Genre analysis: A tool used to create genre awareness and understand the conventions of new writing situations and contexts.  This allows you to make effective communication choices and approach your audience and rhetorical situation appropriately

Basically, when we say "genre analysis," that is a fancy way of saying that we are going to look at similar pieces of communication - for example a handful of business memos - and determine the following:

• Tone: What was the overall tone of voice in the samples of that genre (piece of writing)?
• Diction: What was the overall type of writing in the three samples of that genre (piece of writing)? Formal or informal?
•  Content: What types(s) of information is shared in those pieces of writing?
•  Style / Format (the way it looks): Do the pieces of communication contain long or short sentences? Bulleted list? Paragraphs? Abbreviations? Does punctuation and grammar matter? How detailed do you need to be in that type of writing style? Single-spaced or double-spaced? Are pictures included? If so, why? How long does it need to be / should be? What kind of organizational requirements are there?
•  Expected Medium of Genre: Where did the pieces appear? Were they online? Where? Were they in a printed, physical context? If so, what?
•  Audience:  What audience is this piece of writing trying to reach?
• Purpose:  What is the goal of the piece of writing? What is its purpose? Example: the goal of the piece that is written, i.e. a newspaper entry is meant to inform and/or persuade, and a movie script is meant to entertain.

In other words, we are analyzing the genre to determine what are some commonalities of that piece of communication. 

For additional help, see the following resource for Questions to Ask When Completing a Genre Analysis.