What is it and why does it matter?
Understanding the form and traits of different genres helps writers move more easily from one writing task to another. Understanding a specific genre better equips a writer to perform a task using that genre.
It is also important to understand genre in that each genre comes with a set of audience expectations -- and if the writer does not meet those expectations the communication is likely to fail.
Contents at a Glance
What is genre?
A genre (, also ; from French, Category: wikt - :genre|genre , "kind" or "sort", from Latin: Category: wikt - :genus|genus (stem gener-), Greek: genos, Category: wikt - :?????|?????) is a loose set of criteria for a category of composition; the term is often used to categorize literature and speech, but is also used for any other form of art or utterance. Genres are vague categories with no fixed boundaries, they are formed by sets of conventions, and many works cross into multiple genres by way of borrowing and recombining these conventions. The scope of the word "genre" is sometimes confined to art and culture, particularly literature and music, but it has a long history in rhetoric as well. In genre studies the concept of genre is not compared to originality. Rather, all works are recognized as either reflecting on or participating in the conventions of genre.
"Understanding the genre you will write in is essential to good writing"
What do you think?
Fetching blurbs now... please stand byMore About Genre
- Development of the Genre Concept
- Development of the Genre Concept
- What does `Genre` mean?
- Genre - Meaning and definition
- Genre
- KEY TERM! GENREGenre comes from a French word meaning 'kind' or 'type'.
In general terms it applies to the kind of writing you are reading or producing. - Audience Theory - Genre
- Genre is a way of categorising a text through
style and form. It is vital to be able to categorise texts
in this way - both for production and analysis. - Genre Specific Writing - Why it's Important
- Genre Specific Writing - Why it's Important
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Inquiry and Genre: Writing to Learn in College
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