Chapter 4 : Discourse and Genre

What is genre? Genres are ways in which people get things done through the use of
spoken and written discourse.
Genres are activities that people engage through the use of languages.
➢ Academic lectures and casual conversations are examples of spoken genres.
➢ Newspapers reports and academic essays are examples of written genres
They often have a common function and purpose (or set of functions and purposes)
Genres may typically be performed by a particular person and at a particular audience: such
as an academic lecture being delivered by a teacher to a group of undergraduate students
There may be certain contexts in which a genre is typically associated with the use of a
genre,such as particular academic course content.
Genres change through time. This may be in response to changes in technologies or it
may result of changes in values underlying the use of the particular genre

DEFINING GENRE
Miller’s notion of genre as ‘social action: In this view genre is defined, not in terms of the
substance or the form of discourse but on the action it is used to accomplish. This action is
recognized by other people and the genre is accepted, over time,as a way of doing
something
Genre is a kind of ‘’social agreement’’ about ways of doing things with language,in
particular social and cultural settings Therefore genres are culturally specific and have
particular purposes , stages and linguistic features associated with them.
In words of Swales and Rogers: ‘’The communicative purpose of a genre,further,may
evolve over time,it may change,it may expand or it may shrink’’
Genres are dynamic and open to change, but it is not a case of ‘’free for all’’ or ‘’anything
goes’’ as in Bathia’s (1998:25-6) words:
‘’Practicing a genre is almost like playing a game,with its own rules and conventions.
Established genre participants,both writers and readers,are like skill players,who
succeed by their manipulation and exploitation of,rather than a strict compliance
with,the rules of the game.’’

RHETORICAL GENRE STUDIES

Researches on rhetorical genre studies describe genres as a part of social processes by
which knowledge about reality and the world are made
They respond to and contribute to the constitution of social contexts,as well as the
socialization of individuals. So they are socially constructive

ASSIGNING A TEXT TO A GENRE CATEGORY

How are defined a text to an instance of a particular genre?
Cook argus that we draw on many aspects of language and contexts to do this

➔ Author and the intended audience.

➔ Communicative purpose of the text.
➔ The context in which it occurs.
➔ The physical from and the title of the text.(written text)
➔ Level of formality of the text.
 ➔ Style or register.
➔ Spoken or written.

4.2 Relationships between genres: One genre may assume or depend on the use of a
number of other interrelated genres. An example of this is the academic essay which may
draw from and cite a number of other genres such as academic lectures, specialist academic
texts and journal articles.
An example of a genre chain: Letters to the editor: Letters to the editor provide a useful
example of genre chains in that they often refer to and assume a knowledge of other genres
and other preceding events.
● A job advertisement or posting
● A cover letter and resume submitted by the applicant
● An email or phone call to schedule an interview
● The interview itself
● A follow-up email or thank-you note from the applicant
● An offer letter from the employer
● An acceptance or rejection letter from the applicant
An example of a genre network: This network shows genres outside of the typical ones
research students might assume they need to be able to take part in in order to succeed in
(and beyond) their university studies. Genres which are ‘closed’, not public in nature and
often difficult to access examples of. Swales and Feak contrast these with open genres, that
is, genres that are public, are often published, and are easily visible or audible.
An example of genre sets: Example: The writing of Swales’ ( 1998 ) book Other Floors,
Other Voices . It shows the relationship between his original book proposal and the other
genres that he was involved in, and which influenced the production of the final text of his
book.
4.3 Written genres across cultures: Many studies in the area of contrastive and
intercultural rhetoric have focused on the discourse structure of academic writing in different
languages and cultures. Leki ( 1997 ) argues that many stylistic and discourse devices that
are said to be typical of Chinese, Japanese and Thai writing, for example, also occur in
certain contexts in English. Equally, features that are said to be typical of English writing
appear, on occasion, in other languages as well.
4.4 Spoken genres across cultures : In the US data the women saw their role as following
their dating partner’s lead in the conversation, and helping to keep the conversation going,
whereas the Japanese women much more often initiated the conversation and the choice of
topics in the conversation. It is important to remember, then, that while there may be ways of
performing the same genre across cultures that are quite similar, there may also be parts of
the genre that are significantly (and importantly) quite different.

4.5 GENRE AND ACADEMIC WRITINGGENRE AND ACADEMIC WRITING The notion of
genre is especially important for the teaching of academic writing.
This has been taken up, however, in different ways in different parts of the world.
Genre-based teaching in Australia ★ focused on empowering underprivileged
members of the community
★ necessary resources for academic success.
★ initially writing in elementary and secondary school settings,
★ now writing in higher education as well.
Discourse and academic writing Many of the analyses of the discourse structure of
academic texts have been based on Swales’ work in this area.
These studies have examined, for example, the discourse structures of research articles,
master’s theses and doctoral dissertations, etc.
★ One model is the CARS (Create a research space) framework. Structure of the
Introduction section of research articles.
● How in this section of research article introductions authors establish the
territory for their research.
● How it is important to indicate the gap in previous research that the study aims
to address and ○ How the study being described will fill the gap that the
earlier sections of the Introduction have identified.
★ Other analyses have focused on micro-genres (Martin and Rose 2008 ), or rhetorical
types,such as arguments and descriptions, etc.
★ Come together in the writing of academic genres such as student assignments and
essays.
Language and academic writing Number of views on the nature of genre-specific
language:
★ Hutchinson and Waters distinction between the language of an area of
specialization and the language of the genres found in these particular areas. The
main way in which language varied between areas of specialization was in the use of
technical and specialized vocabulary rather than in its use of genre-specific language.
★ Biber has a wide range of linguistic variation within the particular genres that he
examined. Different kinds of texts are complex in different ways and that many earlier
conclusions that have been reached about specific purpose language reflect our
incomplete understanding of the linguistic characteristics of discourse complexity.
language differences between genres.
★ Charles, Pecorari and Hunston the interface between corpus studies and
discourse analysis in the analysis of academic writing. complementary in that
discourse analysis is more ‘top-down’ while corpus-based analyses are more
‘bottom-up’.
★ Studies, such as Koutsantoni’s examination of rhetorical patterns in research
funding proposals are an example of corpus-assisted discourse studies while studies
such as Hyland’s study of the ways in which student writers establish the presence of
their readers in their texts is an example of corpus informed discourse analysis .
★ Hyland shows how each approach can ‘inform and enrich each other, thereby
leading to more insightful analyses of language use’.
Academic writing and metadiscourse
The term metadiscourse coined by the linguist Zellig Harris the way in which a writer or
speaker tries to guide their audience’s perception of their text.
★ Hyland: Hyland: metadiscourse as ‘aspects of a text which explicitly refer to the
organization of the writer’s stance towards either its content or the reader. interactive
rhetorical features which reflect the writer’s awareness of their audience, its interests
and expectations and interactional rhetorical features which include the ways in which
authors convey judgements and align themselves with their readers.
Interactive metadiscourse resources, ways of expressing relations between clauses,
the stages of the text, information that is in other parts of the text, information that
has been drawn from other texts and ways of elaborating on meanings in the text.
 These resources aim to lead readers to the author’s preferred interpretation of their
text.
Interactional rethorical resources The ways in which writers express their stance.
Stance is the ways in which writers present themselves and convey their judgements,
opinions and commitments to their own and other people’s work.
STEPS IN GENRE ANALYSIS Bhatia and Bawarshi and Reiff present steps for carrying out
the analysis of genres, in their case written genres. It is not necessary to go through all the
stages that they list, nor in the order in which they are presented.
● The first step, however, is to collect samples of the genre you are interested in.
● The next step is to consider what is already known about the particular genre. This
includes knowledge of the setting in which it occurs as well as any conventions that are
typically associated with the genre. Look at what analyses have already have been carried
out of the particular genre, or other related genres, by looking at research articles or books
on the topic.
● That is, who uses the genre, who writes in the genre, who reads the genre and what roles
the readers perform as they read the text. The goal, or purpose, of the texts. That is, why do
writers write this genre, why do readers read it and what purpose does the genre have for
the people who use it?
● A further important consideration is typical discourse patterns for the genre.
● What values, beliefs and assumptions are assumed or revealed by the particular genre
● The networks of texts that surround the genre.
The social and cultural context of genresThe social and cultural context of genres
Examination of the social and cultural context in which the genre is used.
● the setting of the text;
● the focus and perspective of the text;
● the purpose(s) of the text;
● the intended audience for the text, their role and purpose in reading the text;
● the relationship between writers and readers of the text;
● expectations, conventions and requirements for the text;
the background knowledge, values and understandings it is assumed the writer shares with
their readers, including what is important to the reader and what is not; the relationship the
text has with other texts. They are deeply intertwined and each, in its way, has an impact on
what a writer writes, and the way they write it.
It shows the range of factors that impact on how the text is written, how it will be read and,
importantly, how it will be assessed.
A context analysis of thesis and dissertations
● It is crucial, not just to analyze the discourse structure of texts, but also to gain an
understanding of the socially situated nature of texts and the role they are playing in their
particular setting. To close the gap between text and context’ Lillis suggests ways in which
researchers may contextualize their research as a way of ‘adding value’ to their studies.
● Ethnography as methodology’ and ethnography as ‘deep theorizing’. Ethnography as
methodology involves using multiple data sources as well as a period of sustained
involvement in the context in which the texts are produced to try to gain an understanding of
the ‘dynamic and complex situated meanings and practices that are con-stituted in and by
the writing’.
● Curry and Lillis’ ( 2010 ) book Academic writing in a global context where they employed
text analysis, interviews, observations, document analysis, written correspondence,
reviewers’ and editors’ comments to examine second language writers’ experiences of
getting published in English is an example of this.

The discourse structure of genres

Ways in which the discourse structure of genres can be analyzed.
● By identifying its generic structure: it is based on its genre category
membership (a letter to the editor, a doctoral dissertation, etc.)
● By examining its rhetorical structure: it is done by looking at rhetorical types
(argument, description and problem-solution that occur within the text)
Applications of genre analysis
● Hammond and Macken-Horarick (1999): Genre-based teaching can help students gain
access texts and discourses
● Luke (1996): teaching “genres of power” (academic essays and dissertations) leads to
the uncritical reproduction of the status quo and does not provide the kind of access
expected.
● Christie (1993) and Martin (1993): not teaching genres of power is socially
irresponsible.
● Kay and Dudley-Evans (1998): some of the teachers interviewed pointed to the need to
avoid a reductive view of genres. They also stressed the importance of
contextualizing genres in classroom taking into account purpose, audience, beliefs
and values.
● Tardy (2006): genre as a more social construct which shapes and is shaped by human
activity. Different ways to perceive, interpret and behave.