Specifics

Your final essay should be at least 800 words, double-spaced, standard font, MLA format.

The Question

What motivates you to write in one of the voluntary genres you use (i.e., any genres excluding assigned papers)? What social actions does this genre help you perform?       

What were writing

In this essay, you will analyze one of the genres you use voluntarily (rather than those assigned in courses) in order to identify the features of that genre and the motivations driving you to use it. To avoid making broad generalizations, select 3-5 specific examples of that genre and analyze it using the following questions:

What does your genre look like?
How are your examples of the genre organized? Why are they organized like that?
What language and tone do you use in each example of your genre? Are they fairly similar, or are there variations?
Is the genre youre analyzing similar to any other genres? How so?
Who do you expect to read your writing? Does the same genre take on different forms depending on your audience (e.g., does an email to your friend have all of the same features of an email to your professor)?
How do you represent yourself in your writing? What kind of an impression do you create (or hope you create!) for your readers? What and how do you wish to communicate?
What do you hope will happen as a result of your writing in each example?
Why do you choose to write in this genre? What do you get from it that you dont get from other writing genres?

Purpose

The purpose of this essay is to move you from thinking about the wider cultural context that influences how you write, to now thinking about the connection between genre, author, audience, and purpose. Being able to analyze your own genres will help you to start analyzing new genres in order to learn how to use them to accomplish new social actions (like analyzing resumes in order to get your first job!).

Audience

I am your primary audience of course, and I hope to see you communicate a clear, well-supported argument about what motivates you to write in particular genres. However, as a secondary audience, you should also be thinking about your peershow can you keep them interested in your analysis of a genre you use?