Genre name: Genre Analysis
Alternate names (perhaps in other disciplines? Analysis, Criticism
1. Who are the audiences (primary/secondary/tertiary) for this genre?
Primary: The author of the genre analysis is the primary audience. To properly write in a genre or to respond to a text written in a particular genre, an author must have a basic working knowledge of how that genre is constructed. By writing a genre analysis the author seeks to create a map delineating the general pattern of that genre in order to better get at the content within a particular text.
Secondary: A genre analysis is a part of the literature on a genre. The “map” created by an author may have similar characteristics to other genre analysis but it carries within its content the author’s bias. The fingerprint of each genre is unique but so are the authors who write genre analysis. Each author will have a slightly different take on a genre’s characteristics.
2. What is the purpose of this genre, at this time?
Micro: A genre analysis is a tool to deconstruct a genre and get at the different components that comprise it. The human eye can distinguish so many different shades of a color scientists stopped counting when it reached the millions. The shades of meaning, the subtle nuances a genre has within its form and function are equally infinite. A genre is not a static category with clearly defined and agreed upon borders. Thus, the realm for interpretation within a genre analysis is limitless.
Macro: The larger purpose of a genre analysis is to familiarize an individual with the complexities of many different genres. Each genre has its own unique features but there are also feature that overlap with other genres. When a writer deconstructs a genre, analyzes its syntactical form, examines the mode of rhetorical expression more is convey than some basic conventions about a specific genre. This type of in-depth analysis requires critical observation. It also develops a writer ability to sift through myriad of features and highlight those that intrinsic to the genre.
3. What do you know or what can you discover about the community (-ies) that usually writes in or uses this genre?
By writing a genre analysis an author is seeking out the axiological and epistemological dimensions of a particular genre and how these dimensions shape the course of discourse. What is interesting about reproducing texts in this genre is because an author is attempting to get at the generalities of a specific form, many of the conclusions drawn are at best somewhat tentative. The classification and hierarchical taxonomy of genres does not produce an undisputed consensus. Texts of a specific genre exist in a social context and the production of texts in a genre underscores cultural values and morays. Moreover, the genre analysis itself is situated within the complexity and diversity of society and subject to the construction of contemporary analysts. Both the form and the function of a genre are dynamic, so as new writers produce works in a genre the form and function evolve with the community’s purpose in using the genre. Analysts who write genre analysis are also affected by this evolution because the genre and the genre analysis exist in relation to one another. The authors of genre analysis then, are seeking a place in the conversation on how a genre works with in a specific context, and relates to others texts including the genre analysis itself.
4. What are the physical requirements of the genre? What do you need to do to reproduce this kind of text?
A reoccurring feature of this genre is written analysis. The author attempts to define the feature of a distinctive type of text by examining samples within the genre. The vocabulary of this genre pertains to four essential elements of analysis: audience, purpose, community, and physical requirements for reproduction. There is room to stray from the formal conventions, however, they establish a methodology for reproducing samples in this genre. Additionally, they help to lessen the impact of the problematic side to producing samples in genre analysis. To have a clear sense of what a document being analyzed is doing requires definition so that a uniformed audience could approach a text in the analyzed genre with confidence. The problem lies in the rigidity of definition. What facets of a text are to be deemed pertinent? How does analyst determine what is to be excluded or included as salient feature of the genre? By utilizing these basic tenets of analysis listed above the family resemblances of a genre can be ordered, much like a pedigree of genetic inheritance within the generations of a family.