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last.updated 2.19.06

 

Introduction to Genre

Purpose

Now that we have established how the contexts (or disciplines) that we write within affect (or discipline) our writing activities, we will take a closer look at these "texts" and the imprint that this discipline leaves. Arguably, genre studies gives us the vocabulary for discussing these issues because this field examines the relationship between texts, the purpose of textual types, as well as individual texts, and how certain features can facilitate achieving these purposes. Today we will established what genres are and work towards developing methods for analyzing them.

Article Reviews

We will listen to article reviews by Shanon.

Discussion–Swales

We will address the following questions...

  • What questions do you have about Swales's article?
  • Ultimately what definition does Swales generate for genre? To develop this discussion, Swales obviously favored some definitions of genre that he discussed and discounted others. Based upon this discussion, are you satisfied with the definition that he generate. why or why not?
  • We will discuss the five observations of a genre that characterize his working definition. Be prepared to provide examples from the text or from your own writing/communicative experiences to explain these observations.
  • What are pre-genres and what are their purposes?

Discussion–Munter et al.

We will address the following questions...

  • What questions do you have about Munter et al.'s article?
  • Based upon Swales's definition of genre, are Munter et al. describing the genre of a business email? support your answer.
  • Each student will be asked to choose one suggestion (different from one your peers have chosen) that Munter et al. provide and explain the validity of the suggestion. In other words, compare this suggestion to your own practices with this genre or similar genres.

Activity–Genre Analysis

Before class, look through the following three safety brochures:

Using Swales's definition(s) of genre and Munter et al.'s examples, be prepared to talk about...

  • what guidelines would you create for someone generating a sample of this genre?
  • how would you justify the various features you suggest? In other words, what purpose do the features serve?

You will work in groups with people at your site (or by yourself, if there is no one else at your site) for twenty-five minutes, we will use the last thirty minutes of class to report your results.