Inquiry Genre Choice Project

We can become better writers by becoming more aware of a variety of genres and studying how
they function to influence discourse. It is important to learn new genres as well as gain a meta-
awareness of what we already know about genres, how they work and what they do.
 
Consider the concept of genre to get you thinking about how genres emerge as a result of
recurring situations, as well as how they are always connected to
some kind of “social action” in our everyday lives. Genres are not just textual categories, they
are embedded in our speech utterances, daily encounters, even social structures. Furthermore, the
more knowledge we can acquire about genre, the more successful we will be at understanding
how disciplinary and professional communities construct, maintain, and disseminate both
information(discourse) and power relations. Because genre is so important in understanding how
texts can structure and govern social communities (esp. professional communities), this
assignment asks you to do some genre analysis in order to create your own genre related to your
inquiry topic. Consider why one genre is not necessarily better than another, but more
appropriate for a particular rhetorical situation-audience and purpose.

A genre is a category used to classify discourse usually by form, technique, or content. A genre
influences the format in which information is presented; in fact, the information is shaped by the
genre. Genres have evolved over time because our ways of communication have also changed.

What does this have to do with writing, reading, and rhetoric in your
profession/academics/personal life? Gaining an understanding of how genre operates will not
only improve your chances of being a successful writer in a given genre, it will also allow you to
understand the multiple and significant social-material implications of specific genres in your
professional field/academics/personal life.

Chapter 2 Reading from Writing about Writing will also provide insight

For example (additional examples in Module 5 Genre examples document):

Oral: Public speaking, podcast, radio show/program, class lecture, face-to-face

interviews, songs

Typography: Books/textbooks, magazines, newspapers, websites, primary source

documents (historical diaries, essays, telegrams), laws/policy, transcribed interviews,
written music lyrics

Iconography: Webcast, video/music video/youtube, posters, cartoons/comics,

photography, instruction sets (visual), televised
interviews, corporate logo

How Do I Complete the Inquiry Genre Project?

1) Determine an appropriate genre for your inquiry topic,
2) Design a piece in the form of that genre using the content you have researched
through your logs and any additional research to inform/entertain/persuade your
audience, and
3) Reflect and provide a metacognitive analysis of your project choices and thinking

DO NOT use the genres of Powerpoint, Prezi, Googleslides, Infogrpahics for this project since
those are some genres you can use for the Inquiry Presentation and Infographics project and I do
not want you to duplicate genres.

Timeframe
W 4/6 Inquiry Genre Proposal
F 4/8 Rough Draft Inquiry Genre for peer workshop
M 4/18 Final draft of Inquiry Genre Project