Category: Discourse Community

Annotated Bibliography: Sources for Research

Genre, as defined by Bazerman (2003) is a “Recognizable, self-reinforcing forms of communication” this mean that there is a feature that everyone can recognize and choose the appropriate ways to response to that situation. This is not the case for teachers that teach high school students about genre based on Whitney, Ridgeman & Masquelier (2011). They mentioned in their article that, “Genre has often been taught as long lists of characteristics that teachers should make explicit for students” (p.526). This mean that high school teachers often teach genre in a method that making genre as a distinct property and they should make it very clear for student what genre of a particular thing should be. The authors agree to the method but also disagree with it by saying to teach students what genre is to make them understand a genre in society’s structure. So, Bazerman and these authors have the same common view of how should be interpret.

Genre exist in everywhere you go and many situations that you’re in and see in every music, movies, games, research, etc. Many researchers have study genre from its definitions to genre convention of specific things such as movie or game trailer, TED Talks, research paper, or difference commercial brands. For example, in Samayoa (2017) research on genre convention of TED Talks, she provided many things that the group that work on recording the show and the presenter have to follow to achieve a successful TED Talk like, presenter have to follow the structure of the argument that the show is trying to argument but also being creative with the presenter answer to be able to produce a diverse and creative TED Talks that still follow the same format. From her research, she can use genre convention to study a discourse community that she has no idea of how it should work and show us that genre is an effective tool to understand a discourse community. Similar to this idea is Devitt, Bawarshi & Reiff (2003) as they said that “genres analysis gives access to the workings of discourse communities in a way that renders the idea of a discourse community a more tangible, helpful concept for teachers, students, and researchers” (p. 550). As I can see from all these researches, I don’t see any research or topic about Doritos’ commercial specifically and its components that made up the genre that the commercial present. Consider there was researches that study about components in advertisement such as humor in advertisement and creativity. In the two article “Level of Creativity and Attitudes toward an Advertisement” by Kim, B. H., & Yu, J. (2015) and “Humor in Advertisement Enhances Product Likin by mere Association” by Strick, M., van Baaren, R.B., Holland, R. W., & van Knippenberg, A. (2009). These two articles discussed about the component of their interested have effect in an ad that similar in my opinion because humor does require a high level of creativity. These two articles also produced the same result as humor and creativity have a positive effect on the customer. However, I think a successful advertisement cannot just rely on the two components that I mentioned above, there is more things that made up an attractive advertisement and it can be discover using genre. So, in this research, I will study Doritos’ commercial and answer my question of how Doritos use genre in an entertainment advertisement.

Primary Source

Andersen, R. (2014, November 17). Doritos Time Machine – Crash the Super Bowl 2014 WINNER OFFICIAL [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-P0Hs0ADJY

This commercial is about a man walking around the street with his bag of Doritos and he saw a child named Jimmy playing with his ‘time machine’ beside his dog. The kid offered the man to get into the machine to go to the future and to do so, he must donate his Doritos chips into the machine which is where the kid took his chips and eat it with his dog. After the kids do some sound effect and motion that show the man that he’s travelling through time. Suddenly, a man which wear the exact outfit as Jimmy come out and kick the kid out of his garden. The man walked out after a dead silent and saw the man, but he thought it was Jimmy when he is old and thought that he’s in the future. I collected this information because it related to the other videos that I found and can compare them together. The things that present in this commercial that I learned from is they use kid in the video to add a little cuteness in the commercial, the first thing that appear in the scene is a man and obviously his Doritos chips so the audience can know what is this commercial trying to sell, I also notice the setting they were in in the video and its, a typically middle class neighborhood, front yard, and inside the ‘Doritos’ time machine’.

This is similar to the 2008 Super Bowl commercial because both is aiming toward a set of audience that they trying to target which is kids and man that watch football. They also have a lot of future to help them achieve their goal in term of deliver the commercial to many kids and adult who watch football as possible. These components can be humor, theme, creativity and originality of their commercial. These factors can have the great impact of attitude toward the brand as well. These commercials help me to understand how the company use genre to help them achieve the purpose of getting as many views as possible.

ClearBroadcasting (2008, February 4). Funny Super Bowl Commercial 2008 – Doritos: “Mouse Trap” [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8qgk5tXuUA

This is a thirty seconds commercial video and it was about a man that trying to lure a mouse with a bag of Doritos. He cut one corner of the chip and put it on in the mouse trap then sit on a chair and silently wait for the mouse to come out. When he about to eat a handful of Doritos chip, a man wearing a mouse costume slammed through the tiny hole where the mouse live and jumped onto the man and start his beating. I collected it because it has a similar component to other related sources that I found. Some future that I recognize in this commercial are the commercial use a middle age man to take the role of the trapper, a little of violent that I think aim towards kids to make them laugh and the video also include some form of animal (event it’s not real) in the commercial. I also notice futures that are in this commercial such as, classical music as a music theme, and very dark background because it take place in a small and dark room which make it have a little of mystery into it and the part where the human mouse jump out is a jump scare and funny at the same time.

This relate to the 2014 Super Bowl Doritos commercial because these two commercials have the same time length, they both present a bag of Doritos, a middle age man that both a subject to the humor, and an animal in the commercial. So, I can tell that most the two commercial is aiming toward a specific audience and it is children and man between the age of 18 to 26. This commercial help me learn that there is a specific audience that the commercial is aiming at.

Flowers, V. (2013, February 3). 2013 SuperBowl XLVII Doritos Goat 4 Sale Commercial [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoM6IhfY8No

This commercial is about the man and his goat that he bought it from an injured guy that he met when walking with the Doritos bag in his hand. Both the goat and its owner shared a common thing of eating Doritos every time but one day, the owner is frustrated with the sound that the goat made when chewing those chips and after many days pass, he decided to hide all the Doritos chips from the goat. The goat after finding out that all the chips are gone, turned into mad animal and start breaking everything in the house and break into the owner’s room where he is eating his chips and writing a “GOAT FOR SALE” board. The goat starts closing the door and that is the end of the video. I collected this video because I notice that they used animal in there commercial very often like other commercial they made in the pass like the one that related to this video that I will talk about below. Some futures that I’ve noticed in this video are, animal, middle aged man, bright theme, a lot of bags of Doritos, and a ridiculous reaction from the animal and it action that made the video a humor commercial.

I think this is the most similar to the break room ostrich Super Bowl 2013 commercial because both share many similar things like humor at the end of each video, an animals, middle aged man, relationship between human and animal like friends and co-worker, in both videos, they also use a lot of Doritos bags to highlight the main product that they trying sell and white theme to compliment their products. This help me informed that the company use a specific type of theme and color to complement their product’s color to give it more attention.

FUGO Studios (2013, November 21). Breakroom Ostrich – Doritos Crash the Super Bowl [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoANeCLWOjI

The first observation that I have on this video is this is a thirty seconds video. It starts with a boss having two of his employees with him in the room. The boss starts to talk about how upset he is because someone had eaten all the Doritos inside the breakroom and make a big mess. Then he told the two employees, which is a person and an ostrich that the boss narrowed down to those two. After he said that, the ad shows the moment when the human was in the break room and eating Doritos and got caught by the ostrich. They make eye contact then the ostrich slowly backed away. Then, we back to the boss’s room and the person that ate the Doritos said, “Obviously it was the ostrich, right?” then, the ostrich has a long gasp and that was the end of the advertisement. I collected it because it relates with other videos that I found above in term of theme work. I noticed how they use animal with their human like reaction in the video to add humor into the ad.

I think this video is structure the same as the other three videos like time length, which mostly about thirty seconds for all of them but I think the format and story line that this source is most similar to the other source is the Super bowl 2013 Doritos’ commercial. The similar future in these two videos is a lot of Doritos’ chips, a man, an animal that will be the main character in the commercial and some funny action from the animal near the end of the commercial. These two commercials help me learn how the company (Doritos) use genre to deliver humor and persuasion to the audience and affect their attitude toward the product.

Secondary Sources

Bazerman, C. (2003). Speech Acts, Genres, and Activity Systems: How Texts Organize Activity and People. In C. Bazerman & P. Prior (Eds.) What Writing Does and How It Does It: An Introduction to Analyzing Texts and Textual Practices (pp.312-319). Abingdon, UK: Routledge.

In this article, Bazerman (2003) provided the concept and analytical tools to see the work that texts do in living life. The analytical approach in this article is based on these concepts such as, social facts, speech acts, genres, genres systems and activity systems. These concepts are very important because they offer a suggestion of how a person can use text to make new existence of knowledge, relation and meaning. In the article, the author talks about how text can made up reality or facts for people who live in what they expected and in the framework of relation and activity they’ve establish by fitting together in an organized way of life. A good text is the text that create a social fact for its readers, and social fact consisted of social action that being done by language, or speech act. These acts carried form, order and therefore it is classified as genres. All these things combined into genre sets that merge into genre systems as a part of it.

Based on the what the article have informed, I see the relation it has with another article of Whitney, Ridgeman & Masquelier (2011). Both articles talk about genre, in term of defining definition and how it can help to recognize and understand the meaning in society using genre. In Bazerman article, he talks about a football game, you recognize the crowd is cheering on your team and you followed it because you recognize that the thing you should do when you come to a sport event and you suppose to pick one team that you want to support whether because that team is your favorite team or because it’s the team from the school that you go to. Like the article of Whitney, Ridgeman & Masquelier on their interpretation on genre, they talk about how genre is a map to the recurring situation that happened before if you know analyze them. The authors also point out that teacher used to teach students about genre as a characteristic or a fixed structure that the students need to follow which minimized their ideas in their writing. Both these articles help me learn that genre is the tool to help people to find the right way to response base on the recurring situation.

Devitt, A. J., Bawarshi, A., & Reiff, M. J. (2003). Materiality and Genre in the Study of Discourse Communities. College English, 65(5), 541-58. Doi: 10.2307/3594252

In the article “Materiality and Genre in the Study of Discourse Community written by Devitt, Bawarshi & Reiff (2003). These authors are trying to explain using the idea of genre to study a discourse community. The 3 essays demonstrate how the use of genre theory can gain some “insight into teaching, research, and social interaction” (p.542). Their main argument was “material entities” such as studying “academic, professional, or public communities” help us to improve “the idea of a discourse community by giving discipline and focus to the study of the unities of language and society” (p.542). In Devitt’s essay, she points out that there is a separation of members and non-members because there is a language barrier that nonmember got confused when the member of that community use such as in the jury where the author performs her study. While she tries to rewrite another jury instruction specific to nonmember, she also realized that such professional language shield the community and values of its member. Bawarshi argue in her essay that “genres analysis gives access to the workings of discourse communities in a way that renders the idea of a discourse community a more tangible, helpful concept for teachers, students, and researchers” (p. 550). Reiff essay argues about how ethnographic study can make you create a community while you’re learn in a community.

This article is relating to the article that wrote by Samayoa (2017). Both articles focus on using genre to analyze a discourse community of interested. Samayoa study TED Talks which is the community where people come up and share their founding and present it to everyone. She is studying a discourse community where she will have to know the genre convention to have a successful TED Talks and study the thing that usually being discussed in this form. Similar to this, Devitt, Bawashi and Reiff (2003) is focus in the similar idea of using a genre theory to study a discourse community using material entities. These two articles help me understand whether genre convention or materiality and genre can help gain insight to a community that people might not know well enough.

Kim, B. H., & Yu, J. (2015). Level of Creativity and Attitudes toward an Advertisement. Creativity Research Journal, 27(2), 133-138. Doi: 10.1080/10400419.2015.1030302

This article is about how creativity affect consumer decision to buy products. Kim & Yu (2015) conducted a “3*3 experimental method” to answer one out of three of there research question which is “Were there interaction effects of audience members’ roles and advertising creativity levels on attitudes toward the advertised brand?” , “Were there interaction effects caused by individuals’ role as consumers, advertisers, or ad agency professionals and creativity levels inherent in advertisements on attitudes toward the advertisements used in this study?” and “Were there interaction effects based on roles of audience members and advertising creativity levels on attitudes toward the advertised product?” (p.135). The result is different creativity level does cost a significant effect on customer attitude toward the ad as the level of creativity increases and the responded was favorable towards the advertisement. Creativity level has the most influence toward the attitude of the audience. Finally, the last result the third question was they cant measure the interaction effects because of the difference levels of creativity and diverse roles of each individual attitude toward the ad..

I think it relates to the article by Strick, Baaren, Holland and Knippenberg (2009). Because both articles talk about advertisement and they both performed an experience to prove the factor will have effect on the customer reaction toward the presented product. Although these two are study difference things but their components is related as humor required a good level of creativity.

Samayoa, P. (2017). The Extent of Influence that Genre Conventions Have on TED Talks.

This paper is about study TED Talks genre convention and its characteristic, how it work from the past until now as an individual and a team to give out an answer to a rhetorical situation that TED asked? and figure out how does TED Talk presenter can modify their answer to produce a different video that still alike with the other TED Talk typical response. Samayoa (2017) answer to these two questions was TED Talk are arranged as a presentation that provide a unique and creative experience for every presenter. Two focuses that she told in her article that have different genre conventions is “collective TED Talk movement or on the individual formulation of a TED Talk” (p.48). TED Talk that take perspective from the individual as a boundaries and tight set of genre conventions that have to be followed to be able to generate a successful show. So, genre conventions require the presenter to be special in their way of presenting but also ask them to follow a pattern when they get into a specific topic that is in the scope of the TED Talks.

This article is related to Devitt, Bawarshi and Reiff article. Because both articles are basically focus on a specific discourse community and analyze it using genre. For Samayoa, she chooses TED Talks to have a better understanding from the community in term of how they oriented the talk show, what rules do they have to follow, how genre convention have the effect on the show and many components that goes with it. This is similar to Devitt, Bawarshi and Reiff article because they also trying to understand a discourse community through genre theory from academic, research and communication to dig deeper into their discourse. This helps me understand whether genre convention or materiality and genre can help gain insight to a community that people want or need to study.

Strick, M., van Baaren, R.B., Holland, R. W., & van Knippenberg, A. (2009). Humor in Advertisement Enhances Product Likin by mere Association. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 15(1), 35-45. Doi: 10.1037/a0014812

This article written by Strick, Barren, Holland & van Knippenberg (2009) talks about how humor in advertisement, how its effects consumer’s attitude toward the product and observe the relation between humor with product choice. The result from three experiences show that there was a improve in evaluation of product that goes with humor. These evaluation proof that there is a relationship between humor and product choice. However, products that have humor feature tend to be less recognize than the control products because humor and product evaluation with product choice tend to be “dissociated from the accessibility of the product in memory” (p.35).

This article relates to the other article of Kim & Ju (2015). Both articles talk about how one key element have the affect on the costumer attitude toward the product. For example, with Kim & Yu article, they talk about how creativity in an advertisement can improve attitude of customer in a positive way as the level of creativity increases. Similar to the article that I’ve summarize above, they (the authors) also talk about how one element have an impact on the customer on their attitude toward the product, but the different in here is that they study humor instead of creativity like the other, but I think these two are mostly similar as humor mostly require creativity into it to make that humor factor. These two articles provided me how humor and creativity affect the attitude of customer toward the product through ads.

Whitney, A. E., Ridgeman, M., & Masquelier, G. (2011). Beyond “Is This OK?”: High School Writers Building Understandings of Genre. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 54(7), 525-533. Doi: 10.1598/jaal.54.7.6

This article is about the three authors who have experienced teach English at high school noticed that students have the habit of first try writing in a genre, where they write a paper with the lack of research about the topic or the type of article that they never read before. Which result in misleading their paper to another direction that instructors don’t want them to be. The authors then, decided they wanted to help students build their skills of being flexible in their writing, and adaptive in many forms of papers that they will encounter in society. In the first part of their article, the authors talk start with understanding genre as how it is not just teaching students about how genre is a set of characteristics that but understand genres in their social functions and be flexible with it. Later on, in the essay is their process of teaching a group of high school students how to use genre as a tool to help them become a more sufficient writer and analyzer.

I think this article is best match with Bazerman article. I can see that both articles talk about genre and its value. They both agree on the deeper definition of genre which is based on social contexts and situation that each person faced in their discourse community. These articles helped me learned about genre definition not just as fixed characteristics that people usually follow but more about the adaption of a particular situation and how you response to it using genre.

Texting is the downfall of the young generation’s minds and linguistic skills. This misconception drives the older generation mad due to their inability to get outside their stubbornness to allow the adaptations to the times. My reasons for researching this topic are to understand the way this community conducts itself and presents its rhetoric. Being able to control your rhetoric and apply it to your work is something essential when it comes to a community trying to make a claim. My discourse community focuses on the effects of texting on our youth. There is a scientific journal called PLoS One where there are articles that cover the effects that texting has on younger generations. My discourse community is simply trying to address the misconceived notions that revolve around the topic of texting. Most people believe that texting ruins our linguistic skills when it comes to writing, speech, and social situations. However, my discourse community wants to make it clear that this is a normal part of the evolution of language and is the reason why language to this day still thrives due to its ability to adapt. My sources use various tactics to relate to their projected audience, including, visual rhetoric, injecting a pathos into their writings, and finally adding an ethos to persuade the audience with facts.

My first source by John Mcwhorter, is a Ted Talk expressing his view on the stigma that affects our older generation. He takes the stance that texting is advancing language rather than the preconceived notion that it’s destroying it. Mcwhorter uses examples from previous generations to try and make his audience see that they aren’t the first generation to have the same concerns. He uses these examples to make the audience self-reflect, but at the same time allows him to connect with his audience and claim to be just like them. The goal of his presentation is to show the audience the errors in their mindsets and try to make them adopt his way of thinking. His point of view on texting and his expertise allow him to persuade his audience as well as make the audience see him as a reliable source. His visual rhetoric also allows for the connection between him and the audience because he is dressed casually just like an average blue/white collared worker. These minor details enable him to persuade his audience and build a connection with them to solidify his claim.

The article written in English Live uses a comedic approach to start the reader off with a connection to the article. It then makes an argument for both sides of the debate and shows the differences in opinion. On top of that, it also acts as a pros and cons to texting and the effects it has. The article was meant to target the older generation and with that in mind, the way the article starts is key to its success. The exaggeration of the abbreviations at the start of the article shows how comedic texting can be. This makes the audience not take it seriously which is the goal of the article. Texting shouldn’t be something that’s taken so seriously, but rather taken in a comedic way where it’s just people talking and not writing deliberate forms of writing.

Both articles inject pathos through comedy to show their audience that texting shouldn’t be taken so seriously. Texting is simply a new form of communication that was enabled through technology and the evolution of our language. Another aspect of the two articles is that both make it so that they include facts and examples to show why their point is valid and correct. The stance that these articles take is what makes their entire argument come together and what enables them to use tactics that involve their rhetoric. Taking a stance against the common stigma brings them attention and the increased attention also allows for their ideals to be heard by a larger mass of people. Any subject that’s against the norm causes it to become looked at more even if it’s not in a positive light. Being able to take that attention and transform it into an experience for the audience enables them to persuade and show why their mindsets should be adopted by their audiences. Both articles try to show the reasons why texting is not destroying language and the beneficial outcomes that come from texting.

In conclusion, the way these articles present their argument and the way that they connect with their audiences allows them to highlight the misconceptions that revolve around texting. The rhetoric presented by both articles is similar in a way and expresses the way that this group comes together to push the same point. Although both sources have different levels of credibility the endpoint is the same whether it’s a Ted Talk from a scholar linguist like McWhorter or a writer for English Live. It’s important to understand that the constant bashing about texting and its negative effects is simply the ignorant words of the older generation who doesn’t fully understand it due to it being the youth’s evolution and not their own.

My analysis is on the misconceptions of texting and the projected audience that I am trying to convince is the older generation. I am showing how my sources use rhetoric such as pathos and ethos to convince their audiences that the stigma that they all believe in is misguided and wrong. My rhetorical situation is to state the ways that these articles support my thesis and to use ethos to show my readers why these sources are key to understanding my argument. Showing the techniques used by this group allows the readers to self-reflect and allows them to get out of their ignorance. My issue with my draft is that I believe that I may have messed up with my punctuation especially when it comes to my commas. Another concern that I have is that I want my analysis to appeal to an older generation and the fact that I’m of the younger generation creates a barrier where I can only relate to them so much. I’d like to know if my draft possesses good rhetoric to connect with my projected audience while at the same time making it clear that I am of the younger generation for credibility purposes. The only sources I have is about older generations connecting and I want my analysis to have a younger generation member connect to an older one to diminish the gap between our mindsets.

Sources:

1. “The Influence of Texting Language on Grammar and Executive Functions in Primary School Children.” PloS One, Public Library of Science, 31 Mar. 2016, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4816572/ (Links to an external site.)
2. McWhorter, John. “Transcript of ‘Txtng Is Killing Language. JK!!!’.” TED, https://www.ted.com/talks/john_mcwhorter_txtng_is_killing_language_jk/transcript?language=en.
3. “Is Text Messaging Ruining the English Language?” EF English Live, 30 July 2019, https://englishlive.ef.com/blog/english-in-the-real-world/is-text-messaging-ruining-the-english-language/.

Contemporary Genre Theories (ESP, New Rhetoric, SFL)

The term comes from the French (and originally Latin) word for ‘kind’ or ‘class’ and appeared in rhetoric, literary theory, media theory, and more recently in linguistics as referring to a distinctive type of ‘text’. Different approaches applied in order to form a basis for defining genres.

Vandenberg provides the following definitions of genre as these appear across many different disciplines, for example:

Hyon (1996) stresses that there are three main approaches to genre in applied linguistics. The three schools are English for Special Purposes (ESP), the North American New Rhetoric and the Systemic Functional Linguistics approach (SFL).

Swales (1981, 1990) studied the discourse structure and linguistic features of scientific research articles, thus he is deemed as the founder of ESP genre analysis. In the ESP realm, discourse structures are usually described in terms of moves, and communicative purpose is given an important role. Hymes (1972) was the first who developed the concept of a ‘communicative event’ and its importance lies in the fact that it can be used to deal with the communicative reality of professional contexts. Therefore, a genre (Swales, 1990, p.58) is defined as “a class of communicative events, the members of which share some set of communicative purposes”. Swales (1990, p.58) further states “these purposes are recognised by the expert members of the parent discourse community, and therefore constitute the rationale for the genre”.

Swales did not father the notion of ‘discourse community’, but he states that it is the “parent of genre” (Swales (1990, p.58). Although he acknowledges the contribution of various social constructionist theorists to the formation of the said notion (for example, Wittgenstein, Kuhn, Perelman Rorty, Porter, Geertz), he endorses the definition given by Herzberg, (1986, p.1, as cited in Swales, 1990, p.21) where “language use in a group is a form of social behaviour”.

Swales is of the opinion that a discourse community is considered as a sociorhetorical unit comprising of people who share objectives where socialization and solidarity are not required. According to Swales (1990, p.24), a discourse community “recruits its members by persuasion, training or relevant qualification”. He proposed (1990, 24-27) six defining characteristics for identifying a discourse community, i.e., members’ common public goals; mechanisms of intercommunication; a participatory mechanism for exchanging information and feedback; use of genres to further the community’s aims; specific lexis; members possessing relevant expertise. His definition has been criticised, for example, Mauranen (1993) argued that Swales’ definition of discourse communities is restrictive because it excludes academic and scientific communities, since only individual disciplines might meet all or some of these criteria (Martines, 2003-4).

The modern ESP approach to genre is more pragmatic than theory- centred. As Alyousef & Alyahya (2018) observe, ESP classifies genres as the formal properties and the communicative purposes of both spoken and written texts within the social context.

Swales’ definition is influenced by New Rhetoric Genre theory. He (1990, p.58) defined genre as “a constitutive aspect of specialised languages”. In shaping this definition, he combined rhetoric and linguistics. His approach to genre theory, as Devitt (2015) suggests, is “highly rhetorical, involving such classically rhetorical concepts as purpose, audience, and means”.

The New Rhetorical approach qualifies genre studies as discourses which are socially motivated, generated, and constrained (Coe & Freedman, 1998, p. 137) thus enabling us to define “the possibilities of meaning in discourse” (Hanks, 1987, p. 670). Therefore, the distinguishing feature of the new theory is that a discourse should be judged on what it does (Coe & Freedman, 1998; Coe, Lingard, & Teslenko, 2002a). In other words, the New Rhetorical theory treats genre “as typified social action rather than as conventional formulas” (Devitt, 2000, p. 697).

According to Miller (1984/1994a, p. 37), who is considered as the most influential figure with regard to the new rhetoric approach, genre is a rhetorical means which mediates “private intentions and social exigence; it motivates by connecting the private with the public, the singular with recurrent.” The development of ‘recognizable genres’ assists rhetors with “the recognition of situations as alike as recurrent” (Bazerman, 1997, p. 22). The rhetorical situation is seen as socially constructed and as Artemeva (2004, p.8) emphasised, by situating exigencies within the social context, Miller’s definition considers genre as extending beyond regularities in textual features. Exigence is not only part of our experience and our concept of a recurring situation but also part of our response to the situation (Bawarshi, 2000). In plain words, exigence is a moment in which something happened or did not happen and compelled a person to speak or write.

In summary, according to Miller (1984/1994), a genre can be understood as a frequently repeated social action by an individual social actor or group of actors for fulfilling their rhetorical purpose, is rule-governed, is distinguishable from form, in the sense that form is more general than genre, genre is a pattern of language use, i.e. genre shapes the culture. Therefore, human action, whether symbolic or otherwise, “is interpretable only against a context of situation and through the attributing of motives” (Miller, 1984/1994, p.24).

Pare & Smart (1994, p.147) further elaborated on Bazerman,’s theory (who stressed that genres are sets of shared expectations among both readers and writers) by defining genre as a distinctive profile of regularities across four dimensions: a set of texts, the composing processes involved in creating these texts, the reading practices used to interpret the texts, and the social roles performed by writers and readers (Artemeva & Myles, 2015).

Berkenkotter & Huckin (1995) also contributed to the new rhetorical approach by introducing a sociocognitive aspect of genre. They suggested five principles that constitute a theoretical framework for genre study. The first one is that genres are dynamic rhetorical forms subjected to changes when the discourse community and its members’ perceptions of the world change as well. The second principle is ‘situatedness’, meaning that genre is a form of ‘situated cognition’ in the sense that knowledge is embedded in communicative activities of daily and professional life. The third principle states that genre knowledge includes both form and content. The fourth principle is called duality of structure, i.e. genres constitute and reproduce social structures and the fifth principle is called ‘community ownership’ and states that it is genre conventions that indicate a discourse community’s norms, epistemology, ideology and social ontology.

The New Rhetoric School, which is more ideological, explores the sociocultural aspects of genres and sees them from the perspective of literary theories rather than linguistic ones. According to Alyousef & Alyahya (2018, p.93), “genres include members who have values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviours”.

The Systemic Functional Linguistics approach (SFL) was developed by Halliday during the 1960s in the UK and then in Australia (Almurashi, (2016)). In SFL, a text is analyzed in four ways: Context, Semantics, Lexico-grammar, and Phonology. Context is integral to the overall process of making meaning. In fact, when language occurs in a context, it will relate to or is linked to the Context of Culture (genres) and the Context of Situation (register) (Matthiessen & Halliday 1997). Martin (1985, p. 25) defines genres as a “staged, goal-oriented, purposeful activity in which speakers engage as members of our culture”. There are thus as many different genres as there are recognizable activity types in a culture.

In SFL the use of language is a social semiotic, in the sense that language is a meaning-making system (Thompson 1990). The semiotic nature of language allows for language to be meaning creating. Halliday (1998, p.2) states that language is “the only semiotic system that embodies all human experience and all human relationships.” To sum up, the forms of language are shaped by key features of the context of situation which can be described in terms of register variables.

According to Halliday’s model concerning the context of situation, the aspects of the context relate intimately to the language used to create text, in terms of three important strands (Matthiessen & Halliday, 1997). These are Field, Tenor and Mode (Halliday 1978). Field is the area of external reality with which the text deals. Tenor is the relationships between those participating in the linguistic act and Mode is the means through which the communication takes place.

The SFL model is construed in terms of three metafunctions, i.e. Mood (interpersonal), Transitivity (ideational), and Theme (textual) which act simultaneously and systematically not distinctly or independently in a text. The ideational, interpersonal and textual metafunctions (Eggins, 1994) are reflected in a huge system network of meaning potentials including subnetworks of Transitivity, Thing, and Quality with specific set of semantic features for an utterance production (Haratyan, 2011).

Eggins (1994, p.78) relates genre, register and language as follows: 1) Language is used with a function or purpose, and this use is related to a given situation and a specific culture. 2) The context of culture (genre) is more abstract, more general, than the context of situation (register). 3) Genres are realised through languages, and this process of realising genres in language is mediated through the realization of register.

For Systemicists, genre is a schematic unit characterised by social conventions. The schematic structure of a text is the crucial factor which identifies that it belongs to a particular genre. There are elements of schematic structure that are defining of a genre (i.e. obligatory elements) and others that are optional. A genre is thus defined in terms of its obligatory elements of schematic structure and variants of a genre (i.e. subgenres) are those texts in which the obligatory schematic structure elements are realised together with optional elements (Martines, 2003-4). According to Hasan (1996, p. 54), Placement, Finale and Moral are optional elements, whereas Initiating Event, Sequent Event and Final Event are obligatory. By identifying the obligatory and optional elements in the text, we are able to explore, in terms of genre, what are their variable and invariable properties.

For the Systemicists, genre can be defined in terms of linguistic properties alone. However, Paltridge (1997a, p. 104) is of the opinion that the structure of a text is not genre defining, since it is not the presence of particular discourse structures alone which leads to the recognition of a text as an instance of a genre, but rather “the co-occurrence and interaction of each aspect of discourse structure with other components of interactional and conceptual frames in their entirely”. Paltridge thus sees genre assignment on the basis of both pragmatic and perceptual conditions (Martines, 2003-4).

To sum up, Systemacists’ major contribution to the genre theory was the introduction of the Generic Structure Potential (GSP) (Hasan 1996; Halliday & Hasan 1985), which is the above mentioned analytical framework that allows us to identify the possibilities of instantiation of any genre. Moreover, SFL takes a linguistic approach towards genre by applying functional grammar and discourse theories. The author’s/speaker’s social purposes affect the linguistic choices made.

Bhatia (1993, 2004) bridges the gap between New Rhetoric and SFL by proposing a multi-perspective four-space model of discourse analysis (2002 and 2004). Bhatia’s interest is on professional discourse analysis, in which discourse, as defined within this context, is ‘an instance of the use of written language to communicate meaning in particular context, irrespective of any particular framework for analysis’ (Bhatia, 2004, p.18). Therefore, as Wan, Fakhruddin & Hassan (2015) suggest, Bhatia’s model is based on textual, tactical, professional and social spaces. They state that “These spaces represent the overlapping grounds where discourses operate within and across these spaces from different perspectives” (ibid, p.59). Therefore Bhatia’s pattern commences with a textual analysis and extends to the socio-cognitive and socio-critical space.

Both SFL and ESP approach the study of genre from the linguistic perspective, however, SFL sees genre from a cultural point of view, which is at a macro level (explanations, recounts, reports) while ESP, according to Wan, Fakhruddin & Hassan (2015, p.65) “locates genre within the context defined by discourse communities (research articles, legislative documents, job application letters)”. ESP treats genres as communicative tools situated within social contexts, while RGS sees genres as sociological concepts which include textual and social ways of knowledge, being and interacting in particular contexts (Bawarshi & Reiff, 2010).

However, these theories have been widely criticised. First of all, it is genre’s definition that is problematic. According to Feuer (1992, p.144), “A genre is ultimately an abstract conception rather than something that exists empirically in the world”, therefore, genre cannot be accurately defined. As Chandler (1997) suggests, what meaning a theorist attributes to genre, for another may be sub-genre or even super-genre. Another problem is who defines what genre is and who determines the shape of genres. Is it the author, the reader or the text itself? According to Rosmarin (1985), none of them, it is the critic instead. Genre is a critical tool rather than a language-making tool; it is not an operational tool either. However, to rhetoricians it is the author and reader those who define and determine the conceptual shape of genres (Devitt, 2000).

Another problem is that genres may constrain and inhibit authorial creativity but contemporary theorists reject this view (Fowler 1982), in the sense that authors “can rely on readers already having knowledge and expectations about works within a genre” (Chandler, 1997), although some theorists are of the opinion that readers consume generic texts passively, owing to the facts that they are aware of the generic conventions and others, such as Knight (1994), believe that genres provide a framework that helps readers to identify, select and interpret texts, hence it is an active process for readers.

However, as Artemeva & Myles (2015) state, in the recent years genre researchers are of the opinion that a combination of these approaches could be productive in terms of genre research and pedagogy. More particularly, by combining ESP and RSG, since they share the same view of genre as the social practice of a community, the outcome would be the expansion of the fundamental views on genre and the ways in which they are studied and researched.

In Diane Guerrero’s article “My Parents Were Deported” she argues that those who have had their parents deported often go through a tough time in their life. She states that “Children who grow up separated from their families often end up in foster care, or worse, in the juvenile justice system…” (Guerrero 488). Using language and a common goal to connect with her audience who, like me have had their parent(s) deported, she is able to put herself into a position where she can be a part of those communities with people alike .This is important because throughout her article she explains how some people whose parents are taken away by deportation can have a negative impact on their life. Guerrero’s use of persuasive devices like ethos, pathos, logos and her uses of causal and factual classes of arguments not only let her connect with her audience but helps her write a logical argument. Although Guerrero uses persuasive devices and classes of arguments in her writing, her writing can be seen to have comparison to what Don Murray, John Swales, James Gee, and Keith Grant-Davie say about someone’s language and writing and how that can make them apart of a discourse community.

First, Guerrero who has firsthand experience with her parents and other family members being deported gives her credibility to connect with her audience. Guerrero states that “I am a citizen daughter of immigrant parents who were deported when I was 14” (487). she gives herself credibility by saying that she too has gone through her family members being deported which gives her audience the idea that she knows the struggle and knows what she is talking about. In other words, her ethos suggest that she is like other people who have had their family deported. This gives her audience a sense that they are not in this alone and that someone is out there in the world trying to better the life of people who also have experienced this traumatic life experience of loved ones being deported and is bringing awareness to the issue.

In fact, I would argue that Guerrero’s writing can relate to what Don Murray says in that “all writing is autobiographical”. Murray says “we are autobiographical in the way we write…my voice is a product of Scottish genes and a Yankee environment… (67). Guerrero whose writing is a product of her parents being deported uses specific language like “I am a citizen daughter of immigrant parents who were deported…” through her experience of her parents deportation she bring that forth into her writing and is able to easily relate to her audience. Through this she is able to further her reach to a younger audience and further credibility.

Guerrero then uses pathos to engage with her audience emotionally. She states that “…my childhood was haunted by the fear that they would be deported” (487) showing that she was always is constant fear that she would come home to an empty house. She then adds that “My family and I worked very hard to keep our relationship strong, but too—short phone calls and the annual summer visit I made to Columbia didn’t suffice” (487). Her writing makes the audience think that what if that was them, what if they were only able to see their loved ones during the summer and phone call where shortened, she makes those who are reading feel sympathetic for those in that position. Guerrero continues the use of pathos when she notes that “And though I was surrounded by people who cares about me, part of me ached with every accomplishment because my parents weren’t there to share my joy” (487). She brings attention to the fact that although she is accomplishing once in a lifetime events, they all felt worthless because the people who she wanted to share that feeling of worth with is not with her or even witnessing it. In her writing Guerrero thoroughly considers her audience by showing some feeling and emotion on how she felt at that time for those who might now have gone through the same thing. She gives off strong use of emotion with words like “ached” and “haunted” to give off the message she intends to send which is the state of which people go through as they have their family members taken away from them.

Additionally, we can see that Guerrero uses what John Swales defines as a characteristic of a discourse community. Guerrero engages with her audience through the use of “specific lexis” or language used in a discourse community. Her usage of specific word like “ached” and “haunted” shows that she knows how it feels to be living in constant fear and pain. Doing this she shows how she belongs to a discourse community. Her use of these words further prove that she knows what it feels like to have your parents deported or knowing that it’s a possibility any day. Further, we can see that Guerrero’s article can also refer to what James Gee describes as an “identity kit”. Gee says that “a discourse is a sort of identity kit which comes complete with the appropriate costume and instructions on how to act, talk and often write… (7). Through her use of specific words, Guerrero is able to connect with those in her audience who have experienced the same as her and has become a part of their “identity”.

Secondly this article has a kairotic moment for immigrants. She writes this article during the time President Obama was in office. She writes the article at a time when talk about immigration is at its highest. She even writes “President Obama has promised to act on providing deportation relief for families across the country, and I would urge him to do so quickly” (488). By stating that President Obama has promised relief to families, she gives her audience a motive to hold President Obama somewhat accountable if he does not. Therefore, Guerrero argues, “Keeping families together is a core American value” (488). Here Guerrero appeals to her readers, though her audience has now broadened from immigrants and their families to people who appreciate American values and want to keep families together. This allows Guerrero to paint a bigger picture and point out that the deportation of families is not only tearing families apart but also going against the American core value

In the same way, Guerrero uses another characteristic of a discourse community that John Swales describes as a “common public goal”. Swales says, “In some instances, but not in many, the goals may be high level or abstract” (471). Guerrero sets a goal for the American people that there needs to be change on how immigrants are represented. Although this may be a tough goal to accomplish Guerrero tries to get the attention of President Obama to act quickly on the situation. In doing so Guerrero has now set constraints for her writing. Keith Grant-Davie describes a constraint as ‘persons, events, objects, and relations which are parts of the situation because they have the power to constrain decision and action needed to modify the exigence” (266). Since Guerrero has addressed the President and Congress, they now are a part of this common goal she has asked needs to be fixed, they now too have the power to help with the goal or not. Likewise, with Gee’s “identity kit”, since she is addressing the President and Congress, she needs to have a sense of formality in her writing so they can recognize her problem.

In addition to using persuasive device, Guerrero also uses causal and factual classes of arguments to further her argument about the impact of deportation. Guerrero writes that “Children who grow up separated from their families often end up in foster care, or worse, in the juvenile justice system…” (Guerrero 488). She states that children who may have their parents taken away may cause them to make bad choices or end up with a family who really does not care for them. Guerrero also uses a factual class of argument when she observes that President Obama “…promised to act on providing deportation relief for families across the country, and I would urge him to do so quickly” (Guerrero 488). She uses President Obama’s promise to help to show that there is proof of people trying to help and that there is discussion about deportation to further her argument that deportation is not only something she faced, but a problem thousands of people have also faced across the country.

In the end using ethos, pathos, logos and causal and factual classes of arguments Guerrero develops a logical argument in her writing. Also, with the use of language and the characteristics of a discourse community, Guerrero is able to put herself into a community of people, like me, who have had their family members deported and have been through the struggle of life. First, we must see that Guerreros own struggle with her family being deported give her credibility. She has gone through the emotion and feeling that comes after the realization knowing that your parents aren’t coming back. She says that her parents were deported when she was just 14 gives her the experience that she knows the feeling of being left alone. Secondly, we see Guerrero use pathos throughout her article to connect with her reader emotionally in her writing. This is important for her audience because not all her audience have probably gone through times like these, but it gives them an insight of what people might have gone through or were feeling at that time. The use of classes of arguments further her writing and connect with the audience and create an argument that the separation of families is against core American values. Guerrero also encourages other to do more about separating families by saying “…it’s not just in the interest of immigrants…it’s in the interest of all Americans” (488). Finally Guerrero is able to refer to John Swales, James Gee, Don Murray, Keith Grant-Davie to further her credibility and show that she is apart of a discourse community.

Annotated Bibliography: Sources for Research

Genre, as defined by Bazerman (2003) is a “Recognizable, self-reinforcing forms of communication” this mean that there is a feature that everyone can recognize and choose the appropriate ways to response to that situation. This is not the case for teachers that teach high school students about genre based on Whitney, Ridgeman & Masquelier (2011). They mentioned in their article that, “Genre has often been taught as long lists of characteristics that teachers should make explicit for students” (p.526). This mean that high school teachers often teach genre in a method that making genre as a distinct property and they should make it very clear for student what genre of a particular thing should be. The authors agree to the method but also disagree with it by saying to teach students what genre is to make them understand a genre in society’s structure. So, Bazerman and these authors have the same common view of how should be interpret.

Genre exist in everywhere you go and many situations that you’re in and see in every music, movies, games, research, etc. Many researchers have study genre from its definitions to genre convention of specific things such as movie or game trailer, TED Talks, research paper, or difference commercial brands. For example, in Samayoa (2017) research on genre convention of TED Talks, she provided many things that the group that work on recording the show and the presenter have to follow to achieve a successful TED Talk like, presenter have to follow the structure of the argument that the show is trying to argument but also being creative with the presenter answer to be able to produce a diverse and creative TED Talks that still follow the same format. From her research, she can use genre convention to study a discourse community that she has no idea of how it should work and show us that genre is an effective tool to understand a discourse community. Similar to this idea is Devitt, Bawarshi & Reiff (2003) as they said that “genres analysis gives access to the workings of discourse communities in a way that renders the idea of a discourse community a more tangible, helpful concept for teachers, students, and researchers” (p. 550). As I can see from all these researches, I don’t see any research or topic about Doritos’ commercial specifically and its components that made up the genre that the commercial present. Consider there was researches that study about components in advertisement such as humor in advertisement and creativity. In the two article “Level of Creativity and Attitudes toward an Advertisement” by Kim, B. H., & Yu, J. (2015) and “Humor in Advertisement Enhances Product Likin by mere Association” by Strick, M., van Baaren, R.B., Holland, R. W., & van Knippenberg, A. (2009). These two articles discussed about the component of their interested have effect in an ad that similar in my opinion because humor does require a high level of creativity. These two articles also produced the same result as humor and creativity have a positive effect on the customer. However, I think a successful advertisement cannot just rely on the two components that I mentioned above, there is more things that made up an attractive advertisement and it can be discover using genre. So, in this research, I will study Doritos’ commercial and answer my question of how Doritos use genre in an entertainment advertisement.

Primary Source

Andersen, R. (2014, November 17). Doritos Time Machine – Crash the Super Bowl 2014 WINNER OFFICIAL [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-P0Hs0ADJY

This commercial is about a man walking around the street with his bag of Doritos and he saw a child named Jimmy playing with his ‘time machine’ beside his dog. The kid offered the man to get into the machine to go to the future and to do so, he must donate his Doritos chips into the machine which is where the kid took his chips and eat it with his dog. After the kids do some sound effect and motion that show the man that he’s travelling through time. Suddenly, a man which wear the exact outfit as Jimmy come out and kick the kid out of his garden. The man walked out after a dead silent and saw the man, but he thought it was Jimmy when he is old and thought that he’s in the future. I collected this information because it related to the other videos that I found and can compare them together. The things that present in this commercial that I learned from is they use kid in the video to add a little cuteness in the commercial, the first thing that appear in the scene is a man and obviously his Doritos chips so the audience can know what is this commercial trying to sell, I also notice the setting they were in in the video and its, a typically middle class neighborhood, front yard, and inside the ‘Doritos’ time machine’.

This is similar to the 2008 Super Bowl commercial because both is aiming toward a set of audience that they trying to target which is kids and man that watch football. They also have a lot of future to help them achieve their goal in term of deliver the commercial to many kids and adult who watch football as possible. These components can be humor, theme, creativity and originality of their commercial. These factors can have the great impact of attitude toward the brand as well. These commercials help me to understand how the company use genre to help them achieve the purpose of getting as many views as possible.

ClearBroadcasting (2008, February 4). Funny Super Bowl Commercial 2008 – Doritos: “Mouse Trap” [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8qgk5tXuUA

This is a thirty seconds commercial video and it was about a man that trying to lure a mouse with a bag of Doritos. He cut one corner of the chip and put it on in the mouse trap then sit on a chair and silently wait for the mouse to come out. When he about to eat a handful of Doritos chip, a man wearing a mouse costume slammed through the tiny hole where the mouse live and jumped onto the man and start his beating. I collected it because it has a similar component to other related sources that I found. Some future that I recognize in this commercial are the commercial use a middle age man to take the role of the trapper, a little of violent that I think aim towards kids to make them laugh and the video also include some form of animal (event it’s not real) in the commercial. I also notice futures that are in this commercial such as, classical music as a music theme, and very dark background because it take place in a small and dark room which make it have a little of mystery into it and the part where the human mouse jump out is a jump scare and funny at the same time.

This relate to the 2014 Super Bowl Doritos commercial because these two commercials have the same time length, they both present a bag of Doritos, a middle age man that both a subject to the humor, and an animal in the commercial. So, I can tell that most the two commercial is aiming toward a specific audience and it is children and man between the age of 18 to 26. This commercial help me learn that there is a specific audience that the commercial is aiming at.

Flowers, V. (2013, February 3). 2013 SuperBowl XLVII Doritos Goat 4 Sale Commercial [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoM6IhfY8No

This commercial is about the man and his goat that he bought it from an injured guy that he met when walking with the Doritos bag in his hand. Both the goat and its owner shared a common thing of eating Doritos every time but one day, the owner is frustrated with the sound that the goat made when chewing those chips and after many days pass, he decided to hide all the Doritos chips from the goat. The goat after finding out that all the chips are gone, turned into mad animal and start breaking everything in the house and break into the owner’s room where he is eating his chips and writing a “GOAT FOR SALE” board. The goat starts closing the door and that is the end of the video. I collected this video because I notice that they used animal in there commercial very often like other commercial they made in the pass like the one that related to this video that I will talk about below. Some futures that I’ve noticed in this video are, animal, middle aged man, bright theme, a lot of bags of Doritos, and a ridiculous reaction from the animal and it action that made the video a humor commercial.

I think this is the most similar to the break room ostrich Super Bowl 2013 commercial because both share many similar things like humor at the end of each video, an animals, middle aged man, relationship between human and animal like friends and co-worker, in both videos, they also use a lot of Doritos bags to highlight the main product that they trying sell and white theme to compliment their products. This help me informed that the company use a specific type of theme and color to complement their product’s color to give it more attention.

FUGO Studios (2013, November 21). Breakroom Ostrich – Doritos Crash the Super Bowl [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoANeCLWOjI

The first observation that I have on this video is this is a thirty seconds video. It starts with a boss having two of his employees with him in the room. The boss starts to talk about how upset he is because someone had eaten all the Doritos inside the breakroom and make a big mess. Then he told the two employees, which is a person and an ostrich that the boss narrowed down to those two. After he said that, the ad shows the moment when the human was in the break room and eating Doritos and got caught by the ostrich. They make eye contact then the ostrich slowly backed away. Then, we back to the boss’s room and the person that ate the Doritos said, “Obviously it was the ostrich, right?” then, the ostrich has a long gasp and that was the end of the advertisement. I collected it because it relates with other videos that I found above in term of theme work. I noticed how they use animal with their human like reaction in the video to add humor into the ad.

I think this video is structure the same as the other three videos like time length, which mostly about thirty seconds for all of them but I think the format and story line that this source is most similar to the other source is the Super bowl 2013 Doritos’ commercial. The similar future in these two videos is a lot of Doritos’ chips, a man, an animal that will be the main character in the commercial and some funny action from the animal near the end of the commercial. These two commercials help me learn how the company (Doritos) use genre to deliver humor and persuasion to the audience and affect their attitude toward the product.

Secondary Sources

Bazerman, C. (2003). Speech Acts, Genres, and Activity Systems: How Texts Organize Activity and People. In C. Bazerman & P. Prior (Eds.) What Writing Does and How It Does It: An Introduction to Analyzing Texts and Textual Practices (pp.312-319). Abingdon, UK: Routledge.

In this article, Bazerman (2003) provided the concept and analytical tools to see the work that texts do in living life. The analytical approach in this article is based on these concepts such as, social facts, speech acts, genres, genres systems and activity systems. These concepts are very important because they offer a suggestion of how a person can use text to make new existence of knowledge, relation and meaning. In the article, the author talks about how text can made up reality or facts for people who live in what they expected and in the framework of relation and activity they’ve establish by fitting together in an organized way of life. A good text is the text that create a social fact for its readers, and social fact consisted of social action that being done by language, or speech act. These acts carried form, order and therefore it is classified as genres. All these things combined into genre sets that merge into genre systems as a part of it.

Based on the what the article have informed, I see the relation it has with another article of Whitney, Ridgeman & Masquelier (2011). Both articles talk about genre, in term of defining definition and how it can help to recognize and understand the meaning in society using genre. In Bazerman article, he talks about a football game, you recognize the crowd is cheering on your team and you followed it because you recognize that the thing you should do when you come to a sport event and you suppose to pick one team that you want to support whether because that team is your favorite team or because it’s the team from the school that you go to. Like the article of Whitney, Ridgeman & Masquelier on their interpretation on genre, they talk about how genre is a map to the recurring situation that happened before if you know analyze them. The authors also point out that teacher used to teach students about genre as a characteristic or a fixed structure that the students need to follow which minimized their ideas in their writing. Both these articles help me learn that genre is the tool to help people to find the right way to response base on the recurring situation.

Devitt, A. J., Bawarshi, A., & Reiff, M. J. (2003). Materiality and Genre in the Study of Discourse Communities. College English, 65(5), 541-58. Doi: 10.2307/3594252

In the article “Materiality and Genre in the Study of Discourse Community written by Devitt, Bawarshi & Reiff (2003). These authors are trying to explain using the idea of genre to study a discourse community. The 3 essays demonstrate how the use of genre theory can gain some “insight into teaching, research, and social interaction” (p.542). Their main argument was “material entities” such as studying “academic, professional, or public communities” help us to improve “the idea of a discourse community by giving discipline and focus to the study of the unities of language and society” (p.542). In Devitt’s essay, she points out that there is a separation of members and non-members because there is a language barrier that nonmember got confused when the member of that community use such as in the jury where the author performs her study. While she tries to rewrite another jury instruction specific to nonmember, she also realized that such professional language shield the community and values of its member. Bawarshi argue in her essay that “genres analysis gives access to the workings of discourse communities in a way that renders the idea of a discourse community a more tangible, helpful concept for teachers, students, and researchers” (p. 550). Reiff essay argues about how ethnographic study can make you create a community while you’re learn in a community.

This article is relating to the article that wrote by Samayoa (2017). Both articles focus on using genre to analyze a discourse community of interested. Samayoa study TED Talks which is the community where people come up and share their founding and present it to everyone. She is studying a discourse community where she will have to know the genre convention to have a successful TED Talks and study the thing that usually being discussed in this form. Similar to this, Devitt, Bawashi and Reiff (2003) is focus in the similar idea of using a genre theory to study a discourse community using material entities. These two articles help me understand whether genre convention or materiality and genre can help gain insight to a community that people might not know well enough.

Kim, B. H., & Yu, J. (2015). Level of Creativity and Attitudes toward an Advertisement. Creativity Research Journal, 27(2), 133-138. Doi: 10.1080/10400419.2015.1030302

This article is about how creativity affect consumer decision to buy products. Kim & Yu (2015) conducted a “3*3 experimental method” to answer one out of three of there research question which is “Were there interaction effects of audience members’ roles and advertising creativity levels on attitudes toward the advertised brand?” , “Were there interaction effects caused by individuals’ role as consumers, advertisers, or ad agency professionals and creativity levels inherent in advertisements on attitudes toward the advertisements used in this study?” and “Were there interaction effects based on roles of audience members and advertising creativity levels on attitudes toward the advertised product?” (p.135). The result is different creativity level does cost a significant effect on customer attitude toward the ad as the level of creativity increases and the responded was favorable towards the advertisement. Creativity level has the most influence toward the attitude of the audience. Finally, the last result the third question was they cant measure the interaction effects because of the difference levels of creativity and diverse roles of each individual attitude toward the ad..

I think it relates to the article by Strick, Baaren, Holland and Knippenberg (2009). Because both articles talk about advertisement and they both performed an experience to prove the factor will have effect on the customer reaction toward the presented product. Although these two are study difference things but their components is related as humor required a good level of creativity.

Samayoa, P. (2017). The Extent of Influence that Genre Conventions Have on TED Talks.

This paper is about study TED Talks genre convention and its characteristic, how it work from the past until now as an individual and a team to give out an answer to a rhetorical situation that TED asked? and figure out how does TED Talk presenter can modify their answer to produce a different video that still alike with the other TED Talk typical response. Samayoa (2017) answer to these two questions was TED Talk are arranged as a presentation that provide a unique and creative experience for every presenter. Two focuses that she told in her article that have different genre conventions is “collective TED Talk movement or on the individual formulation of a TED Talk” (p.48). TED Talk that take perspective from the individual as a boundaries and tight set of genre conventions that have to be followed to be able to generate a successful show. So, genre conventions require the presenter to be special in their way of presenting but also ask them to follow a pattern when they get into a specific topic that is in the scope of the TED Talks.

This article is related to Devitt, Bawarshi and Reiff article. Because both articles are basically focus on a specific discourse community and analyze it using genre. For Samayoa, she chooses TED Talks to have a better understanding from the community in term of how they oriented the talk show, what rules do they have to follow, how genre convention have the effect on the show and many components that goes with it. This is similar to Devitt, Bawarshi and Reiff article because they also trying to understand a discourse community through genre theory from academic, research and communication to dig deeper into their discourse. This helps me understand whether genre convention or materiality and genre can help gain insight to a community that people want or need to study.

Strick, M., van Baaren, R.B., Holland, R. W., & van Knippenberg, A. (2009). Humor in Advertisement Enhances Product Likin by mere Association. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 15(1), 35-45. Doi: 10.1037/a0014812

This article written by Strick, Barren, Holland & van Knippenberg (2009) talks about how humor in advertisement, how its effects consumer’s attitude toward the product and observe the relation between humor with product choice. The result from three experiences show that there was a improve in evaluation of product that goes with humor. These evaluation proof that there is a relationship between humor and product choice. However, products that have humor feature tend to be less recognize than the control products because humor and product evaluation with product choice tend to be “dissociated from the accessibility of the product in memory” (p.35).

This article relates to the other article of Kim & Ju (2015). Both articles talk about how one key element have the affect on the costumer attitude toward the product. For example, with Kim & Yu article, they talk about how creativity in an advertisement can improve attitude of customer in a positive way as the level of creativity increases. Similar to the article that I’ve summarize above, they (the authors) also talk about how one element have an impact on the customer on their attitude toward the product, but the different in here is that they study humor instead of creativity like the other, but I think these two are mostly similar as humor mostly require creativity into it to make that humor factor. These two articles provided me how humor and creativity affect the attitude of customer toward the product through ads.

Whitney, A. E., Ridgeman, M., & Masquelier, G. (2011). Beyond “Is This OK?”: High School Writers Building Understandings of Genre. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 54(7), 525-533. Doi: 10.1598/jaal.54.7.6

This article is about the three authors who have experienced teach English at high school noticed that students have the habit of first try writing in a genre, where they write a paper with the lack of research about the topic or the type of article that they never read before. Which result in misleading their paper to another direction that instructors don’t want them to be. The authors then, decided they wanted to help students build their skills of being flexible in their writing, and adaptive in many forms of papers that they will encounter in society. In the first part of their article, the authors talk start with understanding genre as how it is not just teaching students about how genre is a set of characteristics that but understand genres in their social functions and be flexible with it. Later on, in the essay is their process of teaching a group of high school students how to use genre as a tool to help them become a more sufficient writer and analyzer.

I think this article is best match with Bazerman article. I can see that both articles talk about genre and its value. They both agree on the deeper definition of genre which is based on social contexts and situation that each person faced in their discourse community. These articles helped me learned about genre definition not just as fixed characteristics that people usually follow but more about the adaption of a particular situation and how you response to it using genre.