BLOG #4 - "UNDERSTANDING GENRES"

After first reading the syllabus for ENC 2135 Honors, I realized that genre was a huge part of the class (specifically the projects). I began to worry because I feel like my understanding of genre was subpar, to say the least.

In high school, I understood genre to be a type of book: mystery, sci-fi, romantic, etc. Within reading the first page of Chapter 1: Understanding Genre, the few things I understood about genre seemed to be completely wrong. The point that really stood out to me were that “genres are flexible.” Genres can be posters, videos, or really anything that depicts an idea.

I also learned that a rhetorical situation, which I had previously thought was just writing, can be defined as what message you want your readers to understand and how you will get them to understand its value. The "Bedford Book of Genres" effectively taught me about rhetorical situation because of the format and subtitles. It broke down all of the different types of components to addressing a rhetorical situation.

The first case study further opened my eyes to different genres. I could see different ways in which two people were blogging about the same event. The second case study was beneficial to me because it walked me through the different steps that Kristen had to go through to properly choose her topic, and then research and expand on that topic. This goes back to the recurring theme of this class. Writing takes time and can only be properly completed with a multitude of different steps and processes. I believe that the different steps shown in the second case study will help me with Project 2, particularly with drawing research from different sources.