“Navigating Genres” by Kerry Dirk

Please read ‘Navigating Genres’ by Kerry Dirk. Write a response to the questions below. I prefer if you respond to this post directly, but if you choose, you may create a new post. Respond to each other. Engage in a conversation. 

Here is a link to the reading:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Tdyh5FlRy5AalwMO0fTe_e8_LnqbOpMs/view?usp=sharing

  • What is the genre of this text? How do you know?
  • Who do you think is the intended audience? What is the author’s purpose?
  • How does the author try to accomplish her purpose and reach her audience? Is she successful? Explain.
  • What are some genres you have enjoyed in the past (writing AND reading)?
  • Do you prefer having a structure or form to follow (like a specific genre) or do you find that to be limiting? Explain.

28 Comments

  1. Hamely Jose Taveras

    I think the genre of this text is a formal educational essay. I know because her tone is very formal and educational such as if the author wants to inform us the readers. I think the intended audience is students that have to write essays. The author’s purpose is to expand the definition of genres and help the readers no went to choose and a specific genre. The author tries to accomplish her purpose and reach her audience by explaining different genres in different scenarios where they are applied to. She was very successful because she put herself in a student’s shoes explaining how she wrote an essay to delete a late fee on her credit card and how she learned to write that new genre. For example, the author explains about the letters for the kidnap How and why the first letter was the best choice. she explained that even though the three-letters explain the most applicable for the occasion was letter number one. One of the genres I really enjoy was I really enjoy doing a political cartoon for my last semester’s English class. I also loved speechmaking because I feel like a lot of rhetoric can be shown verbally more than in writing. Another genre that I really enjoy reading and writing is poetry because it allows you to express yourself with words in ways that you cannot express yourself while speaking. I love the opinion article genres because you gt to say what you think in whatever way you like to say it. I find that having a structure or form to follow is very helpful when you have no idea what you’re going to write. A lot of people need structure to write because they often have writer blocks. I prefer to have structure and forms to follow because it makes it easier for me to construct a writing piece.

    • Rebekah Coleman

      Excellent! Love your response! Thanks!

      RC

  2. mustapha

    I think the genre of this story is informative, and I think this because the tone that they use throughout the story is very serious and educational. I think the intended audience are students that either writing essays or just for students who want to get better at writing essays. The author tries to accomplish their purpose by explaining the various types of genre and they each can be used. I’d say it was successful, because I understood the lesson. Some genres I’ve enjoyed in the past and even presently are Science fiction, and Biographies. I do find a structured style of writing to be limiting because the point of writing, at least to me, is to put your word out in a way that you wouldn’t be able to vocally.

    • Rebekah Coleman

      Great! Let’s discuss the genre of this piece in class! Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

      RC

  3. Tenzin Namgyal

    I think the genre of this text is an informative essay, I think this because of the tone that the author uses. It is very formal and educational. The intended audience is students who are trying to learn about genre. The authors purpose in writing this essay is to inform students how genre affects their writing. The author tries to accomplishes her purpose by explaining how there are many different types of genres and how they can all be used. She was successful because as a student myself I understood what she was trying to teach. Some genres that I have enjoyed reading and writing in the past are, fantasy fiction and science fiction. I prefer a structure or form because that gives me something to follow to see if my writing is going well or if I’m making a mistake and need to fix something.

    • Rebekah Coleman

      Excellent! Thanks for sharing your response!

      RC

  4. Kevin Yu

    This genre is to inform college students because it shows a lot of examples of how to write for a specific genre.

    The intended audience is a college student because the author provided a lot of examples and they are formal, the author’s purpose is for you to understand what a genre is and how writing for a genre is different from writing to your friends or to your professor.

    She writes by giving a few examples such as the ransom note, gives three examples and the first and second one fits more to the scenario of the ransom unlike the third ransom note because it sounds like they are friends and he is not a real kidnapper, she is successful in delivering her different genres because she added humor with the three scenarios and that made me more engaged and have a better understanding of what is a genre.

    For writing, I do like writing fantasy because I can go wild on what I want to tell for reading I like history because I can read all the events that happen during a war and how the outcome becomes especially reading diaries of soldiers.

    Having a structure makes it easier for me to follow, but it does limit the freedom of things you can do but I rather have something to follow because it makes it easier for me to understand.

    • Rebekah Coleman

      Great! Let’s discuss the genre of this piece in class today! Thanks for sharing your response!

      RC

  5. Arian Qosaj

    The genre of this text is formal because of the way the author explains specific genres and because of the authors tone which seems to educational. The intended audience is students who want to learn more about genres and those who want to get better at writing essays. The author’s purpose is to explain what a genre is and to show when it is necessary to write for a genre. The author tries to accomplish her purpose and reach her audience by providing different examples of genres and explaining how writing for a genre is different from other types of writing. She is successful because she provides an example of how she wrote which showed a specific genre. Some genres that I have enjoyed in the past are mystery, fiction, and fantasy. I do prefer having a structure or form to follow when writing so I understand how the layout of my writing should be and so I can review my work.

  6. Shaniyah

    This story is informative the tone is assertive in my opinion. The author establishes his main idea through explaining the various genres and when they should be used in different instances. Personally I have become very interested in genres, because I feel that certain ones allow for the author to put more of their voice into the writing, while others are strict with formatting. When it comes to reading I like science fiction, stuff about vampires and stuff interests me. I also enjoy fiction, but I find myself picking up those books too often I need to expand into other genres, so that my writing can expand too. Opinion articles are where I feel I do my best writing, because you are free to voice whatever you feel inside, and you don’t have such a strict format to follow. This reading really opened my eyes to genres and the meaning behind them, and why an author might choose a specific kind.

  7. Shaniyah

    The intended audience is students and that is why the tone is assertive and educational.

  8. Hanting Hu

    I think the type of this piece is a formal education essay because it introduces various genres. The target audience is students. The author explained the different genres of these other scenes to achieve her goals and attract the audience. She was successful because she provided some examples. Some of the genres I used to like to read and write were fantasy novels and history.

    • Rebekah Coleman

      Excellent! Thanks for sharing!

      RC

  9. Jeimi Bravo

    The genre of the text is very educational, I got a lot of information on writing essays and how to improve. I think that the intended audience of the author is students and others who want to know how to write an essay, it is not only intended for just students but any reader as well who wants to improve in their writing. The author sets examples of writing to show its differences and how it is used. There are many different genres that one can write and it is important to know what tone to use. She is successful because she puts hard work in setting her example and using an informative tone of voice, and sets examples to back up the information she is providing. I have never been someone to write for fun but when I do write for an assignment I like it when I do research and write something I am very passionate about, I wrote an informative essay on animal abuse, I was so passionate about it. I enjoy reading anything that has to do with suspense. When I write, I enjoy writing as I go but if I am stuck and don’t know what to write, I do like it when I have some sort of guide to help me out.

  10. Elma Kastrat

    I think the genre of this essay is educational informative essay. I think that because it gives us a lot of information and at the same time is trying to teach us something new. I think the intended audience are students who are in the beginning of their writing. The author’s purpose of writing this text is to show students some new rules of writing and different genres of writing. The author tries to accomplish her purpose and reach her audience by explaining the different types of genre and connecting them with different situations in people’s life. I think she is successful because she tried to bring our attention, show us something new and give us examples connected with real life situations, and how to write essays in a good genre by knowing what type of genre is that and how to use it. Some genres that I have enjoyed in the past are graphic novel “Pedro and Me” which I have read during my CLIP classes, “Education Narrative Essay” which I have written last semester in ENG 1101 class,… I prefer having a structure form to follow because it helps me a lot to develop my essays when I don’t have enough ideas about what to write.

    • Rebekah Coleman

      Excellent! Thanks for sharing!

      RC

  11. Pedro Flores

    I would like to say that the genre of this text is a essay. I would say this an essay because it sounds like a educational essay from it’s word choice. I think this was intended to students that are having trouble writing a essay and just need a little push for improvement. the author tries to accomplish her goal on teaching students the genre and how to apply it. I enjoy reading anything that has to do with solving a crime or horror. I don’t mind as long as it’s interesting but i would prefer something with suspense.

    • Rebekah Coleman

      Excellent! Thanks for sharing!

      RC

  12. Kelvin Leon

    The genre of this text is educational and the intended audience are students. Through out the essay, Dirk introduces students to genres as rhetorical responses to similar situations. Dirk uses humor to poke fun at these situations to make the point that rhetorical circumstances must be taken into account. For example, Dirk writes, “you would probably not share a risquĂ© joke with your mom or send a ‘Hey Buddy’ email to your professor.” This example demonstrates how important context is with understanding the genre. The main purpose of this text is to to help students start seeing the wide spectrum of genres. I also don’t like writing so I wouldn’t know what I like writing about and I prefer to give specific instructions and guided to one specific genre so I’m not struggling to choose which genre to write about.

    • Rebekah Coleman

      Thanks for sharing your feedback! It seems like you learned a lot from the piece. Let’s chat about genre.

      RC

  13. Ahsan

    1: I think the genre of this text is an informative essay because author is trying to show his main idea and explaining the genres.

    2: The audience are students they trying yo write the better essay and learn some new techniques.

    3:The author accomplishes the purposes that they are so many different types of genres and how can we us it.

    4: Some genres that i have enjoyed in past are mystery and fantasy.

    5: I learned some new things from the genres and i used to like read about the history.

  14. Jsantana

    The genre of this piece is educational essay. The author’s method of writing was very serious and had a formal tone. Her intended audience are students or people who enjoy to write. Also, the author tries to accomplish their purpose for this piece by explaining what genres are and how we can implement them. Genres that I have enjoyed are fiction and non fiction as well. I don’t like having a structure or form because it does feel limiting. If there’s a essay prompt it does help with guiding the writer on what to write but it also limits them on what not to write as well.

  15. Arlene Perez

    The genre of this piece is an informative essay, the author Kerry Dirk, specifies it in the text. She also mentions that the essay is targeted at writing or “composition” students. The author’s purpose of writing this essay was to educate writing students in learning about the different genres and that they are not just in writing. Dirk tries to accomplish her purpose by using different tones in her writing such as being “friendly” and “informative” towards her audience. I think she is successful because she uses multiple examples of genres and uses articles from different professors explaining them. Some genres I have enjoyed in the past are mystery crime novels and biographies. At times I enjoy having a structure to follow when it comes to writing and then there are other times I prefer not to feel limited.

  16. Christina Bethelmy

    I feel that the genre of this article is a very informative piece while the author is trying to demonstrate how to identify different types of genres and what they can refer more too, whether its fiction or non-fiction, whether its fantasy or a biography. I like how the author explains the topic they are trying t establish to the audience.

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