Chapter 1: Understanding Genres

Going into this chapter, I figured I knew all I needed to know about genres. When I think of the word genre, I typically think of categories of music, movies, or books. Getting into the chapter, I soon realized there's a lot more to genres than the lyrical content of a work. Formatting is a major part of genre that I used to overlook. I was forced to write paragraph-style papers my entire writing career before college. Last semester, I was introduced to the 3 rhetorical appeals: Ethos, Pathos, and Logos. These are also talked about in this chapter. Those devices were always a part of my writing without me even being aware of what they were. Since I've learned what they were exactly and how to use them effectively, my writing has benefitted greatly and is also maturing naturally as I do too. I really enjoyed how this chapter took an actual press release and blog post and broke it down using all of the terms that were introduced through the rest of the chapter. The model it showed could be very useful to someone who needs help with structuring or fitting in more genre conventions. The checklist at the end of the chapter will definitely be of use to me when I start writing for this class. It's good to have a set plan or "to do" list of sorts when writing. But it also doesn't seem overly complex and restrictive, which I also like. It leaves me to my own decisions but with guided advice that could improve my writing.