After reading the piece by Dirk, summarize what she means by genre. How does genre and audience connect together? Why are they important key terms to any one's writing process(es)?
Once you summarize the piece a bit, connect it back to what we've been doing in class. How does the reading respond to what we have been discussing in terms of writing? In terms of rhetorical situation?
How does the reading apply to your own thinking? Your own writing?
Homework: Due by class time on Friday, June 20, 2014. Please don't forget to also respond to two of your group members' posts.
According to Kerry Dirk, a genre is "a rhetorical response to reoccurring or similar situations." To summarize, I think that genre is the individual style in which a writer responds to a situation or reading. When considering the connection between your genre and your target audience, if your audience is more familiar with the particular genre you are writing about then it will be more tangible to them. If your audience is able to relate to your genre by means of comparable situations or experiences then this will prompt comparable responses. However, writing about a less established genre can allow for more freedom in your writing because a brand new situation requires a first response whereas with a more established genre you will refer to responses that have used that first response as an example. It is also important to note that a genre can be utilized to help your audience accomplish specific goals.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of rhetorical situation, it is extremely important to have an appropriate response. If you know how a genre functions as a specific action you can perceive how it might function rhetorically. Diligent research to discover details about your genre is essential and will enable you to perceive what your reader's response or actions might be. When we recognize the rhetorical situation and relate it to a specific genre as well as to our target audience then we will obtain a more desirable response. Therefore, the choices you make when writing directly impact the specific actions that your audience may take.
From this particular reading, I have ascertained that I need to be rhetorically aware of my target audience in order to elicit a desired response to my writing. I believe that genre can help me to make well informed and more concise decisions during my writing process because I can research how others before me have written similarly. I have also concluded that by understanding genres that are of particular interest to me will help me in the future when writing about new or unfamiliar genres.
I like what you had to say regarding newer genres and how you can write more freely in them. I like to try to be unexpected in my writing and I do in fact feel constrained sometimes by the genre I'm writing in. I would like to talk about how genre influences the audience with you in class, my thinking is the audience has a genre in mind and you should Appel to it.
DeleteRemember that we can also see how the audience responded to the writing at the time that it was written. This helps us better understand how the audience might react to your writing. Maybe a lot of time has passed since that was written and your audience today will react in a completely different way. This can be utilized in our advantage and another way to get to know our audience.
DeleteDirk states that a genre is “viewed as even more than repeating
ReplyDeleterhetorical situations,” moreover “as tools to help people get things done,” (252). Consequently genre and audience connect in the sense that an audience expects certain qualities of a response based on the genre of the piece (Dirk 252). Both are key terms to a writer’s tools as genre dictates precedence for your response, whereas audience demands your response be tabulated based on their understanding of your genre. As a result it is imperative to understand both, as they are equally important and each support a portion of each other as well as your rhetoric.
Any example in life follows a genre because of the expected response to it, at least as far as the speaker’s understanding of both the genre and their audience exists. Consequently just as any real situation is rhetorical, every real situation follows a genre. Additionally every bit of rhetoric has an audience and is up for interpretation, genre the same in nature. As a parallel to the rhetorical situation where rhetoric can only be created from rhetoric, genres are only created from responses that aim to mimic or reflect upon another piece.
Anything we say falls into a genre, whether it be “telling a joke, writing an
email, or uploading a witty status on Facebook,” (Dirk 253). As a result I know that when I have to approach a certain situation, I will respond based on my past understanding of that genre. Just as a research paper would be a formal situation and and email informal, a response I generate could be either depending on the audience.
I agree that like a rhetorical situation, genres can be interpreted based on the individual. Past experiences are huge when interpreting anything, but a question I might ask in this case is who determines the genre?
DeleteI do think that it is important to have a good understanding of the particular genre you are writing about, but what if it is a genre that is completely new to you or even one that you have no interest in? I believe that in that case we still write based on our past experiences with similar genres.
DeleteI agree with your ideal that genres can be based on the individuals. Genres could affect peoples' feeling about their reading, which is important for writers.
DeleteDirks describes genre as a situation that is repeated or common, and because the situation is similar it calls for a similar response. "Then when that situation happens again, another person uses the first response as a basis for the second, and eventually everyone who en- counters this situation is basing his/her response on the previous ones, resulting in the creation of a new genre." (252). She explains that genres are sort of a map to what we choose to read and write. From the writing side of things, genre serves as a sort of jumping off point. With the concept of genres writers are easily able to write a piece with a specific appeal depending on the audience they wish to appeal to. That brings me to the audience side of genre, personally I don't believe genre would be a thing if it didn't apply to the audience as well. Most people who are an audience read a new book or listen to a new song based of of their previous experiences with that genre.
ReplyDeleteThough genre was coined at some point I think it would be safe to assume that the concepts of "genre" would have come about naturally. I say this because all rhetoric is used to elicit a response, but the number of emotional responses are somewhat limited compared to the amount of material available. Because our responses are limited, it would make sense that what is used to elicit those responses might also be limited giving us genres.
I think that careful research about your specific genre and your target audience's familiarity or appeal to that genre is instrumental to good writing, but do we always need to let genre constrain and limit the possibilities of what an individual may write? I would be happy to talk to you in more detail about how the genre directly influences your readers.
DeleteI completely agree with your statement that genre has come about naturally. To me genre is a rhetorical way of naturally responding to common situations we encounter in our day-to-day lives. In a sense every repeated situation creates a similar repeated response that is directed to a similar audience that is expected to respond in a similar way.
DeleteAccording to the article written by Dirk, she shows the conception of genre is the style of different writing which can make close and suitable connection with audience. The author also makes some examples to show how genre impacts the writing in communication, response, like the kidnap one. Due to the article, the author mentions that genre can make different results in specific actions on the part of readers which means genre can change readers’ feeling. According to the Carolyn Miller, genres have the ability to help or hurt human interaction which strengthen the connection between readers and writing.
ReplyDeleteI think genres are important because writers can choose different genres to their writing instead of a formula writing style. In addition, genres can changes our different feelings about writing. In the kidnap example, three different types writing can give audience three different feelings. Audience may feel very afraid if they read the first direct ransom letter while they would feel not so much nerves like the third one. What’s more, genre can help writers to determine which situation they should choose in order to show the special feeling to audience.
We have discussed rhetorical situation in class while this article is talking about the elements of writing because the rhetorical situation is one situation of genres. As the author indicates that it is easy and common for people to follow the former response or formula writing, so the genres help people to create their own writing and attach a suitable situation to their wiring.
I think I could apply genres to my own writing which will make me show ideas more clear. I can use different genres to apply on my writing which I can choose suitable situation to my audience.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI do like your mention about the example of kidnap which really helped me understand the application of genres as well.
DeleteI agree with the point you mentioned that genres are important because writers can choose different ways of writing instead of following a standard writing style
DeleteI do find myself researching past essays and articles everytime I need to write one. I think it helps to put it in perspective as in what do I need to do to be effective. I take the good with the bad, I read an essay and maybe think to myself, the writer wasn't as effective in this part, maybe the author went on a tangent that I recognized as unnecessary. Vice versa I will read a part of the writing and think to myself how effective it was and I will try to shoot for the same effectiveness. The view that genres help us build on that past knowledge is a fantastic one that I never thought about before.
DeleteGenre is described by Dirk as being the the repetition of a situation with a demanding response so another answer is given, by basing themselves in the response to the previous situations. "When that situation happens again, another person uses the first response as a basis for the second, and eventually everyone who en- counters this situation is basing his/her response on the previous ones, resulting in the creation of a new genre." (252). But in my view we can simply say that genre is the writing reaction of a situation it may be written or not.
ReplyDeleteFrom my understanding the connection of genre and audience is not different from what we get after listen to the an event or reading a book, we will have an easier time understanding if we are aware of the subject in context. And with genre and audience is the same thing, the most the know about the genre the easier will be for them to understand and respond if needed. And both, genre and audience, are important key terms because the genre will allow us to focus on our purpose and audience as i said before is connected with the genre and we have to keep it in mind independently of what we are writing.
Besides the fact that she mentioned two Bitzer quotes, this article is related to the first in a sense that a genre is rhetorical situation, because if we are responding to something is probably because we see something that we don't agree and we want to change or even because we want to add a point to something that we agree but we see that could be better.
This reading like the first just gave me a new concept, helped me to understand better the first reading and makes me want to better understand the components of writing in order to make it more consistent and easier to understand.
I agree with you that audience is connected with the genre because every time we want to express our ideas efficiently, we have to use the right tone or genre which is most likely to be accepted by the audience. In this way, we would join an efficient bridge between us and audience.
DeleteI agree that this article has helped me understand the Bitzer’s article. Rhetorical situation and genre, in my opinion are very similar if not the same rhetorical response to particular situations that both elicit responses that can cause change or at least generate more questions to help better understand the situation.
DeleteAccording to Kerry Dirk, a genre is viewed as repeating rhetorical situations. The connection between genre and audience is that “knowing what a genre is used for can help people to accomplish goals, whether that goal be getting a job by knowing how to write a stellar resume, winning a person’s heart by writing a romantic love letter, or getting into college by writing an effective personal statement.” What’s more, Dirk addresses that “when that situation happens again, another person uses the first response as a basis for the second, and eventually everyone who encounters this situation is basing his/her response on the previous ones, resulting in the creation of a new genre.” Sometimes audience use genre as reference to get better understanding of a speech or articles. With a genre, an author can use it as an approach to appeal his or her target audience. By using appropriate genres, authors could make themselves understood more easily.
ReplyDeleteThis reading helps me understand how to write a more efficient writing which makes the audience have better understanding of my writing. Both the previous article about rhetorical situation and this writing help me understand the importance of the tone I use or the way I write for my writing.
Good resume. I agree what you are saying because before I didn't use to see genre as something that "big" as now.
DeleteYou note that genre can be used to appeal to your audience. I think that consequently you can use other examples of writing to make your own writing stronger. That is to say that given enough time in a library, you could find an example of a persuasive essay to follow that format, and still be successful without having any knowledge of what that paper contains, or even the tenants of that genre.
DeleteDirk summarizes genre as a situation that requires a response, and because the situation can be repeated it will require a similar response and thus this never-ending cycle of repeated situations and responses creates a genre. For instance, Dirk gives the example of President George Washington giving the first State of the Union Address. Since he was the first person to write this particular genre he was expected to create it, and since its creation every President since Washington has developed their own State of Union Address based off of his model. Similar to Dirk, Amy Devitt agrees by stating, “But once we recognize a recurring situation, a situation that we or others have responded to in the past, our response to that situation can be guided by past responses” (“Generalizing” 576). Additionally, Dirk describes that genre and audience have an important connection because the audience expects to hear certain qualities of past examples of the same genre. Every time a President gives the State of the Union Address, the audience is expecting to be familiar with the format and topics because this Address has been modeled after past Address’.
ReplyDeleteGenre and audience are very important key terms to anyone’s writing process because genre is a response to an experienced situation and the audience must understand the situation and therefore have some knowledge of the genre. These two terms are particularly important in terms of rhetorical situation. Genre, as defined by Dirks, is entirely based on experienced situations and is very similar to rhetorical situation that is based on real situations that are able to “create and present discourse” as Bitzer stated. Also it is vitally important to recognize the rhetorical situation or genre and relate it to the audience so they can respond and possible create change based on the specific situations represented in the discourse.
Dirks reading was very helpfully in setting some important guidelines that will assist my writing. These guidelines or suggestions include: determining an action/goal that I’m trying accomplish, learn as much as I can about the audience I intend to write to, research how others have responded to similar situations, and ask questions. By applying these suggestions I think my writing will improve and will become more effective in targeting a particular audience and hopefully eliciting a response or change.
You mention that genre requires the audience to understand the response. I think that this is a very valid point because if you were to take your writing skills to another country, possibly even another English speaking country, you might find that the audience has a different interpretation of your genre. Its something that, as a writer, we assume culturally people make connections, but may not be the case.
DeleteGenre in the past has been defined as repeating rhetorical situations, but today it can be seen as the best medium to accomplish a task. Jon Stewart is a comedian with a very popular show, he classifies as news satire. He utilizes comedy as a means to reach a younger audience and at the same time criticize political events. He is very effective, in fact maybe too effective, he was voted the most trusted newsman in 2009 by a poll done by the Times magazine. He saw a decline in news reporting and decided to fill that vacuum back in 1999. That show is the perfect example in how the connection between genre and your audience is critical.
ReplyDeleteKnowing your audience and how you can better reach them are very important simply because it helps you determine what the most practical way to reach them. You need to understand how your audience will perceive your message. Choosing the best genre to convey your message will result in you as a writer creating a better rhetorical situation. Kerry Dirk’s essay is a perfect follow up to Lloyd Bitzer, after we understand what is, and how to create a rhetorical situation we then need to discern which genre will be most effective. It is almost as if we’re learning the foundations of excellent writing block by block.
I found myself enjoying the ‘Navigating genres’ and feeling maybe a bit cocky, I kept nodding as I read along. She was able, in a much better way, to put into a essay what I thought was necessary to be an effective writer. It opened me up to consider a few things before writing and to better understand the concept of genre, which is something I never gave much thought to.
Indeed, I also enjoyed reading this, specially in the headlines example from The Onion. I found myself laughing a lot in that part, and yet I was completely able to understand what she wanted to show by giving that examples.
DeleteI do agree with your idea that knowing your audience is the good way for writers to do writing because they can know what should be popular or welcomed among their readers. Of course, spending more time on finding suitable situation is another important point for writers by understanding the different genres.
DeleteDirk describes genre as a repeated situation, or subject that requires a response, or an action from the readers, which in this case is the audience. It is created when people respond to a situation that happens many times, were each response will be based under the previous ones. This will create a certain flow and in the end, create a standard for the responses which in the end are defined as a new genre.
ReplyDeleteIn my own words, I would describe the connection between genre and audience similar to the connection between people and interests. People will only develop an interest in something that they like. With genre and audience is kind of the same. The genre will only captivate the attention for people that have an understanding of that genre because they are aware or used to the situation described in that genre.
Furthermore, genre and audience are important to a person's writing because according to audience will define which rules should be used to write the text. This concept is almost the same that we have learned about rhetoric and rhetorical situation since in some cases the rhetorical situation defines the rhetoric. For me this reading only affirms the need to pay attention to the subject or situation, make a prediction of how the text is going to be and always write thinking in the target audience.