In my opinion genre provides multiple ways of conveying a message. Whether the message is received through a political cartoon, article, speech, or photograph, the intended message is still being communicated. Genre allows us to identify and decide which form of communication is best suited to effectively relay the message to an audience.
In composing genre separates different forms of writing. Some typical examples would be fiction and non-fiction. Other genres can be articles, poems, or letters. These genres provide the reader with certain expectations that will allow him or her to better evaluate the piece of work they are reading. If I decide to read a romance novel, I can expect the plot to be exciting and filled with passion, I also know that the situations in the story will most likely deal with love, sexuality, and perhaps betrayal. Genres help readers to classify certain writing styles or techniques that they enjoy reading. The expectations and patterns that genres provide, eventually led up to an unwritten set of rules created by a multitude of readers.
Although many types of genres come with these strict set of rules, these rules can always be broken in order to enhance writer’s message. After all free verse poetry was considered as a “rule breaker” when it first emerged, but now it is studied in classrooms as a legitimate form of composition.
I believe that genre plays an extraordinary role in communication for that gives the reader different chances to understand a concept or idea. There are countless genres to choose from, and each one has a different effect on different people. Some people are visual and need aid from comic strips, pictures, or videos, and others are convinced off facts and detail, so articles, papers, and discussions interest them. Genre plays an important role in composing too, because as a writer you look to grab a readers attention in any way you can, by any means. The ultimate goal for a writer is for his or her message to be taken in and understood. I think thats where the expectations come into play, we all have expectations for everything we do in life, and this is no exception. Genre gives us the chance to motivate or change someones opinion. In my opinion, there is no limitation to genre or any other form of communication, because it is writing that is free of mind. It can presented in any way and interpreted in any way.
To me, genre sets a standard on what a person is composing and sets parameters or guidelines on the content they are writing about. For example, if a student is writing an expository essay, they automatically know they need to have a five paragraph essay with 4-5 sentences per paragraph. The first needs to be an intro, the last needs to be a conclusion and the middle three need to be where the student is explaining their point of view. Genre's role in communication can be a wide span from comics, to epics, to essays and though each can have a different way of communicating their message, they all have the potential to express the same message. It can also help people determine what they are interested in reading. For example, a local Borders recently went out of business and their remaining books were scattered across the few remaining shelves with paper labels of "romance" "fiction" "health" "religion". Just by reading these simple signs of what genre the books were in, I could tell which ones I wanted to go to and which ones I wasn't interested in reading.
In a way, the limitations of genre are inhibiting because they discourage people from varying too far from writing new things for fear of it being too different and not appealing to what the general public is used to. If a fantastic story didn't have a happy ending, would people want to read it? What if that steaming sexy prince at the end of that romance novel didn't end up with the heartbroken hopeless romantic woman because the prince died? Would people want to read that?
Genre really seems to be shaping up to be a piece of the puzzle of composition. The best way to describe it would be to call it a positive feedback loop, but more precisely, merely a constructive aspect of the loop. It produces a rhetorical situation and therein lies its ability to respond to the situation. Communication is greatly affected by the existence of genres. It, in many cases, sets the stage for what an audience can expect from a diverse range of communication. As a classification system, we can see this effect and analyze in more detail how more or less rhetoricians adhere to the expectations in which the genre is setting. In this respect, many limitations exist for composition and rhetoric when confronting a genre. Limitations which are caused by genre can include so many articles, some of which are verbiage, grammar, tone, degree of complexity in the ideas presented and how and when the audience is made aware of pertinent information. These are more of guidelines however for a genre as opposed to strict limitations that can never be broken. These limits can be fun to break and expand and the breaking of these conventions can lead to new genres over time and thus in this fact we can see a new cycle surfacing as a result of genre.
In terms of communication, genre gives a writer a broad spectrum in which to present an idea. Various methods and mediums exists depending on the given rhetorical situation, but it’s up to the writer to choose which one he or she thinks will express their idea in the precise manner they’d like and to the correct audience. Deciding on your audience, I think, is one of the most important things in determining your genre. If you’re composing a letter, is it going to be to a friend or a business associate? The composition of a letter and its contents that you’re writing to a friend will differ from a letter to a fellow business colleague. When you think of a particular genre, a predetermined outline already comes to mind. Taking the example of a letter again, if you’re writing to a parent, your mom or dad will already have expectations in terms of content and greeting. You’ll probably talk about school or work, ask how they’re doing, and tell them you love them. Certain genres come with distinct attributes, but these characteristics can also work as constraints. What may be allowed or seen in a genre like a letter may not be as well received or make any sense in a sales paper. Content, tone, and grammar may all take different forms depending on the genre.
When it comes to communication, genre plays a large role. Genre is all about your argument and how you want it to be portrayed to your audience. For example, choosing satire to express your views of a certain political issue may be quite effective for some audiences, however it may be offensive or ineffective to another audience. The way an argument is communicated to the audience changes with each genre. Depending on what audience you want to reach and how you want to reach out to them are all factors in determining what genre to use for an argument. The presence of genre while composing causes you to have a set of guidelines to follow in your thought process and in the later stages of composing. Although the guidelines set are not extremely strict, there are still qualities you must think about including when composing in order to ensure that your work stays true to the genre it belongs to. While you still are allowed a lot of freedom when writing in different genres, some restrictions do apply. The genre you choose to use can limit the audience you appeal to and the content in your work. Genre also causes the reader to have certain expectations of your work before they even read it. For example, if the audience knows that the piece of work is a satire, they will expect it to be funny and even to laugh. While, if they are presented with a photo, they will expect it to be visually stimulating. The audience forms opinions of how your work should make them feel before they hear any of it, due to the genre it is categorized in.
Devitt, in his article "Generalizing as Genre", defines the conventional conception of genre as "a classification system deriving from literary criticism that names types of texts according to their forms." That being said genre does not have a role in communication in our society. In today's society, mass media blurs the lines so much so that a "classification system" like genre becomes nonexistent. Despite whether one is interested in a particular subject is irrelevant because mass media permeates each demographic and its interests rather than focusing on the "form" of a particular subject within a genre that appeals to the demographic.
The conventional conception of genre, however, applies to composing. Composition is not as affected by media as communication, thus genre plays a strong role in composing. In composition, genre is the form in which the content is placed.
The expectations of genre as form within composition is that a particular audience assumes, through the classification of a literary work, that their preferences will be satiated. The limitations of genre as form within composition is that an author becomes "pigeon-holed". Through this, they are seemingly forced to rest on the laurels of the particular genre that brought them success from an audience.
I believe that genre itself creates the boundaries in which on can compose. Each genre only has so much that one can do; they all have their own limitations. At the same time however, in any given genre, there are a multitude of different options in regards to how one chooses to convey their point; they can use humor or be serious, be blatant or vague etc. Obviously, in every genre there are aspects that are required of the author, which creates difference between each genre, but these are usually vague outlines. I feel that a genre itself merely provides an author focus and direction as to how they are going to convey their point/message.
Using Devitt’s definition of genre as determining a given rhetorical situation while being a part of the same rhetorical situation, it is apparent that genre plays a role in communication. The role it plays can be understood by fitting genre into Bitzer model of a rhetorical situation. The audience and the exigence are external forces acting upon the discourse of a situation, that is to say no matter how large or abstract an audience or obscure the urgency that precipitates the situation these are not aspects of the situation created or directly attributed the discourse produced by the rhetor. The constraints of the situation, however, can be many and can arise as part of the discourse itself. In this role, genre acts as a medium through with text can be communicated in an effective manner. As the writer/rhetor constructs the message, the genre of the text takes shape. The writer, however, has had to consider his mode of conveyance prior to embarking on his discourse. In this way, genre exists as a determining factor for the discourse in a situation along with arising from the discourse itself. Practically speaking, genre is important to communication because as a constraint the writer must consider how to best convey his message by employing an appropriate genre to his piece. For example, a writer tasked with a scholarly paper would be remiss to write his dissertation in haiku. Even if it were expertly presented, the genre is neither appropriate nor effective in this case. When composing, writers first consider genre before writing even begins. Many times this action may be taken subconsciously or taken for granted. Given that genre arises as part of the discourse and that many discourses have existed before the writer sets to producing his, many genres are available to the writer. He may not be perfectly aware that his choices when approaching discourse are predetermined by his experiences with genre and discourse in the past, but in order to successfully produce his message, he first determines how to best communicate it to his audience. This determination is one of genre. Genre is inalienable to the creation of text, and understanding the role genre plays in rhetorical situation is necessary to revision and refinement of the text. That is, a writer may be determined to convey his message a certain way, but may have lost his way through the process of composition. Since genre arises as part of the text, the writer can now adapt his message or adopt a variation of his original generic goal to clarify his message to the reader. The expectations and limitation of genre in composition come from its role as a constraint in the rhetorical situation that gives rise to the discourse in the composition. The expectation that the audience has can be associated to genre in much the same way genre affects the writer prior to composing. It can be taken for granted, but the audience will enter the contract that is reading the writer’s message with preconceived notions of how they expect to be treated by the writer. Thinking of genre’s as a classification of form helps here because we can see how different forms have different effects even if the text itself isn’t much different. The limitations brought on by genre are a result of the expectations an audience has of a given generic form. That is, a writer can stray from accepted forms for a given message, but he runs the risk of alienating his audience because he wanders outside of the limits a genre has in a cultural context.
I want to continue with the argument that genre is not defined by the medium through which is conveyed (basically, the point we made about VHS vs DVD in class on Wednesday). Instead, genre is the data, ideas and information which are furthered through these mediums. Therefore, the role genre assumes is merely as a categorizing technique, not a mold of rules into which writers (and producers, creators, etc) are be boxed. It allows readers (etc) to search for topics/products specific to their desires, and groups similar works together, but does little more. As far as being the impetus for creation - writers saying "I want to write in this specific genre" - I suppose this still happens, as much as anyone decides a topic to write about, or has their own preferred style of writing. But the specific genre itself is not the dictator of all the rules and stipulations for any and all writing within it. Audience is obviously still a factor (for example, intended age group, or the scientific advancedness of the current generation). But, rather than letting a certain audience govern the content of the writing, I feel that writers (and, again, film makers, etc) tend more often to create a work (based, instead mayhaps, on a message they wish to promote, or maybe even just a storyline/idea that has been in their head for a while), and then decide for which manner of audience it is appropriate. The old container model theory certainly forced creators into a box. Even the new concept, however, is restrictive. I happen to agree that there are the same manner of situations which repeatedly occur, much the same as the plot of a story changing in characters' names and minor details, but having the same overarching ideas and end result. However, this "new concept" holds genre as the response to a rhetorical situation (of which, there are a limited number of these repeated ones (that are also constantly changing)), which takes in to account medium differences but neglects to fully classify the content. Which again leads to author-intended audiences, and genre defining a work, rather than just categorizing it. erika higgins
Genre is the filtering system of communication. It identifies pre-existing categories of communication either by theme, purpose, content, audience or structure (like medium). I think it plays a large role in both the way the communication is created and received. Certain restrictions regarding genre effect the communicator. Genres are often learned and built into society with the weight of history, the idea that it is this way and always has been. This discourages the communicator from bringing innovative ideas into genre via content or purpose and often discourages the mixing of genres. The argument can be made though that genre is in place to prevent communicators from doing these things because they have historically been ineffective. In the same way the genre restricts the creator of the message, it does the same for the receiver. A particular genre clues in the audience of what to expect. It prepares the audience for a certain set of expectations like that of format, delivery, tone etc. For example, if an audience is told they are going to be witnessing a speech, they immediately assume spoken, direct and either persuasive or informative communication. I went to an arts high school and one particular speech left my entire school torn. We were told we would be hearing a very well known speaker give a “moving” speech. It wasn’t just a speech, it was a show. He spoke in third person, first, invited people to share their experiences, used music, singing, dancing, every form of communication you can think of. Everyone thought his purpose was unclear. He did not use any particular tactic, he didn’t persuade or inform or inspire. It was as if he was demonstrating life onstage, in real time. People were interested during, but left unsatisfied. The whole school was a buzz. At the beginning of the “speech” the speaker pointedly expressed of the value of life, how truly invaluable it is. Everyone was too conditioned to expect a traditional speech that through the beginning of his performance many people were talking, laughing, looking around and completely missed his hint. His purpose was just to generate interest in the moment. He made everyone question what they ‘know,’ what they’ve been taught, as to reveal a completely untapped reality of creativity. In a way his purpose was to break all genres, to break all restrictions. In this example genre’s effect on an audience is clear, it pre-conditions us to expect a particular outcome. This example also shows the risk in breaking genre, in breaking away from conformity. Many people hated the “speech” and just made fun of him after the fact. This reaction came even from art students, students that have thought differently and have been naturally creative for years of their life. If even a very open minded audience is reluctant to accept an opposition to genre its clear why the masses would do the same. I am in no way saying genre is a bad institution. I think that genre helps formulate communication in a way that is easily accessible and understandable. An audience doesn’t always want to have to interpret and analyze every piece of communication, life would be too complicated.
Before the Devitt article, I wasn’t aware of the serious impact genre has on communication. I used to think it wasn’t even involved in the rhetorical process. In the past, I had always assumed it was merely a form of classification bestowed upon a piece or work of rhetoric after it had been completed only for the sake of categorization. Even though my perception of it was totally off, I guess I don’t feel in any way stupid because this was one of the views of the old concept of genre. But now I know better. With the new concept of genre introduced, and now that its function within the rhetorical process and its direct influence on communication has been shown to me, I can come to understand its real value. I understand that genre’s role in communication is active and continuous. It’s a cycle. It never stops because it is both a response to the rhetorical situation while constructing it all at the same time. Let’s take, for example, a very simple and basic everyday rhetorical situation, say a friend sends me a text asking me for advice. The rhetorical situation is created by the text, which provides an exigence, an audience, and constraints. When the rhetorical situation arises, I use genre as a direct response to the rhetorical situation. In this case, I will choose to respond according to the traditional conventions of a text, as opposed to those of an email or anything else. This is a major role genre plays in composing. Then, the genre will also construct the rhetorical situation because my choice of conventions within the genre will determine my constraints, the way I address my audience, and how I deal with the exigence at hand. All the expectations constructed by genre are closely related to these three factors of the rhetorical situation. For example, there’s the expectation that I’ll answer my friend that same day, since that’s one of the conventions of text unlike email where I can put it off for a couple of days. There’s the expectation that my answer to her will be short, and not pages where you can go on and on. This expectation is even backed up by the limitation of the number of characters allowed per text. This is just an example of a single, simple genre, but the same deal affects them all while leading them to influence the rhetorical situation and construct it in a different way.
In my opinion genre provides multiple ways of conveying a message. Whether the message is received through a political cartoon, article, speech, or photograph, the intended message is still being communicated. Genre allows us to identify and decide which form of communication is best suited to effectively relay the message to an audience.
ReplyDeleteIn composing genre separates different forms of writing. Some typical examples would be fiction and non-fiction. Other genres can be articles, poems, or letters. These genres provide the reader with certain expectations that will allow him or her to better evaluate the piece of work they are reading. If I decide to read a romance novel, I can expect the plot to be exciting and filled with passion, I also know that the situations in the story will most likely deal with love, sexuality, and perhaps betrayal. Genres help readers to classify certain writing styles or techniques that they enjoy reading. The expectations and patterns that genres provide, eventually led up to an unwritten set of rules created by a multitude of readers.
Although many types of genres come with these strict set of rules, these rules can always be broken in order to enhance writer’s message. After all free verse poetry was considered as a “rule breaker” when it first emerged, but now it is studied in classrooms as a legitimate form of composition.
I believe that genre plays an extraordinary role in communication for that gives the reader different chances to understand a concept or idea. There are countless genres to choose from, and each one has a different effect on different people. Some people are visual and need aid from comic strips, pictures, or videos, and others are convinced off facts and detail, so articles, papers, and discussions interest them. Genre plays an important role in composing too, because as a writer you look to grab a readers attention in any way you can, by any means. The ultimate goal for a writer is for his or her message to be taken in and understood. I think thats where the expectations come into play, we all have expectations for everything we do in life, and this is no exception. Genre gives us the chance to motivate or change someones opinion. In my opinion, there is no limitation to genre or any other form of communication, because it is writing that is free of mind. It can presented in any way and interpreted in any way.
ReplyDeleteTo me, genre sets a standard on what a person is composing and sets parameters or guidelines on the content they are writing about. For example, if a student is writing an expository essay, they automatically know they need to have a five paragraph essay with 4-5 sentences per paragraph. The first needs to be an intro, the last needs to be a conclusion and the middle three need to be where the student is explaining their point of view.
ReplyDeleteGenre's role in communication can be a wide span from comics, to epics, to essays and though each can have a different way of communicating their message, they all have the potential to express the same message. It can also help people determine what they are interested in reading. For example, a local Borders recently went out of business and their remaining books were scattered across the few remaining shelves with paper labels of "romance" "fiction" "health" "religion". Just by reading these simple signs of what genre the books were in, I could tell which ones I wanted to go to and which ones I wasn't interested in reading.
In a way, the limitations of genre are inhibiting because they discourage people from varying too far from writing new things for fear of it being too different and not appealing to what the general public is used to. If a fantastic story didn't have a happy ending, would people want to read it? What if that steaming sexy prince at the end of that romance novel didn't end up with the heartbroken hopeless romantic woman because the prince died? Would people want to read that?
Kari K
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteGenre really seems to be shaping up to be a piece of the puzzle of composition. The best way to describe it would be to call it a positive feedback loop, but more precisely, merely a constructive aspect of the loop. It produces a rhetorical situation and therein lies its ability to respond to the situation.
ReplyDeleteCommunication is greatly affected by the existence of genres. It, in many cases, sets the stage for what an audience can expect from a diverse range of communication. As a classification system, we can see this effect and analyze in more detail how more or less rhetoricians adhere to the expectations in which the genre is setting.
In this respect, many limitations exist for composition and rhetoric when confronting a genre. Limitations which are caused by genre can include so many articles, some of which are verbiage, grammar, tone, degree of complexity in the ideas presented and how and when the audience is made aware of pertinent information. These are more of guidelines however for a genre as opposed to strict limitations that can never be broken. These limits can be fun to break and expand and the breaking of these conventions can lead to new genres over time and thus in this fact we can see a new cycle surfacing as a result of genre.
In terms of communication, genre gives a writer a broad spectrum in which to present an idea. Various methods and mediums exists depending on the given rhetorical situation, but it’s up to the writer to choose which one he or she thinks will express their idea in the precise manner they’d like and to the correct audience. Deciding on your audience, I think, is one of the most important things in determining your genre. If you’re composing a letter, is it going to be to a friend or a business associate? The composition of a letter and its contents that you’re writing to a friend will differ from a letter to a fellow business colleague. When you think of a particular genre, a predetermined outline already comes to mind. Taking the example of a letter again, if you’re writing to a parent, your mom or dad will already have expectations in terms of content and greeting. You’ll probably talk about school or work, ask how they’re doing, and tell them you love them. Certain genres come with distinct attributes, but these characteristics can also work as constraints. What may be allowed or seen in a genre like a letter may not be as well received or make any sense in a sales paper. Content, tone, and grammar may all take different forms depending on the genre.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to communication, genre plays a large role. Genre is all about your argument and how you want it to be portrayed to your audience. For example, choosing satire to express your views of a certain political issue may be quite effective for some audiences, however it may be offensive or ineffective to another audience. The way an argument is communicated to the audience changes with each genre. Depending on what audience you want to reach and how you want to reach out to them are all factors in determining what genre to use for an argument.
ReplyDeleteThe presence of genre while composing causes you to have a set of guidelines to follow in your thought process and in the later stages of composing. Although the guidelines set are not extremely strict, there are still qualities you must think about including when composing in order to ensure that your work stays true to the genre it belongs to. While you still are allowed a lot of freedom when writing in different genres, some restrictions do apply. The genre you choose to use can limit the audience you appeal to and the content in your work.
Genre also causes the reader to have certain expectations of your work before they even read it. For example, if the audience knows that the piece of work is a satire, they will expect it to be funny and even to laugh. While, if they are presented with a photo, they will expect it to be visually stimulating. The audience forms opinions of how your work should make them feel before they hear any of it, due to the genre it is categorized in.
Devitt, in his article "Generalizing as Genre", defines the conventional conception of genre as "a classification system deriving from literary criticism that names types of texts according to their forms." That being said genre does not have a role in communication in our society. In today's society, mass media blurs the lines so much so that a "classification system" like genre becomes nonexistent. Despite whether one is interested in a particular subject is irrelevant because mass media permeates each demographic and its interests rather than focusing on the "form" of a particular subject within a genre that appeals to the demographic.
ReplyDeleteThe conventional conception of genre, however, applies to composing. Composition is not as affected by media as communication, thus genre plays a strong role in composing. In composition, genre is the form in which the content is placed.
The expectations of genre as form within composition is that a particular audience assumes, through the classification of a literary work, that their preferences will be satiated. The limitations of genre as form within composition is that an author becomes "pigeon-holed". Through this, they are seemingly forced to rest on the laurels of the particular genre that brought them success from an audience.
I believe that genre itself creates the boundaries in which on can compose. Each genre only has so much that one can do; they all have their own limitations. At the same time however, in any given genre, there are a multitude of different options in regards to how one chooses to convey their point; they can use humor or be serious, be blatant or vague etc. Obviously, in every genre there are aspects that are required of the author, which creates difference between each genre, but these are usually vague outlines. I feel that a genre itself merely provides an author focus and direction as to how they are going to convey their point/message.
ReplyDeleteUsing Devitt’s definition of genre as determining a given rhetorical situation while being a part of the same rhetorical situation, it is apparent that genre plays a role in communication. The role it plays can be understood by fitting genre into Bitzer model of a rhetorical situation. The audience and the exigence are external forces acting upon the discourse of a situation, that is to say no matter how large or abstract an audience or obscure the urgency that precipitates the situation these are not aspects of the situation created or directly attributed the discourse produced by the rhetor. The constraints of the situation, however, can be many and can arise as part of the discourse itself. In this role, genre acts as a medium through with text can be communicated in an effective manner. As the writer/rhetor constructs the message, the genre of the text takes shape. The writer, however, has had to consider his mode of conveyance prior to embarking on his discourse. In this way, genre exists as a determining factor for the discourse in a situation along with arising from the discourse itself. Practically speaking, genre is important to communication because as a constraint the writer must consider how to best convey his message by employing an appropriate genre to his piece. For example, a writer tasked with a scholarly paper would be remiss to write his dissertation in haiku. Even if it were expertly presented, the genre is neither appropriate nor effective in this case.
ReplyDeleteWhen composing, writers first consider genre before writing even begins. Many times this action may be taken subconsciously or taken for granted. Given that genre arises as part of the discourse and that many discourses have existed before the writer sets to producing his, many genres are available to the writer. He may not be perfectly aware that his choices when approaching discourse are predetermined by his experiences with genre and discourse in the past, but in order to successfully produce his message, he first determines how to best communicate it to his audience. This determination is one of genre. Genre is inalienable to the creation of text, and understanding the role genre plays in rhetorical situation is necessary to revision and refinement of the text. That is, a writer may be determined to convey his message a certain way, but may have lost his way through the process of composition. Since genre arises as part of the text, the writer can now adapt his message or adopt a variation of his original generic goal to clarify his message to the reader.
The expectations and limitation of genre in composition come from its role as a constraint in the rhetorical situation that gives rise to the discourse in the composition. The expectation that the audience has can be associated to genre in much the same way genre affects the writer prior to composing. It can be taken for granted, but the audience will enter the contract that is reading the writer’s message with preconceived notions of how they expect to be treated by the writer. Thinking of genre’s as a classification of form helps here because we can see how different forms have different effects even if the text itself isn’t much different. The limitations brought on by genre are a result of the expectations an audience has of a given generic form. That is, a writer can stray from accepted forms for a given message, but he runs the risk of alienating his audience because he wanders outside of the limits a genre has in a cultural context.
I want to continue with the argument that genre is not defined by the medium through which is conveyed (basically, the point we made about VHS vs DVD in class on Wednesday). Instead, genre is the data, ideas and information which are furthered through these mediums. Therefore, the role genre assumes is merely as a categorizing technique, not a mold of rules into which writers (and producers, creators, etc) are be boxed. It allows readers (etc) to search for topics/products specific to their desires, and groups similar works together, but does little more. As far as being the impetus for creation - writers saying "I want to write in this specific genre" - I suppose this still happens, as much as anyone decides a topic to write about, or has their own preferred style of writing. But the specific genre itself is not the dictator of all the rules and stipulations for any and all writing within it. Audience is obviously still a factor (for example, intended age group, or the scientific advancedness of the current generation). But, rather than letting a certain audience govern the content of the writing, I feel that writers (and, again, film makers, etc) tend more often to create a work (based, instead mayhaps, on a message they wish to promote, or maybe even just a storyline/idea that has been in their head for a while), and then decide for which manner of audience it is appropriate. The old container model theory certainly forced creators into a box. Even the new concept, however, is restrictive. I happen to agree that there are the same manner of situations which repeatedly occur, much the same as the plot of a story changing in characters' names and minor details, but having the same overarching ideas and end result. However, this "new concept" holds genre as the response to a rhetorical situation (of which, there are a limited number of these repeated ones (that are also constantly changing)), which takes in to account medium differences but neglects to fully classify the content. Which again leads to author-intended audiences, and genre defining a work, rather than just categorizing it.
ReplyDeleteerika higgins
Genre is the filtering system of communication. It identifies pre-existing categories of communication either by theme, purpose, content, audience or structure (like medium). I think it plays a large role in both the way the communication is created and received. Certain restrictions regarding genre effect the communicator. Genres are often learned and built into society with the weight of history, the idea that it is this way and always has been. This discourages the communicator from bringing innovative ideas into genre via content or purpose and often discourages the mixing of genres. The argument can be made though that genre is in place to prevent communicators from doing these things because they have historically been ineffective. In the same way the genre restricts the creator of the message, it does the same for the receiver. A particular genre clues in the audience of what to expect. It prepares the audience for a certain set of expectations like that of format, delivery, tone etc. For example, if an audience is told they are going to be witnessing a speech, they immediately assume spoken, direct and either persuasive or informative communication.
ReplyDeleteI went to an arts high school and one particular speech left my entire school torn. We were told we would be hearing a very well known speaker give a “moving” speech. It wasn’t just a speech, it was a show. He spoke in third person, first, invited people to share their experiences, used music, singing, dancing, every form of communication you can think of. Everyone thought his purpose was unclear. He did not use any particular tactic, he didn’t persuade or inform or inspire. It was as if he was demonstrating life onstage, in real time. People were interested during, but left unsatisfied. The whole school was a buzz. At the beginning of the “speech” the speaker pointedly expressed of the value of life, how truly invaluable it is. Everyone was too conditioned to expect a traditional speech that through the beginning of his performance many people were talking, laughing, looking around and completely missed his hint. His purpose was just to generate interest in the moment. He made everyone question what they ‘know,’ what they’ve been taught, as to reveal a completely untapped reality of creativity. In a way his purpose was to break all genres, to break all restrictions.
In this example genre’s effect on an audience is clear, it pre-conditions us to expect a particular outcome. This example also shows the risk in breaking genre, in breaking away from conformity. Many people hated the “speech” and just made fun of him after the fact. This reaction came even from art students, students that have thought differently and have been naturally creative for years of their life. If even a very open minded audience is reluctant to accept an opposition to genre its clear why the masses would do the same.
I am in no way saying genre is a bad institution. I think that genre helps formulate communication in a way that is easily accessible and understandable. An audience doesn’t always want to have to interpret and analyze every piece of communication, life would be too complicated.
Before the Devitt article, I wasn’t aware of the serious impact genre has on communication. I used to think it wasn’t even involved in the rhetorical process. In the past, I had always assumed it was merely a form of classification bestowed upon a piece or work of rhetoric after it had been completed only for the sake of categorization. Even though my perception of it was totally off, I guess I don’t feel in any way stupid because this was one of the views of the old concept of genre. But now I know better.
ReplyDeleteWith the new concept of genre introduced, and now that its function within the rhetorical process and its direct influence on communication has been shown to me, I can come to understand its real value. I understand that genre’s role in communication is active and continuous. It’s a cycle. It never stops because it is both a response to the rhetorical situation while constructing it all at the same time. Let’s take, for example, a very simple and basic everyday rhetorical situation, say a friend sends me a text asking me for advice. The rhetorical situation is created by the text, which provides an exigence, an audience, and constraints. When the rhetorical situation arises, I use genre as a direct response to the rhetorical situation. In this case, I will choose to respond according to the traditional conventions of a text, as opposed to those of an email or anything else. This is a major role genre plays in composing. Then, the genre will also construct the rhetorical situation because my choice of conventions within the genre will determine my constraints, the way I address my audience, and how I deal with the exigence at hand. All the expectations constructed by genre are closely related to these three factors of the rhetorical situation. For example, there’s the expectation that I’ll answer my friend that same day, since that’s one of the conventions of text unlike email where I can put it off for a couple of days. There’s the expectation that my answer to her will be short, and not pages where you can go on and on. This expectation is even backed up by the limitation of the number of characters allowed per text. This is just an example of a single, simple genre, but the same deal affects them all while leading them to influence the rhetorical situation and construct it in a different way.