Homework UWRT 1102

February 1, 2016
Dirk and Snodgrass
In her piece, Kerry Dirk explains that your knowledge of genres must go much
deeper than simply knowing the different types. In order to make your writing
successful and effective, you first need to know what reaction you are trying to elicit
and from there, decide which type of genre will result in that action. She states,
Knowing what a genre is used for can help people to accomplish goals. She also
explains that a new action requires a response, so someone must create that first
response. After that, when the situation occurs again, another person can use the
first response as a source for the second and so on. Once a genre has been created,
audience will already know what to expect from that genre by basing it off previous
situations. Dirk quotes Miller when she says, all genres matter because they shape
our everyday lives. When we study genres and observe what type of reaction they
result in, we can then grow in our writing and see how specific choices we make
every day fall into a specific genre due to the response we get from our actions.
Dirk also goes on to say that rules change as the genre changes and an important
factor that contributes to the changing rules is location. Dirk quotes Devitt when she
says, Location is surely among the situational elements that lead to expected
genres and to adaptations of those genres in particular situations. In other words, it
is important to recognize shifts in locations in order to adapt to the rules require for
a genre in that location. For example, a research paper in a science class will have a
different set of rules than a research paper in an art class. Dirk ends her piece by
saying, Learning about genres and how they function is more important than
mastering one particular genre; it is tis knowledge that helps us to recognize and to
determine appropriate responses to different situations.
Snodgrass writes a creative obituary about the classic 5-paragraph essay. He
explains that his relationship with the 5-paragraph essay began young, when all
that was expected from him was to show that he can correctly follow the format.
He said that if I followed those guidelines I would be guaranteed a good grade.
Then, as he got older, the 5-paragraph essay began incorporating more details and
became more than just a simple introduction, 3 body paragraphs, and a conclusion.
The introduction and conclusion both had specific ideas they needed to incorporate
while the body paragraphs backed up these ideas. Then, as he went into senior year
and college, Snodgrass was introduced to creative writing and the concept of a 5paragraph essay died.