Lauren Ross

March 16, 2013

English Project 2

Reflective Essay: Genre Analysis

There are many concepts and new theories that I have learned throughout the whole

process of project 2. I have learned how to put these concepts into our everyday lives. I never

realized how important genre is to our socialization and interaction with others. Genre can be

used not only in your career path but with your everyday conversations with people. Before this

genre chapter and project 2 I really didn’t understand exactly what genre or a discourse

community was. Although, I realize that genre may never have a concrete definition due to the

constant change in society. I have gained a grasp of what each does mean.

The reading have taught me a tremendous amount and definitely helped with the final

paper. Although, some of the readings were a bit difficult I can say I have learned from them all.

Many of the readings spoke volumes about knowing your location. I added that into my paper

because I felt like that was an important concept that many of the authors agreed upon as well.

Understanding when to use professionalism to a boss or just typical conversation between you

and a friend is important. There is a time and a place for everything. By knowing the difference

you can really succeed in your career.

Overall, I have learned a lot about the discourse communities in my field of study and

even further into those communities by learning about the genres. I think being comfortable and

understanding many genres in my discourse community can make me more useful and versatile

in the long run. Through this project I have learned that in my discourse community the genres

are constantly changing which means paying attention to that change and adjusting to it and

being able to adjust to it will be beneficial to me. Finally, I would have to say that I didn’t

struggle with the concepts of this chapter. I felt that it was more of a struggle to come up with

the word count guidelines just because there is only so much you can say about genre.

Lauren Ross

February 26, 2013

English Project 2: Genre Analysis

Importance of Genre in an Incident Report

An important concept to learn and understand in English is genre. Although, there is

much controversy about what exactly genre is there has been great strides in narrowing that

confusion. Throughout this genre analysis I am going to discuss a genre in my discourse

community involving my major. I hope to help the understanding of genre by using examples

from scholarly authors that have done research on this topic as well. The goal is to inform you of

how important and helpful different genres can be to you by focusing on who, what, when and

where the genre is used. There are many examples of the 4 W’s in Learning New Genres: The

Convergence of Knowledge and Action by Anne Beaufort which will be further discussed later. I

am going to discuss how these 4 W’s are important to an incident report.

In the field of study I am involved in there are many different types of discourse

communities. A discourse community is a grouping of people who share common language

norms, characteristics, patterns, or practices as a consequence of their ongoing communications

and identification with each other (Bazerman). Bazerman is also mentioned in the work done by

Berkenkotter and Huckin where he did a study,

“Of the development of the experimental article in the natural sciences established an

important connection between the formation of a scientific discourse community and the

development of appropriate discursive strategies for making claims about experiments

that, in turn, reveal the inner workings of the natural world (pg.497).”

Within these discourse communities there are different forms of genre which are used to

communicate with other people in that discourse community or even people outside of that

discourse community. For example, location is an important part of understanding a genre which

is supported by both Kerry Dirk and Carolyn Miller. Miller defends that, “Situation serves

primarily to locate a genre; it does not contribute to its character as rhetorical action (pg.153).”

Understanding who you are writing too, what your surroundings are and the type of work you are

doing is part of understanding your location. Dirk supports that statement by saying, “Your goal

is to recognize these shifts in location and to be aware of how such shifts might affect your

writing (pg. 256).” For example, if you were writing a text message to a friend you would talk

differently than in a text message to your current boss.

The first W that should be discussed is the what. What is the genre we are focusing on?

The genre I am using in this genre analysis is an incident report. An incident report is used in all

different types of fields of study but most importantly in the fields of Criminal Justice, Sociology

or Criminology. An incident report is written up to identify a problem that is against a law or

policy. A police officer, judge, investigator or boss would be the audience that evaluates an

incident report. It is important to understand what an incident report is by seeking knowledge

from the inside. In Rethinking Genre from a Sociocognitive Perspective, the authors

Berkenkotter and Huckin suggest “knowledge of genres is derived from and embedded in our

participation in the communicative activities of daily and professional life” (pg. 478).

The importance of the location of a genre helps us answer one of the 4 W’s which is the

“where”. Understanding where the location of the genre is can help you learn why someone

talks, interacts and writes the way they do. In a discourse community of Police Officers the way

they talk to someone else, how an email is written or the type of work they do is strongly based

on the type of community they are involved in. For example, their work has to be very detailed,

serious and confidential. It is evident that in an incident report there should be very detailed and

descriptive writing involved. Determining and evaluating an incident report can change many

circumstances for the people involved and is why it is so important to explain everything exactly

how it happened. In any field of study that you are unfamiliar with the genre it would be easy to

misunderstand due to all the jargon.

Another statement used to explain genre is to know that genre is a constantly changing

term. Genres and discourse communities are constantly changing which makes it more difficult

to understand the correct definition of each. For example, there is an assessment used by

Probation Officers that has been recently renewed from the old version. This version is much

more detailed and looks into more instances of the offenders past. Even though, it is hard for

each discourse community to change a genre it is important to do so. This change in genre is to

help protect society from offenders. Also, the fact that society continues to change can cause

confusion and disruption in genre.

The next concept to look at in an incident report would be the “who” that is involved.

Typically in an incident report there is an offender and a victim. The person writing the incident

report has to understand who their audience is going to be. If they were telling a friend about

what happened it could be very casual, leaving out a few details. But in the discourse

community of a Police Officer it has to be detailed so that it is clear who the victim and offender

is. The details of the report can determine what happens to the person who committed the

offense. Many times the audience will be a judge or boss who will determine this. With a lack

of details, support and evidence it would be hard to do your job of finding someone guilty for a

crime they committed.

Lastly, but not least the W that is helpful in this or any genre analysis is the “when”. In

writing an incident report the next most important detail to knowing what actually happened is

when it happened. This evidence can help prove or disprove someone committed this offense.

The person who wrote the incident report could just be out to get a co-worker they do not like so

by doing that they make an incident that really did not happen. By providing a time and date that

the incident occurred could help the victim in this case. The victim could provide evidence that

he/she was somewhere else at that exact time. Also, the when is used to determine whether the

victim is found guilty or not.

These 4 W’s have significant importance to all forms of genre. Also, by knowing how to

use them correctly can make your writing more effective. For example, you do not want to put

all of the W’s in one sentence. Each one needs to be explained and used in the most effective

way for the audience. In an incident report it would be most effective to immediately state the

date and time of which the incident occurred rather than explaining what happened and then “oh

and it happened at 9:20 pm Tuesday evening”. Another key factor with incident reports is to get

to the point. Yes, it needs to be detailed but the audience does not want to know what you ate

yesterday for lunch then the incident. Be detailed but get to the point.

Being able to use many different genres in your discourse community or any other

discourse community can strongly help your versatility and capabilities within your workplace.

It is important to use and understand genre in the correct way. I can’t express how valuable it is

to use the correct type of genre at because that can contribute to how employees, bosses, friends,

or even co-workers evaluate, react, or respond to you.

In conclusion, I hope to have helped clarify some of the confusion about genre. I know

that there may never be a concrete definition of it but this can be a start. Most importantly know

that your understanding of genre can not only help you and your writing skills but with your

audiences’ understanding as well. Through the research of many scholarly authors there have

been many strides forward with genre.

Works Cited

Berkenkotter, Carol and Thomas N. Huckin. “Rethinking Genre from a Sociocognitive Perspective.” Written Communication. 10. 4 (1993): 475-509. Print.

Beaufort, Anne. “Learning New Genres: The Convergence of Knowledge and Action.” Written Communication. (1990): 103-137. Print.

Dirk, Kerry. “Navigating Genres.” 1. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data, 2010. 249-262. Print.

Miller, Carolyn. “Genre As Social Action.” 1984. 157-167. Print.

Bazerman, Charles. Issue Brief: Discourse Communities. 1999-2013. Web. <http://www.ncte.org/college/briefs/dc >.