Genre-colored glasses
Thoughts on genre, language, grammar, and other
rhetorical and linguistic norms
rhetorical and linguistic norms
through GenresI enjoyed a great family reunion on my husband’s side of the family last week. In the Chesapeake Bay area, we sailed on a skipjack, ate great crabs in all forms, swam in pools or watched the kids swim, and talked, talked, talked. We didn’t share all the genres that you, dear readers, shared with me from your own family reunions. But you told me about potlucks (a feature of my childhood family reunions), group photos (ours, too), and reunion T-shirts (we did that once, but I was the only one proudly displaying my t-shirt this year). But wait. Let’s see if I can share my experience through the genres we shared, organized by the activities we shared. Of course, some of these activities involved one or two planners more than the rest of the family, or the children more than the adults, or the other way around. I bet you can guess the type of people involved by the genre activity--but not always (more than a few adults liked to play in the pool). Planning Family conversations about where to go this time (begun two years ago) Family group emails about locations (begun months ago) Family group emails about dates School calendars Work calendars Camp calendars Word-of-mouth hotel reviews Hotel websites TripAdvisor hotel reviews Phone conversations with hotel reservationists Reservations Confirmation emails Family group emails about selected location and dates Hotel email changing our plans Phone calls to hotel Complaints Negotiations Compromises Confirmation emails Travel Plane reservations Rental car reservations Driving maps/GPS directions Out-of-office automatic responses Airport parking lot location markers Boarding passes TSA Pre (lucky us!) Photo ID Checked luggage tags TSA security signs TSA ID check TSA instructions Line-up poles organizing passengers in airport Boarding announcements Flight delay announcements Safety cards in seatback pocket Exit row instructions from flight attendant (lucky us!) Oral assents to follow exit row instructions Drink and food cards in seatback pocket Airplane magazine Magazine crossword and Sudoku puzzles Novels set in Chesapeake Bay More flight delay announcements Conversations about weather, flight connections, past travel delays Novel, novel, novel Flight attendant instructions to all passengers Pilot instructions to cabin attendants to take seats Take-off Seat-belt sign Drink orders Lavatory occupied lights Novel, novel, novel Landing instructions Landing Baggage claim signs Baggage announcements Texts with arriving family members and drivers Passenger Pick-up designations Greetings, hugs, joy (lucky us!) GPS directions Catching-up conversations Road signs etc etc etc (too many on the road to list) Hotel check-in Room keys Greetings, hugs, joy (lucky us!) Elevator button panels [Phew—I need a break from listing genres before getting to the more fun stuff!] Eating Menus Kids’ menus Cocktail menus Draft beer and wine lists Giving and taking food and drink orders Ice cream varieties Catching-up conversations Grabbing the check Playing Soccer games Walks down the dock Strolls around the grounds Bird identifications (or at least discussions) Sunsets Sunset photos Kid photos Smiles (lucky us!) Swimming (its own huge category of playing) Sunscreen (SO many different kinds) Monitoring children Swimming strokes Dog paddling Dunks Pool toys Fighting over pool toys Admonishments Planning how to get five children onto one pool turtle Piling onto pool turtle (yes, these are genres--repeated symbolic actions) Whining Tattling Laughing Pool football Pool volleyball Sliding down the water slide Slide races Advice to adults about how to gain speed sliding down a slide Switching to other pools (repeat dunking, laughing, games) Poolside catching-up conversations Poolside drink orders (including lemonade and water, I’ll have you know) More sunscreen More and deeper conversations More laughter (lucky us!) Group Tour Tourism websites Reservations Confirmations Family group emails about reservations and time Gathering (a repeated activity for everything) Past reunion t-shirt Assignment of riders to cars GPS directions Skipjack boats (lucky us!) Boat crew introductions Checks (as in writing a check) Life jacket instructions Casting off (is that what it’s called, you sailors?) Raising sails (hoisting?) Tour guide explanations Tour guide history Tour guide stories Asking questions Steering instructions Steering attempts Seeking shade (a repeated action--hot us!) Photos Thank yous Group photo Eating Out Recommendations Restaurant websites Yelp reviews GPS locators Online menus Comparing and consulting Letting others plan Deciding on a restaurant Changing minds Deciding again Dividing into cars Parking spaces Menus (kids, food, drinks, specials) Comparing what others are ordering Taking and giving food and drink orders Itemizing what they’re out of Changing food and drink orders Reviews of food and drink items Sharing tastes and sips Loud conversations Ice creams Grabbing the check [Repeat next night] Conversations Catching-up Future plans Worries Teasing stories of past events Suggestions for next family reunion And so many more unique conversations (lucky us!) Farewells Checking out of hotel Gathering in the lobby Exclamations of amount of fun had Wishes to see each other sooner Invitations to visit Children promising to write Long hugs Expressions of love Tears (lucky us!) Travel home [See above, repeat, including flight delays] Arriving home Unpacking Filling laundry basket Collapsing into bed (lucky, lucky us!!) I recognize how fortunate I am to have such wonderful families in my life. I hope many of you have such families, too, or have them in your memories. I also recognize that many don’t. For you, I hope you have found your own people to share eating, talking, laughing, and hugging.
Whatever forms they might take, we all need re-unions with others we love.
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I'm going to toot my own horn again in this post because I'm excited again. I'm very happy to say that our textbook Scenes of Writing: Strategies for Composing with Genres is once again available in paperback as well as in eBook format!
My co-authors, Mary Jo Reiff and Anis Bawarshi, and I have republished the original book independently. It's available on Amazon for the low low price of $24.99! For some reason I haven't figured out, when you search on Amazon for just the title, our republished new version doesn't show up (used ones show up instead). You have to search the whole title and subtitle to find our independently published version, and even then it's hard to distinguish from the others. It's also not linked to our ebook version yet, but I'm settling for good enough right now. To make it easier in case you want to check it out, I've added a link to our version here. (Disclosure: I get a "bonus" when you buy after clicking on my link instead of going to Amazon yourself, though the price to you is the same. I think it's $1.00) I was surprised at how difficult it turned out to be to get our book into a form that could be published in paper rather than just digitally. Some of you may have published your own works independently and already know the struggles it takes. But thanks to the help of a great friend and designer, the book is well-formatted and all the kinks worked out. Because of all these struggles, I've been thinking again about the difference the format makes (platform?). Why some people prefer paper to digital, or digital to paper. How the same text has different meaning for each of us--that is, how we give meaning to its format. I have no answers at the moment, and I know lots of people have researched reading styles and preferences and there are lots of stats about changes in reading practices. Researchers have discovered different reading habits and patterns and processing of information in different formats or on different platforms. I don't claim to know any of that (though I read all the articles I run across on the topic). Perhaps when my brain's summer slump passes, I'll be able to tackle the topic more thoughtfully. But I do know that many people care about whether the book they read is digital or paper, so I'm glad we were able to figure out how to supply both. Happy reading to you, whatever you choose to read and whatever your format! A more scholarly pieceI'm pleased to say that an article I co-authored on genre is available online. Apparently it has been available for a couple of weeks, but I missed it through my brain fog of world travel. Perhaps some of you will want to read this relatively short piece instead of my blog this week.
The article is "Genre: Permanence and Change," and it's in a special issue of Rhetoric Society Quarterly on keywords in rhetorical studies. The issue considers key concepts in rhetoric for both their pasts and futures. My co-authors and I--Carolyn R. Miller and Victoria J. Gallagher--come from different disciplinary portions of genre studies, so it was an interesting and productive collaboration. As far as I can tell, the article is open for everyone to read: Genre: Permanence and Change The link, just in case: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02773945.2018.1454194 I am seriously jet lagged after a productive and wonderful 17 days in Copenhagen talking about genre and context and language and all sorts of great ideas (my sincere thanks to my colleagues and friends at the University of Copenhagen for such a stimulating visit and generous hosting).
My brain is so foggy I can't even come up with something clever to connect jet lag to genre or language. I hope to return to full strength soon and return to more substantial blog posting. In the meantime, think of me as the ready-to-row Viking I was on this Viking ship, reconstructed by the Viking ship museum volunteers in Roskilde, Denmark. |
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