Genre Analysis Report

Project 2: Genre Analysis Report

Assignment Prompt

In Project 2, you will choose a specific genre and analyze it for an audience who is interested in, but unfamiliar with, the community where the genre originates. The purpose of your analysis is to describe how your chosen genre functions in the community that uses it (on campus, online, or local) and analyze the ways in which specific features (conventions) help it do so.

To accomplish this purpose, you will compose an analytical report that identifies the conventional features of your chosen genre and interprets their purposes and functions. You will use specific examples of the genre and information from background research as evidence to support your interpretation of the genre’s features and purposes.

Analytical Report Requirements

In the role of an interpreter, you will break down a genre into specific features and interpret the importance of these features to your genre’s particular purpose and rhetorical context. Your report should:

· Identify the specific individual or organization that creates this genre. (Who creates it? What is the author’s role in the community it was created for?)

· Identify the specific users and audience for the example. (Who uses it? Who is it designed for?)

· Define conventional features of this genre, such as features related to:

· Design/layout/length of the genre

· Organization of information

· Language formality

· Visuals: Use of color, photos, videos, and/or graphics

· Text: Font types, font sizes, effects

· Structural moves

· Citations (How is outside information referenced?)

· Analyze the genre in relationship to its context.

· Explain how the genre is shaped by its context and users.

· Explain how conventional features of the genre function in this context to serve its users.

· Identify whether the genre is unique to this community.

· If so, why does the genre only exist in this community? How does it relate to the community’s specific needs?

· If not, how is this organization’s version of the genre similar to other versions of this genre? How is it different from other versions of the genre? Why is it similar and/or different?

Selecting a Genre

You may choose any genre to analyze for this project. Keep in mind that a genre is defined as a text that responds to a specific rhetorical situation and represents a form of social action. It does not necessarily need to be a written text, however. For example, you could choose to analyze a type of image, video, audio, multimedia, or spoken text. Be sure to choose a genre that you can easily collect multiple samples of. Also keep in mind that the more samples you have, the easier it will be for you to identify conventions, yet you could get overwhelmed if you collect many samples of a long genre.

Assignment Stages

Step 1: Identify a distinct genre that is produced by a specific community and collect multiple samples (see Strategies below).

Step 2: Analyze genre samples and synthesize your information.

· Recognize the rhetorical situation (audience, purpose, context) that gives rise to the genre.

· Define core features of the genre, breaking it down into its major components, such as language conventions and structural moves.

· Draw inferences about the core features you have identified: why they are included in the genre and what they mean.

· Connect your understanding of the genre’s features to its audience, purpose, and social context.

Step 3: Plan and outline your analytic report. Decide what information to include and how you will organize this information. Use headings to help readers follow your organizational pattern.

Step 4: Write and revise your report based on feedback. As you draft, review the grading rubric.

Format Requirements

· Your project should be 900–1200 words in length.

· Your project should be double-spaced, in 12-point Times New Roman font with 1-inch margins.

Other Requirements

· Use the name of your genre in the title of your project.

· Use headings to help organize the content and guide the reader.

· Use hyperlinks to cite any text you quote from your genre samples or from outside sources (such as your community’s website).

· If you include a picture, drawing, or graph, it should be accompanied by a caption and a citation (if borrowed from another source).

· End your paper with a reference list that lists all genre samples and outside sources you consulted.

Course Objectives

After completing this project you will have made progress towards the following student learning objectives:

· 1B. identify the purposes of, intended audiences for, and arguments in a text, as situated within particular cultural, economic, and political contexts.

· 1C. analyze how genres shape reading and composing practices.

· 2A. integrate evidence through methods such as summaries, paraphrases, quotations, and visuals.

· 2B. support ideas or positions by discussing evidence from multiple sources.

· 3A. follow contextually appropriate conventions for language use related to areas such as grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

· 3B. apply contextually appropriate citation conventions.

· 4B. produce multiple revisions on global and local levels.

· 4C. suggest useful global and local revisions to other writers.

Grading Criteria

Your Genre Analysis will be graded on the following criteria:

· Context for the Community: The report clearly identifies a community of focus and explores this community’s membership, goals, values, activities, and communicative practices. (Objective 1B, 1C)

· Analysis of the Genre: The report describes the conventional patterns of design, organization, content, and rhetoric and provides examples as evidence. It discusses why these conventions are common in the genre and why/how they express the community’s values and help it achieve its goals. (Objectives 2A, 2B)

· Organization: The paper appropriately uses or adapts common organizational features of an analytical report to create a clear and meaningful organizational structure for readers. (Objectives 1C, 3A)

· Language and Rhetorical Features: The report appropriately uses or adapts common language and rhetorical features of genre analysis, such as description, evaluation, modals, and a variety of methods of exemplification. Genre samples and outside sources are properly cited. It is free of errors of the type that would be detected by a spell-check or grammar-check tool. (Objectives 3A, 3B)

· Reflection & Revision: The report has gone through multiple revisions (prewriting, first & final drafts). The author has critically incorporated feedback from peers and instructor. (Objectives 4B, 5A)

Getting Started: Strategies for Selecting a Genre

· Select a genre for which you can easily identify the community that uses it.

· e.g., brochures/pamphlets for organizations at the University of Arizona or in your local community

· Select a genre that has a distinct purpose and role as well as an identifiable target audience and publication venue.

· e.g., syllabi, newsletters, webpages, TikTok videos

· Select a genre that is distinctive in the following ways:

· writing/speaking style and tone

· specific uses

· organization and design

· Select a genre to which you have easy access to multiple examples.

· Select a genre that has enough features to be interesting to analyze, but is short enough that you will have time to analyze several samples within a brief period.

Photo by Spencer Davis on Unsplash

© University of Arizona Writing Program