Genres and assemblages of texts (300-500 words)
In this entry, I’d like you to think try to think through the Spinuzzi reading and try to use some of his definitional work to trace out the complexities of your own genre(s). No genre, as it were, exists in complete isolation.
Remember that the frameworks he outlines are merely that: frameworks. They exist to help researchers think more complexly about how discourse works. No one is right or wrong, but they do illuminate different things (as he details in the essay). When thinking about the genre(s) you are interested in researching and producing for writing project 2:
- What “assemblages” of texts does that genre typically interact with or become a part of? Are they all internal to an organization or field, or are they meant for wider consumption?
- What groups of people compose, read, critique, or use the genre?
- Is your genre (typically) a direct response to some other text or group of texts? That is, what causes one to enact the genre you are interested in?
- Do any of the frameworks he lists here help you think about how you might go about researching the genre?
