Thlog 1 Genre Knowledge

Learning about this thing called Genre... Genre. When most people hear that word they automatically think of types of music or movies. In reality genres can be anything that is written. Today my professor gave us the definition of genre as typified responses to recurring social / rhetorical situations. Like if you think of it as all written texts having to do with on certain topic no matter if its a bill, an advertisement (written) a report, article, research paper, letters, etc... these are all genres of that topic. If you can understand and navigate genres , it makes writing a much easier task. All you have to do is go to your topic for instance and then look up several different genres that speak on that topic , then you can break down what you want to know and keep the genres that will help and then discard of the rest. It makes research and writing so much easier. In my Pb1a I wrote about drug addiction and I had to list different genres of my topic. I wrote down that progress notes written by doctors, research papers, N.A Basic Text & A.A. Big Book, pamphlets, medication information sheets, magazines can all be genres that give me info on my topic and help me to see how different people view it and what their beliefs are on the subject. I am not going to lie it's not as simple as it seems though. Like Dirk explained in our class reading " Navigating Genres", you need to know what particular genres are called for in what particular situation. Knowing how and when to use certain conventions is also important in navigating genres and understanding how they function. Having this knowledge and knowing who your intended audience is are very important keys to writing, and I think that even though I am having a slightly hard time with this genre thing ( Every time I think I got it, I get confused again) it will benefit me greatly in my future writing assignments in college. I noticed that since Zack explained to the class that genres are everywhere in our everyday life, I find myself subconsciously walking down the street noticing things and then saying okay, this is a genre for that or there is another genre for it..actually it's kind of amazing to find myself engaging in English 101-108 activities while outside of school. I am a promoter for music shows and festivals and now I can spot out at least 1/2 a dozen genres off the top of my head that I never would of realized held any importance. Like lets use Nightmare Festival for an example. Tickets, Flyers, Facebook Posts, Magazine Articles, Campsite/festival Ground Maps, Sales reports, Reviews, Schedules, the Line-ups are all genres!! I just really love the fact that I am learning all the time, sometimes without even wanting to..lol.