Extra Credit: Genres

  This post discusses what I learned about genres from the article "Crossing the Boundaries of Genre Studies: Commentaries By Experts." The article helped give me a better understanding of genres and how they are applied to situations beyond the classroom.

This article helped me to better understand the use of genres in my ENC1102 class.  First off, genres can appear in multiple different cultures including academic, professional, and indigenous cultures (Johns et al. 235).  This means that genres are used beyond the classroom so it is highly important to that they can be applied in many different situations.  In general, a genre “refers to socially recognized ways of using language” (237).  Texts are organized and separated into categories by their primary focuses and purposes.  A genre becomes a category when it responds to a “reoccurring situation” with similarly formatted texts (237).  Genres vary in particular contexts and different situations but have the same general job, to “get things done” (235).  From this I concluded that an annotated bibliography, for example, has the same general purpose in research but can vary in specifics for a certain circumstance.  My annotated bibliography for my English research paper will cover more of the research findings and authors’ credentials, while one for a history class may deal more with specific time periods and events in history.  However, an annotated bibliography is a genre because it serves the same purpose in each setting, which is to give a summary of the source.  Therefore, the article helped me to understand how I can apply genres to all of my classes.

            Moreover, this article helped me understanding how a genre can give an author more credibility. By following a genre, an author can mimic the same format as other profound authors.  This provides a professional appeal to their work.  At the same time the author can add in their own personal identity and writing style. The genre can help the author to claim “solidarity with readers” but build a provoking argument with their own words at the same time (237).  Overall, a genre has similar roles in all situations the genre is being applied to but becomes unique with the author’s own identity. 

Works Cited

Johns, Ann M., et al. “Crossing the Boundaries of Genre Studies: Commentaries By Experts.” Journal of Secondary Language Writing 15 (2006): 234-249. JSTOR. Web. 13 Oct. 2012.