USF Genre Practice Reflection Paper

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Zbunzzrq1999

Writing

University of South Florida

Question Description

I'm working on a writing question and need an explanation and answer to help me learn.

Understanding the concept of genre is key to P3 – since you are developing analysis and reflection of the writing in a discipline, considering genres of writing can be an important element of your analysis.

As all of us are writers in various ways, we encounter lots of audiences (friends, instructors, employers, parents, peers, and more) with lots of different expectations. For this reason, good writers need to be flexible – they need to be able to analyze and decide how they want to approach the many kinds of writing that they do and understand why they have made those decisions. And as we discussed in P3 already, writing always involves conventions or expectations of a genre, or the agreed-upon principles that shape the writing. Consider the conventions of a text message which include abbreviations: “Did u c?” instead of “Did you see?” meets the conventions of this genre. In a college application letter, or an email to a potential employer, or a research essay for this class, the conventions of a text message would be inappropriate: you would never abbreviate words and spelling does matter, because the conventions of these three genres include more formal tone and word choice appropriate to audience.

Genres are linked with audience and purpose. If you choose a genre for something you’re writing, you also have to consider your audiences expectations and the purpose of the writing. Genres originate from a need to communicate something – they are tools that writers and speakers create to communicate in the recurring social situations in which they find themselves. Put another way, genres are used to communicate a certain message, at a certain time, in a certain place, to a certain individual or group. For example, when someone dies, there is a funeral. Funerals are a recurring social situation for honoring the deceased, and to say something meaningful about them. At funerals, we communicate to loved ones about the deceased person through the eulogy genre. Graduation is another example of a recurring social situation. At graduation, the commencement address is the genre used to communicate. Each genre is appropriate to the occasion because it meets the expectations of the audience and the purpose for communicating in that occasion.

A lab report might be considered a genre in an academic setting but also in professional settings. You might expect a lab report to be factual, to report information in brief about observations or experiments, and it might contain graphs or numerical values or formulas. You would expect to see this in chemistry class or in a research and development lab at a pharmaceutical company, for example.

We make decisions every day about how, when, and why to participate in genres of writing. These genres may be personal, they might be related to work or career interests, or they might be academic, or a combination of things. Understanding how you already use different genres of writing, and why you use particular genres, is key to communicating with different audiences you might be targeting. Understanding which genre is appropriate to a particular situation gives you, as a writer or user of language, the ability to participate in that situation. The more you understand it the more effective you will be in writing for that situation. The more you know about genres the most effective writer you can be.

As an exercise in understanding genre, consider this situation:

You’ve been involved in a car accident, but you’re okay and no one else is hurt. But your car is damaged and has to be towed. And you were on your way to your Biology mid-term and now you’re going to be so late you might miss the exam. You also feel bad because the car was a gift last year from your grandparents, and they saved their money to be able to give it to you. You don’t know what to do or where to start. Believe it or not, there’s some writing that might be required in this situation.

One example of writing in this situation might be the accident report that a responding police officer has to write. An insurance agent has to write a follow up report using that police report and an interview with you and the other drivers’ insurance companies. There is also the email you’ll have to write to your Bio professor explaining why you missed the mid-term and pleading for a make-up exam, despite his policy of no make-ups. You might text a friend for moral support or a ride, as your car has to be towed away. You want to explain to your grandparents in an email (because that’s how they communicate with you in writing) that the accident wasn’t your fault but you feel bad anyway because you really appreciated that they picked out this car for you to attend college.

For this scenario, strategize how each genre would be written if you were the writer – the accident report, the insurance report, the email to your professor, the text to your friend, and the email to your grandparents:

  • Think of the audiences, some of which are very obvious and direct and some that are complex and not so obvious
  • Consider the purpose for each genre in the scenario
  • How would you approach the writing for each scenario? Not knowing how to create a police report or insurance report since you’ve probably never done one of those, just think about what you imagine would be the content of such a report.
  • Consider what is appropriate for each genre -- the language you would use, whether the tone was formal or not, how much you would write, and what points you would make.

Practice reflection:

Using the sources you have found in your major or discipline, consider the genres and how they are written. Discuss audience, purpose, and context or situation – what do you see in them? Consider this practice for your reflection.

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Explanation & Answer

View attached explanation and answer. Let me know if you have any questions.

1

Genre Practice Reflection
Student Name
Institution
Course Name
Instructor Name
November 29, 2021

2
Genre Practice Reflection
In this car accident scenario, the different types of writing will require different genres to
convey the intended message and suit the context perfectly. The audience, purpose, and context
in each genre differ, and that shows the differences.
Accident Report (Police)
Accident/Incident reports take a formal writing genre because they are used in formal
settings, legal settings. In this case, it will be written to document my car accident and assist in
solving this case. Accident reports can be used in lawsuits and insurance claims in this context.
Audience: such a report will have legal ramifications; therefore, the obvious audiences
are people involved in the accident and the law enforcement & judges.
Purpose:...

Terrx_Cebs (5318)
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