"Genre Analysis of Narrative Articles in Thought Catalog

Submitted By: Daniel Lluvioso and Mary Daisylyn Umlas

Fourth Year - AB English Language Studies
ABSTRACT
In this paper, a study will be conducted about Narrative Articles in the most popular
user-submitted website, Thought Catalog. The framework used is called to be an updated
version of Swales traditional method for genre analysis, and uses a specific framework for
narrative web text entries, with its moves simplified, namely; Orientation, Complication,
Action, Resolution, and Moral.

The researchers found that the Orientation and the

Complications moves are prevalent in the articles, mostly due to the fact that a website
that wants to share information and stories would want to let its readers know about the
current situation the author is writing in, and the problem or the topic at hand. The results
only give a glimpse at genre analysis in websites, and can be a subject for further studies
with regards to CMC (Computer Mediated Communication) in other forms as well.
1. Introduction:
When social networking sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr
became very famous on the internet, it gradually motivated its users to reveal themselves
in their most authentic form by posting interesting things about themselves, uploading
pictures about the food they ate or the place they went to, writing short paragraphs about
things they like or persons they admire, and so on. Most of its users enjoy using their
services, but the platform is not appropriate to be used for that purpose alone. Because of
this, a growing number of people wanted to use a new platform in which they could freely
express their thoughts and ideas without very strict restrictions, and through writing, which
is one of the purest forms of expression out there. Sites like wattpad, teenfiction, inkpop,

and tumblr leveled up the ante and became another platform for writing materials such as
fan fiction, articles, and poetry.
Through the use of these social networking sites, people will be able to convey their
ideas and in this way there is a possibility to destroy the barrier of shyness among the
introverts. Through communicating on these sites, it can enhance the confidence of one
individual. In the virtual world, anyone can find their identity and who they are by
expressing themselves. "Because identities are constructed within, not outside, discourse,
we need to understand them as produced in specific historical and institutional sites within
specific discursive formations and practices, by specific enunciative strategies [and] within
the play of specific modalities of power(Hail, 1996; p.4). Identity is created by interacting
with others who has the same interest as them. The social media helps people to construct
their social identity.
Thought Catalog is also one of those sites. It is a user-submitted online magazine
that provides its users with the freedom to write any thought-provoking idea or story that
they want people to read. The website will then review the submitted article and then post
it after. It has already become a very famous platform for articles about love, life, and
sometimes, the most extraordinary things that its writers experience and gain knowledge
from. It already has a lot of articles that are free to be browsed and read, and most of the
writers who submitted materials to the website have either become popular, or have
landed a job as a scriptwriter in Hollywood or a writer in famous magazines or online
portals.
There has not been many scholarly research conducted regarding user-submitted
online magazines like the thought catalog since the website is still fairly new to linguists, so
this study wants to focus on that to become a foreground for more studies about the said

type of websites. Because of the websites sudden popularity and with the huge influx of
entries that many people read, the present study will try to fill the gap by providing an
overall understanding of the genre of the entries being posted in the Thought Catalog. This
will be done by conducting a genre analysis, following the guidelines of Swales (1990) and
Bhatia (1993), of randomly selected entries.
Genre Analysis is a concept that was coined and formulated by John M. Swales
(1990). Swales provided different characteristics for analyzing moves or Genre Analysis.
Swales provided different characteristics for analyzing moves or Genre Analysis. Firstly, a
genre is a class of communicative event. Secondly, the principal criterial feature that turns
a collection of communicative events into a genre is some shared set of communicative
purpose and lastly, exemplars or instances of genres may vary in their prototypicality.
Furthermore, Bhatia (1993) defined Genre Analysis as investigating instances of
conventionalised or institutionalised textual artefacts in the context of specific institutional
and disciplinary practices, procedures and cultures in order to understand how members
of specific discourse communities construct, interpret and use these genres to achieve
their community goals and why they write them the way they do.
This study aims to examine the narrative sequence of the articles found by the
researchers in the website "Thought Catalog. Specifically, it seeks to answer the following
questions:
1. How do the authors present the initial situation, conflicts, action taken, solution and
moral of the story?
2. Based on the moves mentioned in the first question, which moves are least present
and which moves are dominantly used?

2. Review of Related Literature:

Scholarly research about genre analysis of blogs has been conducted by many
researchers, but there no study about genre analysis of online magazine, just like thought
catalog.
Scheidt, Bonus, and Wright (2004) conducted a research on "Bridging the Gap: A
Genre Analysis of Weblogs, and it seek to characterize the properties of the emergent
blog genre, and situate it with respect to offline genres, as well as with respect to the
broader genre ecology of the Internet. Also, they indicated their primary goal in doing is to
provide an empirical snapshot of the weblog in its present stage, as a historical record for
purposes of comparison with future stages of evolution. A further goal is to contribute to a
theoretical understanding of how technological changes trigger the formation of new
genres, which in turn may affect the genre ecology of a larger domain such as the
Internet.
Tiainen (2012) conducted her research on Genre Analysis of Academic Blogsand
this study focused on academic research blogs because it have not been the focus of
many genre analyses. Instead of attempting to form a general picture of academic
research blogs as a genre, previous studies have often concentrated on some particular
feature of the genre, for example on the reasons why academics blog by Walker (2006) or
the practice of hyperlinking by Luzon (2009).
Lakic (2010) conducted his study about "Analyzing Genre: Research Article
Introduction in Economics that deals with genre analysis of research article (RA)
introductions in economics. The analysis has shown that Swales model is an important
tool in analyzing RA introductions, but that additional research is necessary to reveal their

specific characteristics in different disciplines. The researcher also said that there were
numerous attempts that have been made to investigate research article introductions in
different fields such as physics, medicine, engineering, biology etc., but he did not found,
though, any attempt of a detailed analysis of RA introductions in economics.
Emigh and Herring (2005) focused their study by analyzing two web-based
collaborative authoring environments, Wikipedia and Everything, both of which are
intended as repositories of encyclopedic knowledge and are open to contributions from the
public.
Miller and Shepherd (2005) conducted a genre analysis on a portion of weblogs in
America by investigating on its social relevance to trending topics in the country during that
time. The researchers have also analyzed it based on rhetorical structures and
pragmatics. The study also gave emphasis on the history of blogging and its possible
social impact to the people who read them. The study is a qualitative research.
Duque (2013) used the genre analysis framework in analyzing the discourse
organization in argumentative speeches. The researcher also stated its implications for
teaching argumentative writing. The study collected different types of argumentative
speeches coming from the students of Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) that was used
for the program ANC Square Off. The study also used frequency distribution tables to
determine the regularities of the texts mentioned.
Boot (2011) contributed his study on "Towards a Genre Analysis of Online Book
Discussion: socializing, participation and publication in the Dutch book sphere. According
to Boot (2011), scholarly interest in online book discussion up to now has tended to focus
on individual genres, without taking into account the wider context within which discussion
takes place. Though Boot (2011) interest in his study is primarily in book discussion, he
take into account other book related sites, such as book news sites and book summary

sites. The reason of Boot (2011) for this is that he assumes the way people discuss books,
with its consequences for books popularity, is very much influenced by and reflected in
other online book coverage.
3. Method
3.1 Data Collection
To find out the regularities of genre (or moves) among the articles published in
Thought Catalog, the researchers will collect ten (10) of the latest articles that are in the
narrative style of writing. From the data gathered, the analysis will then be done.

3.2 Theoretical Background

The criteria by Swales (1990) guides the researchers to further analyze the
regularities or patterns manifested in the selected articles. Basically, the framework wishes
to form a genre by analyzing if a text has a function, a purpose, an intended audience, and
other factors. The criterion from Swales (1990) is as follows:
1. A genre is a class of communicative events
a communicative event is here conceived of as comprising not only the discourse
itself and its participants, but also the role of that discourse and the environment of its
production and reception, including its historical and cultural associations (Swales, 1990,
p.45).
2. The principal criteria feature that turns a collection of communicative events into a
genre is some shared set of communicative purposes.
Stressing the primacy of purpose may require the analyst to undertake a fair amount
of independent and open-minded investigation, thus offering protection against a facile

classification based on stylistic features and inherited beliefs, such as typifying research
articles as simple reports of experiments (Swales, 1990, p.46)
3. Exemplars or instances of genres vary in their prototypicality.
It asserts that, in theory at least, it is possible to produce a small set of simple
properties that are individually necessary and cumulatively sufficient to identify all the
members and only the members of a particular category from everything else in the world.
Thus, a bird can be defined in terms of being an animal, having wings and feathers, and
laying eggs, or some such list of properties. As long as the object has the stipulated
features, it is a member of the category; it matters not whether the bird is a 'normal' one
like a sparrow or a 'far-out' member of the category such as an ostrich or a penguin they
are all equally birds (Swales, 1990, p.49).
3.2. Conceptual Framework
Askehave and Nielsen (2005) challenged Swales traditional model of genre
analysis by updating it and making the model more accessible for future web analysis.
Specifically, these proponents in the new model also provided different frameworks for
different types of essays/articles found in the internet. The researchers will focus on the
narrative form of articles in the website for the analysis.

ORIENTATION
COMPLICATION
ACTION
RESOLUTION
MORAL

4. Results
TABLE 1
Moves

0
Orientation
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y Y
Complication
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y Y
Action
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Resolution
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Moral
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
The table indicates the moves present for each article; (Y) Present; (-) Not Present
After analyzing the narrative texts, the researchers tallied the moves present within
each article, marking the moves found with a Y symbol, and then a hyphen (-) for moves
that are not found in the article.
TABLE 2
Moves
Orientation
Complication
Action
Resolution
Moral
TOTAL

Frequency
10
10
6
7
5
38

Percentage
26%
26%
16%
19%
13%
100%

From the data collected, both the moves of Orientation and Complication got the
majority with 10 instances, covering up to 10 percent each. The least move that was found
was that of the moral move, gathering up to only 5 instances, measuring up to only 13%.
The Action move garnered 16% in the instances discovered, making it 3 rd to the most
instances found in the articles, and the Resolution move making it 2 nd.
TABLE 3
To The Boy Who Loved Me But Cheated Anyway Anonymous
http://thoughtcatalog.com/anonymous/2014/10/to-the-boy-who-loved-me-but-cheated-anyway/
I ran away from love for fear of getting hurt
and losing yet another person that I cared for.
Before you, I was scared and guarded. I never
let myself fall, for fear of not being able to pick
myself back up. I shied away from guys, and
focused on my school work and my friends and
work.
ORIENTATION
But then you came in with your devilish smile

COMPLICATION

ACTION

RESOLUTION

MORAL

and bad boy persona and swept me off my

feet.
Somewhere along the way, things got hard.
Maybe it was the distance; maybe it was
something or someone else. Whatever it was,
the end result is the same: our love for each
other isnt enough to sustain a relationship.
And your curiosity about another girl
cemented that fact. Such is life and so it goes.
[none]
So goodbye, boy who loved me and cheated
anyways. I hope things get better for you down
the road. I hope one day you can let someone
love you like I tried to. I hope you change your
ways. I hope you realize what you lost. Boy
who cheated, I hope you one day earn the title
of man.
[none]

The table shows an example of how the researchers evaluated each essay.
Excerpts of the article was picked out and by then, classified into what move it belongs to.
Other examples of the narrative analysis will be placed under the appendix section of the
paper.
5. Discussion
6. Conclusion
The data gathered is just a simple glimpse on new media studies concerning CMC
(Computer-Mediated Communication) in different forms. The moves that were present in
the articles collected still cannot be strictly identified as a feature that can be found in
websites because the frameworks that were used still could not cover all. That topic alone
could further give other linguists a lasting chance to study other forms of new media
through a moves analysis, but this time, with a more appropriate framework that could
hopefully cover more aspects of structural and sequential features in online text.

REFERENCES
Askehave, I., Nielsen, A. E. (2005). Digital genres: a challenge to traditional genre theory,
Information Technology & People, Vol. 18 Iss: 2, pp.120 - 141

Bhatia, V.J. (2002) Applied genre analysis: a multi-perspective model. City University of
Hong Kong. Retrieved From: http://dns.genos.org/documents/text4-Bhatia.pdf
Bonus, S., Herring, S., Scheidt, L. & Wright, E. (2004). Bridging the Gap: A Genre Analysis
of Weblogs. Retrieved from
http://www.student.tue.nl/v/t.s.oosterwijk/modellerenb/literature/19%20genre
%20analysis.pdf.
Boot, P. (2011) Towards a Genre Analysis of Online Book Discussion: socializing,
participation and publication in the Dutch book sphere.Retrieved from
http://depot.knaw.nl/12685/1/2011_Boot_04_GenreAnalysis.pdf.
Duque, M. C. T. (2013) Discourse organization of argumentative speeches: Implications for
teaching argumentative writing. Asian Journal of English Language Studies. Pp. 86116. ISSN 2350-773X.
Emigh, W., Herring, S. (2005). Collaborative Authoring on the Web: A Genre Analysis of
Online Encyclopedias. Retrieved from
http://www.ufrgs.br/limc/escritacoletiva/pdf/online_encyclopedias.pdf.
Lakic, Igor (2010). Analysing Genre: Research Article Introductions in Economics.
Retrieved from http://www.uab.ro/jolie/2010/5_lakic_igor.pdf
Livingstone, S., Brake, D. R. (2010) On the rapid rise of social networking sites: new
findings and policy implications. Children & society, 24 (1). pp. 75-83. ISSN 0951-0605.
Miller, C., Shepherd, D. (2005) Blogging as Social Action: A Genre Analysis of the Weblog.
Retrieved from
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/blogging_as_social_action_a_genre_analysis_of_t
he_weblog.html
Swales, M. J. (1990) Genre Analysis: English in academic and research settings.
Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, New York
Tiainen, K. (2012). A Genre Analysis of Academic Research Blogs. Retrieved from
https://helda.helsinki.fi/bitstream/handle/10138/37012/agenrean.pdf?sequence=1.
APPENDIX
*The analysis of the articles was divided so that each researcher could equally analyze the
same articles as the other, hence, the difference in the format of analysis.

EXAMPLE I
What Happens When A Boy Mysteriously Stops Texting Back Andrea Loh
http://thoughtcatalog.com/andrea-loh/2014/10/what-happens-when-a-boy-mysteriously-stopstexting-back/
Last seen today at 19:43 how damning,
ORIENTATION
because it is now twenty to midnight, and I
know youve read my messages from the day
before. The double-ticks gave you away,
dude.
Back to the present: I cant believe you
turned me into a sobbing mess of a girl, who
COMPLICATION
had to turn to streaming Love Actually online
just so Id have an outlet to bawl my eyes out
(Jamie and Aurelia? OMG. Obrigada,
moviemakers, cos thats never happening
IRL.)
ACTION
[none]
Were not waiting around for you anymore.
Were not pining or obsessing or wondering or
moping. Were not standing for behavior like
this, because anyone whos capricious with our
RESOLUTION
feelings doesnt deserve our feelings. Nada
mas, chico. Maybe youre reading this and
figured out a way to finally come clean.
Whatever. Because even when that happens,
we gon be gone anyway.
2 words: DETRIMENTAL RELIANCE. A.K.A,
I relied on your representation of yourself to
my detriment. Yea, go ahead and quote me,
MORAL
because thats exactly what it is and, no, one
doesnt have to be a lawyer like I am in order
to understand this concept. Every girls had
some variation on this theme, where a guy is
consistently great for weeks, then categorically
vanishes into thin air.

EXAMPLE II
When She Left Me, The Heartbreak Split My World In Two

Daniel Douglas

Orientation-"I was dating a French girl from New Brunswick at the time and one
Saturday night we ate a handful of mushrooms and climbed onto the roof of an
elementary school to howl at the moon and to see what that big star of ours looked
like on its morning climb."
Complication-"Many eager young couples move to this tranquil community to start
their families, so theres a bitter irony that I am moving there alone after mine has
been torn to shreds.This is precisely what makes grappling with the pain of losing
someone you love so agonizing.
Action- "The only way to cope with this New Breed of Human, short of drinking
yourself to sleep every night, is by slathering on the war paint and sacrificing a pigs
head to the Monster.
Resolution- "Once you get used to the idea she is no longer living with you, you
hear shesmoved someone else in. The moment you accept that your partner
intends to continue dating your best friend, you find out shes pregnant and theyre
getting married.
Moral- "The moment you are able to overcome one facet of pain, it changes.