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Rhetorical Genre Analysis

Rhetorical Genre Analysis. Genre Definitions and Features. Genre = rhetorical responses to and reflections of the situation in which they are used Genres both respond to and create rhetorical situations.

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Rhetorical Genre Analysis

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  1. Rhetorical Genre Analysis

  2. Genre Definitions and Features • Genre = rhetorical responses to and reflections of the situation in which they are used • Genres both respond to and create rhetorical situations. • Genres are “typified ways of responding to recurring social constructions /situations” – Miller definition • Genre is socially situated and culturally embedded --- meaning that genres carry with them the beliefs, ideologies, and values of particular communities and cultures. • Genre analysis is really a means to a greater rhetorical awareness that will help students with knowledge transfer. • Genres are dynamic – they are both stable and capable of change at the same time.

  3. Analyzing Genre + Rhetorical Situation SETTING • Where does the genre appear? • How and when is it transmitted and used? • With what other genres does this genre appear? SUBJECT • What topics, issues, ideas, questions, etc. does the genre address? • When people use this genre, what is it that they are interacting about?

  4. Analyzing Genre + Rhetorical Situation PARTICIPANTS: Who uses the genre? • Writers • What writes the texts in this genre? • Are multiple writers possible? • What roles do they perform? • What characteristics must writers of this genre possess? • Under what circumstances do writers write the genre?

  5. Analyzing Genre + Rhetorical Situation PARTICIPANTS: Who uses the genre? • READERS • Who reads the texts in this genre? • Is there more than one type of reader? • What roles do they perform? • What characteristics must readers of this genre possess? • Under what circumstances do readers read the genre (e.g., at their leisure, on the run, in waiting rooms)?

  6. Analyzing Genre + Rhetorical Situation PURPOSES • Why do writers write this genre and why do readers read it? • What purposes does the genre fulfill for the people who use it?

  7. Analyzing Genre + Rhetorical Situation IDENTIFY PATTERNS IN GENRE’S FEATURES: • What recurrent features do the samples share? • What content is typically included? Excluded? • What counts as evidence? • What rhetorical appeals are used? Ethos, Logos, Pathos • How are texts structured? What are their parts and how are they organized? • Is there a common format, layout or appearance? • What types of sentences does the genre usually use? • What diction is most common? Jargon? slang? • How would you describe the writer’s voice?

  8. Analyzing Genre + Rhetorical Situation CONNECT GENRE FEATURES TO RHETORICAL SITUATION • What do these rhetorical patterns reveal about the genre and its rhetorical situation? • Why are these patterns significant? • What can you learn about the actions being performed through the genre by observing its language patterns? • What do participants have to know or believe to understand or appreciate the genre? • What values, beliefs, goals and assumptions are revealed through the genre’s patterns? • What content is most important? ignored? • What actions does the genre make possible? Make difficult? • What attitude towards readers is implied in the genre? Attitude toward the world?

  9. Genre as ideological/cultural critique • What sorts of communication does the genre encourage? • What sorts of communication does it constrain? • Who can – and cannot – use this genre? Does it empower some while silencing others? • Whose needs are most and least served by this genre? • Are its effects dysfunctional beyond their immediate context? • What values and beliefs are instantiated within this set of practices? • What are the political and ethical implications of the rhetorical situation constructed, persona embodied, audience invoked and context of situation assumed by a particular genre?

  10. Genre + Kairos • Kairos = fit opportunity for speech + reasonable appropriateness of response • TIMING + APPROPRIATENESS • It is important to understand the cultural Kairos that helps to create, define and change a particular genre. • Why was/is the timing right for the genre? • How does genre fit appropriately into the cultural context?

  11. Tips for Genre Analysis • Narrow the focus of your genre • Poetry ---- free verse poetry • You Tube videos ---- instructional You Tube videos • Find many examples of the genre. • Look for examples of genre outliers too. • Interview participants of the genres – composers + users.

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