After reading Kerry Dirk’s “Navigating Genres” answer one or both of the following questions. Remember that one of the paramount points of rhetoric is to persuade the reader. It is not the information shared but *how* the information is shared to the writer’s audience. Using what we learned from writing quotes, use at least one “quote sandwich” in your response.
1. What are some genres that you feel you know well? How did you learn them? What are their common rhetorical features?
2. How much freedom do you enjoy when writing? Does it help to have a form to follow, or do you find it to be limiting?
Writing is a form of creative expression that can allow you to reach within yourself and find new truths and expose just how creative you are. This stays true regardless of when you get a prompt to write about or if you get full creative freedom, but for me, I rather have the freedom to write about whatever I want. I’ve recognized I don’t always write reflecting all of my own ideas when I have a prompt to write about. If my ideas don’t reflect my ideas or experiences then they are just drawn out and I find myself rambling just to meet a requirement. I think I have the most fun and substantial work when I have that freedom because I enjoy the topic I’m writing about and/or I can relate to the topic better. In the book “Writing Genres”, by Amy J. Devitt, she states, “When people write, they draw on the genres they know, their own context of genres, to help construct their rhetorical action.” I agree with this statement because in my personal experiences I tend to write with more substance and investment when the topic or genre is on something I value or gravitate towards. Creative freedom when writing can enable you to apply your mind and experiences and can allow you to fully invest in a topic and create your best work.
When presented with a general outline or guideline to follow I usually get in the mindset of having to meet all of the requirements listed in order to meet the expectations put by the teacher. For example, this class has a roadmap, which includes questions and guides to help build your writing if you get lost. To me, having something to build a foundation on or to help me get started can help base my writing on a certain path and helps me better understand what is needed of me in order to do well with my writing. Usually, it helps clear any misleading thoughts and gets me focused on a particular subject by giving a general outline of ideas on what to base my writing on. It always helps to have guidelines in order to organize your ideas in a clear and concise manner that will get all of your points across. In the chapter, Navigating Genres by Kerry Dirk, a professor named Mary Jo Reiff writes, “I immediately called on my genre knowledge—my past experience with reading and writing similar texts in similar situations—to orient me to the expectations of this genre.” Similarly this has helped me with writing whenever I get stuck or have hit a roadblock that leads to nowhere. I look for ways to expand what I already know and combine it with the new information I have gathered in order to strengthen my writing. Having written something similar, I can base my writing in a certain way and improve on it.
I like freedom when writing but not too much. I prefer to have a form to follow or have some examples because it makes it easy for me to write. For example In the Navigating Genres by Kerry Dirk she points out that having some example can help “’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.’” seeing other examples had helped me to write my papers because it helps me understand what and how to write so I could have a better work.
I like freedom when writing but not too much. I prefer to have a form to follow or have some examples because it makes it easy for me to write. For example In the Navigating Genres by Kerry Dirk she points out that having some example can help “’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.’” seeing other examples had helped me to write my papers because it helps me understand what and how to write so I could have a better work.
In the freedom of choice lies a pool of creativity that you can personally develop based on knowledge gained and questions gathered over time. Writing, in specific, is a form of art, which as any other art does, expresses a different genre of imagination using the form of sentence structure. Though a prompt to follow while writing your ideas can be a helpful push in a direction to give the person in question a better idea of what is being asked, if the goal is to find out what they’re individual style is then it should be a free form style of work. The more a writer has to depend less on a strict topic and more on what comes to their mind, the more developed answers will be from their own perception. Though yes, you can still get a very good analysis from a specific prompt that is meant to host different viewpoints, giving full control to a writer allows them to control the thoughts, pacing and trajectory of their literature. That’s the best way to observe someone’s form in my opinion/.
I’m not too much of a writer but I don’t completely like having too much freedom when doing an essay. It’s hard for me to find a topic that I know about or find an interest enough to write about. Navigating genres by Kerry Dirk states “I learned that many good thesis statements follow the formula X because y”…..” It’s always a good thing for me to follow a form because I could easily go and drift off topic. It also helps structure my thoughts. If I didn’t have a form I would have one topic and then drift off into a whole different topic that wouldn’t relate to the essay’s outline or thesis.