s claim within scholarly conversations and showing what is at stake Knowing what counts as evidence and what sorts of examples are used Understanding how evidence is gathered, analyzed, and presented as arguments

Formal Knowledge Understanding conventions in format, layout, and appearance Understanding the medium of the genre

Making Sense of these Patterns Genre analysis means connecting these patterns to the people who use these genres, the situations they write in, and the discourse communities they are part of. In other words: what is the significance or meaning of these patterns? This question marks the final step in performing a genre analysis

Steps in Understanding Genre Collecting examples of your genre Finding out where, when, by whom, and why the genre is used Identifying rhetorical and linguistic patterns in the genre Determining what these patterns tell us about the people who use it and the discourse community in which it is used

Moving into Devitt… She starts the article by saying: “Our field has become riddled with dichotomies that threaten to undermine our holistic understanding of writing.” Then she says “Recent conceptions of genre as a dynamic and semiotic construct illustrate how to unify form and content, place text within context, balance process and product, and acknowledge the role of both the individual and the social. This reconception of genre may even lead us to a unified theory of writing. “ What does this mean?

“Traditional genre study has meant study of the textual features that mark a genre: the meter, the layout, the organization, the level of diction, and so on” (575)

“consider what we know when, as readers, we recognize the genre of a text. Based on our identification of genre, we make assumptions not only about the form but also about the text's purposes, its subject matter, its writer, and its expected reader” (575) Junk Mail Report card Credit card statement Wedding invitation