1. Critiquing a Familiar Genre: Essays Krista Popkin Scott Lunn Will Bente

2. What defines an “Essay” Broad and ambiguous genre A short piece of writing that tells a person’s thoughts or opinions about a subject (Webster) Doesn’t always refer to a specific structure. Can be fiction or nonfiction Could be formal or informal Personal or impersonal We can all be considered “essayists”

3. What does this genre allow its users to do and what do it not allow them to do? Allows users to… Literary criticism Creating an argument Comparing and contrasting Personal narratives Useful for reflection Observation Doesn’t allow users to… Limited in certain instances Facebook Twitter Dialogue

4. Essays: Where do we see this genre? Secondary school or college 5 paragraph essays Book reports FCAT/Standardized tests Collegiate papers Journals Outside of school Blogs Articles in newspapers or online Appropriate in many cases, but certainly not all

5. Whose needs are most served by the genre? Whose needs are least served? Secondary and collegiate level students Describe experiences, draw conclusions from literature, and make arguments Scholars and authors Use essays most often to discuss issues that they see a problem with Younger kids Have trouble organizing their thoughts into an essay.

6. Essays: Who is the audience? The audience of an essay could be anyone Chances are we’ve all read several different types of essays several different times Classmates Teachers/ professors People who grade essays on standardized tests Followers of a blog Yourself The general public

7. When to use essays APPROPRIATE Situations when a long explanation is needed When you need to present several different facts Expressing your personal feelings Examples: Papers Social Media (Tumblr, Blogger, etc.) Journal (public or private) INAPPROPRIATE When only basic communication is needed In time restricted situations Examples: Texting Social media (i.e. Facebook, Twitter) Email Basic short response assignments **AUDIENCE DETERMINES APPROPRIATENESS

8. Does the genre enable its users to represent themselves fully? YES Your creation, your ideas. Creative writing Building arguments NO Word limits Unfamiliar prompts Research papers

9. Does the genre create inequalities among its users that lead to imbalances of power? Essays create inequalities between different age groups and skill sets May be too dense for some audiences/ writers Certain topics may be out of the field of experience of some audiences/ writers

10. Do the assumptions that the genre reflects privilege certain ways of doing things? You have the opportunity to develop an argument, a view point, story, etc. Length of the essay Time allotted to writing the essay Planning out the essay

11. Does the genre allow its users to do certain things at the expense of others? Persuasive and Argumentative essays Allows the writers to state an opinion or argument but doesn’t allow the reader to respond directly to the writer The audience doesn’t have a voice in the essay Takes time to write

12. Example: 5 Paragraph Essay Source: FLDOE.org

13. Example: Collegiate Essay (Excerpt)

14. Example: Blog Source: http://dewdoes.tumblr.com