07132040 PELİN YAĞMUR ATAŞ
07132006 MEHMET ÖZDEMİR
DISCOURSE AND GENRE
Richards and Schmidt define the term genre as:
« a type of discourse that occurs in a particular
setting, that has distinctive and recognizable patterns
and norms of organization and structure and that has
particular and distinctive communicative functions».
 There has been increased attention given to the notion
of genre in discourse studies as well as in the area of
language teaching and learning.
 The approach to genre analysis commonly applied in
the teaching of English for specific purposes is based
on Swales (1981, 1990) analyses of the discourse
structure of research introductions.
WHAT IS GENRE?
Genres are ways in which people ‘get things done’
through their use of spoken and written discourse.
 In 1990, Swales, the accepted leader in genre and move
analysis in the field of ESP, defined a genre as a class of
communicative events commonly used by the
members of a given community who share some set of
communicative purposes.
 Bloor and Bloor (1993) defined genre as aspecific
product of a social practice which can be described
and taught because of its formal characteristics.
 For Miller (1984), genre was a kind of social action
which took place in a specific discourse community.
 Genres change through time. This may, for example,
be in response to changes in technologies.
 Bhatia (1997) says that ‘genre embedding’ refers to
where one genre, for example, a letter, a story, is used
for another ‘conventionally distinct’ genre, such as an
advertisement to sell a product, or a job advertisement.
DEFINING GENRE
 Martin’s (1984:25) defines genre as ‘a staged, goal-
oriented, purposeful activity’.
Swales (2004: 61) says he prefers the notion of
‘metaphor’ for talking about genres, rather than
‘definition’.
CHOICE AND CONSTRAINT IN THE
USE OF SPOKEN and WRİTTEN
GENRES
 Genres are dynamic and open to change, but it is not a
case of ‘free for all’ or ‘anything goes’.
 As Devitt (2004: 86) explains, conformity among genre
users ‘is a fact of genre, for genres provide an expected
way of acting’.
ASSIGNING A TEXT TO A GENRE
CATEGORY
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How do we assign a text to a ‘genre category’?
The author of the text
The intended audience of the text
The purpose of the text
The situation in which the text occurs
The physical form
The title of the text
The content of the text
The level formality of the text
Particular uses of language in the text
The style or register of the text
 Genres are most helpfully seen as ‘resources for
meaning’ rather than systems of rules’ (Swales 2002:
25)
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GENRES
Genre chains
genre networks
genre sets
repertoires of genres
GENRE CHAINS--the linking of
genres within and across texts--in
order to determine how heritage
language writers transfer discursive
patterns of cohesion across genres
and across languages.
‘giving a lecture in a
conference’
 • Call for papers
 • Submission of abstracts
 • Evaluation of abstracts
 • Submission of the full paper
 • Converting the paper into a power point presentation
 • Presenting the slides
 • Question-answering
 • Publishing the paper in conference proceedings
APPLYING FOR A JOB
- job advertisement
- position description
- letter of application
- resume
- job interview
- offer of appointment
- negotiation of offer
Genre networks
is the technical term that describes
the source(s) from which each
genre originates.
sources of information
 Citations
 Quotations
 plagiarism
a power point presentation
Genre sets
The totality of the different genres
that one individual or members of
a given community (of
professionals) engages in is referred
to as genre sets
Applied linguists
 Books
 publish paper
 give lectures
 present posters
 chair conferences
 supervise theses
* Genres never stand in isolation
References
Genre (20 november 2012). Retrived 21 november 2012 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genre
Paltridge, B. 2006. Discourse and Genre. Discourse Analysis
Salmani, M. A. The place of genre analysis in international communication. Retrived 21 november
2012 from http://www.ijls.net/volumes/volume5issue1/salmani4.pdf