Genre Analysis and Business Communication

August 22, 2012

Genre: Definition

a class of communicative events that share common purposes that are recognized by the members of the discourse community that owns it (Luzon 285).

Put simply, a genre is a class or category of communication. It typically is understood in the same way by members of the same discipline, organization, etc.

They are not fixed and can change over time

Then…what is genre analysis?

Analyzing a text for its structural and linguistic features as well as its social context (2 types)

Use genre analysis to figure out WHY certain textual approaches are taken

Must take into consideration the rhetorical situation

Rhetorical situation

To analyze a genre, you must be able to understand its rhetorical situation: AUDIENCE, CONTEXT, and PURPOSE (the genre is dependent on these notions)

Describe the audience, context, and purpose of the following genre: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBvBqfB977w

Rhetorical Strategies

Once you have analyzed the audience, context, and purpose of a genre, you can discover its rhetorical strategies.

Rhetorical strategies are any textual or visual approach that persuades the audience. Some rhetorical strategies you may be familiar with

are logos, ethos, and pathos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IO9d2PpP7tQ

Genre, Activity Theory, and Social Context

Looking at genres from a social perspective, we can see them as tools that carry out meaning within a community

Thus, Always consider the community that creates the genre.

Genres can also influence the social environment

Audience awareness is also key to understanding genres. This goes beyond just delineating who the audience is. It means conforming your language to the audience.

Activity

Genres can be almost anything—brochures, advertisements, movies, books, etc. In this activity, we’re going to consider the genre of a PSA. Let’s look at a few examples:

Example 1

Example 2

Your turn:

On the course website, under the “Announcements” page, look for the entry titled “PSA Activity.” Please open this file.

Please work in groups of three

Save the file to your desktop

Using what’s there, create a persuasive PSA. You can delete items, change colors and fonts, etc. You cannot add any new images.

Once you have redesigned the PSA, please email it to me.

Then, please conduct a brief genre analysis of your completed PSA on a separate sheet of paper. Indicate the audience, context, and purpose. Then, explain the rhetorical strategies you used and why these are effective for the genre of a PSA and for the audience of this PSA.