ENC 2135

Annotated Bibliography
Genre
Justin, Austin, Catherine, Carlos
Genre
Genre is defined as a class or category of artistic endeavor having a particular form,
content, technique, or the like. The dictionary might simplify the meaning of genre, but merely
knowing the definition hardly scratches the surface of what genre really is and how it is around
us every day. This bibliography focuses on genre in everyday life and literature. Although genre
hadnt been studied extensively until the early 1980s, it has now become a popular subject of
interest. Because it is a relatively new topic, there are still many different perspectives and
theories regarding genre and the important constructs within society that set the mold.
Genre is essential for literature because it sets limits and boundaries for the writers to
follow. Knowing your piece is a part of a specific genre allows the writer to know the audience
that will be reading the work. Genres often overlap, making it difficult to recognize just one.
Some genres have loose boundaries while others are strict and specific. Genres are important to
know but are often difficult to teach. Teaching genre is a difficult task that many agree is
necessary to master. In order to understand a genre fully, you must immerse yourself in it.
Understanding a genre from the outside is often very difficult if you have yet to experience it and
aren't familiar as to what the boundaries and limitations are and why they are necessary for that
genre. Simply knowing about a genre doesn't mean one understands it, which is why it is a
difficult concept to teach.
This bibliography presents and analyzes articles from authors Charles Bazerman, Bill
Hart-Davidson, Amy J. Devitt, Daniel Chandler, M.J. Luzon, and Elizabeth Wardle. Each text in
this bibliography uniquely expands on introspective theories regarding how important genre is in
our society, and what defines a successful genre. Each authors present contrasting ideas but all
present the necessary understanding that genre is essential for everyday life.
This bibliography as a whole serves to inform the readers how important genre is to our
society, and the different aspects that define a successful genre. Through each unique thesis,
genre is revealed as a complex and living entity. Genre is often times overlooked and deemed
unimportant, but it is an essential part of keeping humans coordinated and informed.

Bazerman, Charles. "Speech acts, genres, and activity systems: How texts organize activity and
people." What writing does and how it does it: An introduction to analyzing texts and textual

practices Ed. Charles Bazerman and Paul Prior. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004.
309-339.
In Charles Bazermans analysis on writing, he explains his theory on genre in a chapter
devoted to textual organization and how it shapes social activity. When most people think of
genre, they think of the simple textual organization, or grouping of literature for the purpose of
comparison and coordination.
Bazerman begins his claim with the idea that human coordination is hard. For a group of people
to coordinate a set of ideas or motives, they need to all have the same level of understanding on
the task at hand. This thus leaves countless room for misunderstanding and confusion. A lack of
coordination in writing is especially worse because writing does not allow readers to express
themselves through gestures or tone, only words on the written page. In turn, Bazerman believes
that the opportunity to fix a readers view in writing is extremely limited, stressing the utmost
importance of coordination through genre.
Bazerman explains genre as something that needs to be easily recognized by an audience. If
something is easily recognized, it is easy for a reader to compare it to past works or experiences
and thus be able to expect the purpose for the writing and the message they are about to receive.
This is an example of the coordination readers need to connect with the text. Genre must follow
societys communicative patterns. Bazerman describes genre as something created when a
form of communication is recognizable and self-reinforcing. Genre must be able to stand on its
own and speak for itself. Therefore, when a piece of literature or another form of communication
stands on its own and is understood by the subset audience, it can be classified by a genre.
After defining genre and the process in which it is created through understanding an audience,
Bazerman explains how genre is utilized in society. When multiple works represent a genre
specific to a certain profession or role, a genre set is created to help identify not only the genre
itself, but the purpose and creation of the works. For example, doctors draw from lab reports,
test results, textbooks, and medical research in their profession. These genres all coincide and
combine to create a genre set specific to the doctoral profession, giving them all connective
purpose. Through multiple genre sets, a genre system arises to capture the flow of
communication between a group of people. Both genre sets and genre systems are described by
Bazerman as organizations used by society to generalize communication to allow understanding.
It is when genres work together that the communications they coordinate can represent a piece of
society. Instead of thinking of genre as a simple definition for a piece of writing, Bazerman
pushes the idea that genre is a social function that allows for us to all understand each other
through basic identification and expectation, conveying the importance of coordination in human
action.
Hart-Davidson, Bill. "Genres Are Enacted By Writers and Readers." Naming What We Know :
Threshold Concepts of Writing Studies. Ed. Linda Adler-kassner and Elizabeth Wardle. Utah
State UP, 2015. Pg.39-40. Print

When talking about genre, its something a common person would easily refer to when
talking about favorite movies, books, and even music. Bill Hart-Davidson points out this
common thought that people have about genre by noting that Common-sense notions of genre
hold that the term describes a form of discourse recognizable as a common set of structural or
thematic qualities .The fact is that the word genre is itself more complicated than what people
try and make it out to be. Hart-Davidson mentions genre as being constructions of groups, over
time, usually with the implicit or explicit sanction of organizational or institutional power.
When Hart-Davidson mentions constructions of groups , hes referring to the multitude of
different things that come to define genre like music, writing, and even art. Take a writing text
for example: a writing text can either be books, journals, and even articles. All these writing text
are closely tied to institutional powers like universities when it comes to referring to a type of
work. If a professor at a university was talking about a horror novel like IT by Stephen King, that
particular novel wouldnt define the genre of horror itself; as there are other instances of horror
novels that also follow similar format but complete different styles. One cannot say that a
particular text or movie is a genre because there are so many instances of that genre that it would
be impossible to define it exactly with one movie or text. The accumulation of a particular set of
text over time is what creates a genre but that doesnt necessarily mean that the definition of that
genre stays the same as time passes. Hart-Davidson refers to Catherine Schryers quote
Stabalized-for-now when referring to the idea that genres change over time. Evolution is a
constant of life, and its a staple of what happens to genre as more and more texts are produced,
which is why Hart-Davidson says that Generic forms are open to hybridization and change over
time. A good example of this statement would be the music industry. In the music industry, there
is a wide variety of different genres and artists that people like to listen to. As a result genres like
rap , rock, and even electronic music are constantly changing the way a particular genre of music
is defined. Rap music back in the 90s would not sound like any of the rap thats being played
today. This clearly shows how genres are always changing as time passes, and the reason why
he states that Genres are only relatively stable. He touches on the fact that back then,
documents were stored in a certain vertical way so that the memo block would allow people to
search for any document easily. As new practices come into play, old uses could get thrown out
the window. He reveals how the old practices of document searching are less stable due to
changes in the context use.

Devitt, J. Amy. Genre. Keywords in Writing Studies. Ed. Pau Heilker, Peter Vanderberg.
Colorado: University Press of Colorado, 2015. 83-85. Print.
In Amy Devitts article about genre, she discusses her view on the subject while using
outside sources to help elaborate on her ideas. Genre originally comes from a French word
meaning kind, sort, or style.When thinking about genre, most people limit it to music or movie
selections. However, genre refers to much more than just that. Although it has become a common
subject of writing now, people werent concerned with the matter until the early 1980s when

Carolyn Miller wrote an article discussing genre in literature. In the article she
states that genre is typified rhetorical actions based on recurrent situations. In other words,
genre is a word that describes certain rhetorical environments and situations. After the 1980s
many others have written about genre and how they view it. Although each has their own
perspective, they all share a common understanding that genre is a series of themes and actions
that writers perform in similar ways and contexts over a period of time. Genres are
frames for social interactions and are essential ways of being. Amy Devitt also makes it clear that
genre is dynamic, not static. Meaning it is constantly changing. Genres interact with each other
and are constantly evolving based on the environments the genre lives in. Genres are also seen as
being writing constraints which put limits on an authors idea. Some view this as a bad thing
while others think the limitations make the piece clearer and easier to follow. These constraints
also make it possible to accomplish some social actions and not others.
Devitt also states that a genre can only be fully understood if you are inside the situation
itself. For example, and a class, community, or school. Genres set the boundaries for a situation
and they are easier to follow, both as the reader and the writer, when you are part of it. Amy
Devitt elaborates on the boundaries that come with genres. When inside a genre scenario, there
are certain limitations that you must respect. For example, you wouldnt address your best friend
in the same way you would address your college professor. Genres have specific audiences that
you must always take into consideration.
This article also explains how teaching genre is a tricky concept. There is a great debate
on how teachable genre really is and how important it is to do so. Amy Devitt refers to Aviva
Freedman, who wrote an article elaborating on this issue. Because a genre can only be fully
understood if you are in the scenario yourself, is it possible to know the limitations, boundaries,
and audiences acceptable for a genre if you have not experienced it yourself. All of the studies
and articles involving genre are all open ended at this point. Because genre is relatively new on
peoples radar of concern, much more research regarding the idea must take place before
everyone can develop one simple understanding for genres.
Chandler, Daniel. "The Problem of Definition." An Introduction to Genre Theory (1997). Web.
8 Sept. 2015. <http://faculty.washington.edu/farkas/HCDE510Fall2012/Chandler_genre_theoryDFAnn.pdf>.
This text provides a similar view of genre as Devitt does in the previous entry. There is
the concept that it is impossible for a piece of media to belong to no genre at all.
The article provides the context and origin of the word as well as a definition for the readers to
ponder. The word genre comes from the Latin word kind or class(1). A genre refers to a
distinctive type of text, which classifies different types of media. For example, the texts that
surround movies will be different than the text surrounding music. The different genres classify
the different types of media. There are many different categories within categories. For example,
tragedy inside poetry is an example given within the article. Sub genres are formed when the
society branches off from the core theme or genre meaning that a sub genre is a part of the

whole, but does not encompass all the same aspects as other parts to the whole. A majority of
adults in modern society are familiar with all the current genres for literature, film and television.
Scholars argue that there are genres that appear to have no name; depending on the culture and
community of the society, and how as a whole they view the piece of writing.
Robert Stam, a film theorist, identifies four problems with genres in relation to film:
extension (the breadth or narrowness of labels); normativism (having preconceived ideas of
criteria for genre membership); monolithic definitions (as if an item belonged to only one genre);
biologism (a kind of essentialism in which genres are seen as evolving through a standardized
life cycle) (2). These four problems show how every genre has labels, preconceived ideas, only
one genre, and an evolution through life. This contradicts what many of the papers above have
stated, and creates a new concept of genre.
Genres often overlap meaning there are cross genres an example given was comedythrillers. Genres seem to be easy to recognize as a whole, but they can be difficult to define after
recognizing. Some genres are looser, having a less strict interpretation of a certain genre, and
more open in their conventions. How we define a genre depends on or social science and how we
grew up. Genres only exist as far as social rules allow them. David Buckingham, a scholar cited,
argues that genre is not simply given, but is a constant process of negotiation and change. A new
genre is always a transformation of one or several old genres. Some genres are stronger than
others, and they differ in status. Genre hierarchy shifts over time; different genres gain or lose
power in society. Historical genres are ones that are only correct at a certain point in history. A
war speech genre is only correct during a war because it is needed to affect the moral.
Genre refers to a moral or social world. Genre can be used to help shape certain
ideologies. John Swales, of cambridge university, also said that one would need to take into
account other peoples opinions in order to give something a genre, which is contradictory to
what Bordwell said beforehand. Some films are easier to place a genre than another's. Also
genres can be made depending on the relationship between the producers and the interpreters.
In texts, there are assumptions of the ideal reader, which will include their attitudes
towards the subject and their age, gender, or class. Dennis Mcquail argues that genre can be used
to encourage mass communication between two main parties, meaning that a genre can tie to
different groups into one. Roland Barthes within the text argued that it is in relation to other
films in a genre that helps us make sense of other films of that genre for example, if we see a car
crash in a film; we interpret it as we have seen in other films, as we are unlikely to have
experienced one in real life.

Luzon, M.j. "Genre Analysis in Technical Communication." IEEE Trans. Profess.

Commun. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication 48.3: 285-95. Web.
8 Sept. 2015. <http://cdh.sc.edu/~hawkb/readings/luzon-genre.pdf>.

In this journal/study Luzon presents genre with the use of technical communication in a
different approach and genre teaching. It begins with a summary of what will be discussed in the
journal and each section is clearly defined with a bolded title. The first of these titles is concept
of genre. It begins by presenting two forms of genre: the textual analysis and the social
context/discourse analysis. It goes on to say that The focus of research is the interaction of
communicative purpose, rhetorical structure, and linguistic choice. This shows how a genre is
made up through research. The research makes a paper or text that fits into a genre, therefore a
genre includes those three aspects that research includes. Later Luzon states that a genre is seen
as a class of communicative events that share common purpose that are recognized by the
members of the discourse community that owns it. This explains how a community and culture
has their own genre based on the members. He continues showing the different ways genre is
taught . . .its purposes are educational: It is used to guide the teaching of generic form and
features, and thus, to help students become members of a specific discourse community by using
the genres of that community. This confirms the point of the community shaping the genre of a
text. The end of this section concludes with five main aspects of the modern genre concept
created by Berkenkotter and Huckin other scholars. These 5, Dynamism, Situatedness, Form and
Content, Duality of structure, and community ownership, all describe how a genre works by
hitting the key aspects of how society defines genre.
The next title is Research focusing of the textual analysis of genres in technical
communication. This section focuses on how the textual analysis of a genre through technical
communication works. This means that when analyzing text one will look for tenses, vocabulary,
and linguistic features. A big researcher in genre analysis John Swales identified three moves in
the introductions of many papers establishing a territory (move 1), establishing a niche (move
2), and filling the niche (move 3). This shows how a genre is formed a territory is established,
than a niche within that territory, and lastly the niche is filled with a genre. The rest of this
section relates the use of genre analysis with real world examples and technical communication.
An example is Bartholomew described the organizing structure of technical reports in
engineering. McKenna analyzed how information is organized,in terms of theme-rheme, in
technical writing by engineers. The section concluded by saying that textual analysis is to
provide models for teaching students. It helps students view composition and linguistic features.
The next title is Genre research from a social perspective. This section focuses on the
way that the community and society shape a genre. An example given is Genres are studied as
objects that mediate socially organized activities. They are tools to carryout community activities
and to negotiate meaning within the community. This shows how the social aspect of a genre
also plays a role in the meaning of a genre. It goes on to show how the discourse of a
community affects different genres and how they are formed. It also brings the point that genres
mediate social activity. This means that a genre has the ability to affect social activities, such
as what a community completes and what they want to complete. Later Luzon states, new
genres are imported or discarded, genres evolve and get mixed, and these changes tend to change

the entire activity. These changes occur often. The genres dont just show the effects of social
structures but also the shape and affect of these structures. The rest of the journal provides
examples and uses of genre to teach technical communication. It is stated that we must consider
the audience in our writing because it shapes the genre. The journal concludes with Genre
analysis has great relevance for researchers in technical communication, for practitioners, and for
instructors, because, by analyzing texts in relation to the communities that produce them and the
social activities of these communities, it provides the appropriate framework for researching and
understanding technical communication issues. This explains why genre is important. It seems
like this article has A LOT of info, and youve done a nice job of providing a concise overview
of each of its major points.
Wardle, Elizabeth. "Mutt Genres and the Goal of FYC: Can We Help Students Write the
Genres of the University?" The Lemming. 2009. Web. 11 Sept. 2015.
<http://www.thelemming.com/lemming/POP-CULTURE/mutt genres.pdf>.
This article by Elizabeth Wardle presents an alternate view on genre from a college
professor teaching a freshman composition class, an FYC. She begins her argument on the
notion that FYC classes have focused solely on uncreative writing to prepare the students for
formal writing in other classes around the university. Wardle challenged this idea and proposes
we should no longer ask FYC to teach students to write in the university and instead construct
FYC to teach students about writing in the university (765). Wardle presents her theory on the
complexity of genres in that they are context specific and thus cannot be mimicked outside of a
naturally occurring rhetorical situation. This supports the idea of genres representing a nonmoving, socially created entity. Wardle pushes that we should not simply teach students about
the institutionalized features of genres because they do not apply to outside the classroom, an
ever changing society constantly redefining the purpose and method of genre. She states that
genre features arise as a result of specific and complex rhetorical situations... responding to
those rhetorical situations (768). This reflects the notion that genres need to be taught in the
context in which it exists. In all, the term genre is a form of social knowledge. Wardle
continues her analysis of genre with the argument that the current education system pushes
students to mix purpose with genre. Genre is written for an audience, but this is not to say that
genre needs purpose in order to survive and remain relevant. This is where the idea of Wardles
titled mutt genres come into play. She defines them as genres that do not respond to
rhetorical situations and therefore do not hold purpose to a necessary standard (777). These are
the types of writing Wardle finds unfit to teach in her FYC, for by forcing students to write a
chosen mock genre without a real rhetorical situation, no real purpose is present. When no real
purpose is present to support a genre, the writing might have well not even been produced. By
assigning students mock genre, the fine line between the purpose and the genre is blurred.
Wardle continues her explanation in that genre is the what and the purpose is more of the
why. Wardle concludes her analysis with saying academic genres need not be unreflective or

slavish; genre analysis in FYC should do what all good analysis does: take stock of the genre,
how it works and does not work, whom it serves and does not serve, and so forth (789). Genre
should be taught on the basis of purposeful reflection, the way writing should occur at the
university. Nice work on this entry! You provide a clear and concise summary of Wardles text
and analysis of what it teaches us about genre.
Overall your annotated bibliography is well done. Youve chosen a variety of sources, which has
enabled you to address different viewpoints on genre. One change you might consider if you
choose to revise this text is addressed the major points of contention in the intro. You mention
that not everyone agrees, but you might say a little bit more about how and where the reader will
see that in the annotated bib entries themselves.

Intro to Remediation - The Building Blocks of Genre

Genre is often defined as the classification of an artistic, musical, or literary framework
that is categorized through key characteristics into a particular format. Through our analysis, we
found genre to be a complex yet uniform term that relies on key social constructs to convey an
overall message. Its for that reason we chose to remediate our annotated bibliography into the
building blocks of genre using physical connections to represent our thesis. Through our
remediation, we hope to creatively convey the specific intricacies that come to define genre and
show how genre interacts within society.
To begin our explanation of the building blocks of genre, is is important to understand
what makes up a successful genre at the most basic level. We chose to use childs lego blocks to
represent this key understanding, something even a child should be able to understand. Each
genre block sits upon three key terms that make up a successful genre: audience, purpose, and
rhetorical situation. Without each of these characteristics to base a genre on, a genre should be
considered incomplete. The different genres that exist are always dictated towards a specific
audience. Audiences are the people who read the literary frameworks and the reason why writers
compose their works. A writer determines an audience of preference that will appeal to his/her
writing to thus convey the writers message. If a writer didnt consider an audience then what
would be the point of composing the writing in the first place. When the accommodation of an
audience isnt considered in a genre then there wouldnt be a purpose of the genre. With the
building blocks of lego, The audience block and purpose block are placed together because a lot
of the times the audience gives way to the purpose. Bill Hart-Davidson best explains this with his
statement that Readers and users of text have as much to do with a text becoming an instance of
a genre as much as writers do.

When genre blocks combine, a genre set is created, thus combining to explain and give
detail to a certain profession or or type of literature. Genre sets can be identified in many ways
like as a combination of comprehensible textual forms that are related to one another. Another
thing to note is that there are multiple genre sets that combine to make a genre system. Bazerman
defines genre sets as being collection of types of texts someone in a particular role is likely to
produce. Combined, the text types gel together perfectly as genre sets within genre systems.
Having an understanding of the the different genres and how they fit within the genre system can
help to understand the genres better. A genre system can consist of a multitude of genre sets
working in a unified and organized fashion. In the Bazerman reading, he goes on to describe that
genre system captures the regular sequences of how one genre follows on another in the typical
communication flows of a group of people. The genre system block is placed right above the
genre set blocks to show this exact idea.
Society is the driving force behind genre because without society there wouldnt be such
a constant change in the meanings and interpretations of genre. Genre is constantly changing
over time because society is constantly mediating new works that just accumulates over time.
Nothing ever stays constant, from car models to cell phones to writing. Everything evolves as a
result of society. The reason things are constantly changing is because societies develop new
habits and new standards of living as a result of different time periods. Writers have to take into
consideration the changes and transformations in the meaning of genres so that they can stay
relevant in their field of writing. In Bill Hart-Davidsons reading Genres are enacted by writers
and readers, Hart-Davidson refers to this change in meaning of genres by saying that generic
forms are open to hybridization and change over time. Its for this reason why society is the
main body of the building blocks that construct genre; in this case the main body is the car itself.
Within society there are boundaries, limits, norms, and times that all affect and influence the
meaning of the genre. Which is why all of these little parts mentioned that accompany society are
physically represented on the wheels of the main body of the car which is society itself. Society
is the driving force behinds genre, and thus makes up the body and wheels of the genre car we
are presenting.
Often the reasons to create genre is to aid societys understanding of something. Genre
can go far beyond the simple classifications of literary, musical, or artistic composition, the many
types of genre listed on the building blocks represent this extensive network. Genres can be
applied to the world that we live in and can influence the way we think, behave, and even our
perception of something. Charles Bazerman emphasizes this idea of going beyond classifying
composition in the idea that genres are not just forms. Genres are forms of life, way of being.
They are frames for social action.
There is then the idea of mutt genre, displaced on the car to represent the unecessary
context they represent. Mutt genre are often educational conventions that have been taken out of
their original context. This thus obscures the audience and purpose of the piece, mocking a
necessary rhetorical situation. Mutt genre do not have a real rhetorical situation or real life
purpose, thus why there are no rhetorical situation or purpose blocks under the mutt genre block.
An example of a mutt genre could be when a teacher tells their students to write a paper just for
the sake of writing. Its considered a mutt genre because of the fact that the student is writing a
paper that is not meaningful to them in any way besides the fact they are forced to create it.
To put it simply, mutt genre have nothing to stand on.

Genre is often overlapped, which is why on one of the building blocks genre is written
over genre. The reason we chose to approach this way of explaining the intricacies of genre was
because the lego car physically represents the complex building blocks necessary to create a
meaningful genre. This approach also shows that society is the driving force behind genre.
In conclusion, society is the driving force between genre that combines multiple, everchanging aspects to develop what we call a genre. Genre is much more than a simple category, it
is an extensive network that aids our understanding of the world. Without audience, purpose,
and rhetorical situation, a genre is unsuccessful and incomplete. By remediating out thesis on
genre into building blocks, we hope to convey this idea and show the physical connection genre
has with the world.
Your remediation--both your introduction to it and the object itself--is very well done! You
provide a detailed introduction to the object, and you explain each of your choices in the context
of the knowledge that you made in writing the annotated bibliography. Your presentation of the
remediation was also well done and received positively by your colleagues. This is one of the
most creative projects Ive seen come out of this assignment, and Im very impressed and
pleased with your work. Great job!