What do we mean by genre? This means a type of writing, i.e., an essay, a poem, a recipe, an email, a tweet. These are all different types (or categories) of writing, and each one has its own format, type of words, tone, and so on. Analyzing a type of writing (or genre) is considered a genre analysis project. A genre analysis grants students the means to think critically about how a particular form of communication functions as well as a means to evaluate it.
Every genre (type of writing/writing style) has a set of conventions that allow that particular genre to be unique. These conventions include the following components:
To understand genre, one has to first understand the rhetorical situation of the communication.
Below are some additional resources to assist you in this process:
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:
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.