Genre



Genre

Working definition

Genre is a class of communicative events that share communicative purposes, that is, a type of language (including visual and interactive elements) defined in terms of what people do with it. When people talk about genre they usually go to examples of literature or film and compare westerns versus mysteries, or scifi flicks versus action/adventure. However, genres pervade all kinds of spaces. There are different advertising genres (television consumer versus television political), different news genres (think CNN News stories with slightly more in depth coverage versus CNN Headline News), different genres of asynchronous communication (instant messaging vs. email). Along with all these genres come different audiences, different conventions, and different expectations.

Some aspects of genre

• purpose - communicative actions that many people do, repeatedly usually to fulfill some end or need

o For example, according to Sullivan, 1999, a corporate home page serves several functions including developing corporate image, relaying and controlling information about the corporation, and function as portal for contacting corporate members

• a type of genre usually has a name recognized by some members

o this can be a personal or corporate home page, e-shopping site, online portfolio, a web portal, or the page for a search engine

• a type of genre must have some predictable structures

o for example on a e-shopping site you expect to see a search function, a cart, to be logging into a secure server, etc.

• genres usually anticipate additionally expectations in addition to structure

o additional expectations might be linked to visuals, types of interactivity, evidence used to create arguments or construct ethos

• the way a genre is structured is related its to purposes

o see e-shopping example above

• interaction may be asymmetrical

o the level of audience participation changes (a newspaper website won’t generally have as many levels of interaction as an e-shopping site will)

Genre Analysis Chart

The following chart is for your use to help make comparisons between your sample documents to provide evidence for the argument you will make about what is necessary to designing a web site in the same genre. In the far left column you will want to describe the general attributes that you see in your samples. In the other columns you will want to develop a few word description or include a short example of relevant text that shows how your sample displays this characteristic.

Name of Genre:________________________________________

|Genre Characteristic |Description of Sample 1 |Description of Sample 2 |Description of Sample 3 |

|Organization Scheme | | | |

|Note: it might be easiest to | | | |

|sketch this out | | | |

|Types of Evidence | | | |

|Description: | | | |

|Types of Language Used | | | |

|Description: | | | |

|Audience(s) | | | |

|Description: | | | |

|Purpose(s) | | | |

|Description: | | | |

|Types of Interactivity | | | |

|Description: | | | |

|Visuals Used | | | |

|Description: | | | |

General Notes:

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