What Are Genres?

a genre of writing is a type of writing

there are hundreds of genres of writing

genres include typical academic writing

blogs

poems

speeches

recipes

diaries

police reports

commercials

news articles

facebook posts

case studies

for more genres, see Audience & Genres

What Are Genres?

Genres are distinguished from each other by many

differences in what we call conventions:

Genre conventions purpose

ideas

formatting

style

audience

rhetorical appeals (ethos, logos, and

pathos)

rhetorical patterns (narration,

description, analysis, cause/effect,

etc.)

figurative language such as

metaphors

sound, such as rhythm and rhyme

evidence

imagery

repetition of ideas, phrases, or images

structure—what the different parts are

and how they are organized;

sentence length

paragraph length

formality / informality

standard English / other dialects

jargon

vocabulary

first person (uses I) or second person

(you) or third person (the writer

believes…)

active or passive verbs

style

tone

physical layout of the text

visuals (tables, charts, pictures, drawings,

photographs)

What Are Genres?

Let’s look at some examples of different genres. I’ve gathered several genres about community college students over age 25 (in many community colleges now, these students are the majority). Notice how each genre communicates different ideas and emotions about reenty students; notice also how there are differences in conventions.

Genre Example About Reentry Students:

Newspaper Article

Associated Press. "College Campuses Getting Grayer: More Over-40s Going to School." Arizona Republic 17 October 1996: A12. Print.

A recent study sponsored by the Education Resources Institute and the Institute for Higher Education Policy showed that "more and more Americans over age 40 are going to college," due partly to the increase in baby-boomers of that age and partly in response to lifelong learning demands of the workplace. In 1970, only 477,00 people over 40 were in college. "By 1993, that number had more than tripled, to more that 1.6 million" (Associated A12).

According to Jamie Merisotis, head of the Institute for Higher Education Policy, "`People over the age of 40 age going back to college to be retrained. . . . Lifelong learning is becoming a reality for Americans'" (Associated A12). He continued by explaining that "Two-thirds of the older students are women, and some have returned to school after a divorce or after their children get older, giving them time to develop a career. . . . Others are just looking for a career change or are trying to keep up with an increasingly competitive marketplace" (Associated A12).

"Students ages 40 and over make up 10 percent of undergraduate, 22 percent of graduate students and 6 percent of students in medical, law or other professional programs. Most 40-plus students, 79 percent, are part-time. More than half of the part-time students attend two-year public schools" (Associated A12).

Genre Example About Reentry Students:

Poem

Hyacinth

Basting the faces together, just to try this place

on for size. Basting stitches. Basting in my own fat,

that's what. The best place here's the coffee shop.

All the pretty girls don't have kids at home,

and the gray-haired, super-natural women scare me.

They've thought about too much. It shows

in their choice of shoes. My shoulder hurts--

this bag's too heavy. In the registrar's office

they told me You've got all deficiencies!

No grade point average. No math. No science.

No foreign language. No English composition.

No employer's name. No spouse to speak of.

As if deficiencies were badges. As if I'd earned them.

Genre Example About Reentry Students:

Poem cont.

Hyacinth continued

No softness in my voice. That cuticle's bleeding again.

They're polite to me, but no one has the slightest idea

of the mess in the kitchen or the kid with bronchitis.

What did she mean reentry woman? I never had the chance

to be here before. Too many shadowy hours they'd never dream

it cost to clean, care, cook, cope. Women's work

turned to the inside. Blind hems. Hidden seams.

Who counts the thousand stitches it takes to make

a deficient life? One that doesn't fit anymore.

Swelled head, he said. Sore head's more like it.

--Jane Munro, 1988 (qtd. in Lewis, "Extending" 96-97)

Genre Example About Reentry Students:

Narratives (Students’ Stories)

All Success Stories, North Carolina Community

Colleges (read any of the stories on this or

subsequent pages)

Path to Opportunity: Community Colleges

Serving Adult Students. Claudia Rodriguez, Tia

Gwynn, Eric Patrick

Genre Example About Reentry Students:

Research Article Abstract

Genre Example About Reentry Students:

Research Article Excerpt

Genre Examples About Reentry Students: Discussion

Which of these genres did you find most

interesting? Most persuasive? I find all of them

interesting, the poem moves me most emotionally,

and the information in the research except about

time being a huge problem for community college

students rings true.

For me, reading or seeing or listening to variety of

genres on a given topic is the best approach, as it

allows me to understand the topic through several

points of view and approaches.

Genre Examples: America’s New Deadly Obsession

The last example of multi-genre research (research that

contains several different genres) is an Oprah Winfrey

show, America’s New Deadly Obsession . I know that

some of you might not be Oprah fans. That’s okay.

Regardless of your feelings about Oprah, this show is a

powerful example of multi-genre work.

As you watch this, think about the different genres that

Winfrey and Harpo studios use. Which are most

convincing? By the end of the show, are you persuaded?

Share your responses in the Genre Discussion forum.