Well, that took some time to get through, but hey I did it. We all did. It has been a few semesters since I have read something like that. I am a marketing major, so all my classes focus on business, and stats, and charts, and formulas. Maybe that’s why it took so long for me to get through it. It could be that by taking all of these classes I have become accustomed to a certain genre.
I should start by saying that I did not know “genre” meant something or than a type of movie or music. This idea that there are genres in everyday life is something new to me. But it makes sense. Devitt talks about how genre awareness is important. After reading everything I can easily talk as if I had known this, but that is not the case. So I’ll talk about what I thought as I was reading.
Devitt makes a good point in showing the importance of genre awareness. It is something that I, and I am sure many of you, have never even thought of. Just think about. We all know about music genres and movie genres, and yeah we know when we are listening a certain type of song and a certain type of movie. Yet, we never really think about how we are writing, unless we are given some sort of instructions or guideline. Being aware of genres allows us to know a few things. First of all, we actually begin to think about whether or not we know the particular genre we are using. Sure, we may know of it, but what is it really? Devitt claims, “Our critical awareness of any particular genre or even discipline can be as limited and incomplete as our knowledge and teaching of a particular genre.”
How can we even think about what we don’t know if we don’t know that we know it?
Yeah, it sounds pretty trippy, but it makes sense.
The way I see it is, “How can you attempt to make Chicken Tetrazzini if you don’t even know what Chicken Tetrazzini is?” (I suck at analogies, go easy)
Just getting an understanding of which genre we are using will let us get to that next level and analyze the actual genre. We can take a look at its ideology. (<-- A+ transition)
Think about what Devitt says, “When teachers select genres to use in the classroom, then, they are selecting ideologies that those genres will instill in students…” She goes on to provide examples, including how the 5-paragraph essay has shaped students. The ideologies that genres carry seem to be a reflection of what people think the genres are. It’s not that the genres actually have ideologies, it’s that we attach some sort of connotation to them. When we think of the 5-paragraph essay we think of structure, and order, something incredibly boring, but something we are all used to. We feel restricted, but at least we have familiarity.
When I write an (5-paragraph) essay, I know that it is something I am going to put off until the last minute and get done just because I know I am familiar with the format and expect nothing new. When I write a piece of rhetoric I know that I am going to pick at the author’s brain and attempt to sound like I know exactly what they thought. When I write a memo, I try to make myself sound professional and organized. These are all things I associate with those particular genres. They come from what I feel people expect of those genres. Why though? Well, everyone kind of associates similar things to those genres. And why do they do that? Well, those seem to be ideologies, the general beliefs we have about something. So, that’s what I feel Devitt means when she says that genres have ideologies.
I feel bad going down the list that Professor Flewelling mentioned at the bottom of her blog, but I can’t help it. It’s in that Q&A format that is just another genre I have been exposed to. So, I may as well answer the final question about “power structure and dynamics.”
To save you guys some time, I’ll keep this short. Let’s take this back to the Chicken Tetrazzini analogy. So, you have an awareness of Chicken Tetrazzini, you know what it is, what it supposed to look like. You cook it and like it. You cook it more and more, to the point where you’re an expert at it. There are other chicken recipes out there, but none like the one you know. But, you want to branch out. You want to experiment. You try other chicken recipes, because you already have experience with chicken. Why stop there? You know how to make Tetrazzini, so why not Seafood Tetrazzini, or Turkey Tetrazzini. You have the power to make a variety of dishes. All this comes from your initial awareness of Chicken Tetrazzini. Chicken Tetrazzini, in a way, had a power, one that made you branch out and learn about other dishes and their recipes. You may have been hesitant at first, but you saw what you could learn. The same is true for genres, as they have a power that we must not fear, and learn to embrace.
Hi Anthony,
ReplyDeleteYour chicken tetrazzini analogy is definitely A1. Aside from making me feel hungry, it really helped me think about genre awareness and thinking outside the box. The point you made about five-paragraph themes and how "We feel restricted, but at least we have familiarity" is a pretty widespread problem we have in our daily lives. We stick to what we know because it's safe and we like staying in our comfort zone because change is scary. Genre awareness is definitely something that needs to be addressed and taught in our regular writing courses because it's an important literary skill to have that also doubles as a basic life skill.
-Selena Mae
LOL. Yes, students are generally programmed to do what they are told to do. In the blogs, these are just suggestions. (I was thinking how thorough you were being.)
ReplyDeleteBtw, your chicken tetrazzini analogy works perfect. I have never had it, and I would have no idea how to make it, and even if I did have a recipe, I would have no idea whether I succeeded in creating it or not. EF