Genres in Our Lives We encounter genres every day. Some genres are used primarily to maintain social relations: thank you notes, holiday letters, birthday cards, and social media updates are all examples of these. Other genres are used to carry out transactions. For example, we use restaurant menus to display information about what a restaurant or cafe sells, giving customers details about what they can order and how much it costs. In workplaces, we find genres like employee memos, paycheck stubs, schedules, or safety guidelines; these genres help organize work and keep an organization functioning smoothly. Activity: Identifying Genres In this Learning Activity, you will explore the genres that you use to carry out various activities in your life. Part I: Create a table (like the one below), listing the genres that you regularly encounter in different areas of your life. Write down as many as you can think of. After each write in parentheses the language(s) that you use for this genre. Personal Transactional Work Hobby/Leisure Travel Are there any genres that your classmates are familiar with but you have never seen? How do your experiences with different genres compare? Which genres do you use in which languages? Part II: Once you start thinking of texts in terms of genre, you will find genres everywhere! In fact, if you look around, you will see genres lurking all around your university campus. On your own or with a partner, find examples of genres in the categories listed below. Locate at least one example from each category: ● An informational flyer or poster for a campus organization ● A course description flyer ● A building sign ● A sign posting an instructor’s office hours (usually found on the instructor’s door) © University of Arizona Writing Program ● ● A restaurant menu A faculty member’s website You can collect a physical sample of the genre or take a photo of it to bring to class. There is one limitation though: all of the samples that you find must be on your local university or the UA micro-campus campus or website! Bring your examples to class for discussion. What similarities and differences do you see across the samples? Why do you think those differences occur? Within one of the categories, discuss which examples you think were most and least effective. Do you agree with your classmates? If not, why do you think you have different views about the texts’ effectiveness? © University of Arizona Writing Program
