Genre Paper In this paper, you will demonstrate your understanding of the power of genre – that is, how “format” effects what is said, and what is able to be said. To do this, you will select a genre of your choosing, produce something within that genre, and write an argumentative analysis of your genre. PART ONE: Creative Genre Artifact In preparing for this assignment, you have carefully studied a genre of your choosing. Now, to demonstrate you understand this genre (and genres more generally), you will create a piece that: 1. conforms to the expectations of the genre, and 2. breaks the rules of the genre. What do you mean by conform and violate the genre? As we discussed in class, The Onion is a famous example of a text that both conforms to genre expectations – it maintains the conventions of a newspaper in style and tone – but also violates those norms – by having funny and ironic content. Other examples from previous classes include a formal lab report on how to make coffee, and medical warnings for OTC products that were written confusingly. But why are we breaking the rules of the genre? Simply reproducing a genre doesn’t take much work on your part. But by breaking the rules of the genre, you are forced to think about the genre very closely. For instance, a student in a previous class chose to write “wedding dis-invitations” (she was working on her own wedding), and she explained that having to break some rules caused her to see features of the genre she had never noticed, such as that women are often listed by first and middle name, while men are listed by their full names. Breaking the rules also lets you have a bit more fun. PART TWO: Arguments About Your Genre In Part Two, you analyze what your genre, integrating these two parts: Genre Analysis Carefully analyze and make arguments about the genre you chose to explore. Focus on the samples you have obtained for support. What are the expectations or “rules” of the genre? What features of your genre “work” for those who use the genre, and what features need to change? Return to the questions on the “Analyzing A Genre” handout for more questions to get you thinking and analyzing. By doing this, you demonstrate your ability to recognize rhetorical features of a text and evaluate their purpose. Stay away from simply describing or focusing on the obvious – your challenge here is to come up with an interesting analysis of how your genre works and why. Argument about Your Creative Genre Artifact Interpret what you have created – what argument does your piece make? In what ways does it exemplify your arguments about this genre, as explained in your Genre Analysis? (or not?) Again, stay away from the obvious and from simply describing what you did – I’ll have it there to look at so description isn’t necessary! How do I integrate these parts of my paper? It is your job to design an argumentative paper that addresses both of these issues – this is part of the challenge! It may be that you integrate discussion of your Creative Genre Artifact throughout the paper, or it may be that you begin or end by talking about your Creative Genre Artifact, or you may come up with another idea. It is likely that you will have more to say in the “Genre Analysis” section. Rules & Due Dates Part One: Because everyone’s genres will be different, what you produce for Part One will vary wildly. You want to produce one solid, good, sample of your genre. Obviously, if you are examining the post-it, you will want to produce more than one. But if you are analyzing assignments in your major, one thorough assignment reproduction is sufficient. Part Two: Your analysis should be 4 pages for the first draft (that means to the end of the fourth page!), and five pages for the final draft. See Assignment Expectations on the syllabus, and no fudging! full first draft, appropriately revised before submission Wed, February 14th final draft, with new sources and Works Cited Mon, February 19th conferences will be Feb 14th & 15th What I’m Grading On Part One is worth 25% of your grade, and Part Two is worth 75%. Part One critical thinking and writing ability (do you demonstrate critical understanding of the genre?) effort in design (is it clear that you took some time thinking about this? critical creativity is more important than being “arty”) Part Two clear, innovative, and convincing analysis of your genre incorporation of specific details as evidence avoidance of vague language and obvious commentary clear introduction that indicates what the analysis is about and WHY clear points in each paragraph, no repetition thoughtful paragraph and sentence structure effective organization strategy thorough revision proper use of MLA (final draft)