1. Rhetorical Genre Analysis

2. Genre Definitions and Features
Genre = rhetorical responses to and reflections of the situation in which they are used
Genres both respond to and create rhetorical situations.
Genres are “typified ways of responding to recurring social constructions /situations” – Miller definition
Genre is socially situated and culturally embedded --- meaning that genres carry with them the beliefs, ideologies, and values of particular communities and cultures.
Genre analysis is really a means to a greater rhetorical awareness that will help students with knowledge transfer.
Genres are dynamic – they are both stable and capable of change at the same time.

3. Analyzing Genre + Rhetorical Situation
SETTING
Where does the genre appear?
How and when is it transmitted and used?
With what other genres does this genre appear?
SUBJECT
What topics, issues, ideas, questions, etc. does the genre address?
When people use this genre, what is it that they are interacting about?

4. Analyzing Genre + Rhetorical Situation
PARTICIPANTS: Who uses the genre?
Writers
What writes the texts in this genre?
Are multiple writers possible?
What roles do they perform?
What characteristics must writers of this genre possess?
Under what circumstances do writers write the genre?

5. Analyzing Genre + Rhetorical Situation
PARTICIPANTS: Who uses the genre?
READERS
Who reads the texts in this genre?
Is there more than one type of reader?
What roles do they perform?
What characteristics must readers of this genre possess?
Under what circumstances do readers read the genre (e.g., at their leisure, on the run, in waiting rooms)?

6. Analyzing Genre + Rhetorical Situation
PURPOSES
Why do writers write this genre and why do readers read it?
What purposes does the genre fulfill for the people who use it?

7. Analyzing Genre + Rhetorical Situation
IDENTIFY PATTERNS IN GENRE’S FEATURES:
What recurrent features do the samples share?
What content is typically included? Excluded?
What counts as evidence?
What rhetorical appeals are used? Ethos, Logos, Pathos
How are texts structured? What are their parts and how are they organized?
Is there a common format, layout or appearance?
What types of sentences does the genre usually use?
What diction is most common? Jargon? slang?
How would you describe the writer’s voice?

8. Analyzing Genre + Rhetorical Situation
CONNECT GENRE FEATURES TO RHETORICAL SITUATION
What do these rhetorical patterns reveal about the genre and its rhetorical situation?
Why are these patterns significant?
What can you learn about the actions being performed through the genre by observing its language patterns?
What do participants have to know or believe to understand or appreciate the genre?
What values, beliefs, goals and assumptions are revealed through the genre’s patterns?
What content is most important? ignored?
What actions does the genre make possible? Make difficult?
What attitude towards readers is implied in the genre? Attitude toward the world?

9. Genre as ideological/cultural critique
What sorts of communication does the genre encourage?
What sorts of communication does it constrain?
Who can – and cannot – use this genre? Does it empower some while silencing others?
Whose needs are most and least served by this genre?
Are its effects dysfunctional beyond their immediate context?
What values and beliefs are instantiated within this set of practices?
What are the political and ethical implications of the rhetorical situation constructed, persona embodied, audience invoked and context of situation assumed by a particular genre?

10. Genre + Kairos
Kairos = fit opportunity for speech + reasonable appropriateness of response
TIMING + APPROPRIATENESS
It is important to understand the cultural Kairos that helps to create, define and change a particular genre.
Why was/is the timing right for the genre?
How does genre fit appropriately into the cultural context?

11. Tips for Genre Analysis
Narrow the focus of your genre
Poetry ---- free verse poetry
You Tube videos ---- instructional You Tube videos
Find many examples of the genre.
Look for examples of genre outliers too.
Interview participants of the genres – composers + users.