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Jansen Mitchell 2/13/13 ENC 1102-1:30 Genre Analysis In literacy a genre was initially thought to be a static idea that situations changed to conform to. Now with the added research by Amy Devitt and other genre analysis experts this idea is changing dramatically. In Devitt's article she quotes Miller saying, "The number of genres current in any society is indeterminate and depends upon the complexity and diversity of the society." Through this quote you can conclude that you need to truly understand the situation and form of the paper to be able to comprehend the genre that it creates. The papers that I am analyzing are engineering reports on the possibilities of hydrogen fuel. They are written as explanatory papers for other specialists in the field. The reason for this is because the writers are trying to communicate their results to others who can further their field. The articles that I read where mostly about proving the ways that the hydrogen fuel can work and different ways they could go about harnessing it. The nature of these papers had a strong appeal to ethos and logos but had an extremely low appeal to pathos. A possible reason for this is because of the situation the papers are used in, because the papers are made for specialists in the field it isn't important to appeal to their pathos because they are already a part of the community. This is why appeal to logos is so important, without strong proof the engineering community will not consider the research usable which explains the amount of mathematical evidence used and the large ethos. All three of the articles use renowned universities or major engineering companies as their authors. Though this may take away from

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the individuals who contributed to the article is ensures that the article is seen as a highly regarded research paper. The structure of these articles are all very rigid and technical. They are made to be as short as possible while still being able to provide all the necessary information. The papers all start the same way, that is with an abstract at the top and a introduction to the subject. The papers than continue the same way with use of graphs and mathematical work to prove their work is correct and to compare it against others. Finally, the papers all end relatively similar with a conclusion and the citations at the very end. Something that I found interesting is that some of the papers used two columns and bullet points throughout which is not commonly seen in other types of papers. Now that we understand the subject and structure of the paper we can begin to analyze it and start to understand the genre it is used for. The form of this paper shows a understanding for people's time by keeping the paper as short as possible. However looking at it closer it seems like it is written especially for the typical busy engineer. I suspect that the abstract was introduced into the engineering research paper after a repeated rhetorical situation of the engineers refusing to read the lengthy papers. The abstract solves this problem by providing all the key points in a short blurb in the beginning which allows the engineer to understand what the paper is about without needing to read the whole article. After reading the abstract if they decide to continue reading it keeps with the idea of short straight to the point writing by using graphs and bullets. The papers being written in two columns also provides a bit of a mental trick to make the papers seem shorter because of all the empty space on it. All of these small things add up to create a new genre of writing that is made specifically for the engineer who isn't always willing to read long in-depth articles.

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The idea of genres is constantly changing and because of this new genres are being formed to include new rhetorical situations (Devitt 574). These engineering research papers are a prime example of Divitt's idea that genres are not static but instead ever changing. The papers are written with the typical engineer in mind to reduce confusion and insure that the papers are actually read. They do this by changing the form and structure of the paper, and using abstracts to quickly explain what the paper is about. Without the new genre of engineering research papers information in the community would not be as easily transmitted to their colleagues and would slow progress in the field.

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Work Cited Biswas, Wahidul K., Brett C. Thompson, and Mohammad N. Islam. "Environmental Life Cycle Feasibility Assessment of Hydrogen as an Automotive Fuel in Western Australias - UCF Libraries." SFX: Full Text Options and Other Services - UCF Libraries. Sustainable Engineering Group, School of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, Curtin University, Perth, WA 6845, Australia, n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2013.

Devitt, Amy. "Generalizing about Genre: New Conceptions of an Old Concept". College Composition and Communication, Vol. 44, No. 4. National Council of Teachers of English. December 1993. pp. 573-586. Print.

Nanthagopal, Kasianantham, Rayapati SUBBARAO, Thangavelu Elango, Ponnusamy Baskar, and Kandasamy Annamalia. "HYDROGEN ENRICHED COMPRESSED NATURAL GAS A FUTURISTIC FUEL FOR INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES." Automotive Research Centre, SMBS,VIT University, Vellore, Tamilnadu, India, B Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, Chennai, India C Department of Automobile Engineering , MIT Campus, Anna University, Chennai, India, n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2013.

Wu, Billy, Mardit Matian, and Gregory J. Offer. "Hydrogen PEMFC System for Automotive Applications." Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, South Kensington, London SW7 2AZ, UK; 2Department of Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College London, South Kensington, London SW7 2AZ, UK, n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2013.