Genres in T/P Writing

In my internship, the genres of writing I have encountered are varied because of the unique nature of my internship. I am assisting with the creation of a game based on professional writing and this actually includes many different genres of writing. The one genre I have been primarily focused on recently is instruction. While we have not explicitly written the rule book, otherwise known as the instructions, we have created over half of the cards for the game and these act as mini instructions due to the nature of the content on the cards.

As Anis Bawarshi and Mary Jo Reiff explain in their article “Rhetorical Genre Studies,” “genres…conditions of use change—for example because of changes in material conditions, changes in community membership, changes in technology, changes in disciplinary purposes, values, and what Charles Bazerman describes as systems of accountability (Shaping 61)—genres must change along with them or risk becoming obsolete.” This quote is particularly relevant because one does not generally think of playing cards are an instruction manual of sorts. Changes in community membership (from builders to gamers, for example) are just one way in which this genre is dynamic.

In her work, “Genre as Social Action,” Carolyn Miller writes that a “rhetorically sound definition of genre must be centered not on the substance or the form of discourse but on the action it is used to accomplish.” This is significant to understanding the genre in my internship specifically because instructions are solely intended to inspire action.  If we take these parameters into consideration, we can see how writing cards in a game is similar to writing instructions. Each card gives the player directions and enables them with a sort of action and this is similar to writing instructions because the cards have to be clear and concise. For the majority of these cards, we only intended one specific action or ability, but a player could easily interpret multiple meanings if we are not specific enough with our wording and punctuation. In the game, misinterpreting the cards can lead to cheating or an unfair gameplay. In assembling furniture, for example, misinterpretation can cause the reader to break their product or even injure themselves from faulty instructions. This relationship between writer and reader is subject to change based on context, so the main objective when writing instructions is to avoid any opportunities for misinterpretation.  The commonality between playing cards and manuals allows them to be defined as the same genre.

Sources:
Bawarshi, Anis and Reiff, Mary Jo Rhetorical Genre Studies

Miller, Carolyn Genre as Social Action

Internship Genre

In my internship I have used writing in the genre of instruction manual. I have been referencing a set of game rules as to assist with the creation of cards.  I have been working on creating various cards for a board game that are made up of several elements: title, identifier, and ability. The ability of the cards functions as its own set of rules apart from the main rule book. The main rules function more as the recognizable set of instructions, but the cards function as smaller and simpler set of instructions. Together, the rules and cards are both genre sets which prompt and allow players of the game to take actions. Groups of genre sets, create a genre system which is where the actions take place.

Both of these game elements have to be understood by not only novices, but experts as well and need to be able to adapt to expansions of the game. The users of the game are also always changing and playing the game in different ways, because of their unique experience. The game itself could also be utilized in many different scenarios. Instructions are also often monologue in nature and do not have the opportunity to a dialogue with the person reading. This genre of writing therefore needs to “normalize activities and practices, enabling community members to participate in these activities and practices in fairly predictable, familiar ways in order to get things done” (Rhetorical Genre Studies 79). But it also has to be dynamic because “of changes in material conditions, changes in community membership, changes in technology, changes in disciplinary purposes, values, …  and as systems of accountability—genres must change along with them or risk becoming obsolete.” (Rhetorical Genre Studies 79)

The use of instruction manual is found throughout varied situations which tell the user how to use the particular manual. An instruction manual could be described as type of situation that changes based on human action and the meaning we interpret from a situation. While the instructions of game tell how people to act based on others actions, an instruction to use a computer is for someone acting on their insufficient knowledge. Or an instruction manual to build an object is for a person that desires to have a finished product. Instructions often share a clear, concise, and dynamic writing style, but also have different meanings depending on how a user is acting in any given scenario.

Genre in the Internship

I have had the pleasure of working with a variety of genres in my internship at Women Helping Women this semester. One such genre I have been focusing on lately is design.

Design is very important for a voluntary organization. All funds that Women Helping Women disperses are donations. Members often pay for supplies out of their own pockets. In that case, design is crucial in letting the community know about Women Helping Women and also encouraging people to contribute to the cause or volunteer their time.

I have been utilizing design lately by designing a print ad that could potentially be placed in the newspaper or in flyers advertising the latest formation to Women Helping Women--a Men's Auxiliary. This auxiliary is an important addition to the organization because it places an emphasis on men donors.

As Carolyn Millers says in "Genre as Social Action", act must involve situation and motive. My design is intended to motivate people to action. This action will improve the lives of many women in the SEK area so I take my job as designer of this ad very seriously.

Design in other professional contexts will differ. For example, in designing for an ad agency, the designer is not trying to motivate donations or change. The designer's goal is to design a package, product, etc that will encourage purchasing decisions, establish brand identity, build equity, etc. In this way the motivation behind the same genre is different.

Genres in Tech/Prof Writing

                While being an intern/assistant editor for the Writers’ Slate there are some genres that I do come into contact with and have to work with. One of the main genres is the one that represents action. In Genre as Social Action, Miller says, “that genre represents action and the action must involve situation and motive.” One of the things that the Writers’ Slate interns pride ourselves on is consistency between the transitions from one intern to another. So something that previous interns did to make this easier was making templets for the next person to use. These templets are a simple design to them that is very cohesive. The main design is a fountain pen in between two book pages. This design is shown on the acceptance letters we email to the writers and also is in the design of the issues. The color scheme is also a sublet feature to the cohesiveness that flows through all of the different forums.  The action of the previous intern that took this formatting on helps the rest of us that come after them because now I am able to make sublet tweaks, like making a special design to fit a story, but I am still able to stick to the color and design themes.

                Another genre that is present in technical/professional writing is change. In Rhetorical Genre Studies, Bawarshi and Reiff talk about how, “genres are dynamic because as their conditions change – for example because of changes in material conditions, changes in community membership, changes in technology, changes in disciplinary purposes, and values… -- genres must change along with them or risk becoming obsolete.” This is a huge part of the Writers’ Slate because the writers we publish are always changing and so are the ages of the writers. A writer can be published multiple times through the Writers’ Slate however it is unusual for them to be published in back to back issues. So, each time we pick works to go into the issue I am going to be interacting with new people. Another change that I encounter is submissions from other countries. Since the Writers’ Slate is an international online publication we receive submissions from all over the world. This requires us as inters to be flexible and able to make the necessary changes to format a piece of work properly into Americanized formatting.

                Working for the Writers’ Slate has been very eye opening to all of the different rhetorical genres that as technical/professional writers we might have to work with. This internship has already been very valuable in teaching me new ways of approaching and adapting to these specific genres. I think that this knowledge will help me greatly in a future technical/professional writing job.

Sources:

Bawarshi, Anis and Reiff, Mary Jo Rhetorical Genre Studies

Miller, Carolyn Genre as a Social Action