Project 1: Genre Analysis

Pick a genre that you are interested in and would like to further explore. This will need to be a written genre (e.g. you cannot look at YouTube videos for this assignment). 

Also, make sure that this genre will be something you can reasonably analyze for this assignment. For example, looking at mystery novels would require you to read (and reread) multiple mystery novels for this assignment, so that genre is too long to be able to use for this assignment. Conversely, something like Instagram posts will likely not have enough writing to be able to do a deep analysis. 

Some Possible Genres

online news articles, college syllabi, biology (or other science) lab reports, food blogs, travel blogs, fashion blogs, professional emails, cover letters, text messages*, math (or psychology/sociology/history/etc.) textbook chapters**, restaurant websites, sports articles, or magazine articles.

This is not an exhaustive list; any written genre that you are interested in can be used as long as there is enough content to analyze (for example, looking at traffic signs will likely be difficult, if not impossible, since there is very little writing involved).

Note: Assignment sheets for college/high school cannot be chosen because I will be using that genre as an example throughout this paper.

Finding Samples

The samples are examples of that genre that exist in the real world. Depending on the genre, you might find these samples in local newspapers, online, at your workplace, or from friends or family.

For example, if you choose professional email as your genre, you will need to find 3-5 professional emails written by different people (ideally in different environments/businesses) to use as your samples.

These should be actual emails, not articles or how-to guides on writing emails. If you don’t have access to professional emails, yourself, you can try using Google/search to find some samples. Search terms like “professional email example” often work well. You also may want to go to image search because sometimes shorter genres can be found as screenshots with similar search terms.

Examples:

• If you choose sports articles as your genre, you would need to find 3-5 professionally written sports articles from online or in-print newspapers (either is fine) to use as your samples. You should always make sure that they are written by different authors to ensure that you are getting a broad sample.

• If you choose a type of blog, like food blog articles, then you’ll want to find several food blogs and then you’ll choose one article from each blog/site to use as your sample.

• If you choose something that is a smaller genre, like amateur movie reviews, then you will need 8-10 samples. As long as you find different authors, some of the genres samples can be from the same website.

• For example, if you were looking at amateur movie reviews, you could choose several from Rotten Tomatoes, several off Amazon (DVD or prime section), and several off of another website. Just make sure you have a good balance.

Annotating the Samples

To annotate the samples, you have a few options for how to do this:

I. Printing the samples:

1. 1. Print the samples.

   2. Leave your annotations (notes) directly on the paper or use sticky notes.

   3. Then, take photos of the annotations/samples and upload them into your Project 1 folder.

II. Create a PDF and annotate directly in Google Drive

1. Pull up the sample of your genre on your computer. 

2. Go to File > Print (or CTL + P on a Windows computer, CMD + P on a Mac)

3. Use the comment feature in Google Drive to highlight areas of your samples and leave notes. 

The samples should be annotated to point out the conventions of the genre and the rhetorical situation. Use the Genre Analysis handout in your ENGL 1180 Reader to see an example and some of the things you can look for. 

Due Date

These will be due before you write the essay for Project 1. See the class calendar or the schedule on the syllabus for the due date. 

Length: 3-4 pages (1000-1300 words)
Genre: Analytical Essay

Prompt

Write an essay about your genre that analyzes the genre that you choose, including some of the most significant conventions of this genre and the typical rhetorical situation, such as audience, speaker, and purpose. 

For example, if you chose text messaging as your genre, you will write a paper about text messages, exploring some of the major conventions and rhetorical situation of the genre. One paragraph might be on how punctuation is used in text messaging, another paragraph might be about length and how people shorten messages (or when/if they shorten messages), another paragraph might be how people text differently with different audiences, etc. 

The essay should include...

1. An introduction and conclusion.

2. Main ideas organized into separate paragraphs

3. At least several significant conventions of the genre (think about the ones that are the most important for that genre)

4. Examples from your annotated genre samples to support your analysis. 

Some tips:

• Do not just list all the conventions in one paragraph.

• Consider which conventions and parts of the rhetorical situation are the most significant and use those as the main points of your paper. 

Write the essay as would be expected for an academic essay (i.e. have an introduction and conclusion, use topic sentences and body paragraphs. Stick to one controlling/main idea per paragraph. Use evidence from your genre samples throughout to support your points.

Important Note: There should be no secondary research outside of the genre samples used for this assignment (e.g. no dictionary definitions, no infomation from Wikipedia pages or articles written on how to write that genre). 

You will be working in your teams to review each others’ papers and give one another feedback. If your team has two or fewer members present today, please let me know and I’ll combine you with another team. 

To start, bring up your paper on the computer in Google Drive. Then, everyone will rotate computers to give someone else on your team a peer review. Once you are done with Round One, you can switch again for round two. You only need to review two papers today (so, in a team of four, everyone won’t read everyone’s papers).  

Instructions

• Read the entire draft.

• Keep your tone positive and make suggestions for the other student (see "In-Class Peer Review" reading for more on this). 

• Use complete sentences and specific examples from the rough draft to clarify what you are referring to. Do not address the spelling, punctuation, grammar, or mechanics. 

• At the end of the paper, answer the following questions. (You can use the numbers to organize your points). 

  • 1. What genre is this author writing about? 

    2. Does the draft cover the conventions well enough that you would know what is required of writing in this genre if you were unfamiliar with it? 

    3. Are specific examples used from the sample genres to support the points being made throughout the essay? 

    4. What is one area that could use improvement?  This should be a HOC or MOC (no commenting on grammar!). This response should be 3-4 sentences in length. Be specific and use an example. 

    5. What is a second area that could use improvement? Try to find another HOC or MOC, but if there is a grammar “trend” that could use work (like run-on sentences that are confusing) you may comment on this here. Be specific and use an example. 

    6. What is one thing that the author is doing well? 

Project 1 Reminders

If you are planning on taking a Late Freebie on Project 1, you are required to make note of that in your Project 1 folder on Google Drive by renaming your Project 1 folder to “Project 1--Late Freebie.”

Required length:  300 words (~ 1 pg.)
Genre: Letter
Audience: Your professor (me)

For each paper, you will write a one to two-page reflection letter looking at the process you used to write the paper and reflecting on what worked for you and what did not. 

This will be due with your Project 1 submission packet in Google Drive. 

Prompts

• What was the process that you used to complete this project and write this first essay? How did that process work for you?

• What was something you struggled with during the process of working on this project? How did you work through that issue?

• What did you focus on for revision? How did the revision process go for you? If you had additional time to work on your essay, what else would you do?

Your Project 1 Submission Packet is a sort of ongoing portfolio, which will need to include the following:

☐ Annotated genre samples 

• You must have 3-5 samples for medium to long genres (like news articles) or 8-10 samples for short genres (like Instagram Posts, FB posts, etc). 

• Each sample must be annotated with various conventions of the genre in order to meet the requirement. 

• You can turn in your annotated copies by one of the following methods:

  • • If you annotated paper copies, take photos of the annotated samples and upload them to your Paper 1 folder.

    • Upload a marked-up PDF, Word Document, or similar.  

    • If you upload your samples to Google Drive initially, you can comment/annotated on the PDFs directly in Google Drive)

• For organization, you may want to create a new folder in your Paper 1 folder to put all the annotated samples in 

☐ Analysis Essay rough draft

☐ Peer review(s) from classmates

• This will be on your rough draft (no need for a separate document).

• If you are using your late freebie on this assignment, you have two options for peer review:

1. Find someone else in class (or several people) who are also taking a late freebie and exchange papers and peer review each other’s papers outside of class. Make sure you read “In-Class Peer Review” beforehand.

2. Go to the Reading and Writing Studios to look over high- and middle-order concerns. You can show them this handout as a general guideline for the type of feedback you are looking for. They will have a form that you can show me as proof of attendance.

Note: you cannot use this visit to count as your required Reading and Writing Studios visit for this project.

NOTE: before revising your essay from your draft, make a copy of the file, so that you don't overwrite the draft.

☐ Revised Analysis Essay

• The Revised essay must be 3-4 pages (1000-1300 words), analyze a written genre, and use specific examples from your annotated genre samples to meet the requirement. 

☐ Reflection Letter

• The reflection letter must be 300 words minimum, written in the genre of a letter, and cover the required prompts to meet the requirement. 

Remember: All of the requirements for the individual items need to be met and all of the items in the submission packet need to be included in your Paper 3 folder to get full credit (check plus).