I have been exposed to a few different types of genres of writing throughout my academic career. The classic research paper, book reports, annotated bibliography, narratives and rhetorical analyzes. All of my writing experiences are because I had to do it for school. I have never just kept or journal or written a blog (until now), and honestly kinda wish I had. Its nice to know I don't have to follow strict MLA guidelines or have a required number of sources to write this blog right now. I can just write whatever is on my mind until I think its long enough or just run of out things to say. I enjoy having the freedom to write in whatever style I want and not always having to try formal and academic.
So since the prompt asked for it, I'll try to talk about the ideas and claims that Amy Devitt talks about in here article, "Teaching Critical Genre Awareness" but in a way that it relatable and won't but anyone to sleep (like everything else I have every had to write).
Amy Devitt brings up some interesting things. Her main reason for writing is to show others that there is a better way to teach students different genres than just giving them different templates to follow. She claims that this way of teaching genres limits students from fully understanding the power of genres. I found this very relatable when she talked about students always writing 5-paragraph papers for every type of paper. Until starting college that is kinda how I always saw writing assignments. Not because I thought that structure would work best but because that was the was I originally taught to write academically and have used that way for years. I have since come to the realization that I can used whatever kind of structure I feel is most appropriate for my intended audience. At my job I have to keep a daily long of all the things I do, where I have written another format of writing. My paper for class and my writings at work are very different. Yet, they both work. They are both very different genres but both have their own way for me to get my purpose across to the reader. Devitt calls for students to have more genre awareness because it gives them the tools they need to decide which kind of genre will best get their purpose across to their audience most effectively. When Devitt claims, "When writers take up a genre, they take up that genre's ideology" (339) I think she's saying that writers might unintentionally limit themselves. Me as a writing, I have particular views and understanding on what I see a genre to be. By taking up a genre, what I see as attributes to that genre another reader might not and I wont get my claim across to all readers.
Now back to my blog "genre" of writing. I feel I can relate these different genres of writing to social media. I feel like each social media also gets it's own genre of writing despite being the same exact audience. For me I view Twitter as a place where I can write short (140 character max) either sarcastic, witty, or just embarrassing things that I have to say. Whereas, lets say Instagram I can be more lengthy and more personal and realistic in my writing. Those are the two main social medias I use but even just between those two I feel like it would be wrong to post something I would normally put on twitter and then put it on Instagram. Yes, Instagram has pictures to accompany every post but I still feel like they bot require their own unique style of writing.
So what's your favorite genre? Right now I think mine is some good old classic rock...
I agree with you Nick, I never thought of genres as being more than just a type of music, and on my post I forgot to mention that I too believe that social media has its own genres, moreover, I would say that even text messages have their own form of genre, nonetheless, the one that we most utilize is the five-paragraph essay that our professors usually require us to write.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with the idea that if we are allowed to write more freely without having to use a specific structure, we can write more efficiently, take for example the way you write at your job, I also have to write in my job and the way I structure my letters are different than the ones we were introduced at school, both in structure and formalities. Nonetheless there is always a need for professionalism, but the way we chose to do structure it will allow us to communicate more effectively.
I like most music genres, however, when I am reading or studying I listen to classic music or piano solos to feel as if I was extremely intelligent.
- Marco V.
Hey Nick,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you when it comes to social media. Never thought about it like that but you are so right. I also stick with just Instagram and Twitter, and I too would never have identical posts for each site, even if I'm talking about the same thing. Also, since you're a photographer, there's probably a wide variety of genre's that fall under photography that I never even thought about...interesting.
-Nick Stenman^^
DeleteDude, same. I only really associate genre with music and books. I also enjoy writing informally, because personally, I tend to care more about what I’m writing if I can write it my way and if it’s about something I care about. I definitely agree with what you said about unintentionally limiting ourselves when we write in a certain genre. I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing all the time though; the limitations vary and I think you can find ways to bend the rules of the genre in order to tailor it to what suits you as a writer. The social media thing was a good point too. I feel like I’m one way on Facebook and other way on Tumblr because of the different audiences I’m presenting myself to. Also gonna agree with you on the classic rock part too. Can’t go wrong there. Good job, bro. -Alex DeMarco
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you on the different genres present across social media platforms. It's not something we think exists because we never talk about it in academic contexts, but I'm glad we're encouraged to do so in this class. Could you imagine if genres didn't exist? A loosely formatted paper with improper grammar and incorrect punctuation would drive me nuts. Not only would a paper like that being unbearable, but classic rock wouldn't even be classic rock. It's interesting to read people's blogs in this class and actually get to know the person by the way they write. MLA formatted essays often make the person writing it sound a certain way. Almost like Siri were reading it. Writing involves taking your audience into consideration. Without acknowledging the presence of a genre, your message may not get across the way you want it. Keep on rockin'.
ReplyDeleteErin de Leon
No worries bro were all in the same boat. The term genre before reading this article seemed to be like something easy to think like whether the book is fiction or non fiction. Upon reading this extensive article you can imagine that we greatly underestimated its meaning and its usage. Although this partly the fault of our former educators who made us write things like argument, narrative or even persuasive essays which seems to be just the tip of the iceberg in writing genres. The WPA for example requires us just follow the prompt and nothing else which limits our range of writing. All in all in our lives we use different types of genres whether their familiar to us or not like social media, job or school all of it is different but still requires a target audience. Great read and hope to talk to you later
ReplyDelete-David Bobadilla