Relaying a message to a target audience can be difficult. It’s even more difficult to evoke action from the individuals/groups who view your message. It’s key to struggle with the concept of genre. What does it mean to use genre or to write a specific genre of writing? I hope to build upon your prior understanding of the word ‘genre,’ while referencing Genre as Social Action by Carolyn Miller.
When I see the word ‘genre,’ I automatically think of classification. To me, this word can be further broken down into grouping compositions based on similarities in form, style, or subject matter. Carolyn Miller attempts to define ‘genre’ from the perspectives of rhetorical criticism rhetorical theory. After reading Genre as Social Action, it became apparent that the term ‘genre’ is just as convoluted as the other terms discussed in this course.
My previous understanding of the word ‘genre’ limits its definition to substance or subject matter. Miller emphasizes the importance of understanding how genre coincides with social contexts and how individuals/groups respond to the substance. Thus, it’s necessary to understand how the conveyed message will affect other people, regardless of the rhetor’s intent. Predispositions and societal values influence human behavior; therefore, reactions to the method of discourse will vary. I struggle with the idea of recurring forms (i.e. emails, speeches, eulogies, etc.) because of this idea of social action. I agree that “. . . comparable situations occur, prompting comparable responses,” but as stated previously, human action or reaction may still vary. If I choose to create a blog for my campaign piece just because I’ve only seen similar topics written in that manner, I may connect with my audience or mislead them completely. This is a tricky concept that I had not originally considered before reading the work of Carolyn Miller.
By addressing the implications of defining ‘genre’ through the criticism and theories of other rhetors and scholars, Miller helped me understand that genre is way more complex than my initial definition. When we learn what a genre is, it is much more important to “understand better the situations in which we find ourselves and the potentials for failure and success in acting together.” Simply put—making sense of the audience, their society and culture, potential successes/failures when addressing them, and having a clear call-to-action is more important than the form or substance. Genres can serve as a exploration tool for how to relay messages as well as “keys to understanding how to participate in the actions of a community.”
I really like how to introduce your blog post and especially that question. It reminds me of how the professor would spark a discussion in class so it is thought provoking. I also would think about how something is classified with respect to the situation when I hear the word “genre.” For example, my favorite “genre” of music is rap while my favorite “genre” of video games are first-person shooters. The way Carolyn Miller defines it is much different from mine and the way she does it seemingly impossible to understand. Is it possible that she just has a deeper, writer based version of the definition where we only have a topical version of it? It is interesting how you said that if you choose to write a blog, you could hit your target or completely miss with your audience. Personally, I think all topics can be effective with a well written blog. I, as of now, can see no topic that a blog is useless because I feel that blogs are more meant to convey a feeling about a topic and people usually want to see other people’s viewpoints. You could probably even write a blog about what I just said and have a never ending loop of blogs. Therefore, I believe that you could have a strong impact on your audience based solely off your blog. This brings us back to how Carolyn defined it in towards the end of the paper. Understanding the audience’s position respect to the timing is important when speaking to them because that can affect the reaction that you get out of the audience. So, I could be wrong. Maybe your audience is not at the place for a blog so writing may not get the best effect. Either way, audience reaction is important for all of our topics.
Before reading Miller’s A Genre as Social action, I had very similar views on the concept of what a genre is as you. I just thought I was a fairly general term that allowed us to classify certain works that are similar to each other, and it only went as deep as, “’Step Brothers’ and ‘Talladega Nights’ are both comedies”. Honestly, I didn’t think much of it and didn’t exactly feel that it was as important as it is. However, after reading Miller’s work, I see its importance. As someone who is writing to the public, being able to predict the public reaction to a piece, based on its genre can be very beneficial. In a campaign, it can help you mold the view of your audience to your liking.