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Taylor 1

Drew Taylor
Instructor Keaton
ENC2135
1 July 2016
Defining and analyzing genre
When writing a poem for your significant other, lyrics for a new song, or even
writing an essay for your English class, you are using genre. Whether or not the
genre is apparent immediately or after the second chapter, its there, causing the
author to make different choices in their writing, such as the author of a horror
novel would often use foreshadowing and creepy imagery rather than telling jokes.
A genre is a compositions kind, category, or sort. Genres give us a way to
categorize or describe types of compositions (Kleinfeld/Braziller 5). Before you
even start writing anything you think about the rhetorical situation, why are you
writing this and what is the situation surrounding this writing and the rhetorical
situation generally determines the genre or at the very least a group of genres for
your writing to fit in. The genre conventions for each genre are the rules you follow
to consider your piece part of said genre. An essay written by a colleague of mine,
about the negative effects of smoking, would be considered an educational essay. In
this writing will be a definition of genre, and analyzation of the essay Cigarettes: are
they worth the risk? in regards to the rhetorical situation of the essay, the genre
conventions used to fit in the education essay genre, and how the rhetorical
situation affected the genre.
Genre is much more complex than hearing music and identifying it as a song,
you must go further to create a smaller, more specific group for it to be classified as
a genre. For instance, the song may have been alternative rock which would
correctly describe its genre. Genre simply means kind of writing
(Maimon/Peritz/Yancey 9). In both definitions a genre is described as a classification
of any writing. Genre can also be used to describe music, movies, or television
shows. When determining the genre for whatever you are analyzing you generally
try to figure out what the rhetorical situation which by answering those questions
often leads you to what genre it is. The genre conventions also give you a good idea
for what genre it is just by the basic qualities, it would also follow many of the rules
for the specific genre. Due to the vast history of literature in general, when creating
you often times dont have to create a new genre, you just figure out your rhetorical
situation and connect it to a genre that fits the similar idea. After figuring out what
genre your work will fit into you would continue creating, but by following most of
the rules for the genre.
In the essay Cigarettes: are they worth the risk? the author went into the
writing with a plan, she had a clear rhetorical situation outlined in her head before

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she even began writing. Due to the fact that it was an essay for school she was
given guidelines but also knew the circumstances surrounding the essay. First we
identify her audience, which is easy because it was an essay for school which meant
it was directed to the teacher at the time. You can see that it was written to a
teacher because of the very formal writing style but in addition it was slightly
entertaining in order to stand out to the teacher. The purpose in the text is to
persuade whoever is reading, that smoking cigarettes is harmful to yourself and
others and that it should be illegal. You see it clearly in the thesis which states
Cigarettes should be illegal because not only are they unhealthy for the smoker,
but they are also unhealthy for others and the environment (Prozillo 1). Her stance
on the issue of cigarettes was strongly against them which makes the paper slightly
biased in her opinioned statements. The genre of this writing was an educational
essay and it was made on an electronic medium for easy sharing of the paper. The
author took into account the fact that cigarettes is a controversial issue especially
when discussing legality and morality so in order to be scholarly in the essay she
couldnt be too harsh, also not knowing if her teacher smokes had to be taken into
consideration before even writing the essay.
Due to the fact that the essay had to be of the educational essay genre, the
author had to follow the genre conventions in order for it to be accepted as a
legitimate submission. The tone in Cigarettes: are they worth the risk? is logical, it
has many examples of the negatives of cigarettes and connections to the health of
smokers. Throughout the essay the author presents a piece of information then
explains what that means to us, the readers. Knowing the rhetorical situation, the
best tone for many essays like this are logical; being that the purpose is to persuade
the reader to not smoke, or consider not smoking. The design of the essay is strictly
made under MLA formatting. The intended reader, her teacher, would only want
essays of the straightforward, organized design. When using MLA formatting it is
made clear what the sources, author, and intended recipient are. The author
establishes credibility by using sources such as the US department of health and
human services or the law dictionary, and by backing up her opinion with facts
straight from trusted sites she presents her essay as having credibility. Having
credibility is important for an academic essay, you are supposed to be teaching the
reader something. The author follows even the most basic of genre conventions by
using proper grammar and punctuation. In addition to that she uses no
abbreviations or slang. She includes dates when the essay was written and clearly
identifies her sources to avoid plagiarism.
When writing to a respected adult there are certain considerations made to
avoid misunderstandings. Its made clear in the writing Cigarettes: are they worth
the risk? that the intended reader was a teacher or professor based on the genre
and tone. The intended audience had expectations going into the project, many of
the expectations translate into the genre conventions. The teacher expected many
formalities in the writing including MLA formatting and all of the expectations were

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and should have been followed for credit from the essay. The social expectations
should rarely be broken when writing to an instructor; they are the ones who judge
the quality and conventions you followed. Whether or not you respect your teacher,
the genre conventions of an educational essay should be followed anyways. The
teacher-student represents an interesting relationship where the student often
times follows the rules of essay for the grade. The purpose of the writing was to
persuade the reader that smoking is harmful and should be quit, so the author
followed the conventions of writing a scientific paper. The main deviation from the
genre conventions was the amount of opinion in the educational essay. In the
writing, the author provides her opinion in some times where the facts should have
spoken for themselves.
Genre is in our everyday lives, writing this essay I had to use genre
conventions and had to outline the rhetorical situation in order to try and write a
successful paper. The way we use genre conventions often times goes unnoticed by
the uninformed audience but its important in order to write a paper in a specific
genre. The relationship is clear between the way you analyze the rhetorical situation
and how that affects the genre conventions you use.

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