INTR

ODUCTION T

O

GENRE ANALY

SIS

DR

. K

UR

L I NK

US

ASSIGNMENT

2

DEVITT, REIFF, BAWARSHI: SUMMARY

1. Genre: “The typical rhetorical ways of responding to a repeated situation within a scene” (48). We need to know about genre to be able to enter the scene correctly• What are some possible genres for this assignment?

2. Scene: (rhetorical situation): Where a text takes place, including: purpose of text, writer, audience, reason for writing, goal, use.• We’re attempting to read the genre and scene to uncover technical parts as

well as communication values.

3. Example: “When chemotherapy fails to cure Mrs. Bacon’s cancer what we say is, “Ms. Bacon failed chemotherapy.” Do any of the genres you write have these types of hidden values?• One of the most important functions of medical jargon is to help doctors

maintain some distance from patients. Is there jargon that you use elsewhere: a sports team, fraternity or sorority? Does it have a reason?

• In the sciences, the passive voice reinforces a scientific belief that the physical world exists objectively, independent of human intervention. Scientists are objectively describing what happens. The process is the important thing, not the scientist.

4. Steps to a genre analysis: Collect samples, learn about the scene, identify the patterns, understand how patterns correlate to values.

Content to analyze: structural patterns (parts of the genre), format (appearance, scannability, images), language (passive voice, jargon, etc.)

DEVITT, REIFF, BAWARSHI: APPLICATION

Ethos: Credibility, author’s persona, qualified to talk (can just anyone write?).

Pathos: Emotion—anger, call to action, etc.

Logos: types of evidence, images, statistics, stories, examples.

PORTER: SUMMARY

1. Intertextuality: All texts are interdependent, drawing from one another, calling upon one another’s standards. In a genre analysis, our goal is to look for the big Text that our examples are representative of.

• You rarely write from scratch in real technical writing situations. You have examples and guides and things that were written before you got there. Can you think of ways you do this now?

2. Assumptions: What does the text (resume or tweets) assume the audience knows already? Assumes the audience trusts? Believe? Wants?

3. Discourse Community: A group of individuals bound by a common interest who communicate through approved channels and whose discourse is regulated.• Lab Report: Who? Common interest? Approved channels vs. channels? Regulated

by whom?• Lab Report: Not everyone belongs to a discourse community. Who can write your

genre and who can’t? How do you get your foot in the door?

HOMEWORK: C

HOOSE

YOUR G

ENRE—BRIE

FLY

WRIT

E ABOUT

IT O

N-LIN

E