Genres and Text Types

Question 1

What is the definition of Genre?

Answer 1

A particular type or style of literature, art, film or music that you can recognize because of its special features

Question 2

Make some examples of Genres

Answer 2

Advertisement, dissertation, essay, parody, biography, report, screen play, speech, travel writing, memoir, diary, blog, cartoon, interview, letter…

Question 3

What are the predictable formula of a Presidential Campaign Ad?

Answer 3

• A carefully scripted speech over a montage of stock footage, with plenty of sun-dappled scenes of the heartland.
• The candidate interacting with smiling citizens.
• Allusions to that other terrible party and/or the current awful president, in black and white or sepia tone. (Things have been terrible for so long!)
• Images of our proud history and illustrious ancestors … also in black
  and white or sepia tone. (Things were so much better then!)
• A rainbow of citizen ethnicities and middle-class workplaces.
• Standing ovations and smiling voters.
• Lens flares.

Question 4

What is “Communicative Purpose” in Genre Studies?

Answer 4

communicative goal that can be achieved through language

Question 5

What is “Move” in Genre Studies?

Answer 5

It is the functional unit in a text that reflects the communicative purpose of a specific part of a text

Question 6

What is the “step” in Genre Studies?

Answer 6

It is the building block of a move

Question 7

What is the “rethorical structure” in genre studies?

Answer 7

It is the combination of the moves and the steps in a group of texts

Question 8

What is the “obligatory move” in genre studies?

Answer 8

It is a move that occurs in all of the texts

Question 9

What is a “quasi-obligatory” move?

Answer 9

It is a move that occurs in most of the texts.
Optional move: a move that occurs in less than 50% of the texts