Annotation;

“In my excitement, I realized that perhaps I had been granted more freedom in writing this essay than is typical of an already established, although never static, genre. As a result, I decided to make this essay a mix of personal anecdotes, examples, and voices from teachers of writing. Such an essay seems to be the most fitting response to this situation, as I hope to come across as someone both informative and friendly. Why am I telling you this? Because it seems only appropriate that given the fact that I am talking about genre awareness, I should make you aware of my own struggles with writing in a new genre.” Throughout Dirk’s article, she used relatable examples from different sources to help readers understand how writing within a genre can change and how writers make specific choices within their genres to connect to their audiences. I also liked how she openly expressed her struggles when it comes to writing new genres.

“In other words, Bitzer is saying that when something new happens that requires a response, someone must create that first response. Then when that situation happens again, another person uses the first response as a basis for the second, and eventually everyone who encounters this situation is basing his/her response on the previous ones, resulting in the creation of a new genre.” Genres are a repetition of ideas that are built on the findings of others’ work which result in the creation of a new genre. It all starts with something new happening that sparks a need for a response and someone creating a first response to what is happening. Then when a similar situation occurs, another person used the first response as a basis for their response and the cycle goes on.

“Amy Devitt, a professor who specializes in the study of genre theory, points out that “genres develop, then, because they respond appropriately to situations that writers encounter repeatedly” (“Generalizing” 576) and because “if each writing problem were to require a completely new assessment of how to respond, writing would be slowed considerably. But once we recognize a recurring situation, a situation that we or others have responded to in the past, our response to that situation can be guided by past responses.” A new and different response is not always needed to create a new genre. Having to create a new response for every problem that arises would make the writing process extremely slow.

“Devitt writes that: genres have the power to help or hurt human interaction, to ease communication or to deceive, to enable someone to speak or to discourage someone from saying something different. People learn how to do small talk to ease the social discomfort of large group gatherings and meeting new people, but advertisers learn how to disguise sales letters as winning sweepstakes entries.” Even though genres are easy to navigate because of their repetitive nature when it comes to ideas and how writers go about expressing those ideas. There are still some downsides to genres; having the same idea repeated over and over can discourage someone from expressing their ideas that differs from the norm.

Some genres I feel I know well are adventure, mystery, fiction, personal narrative, and short story. As a kid I have always been fascinated with fictional stories, I was captivated by the journey the characters went through to discover their identity outside of what is expected of them in society. Murder mystery was another genre that really caught my interest, following the trail of clues with all ups and downs of figuring out who committed the murder was enticing. In my free time, I could always be found with my head buried in a book reading mystery books, or glued to the television watching supernatural shows. In addition, I find that my writing flows more easily and naturally when I am writing about something that I have experienced firsthand or through others’ experiences.  My love for narratives stems from having to write countless personal narratives during my high school years. Writing narratives is an effective way to relate one’s personal experience directly to their audience by highlighting some of the problems they faced and how they overcame said problems. When readers find similarities between your writing and what they are experiencing, they can use your solution to your past struggles as inspiration to try and solve theirs. Most personal narratives are often easily relatable. Common rhetorical features within the personal narrative genre are an account of the author’s personal struggles and growths, a friendly tone, and appropriate word choices. However, as for the Unit 2 assignment, some genres I think would positively benefit my research are history, narrative nonfiction, essay, and biography. These genres have a similar basis, they are all based on facture information and real-life events. The main purpose of these genres is to educate their intended audience on a critical issue that not only affects them but also the general public. Authors of these genres usually tell their story in the style of a fictional novel to keep their audience interested and engaged in their writing. The fact that these genres are based on facts and real events is what makes good of my research paper.