But on a brighter note, genres also help us to make more efficient decisions when writing, as we can see how people have approached similar situations. Creating a new genre each time that writing was required would make the writing process much longer, as we would not have past responses to help us with present ones (Devitt, “Gener-alizing” 576)

That is, of course, not to say that there aren’t rules that come with genres; the difference is that the rules change as the genre changes, that no rules apply to all genres, and that genres require more effort than simply following the rules. Because genres usually come with established conventions, it is risky to choose not to follow such con

The spelling errors and choppy feel might suggest that the writer of the note is not intelligent enough to get away with the kidnapping. The first letter is the most rhetorically strong because it is well written and direct. All of these letters would qualify as fitting the genre of ransom letter, but the first one most obviously fits the rhetorical situation.

I think the success lies in the fact that the writers of these headlines are rhetorically aware of whom these head-lines are directed toward—college students like you, and more spe-cifically, educated college students who know enough about politics, culture, and U.S. and world events to “get” these headlines

chick flicks

we can start to see how specific choices that writers make result in specific actions on the part of readers; i

What is important to consider here is that if mastering a form were simply a matter of plugging in content, we would all be capable of successfully writing anything when we are given a formula. By now you likely know that writing is not that easy.

your joke should generate a laugh, your email should elicit a response, and your updated Face-book status should generate comments from your online friends.

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 roman-tic love letter, or getting into college by writing an effective personal statement.

genres have the power to help or hurt human interac-tion, to ease communication or to deceive, to enable someone to speak or to discourage someone from say-ing something different.

if each writing problem were to require a completely new assessment of how to respond, writing would be slowed considerably. But once we recognize a recurring situation, a sit-uation that we or others have responded to in the past, our response to that situation can be guided by past responses”

Anne Freadman, a specialist in genre theory, points out that “it is this kind of genre theory with its failures that has caused the discredit of the very notion of genre, bringing about in turn its disuse and the disrepair many of us found it in” (46).

I decided to make this essay a mix of personal anecdotes, examples, and voices from teachers of writing. Such an essay seems to be the most fitting response to this situation, as I hope to come across as someone both informative and friendly. Why am I telling you this? Because it seems only appropriate that given the fact that I am talking about genre awareness, I should make you aware of my own struggles with writing in a new genre.

I noted the warm, personal style that was prevalent through every essay; the tone was primarily conversational. And more importantly, I noticed that the writer did not talk as an authoritative figure but as a coach. Some writers admitted that they did not know everything (we don’t), and others even went so far as to admit ignorance.

I looked for common features

you, a composition student.

help you start thinking about how genres might apply to your own writing endeavors. But above all, I hope to give you an awareness of how genres function by taking what is often quite theoretical in the field of rhetoric and composition and making it a bit more tangible. So why was I talking about country songs? I think that using such references can help you to see, in a quite concrete way, how genres function.

nowledge of genres is lim-ited to types of books, whether mystery, horror, action, etc

But what would happen if I wanted to write a country song that didn’t do any of the above things? Would it still be a country song?

how would I figure out what lyrics are acceptable in terms of country songs?

A:

249Navigating Genres