Christian Anderson Genre Study 10/17/13 Ms.

Ingram

High School Literature Textbooks

While the author varies from textbook to textbook, major publishers like McGraw Hill supply Literature textbooks to the vast majority of the education department of the U.S. These textbooks are designed to teach insight into works of literature that are often just excerpts from the full body of text. This is so that the intended audience, the student, is able to grasp the gist of the message in the story, without having to read all of it. Obviously the authors want to cram as much information in the textbook as possible, to allow the teachers more flexibility in their teaching endeavors. While there may not be political messages in these texts, as they are supposed to be completely neutral on every conceivable problem in society today, they still manage to carry messages about becoming a better student. Often times, they include questions you should be thinking about as you read the text. They have study tips and references for the excerpts or difficult words in the story. Sometimes theyll even have a short biography on the author to provide more depth and insight into the author of that excerpts mind. The main values expressed in this genre are learning and knowledge of major works of literature. They also emphasize critical thinking and asking questions that youd normally not want to venture out and ask.

The rules of this genre are very structured, thick, very strict and regimented about the way the book can be set up. They all have to have the same basic information, so the variations can only basically be within the structure of the work itself. This genre is designed for teaching purposes only. But it contains excerpts that allow the individual works seem interesting inside the whole book. This genre exists mainly in our primary and secondary schools that use this book extensively. The limitations of this genre are as follows: they are not creative, they are heavy, and they arent particularly useful to anyone that plays games. The advantages of this genre are that this genre allows you to present a mass amount of material in a relatively small book because of time. A combination of students and academia decide what books we should be using this time next year. I believe my text is very successful in delivering the information in a very short amount of time. If the wrong audience reads this, it will feel even more bland and boring than something else. It will also change the message the book is trying to convey because no two people ever see completely the same on anything.

Military E-Mail

The author of these emails varies, but their structure is always the same. The intended audience is usually the cadets reading the memos or a specific cadet to which the email was sent. The authors purpose of the text is to convey a message as quickly and efficiently as militaristically possible, while maintaining the utmost in militaristic discipline and respect.

The messages in the text vary. They usually are memorandums on drug testing, the uniform of the day, upcoming volunteer events, and cadre events that are important fundraisers. The values portrayed in these e-mails are discipline, respect for superiors, continuity, efficiency, and prompt response times. All of these allow the military to communicate effectively with each other using a specific codex of what to type and how to type it. The rules of these e-mails are that you must start off with good (time of day) (name of individual you are messaging complete with rank), the body of your text that does not reveal any classified material and then your signature block which is your name, rank, detachment, email to be contacted at, and phone number. This genre is a means of communicating via electronic mail in a concise, secure format. Some of the limitations of military emails are the total lack of freedom when writing one. They all have to be exactly the same, regimented down to the last period. There is no room for error when writing one, so your creativity cannot show at all. The major advantage however, is that it allows you to know exactly what the ender is saying, and through use of this format, know exactly where to look for the pertinent information. This makes quick and effective use of the chain of command that much more streamlined. The United States Air Force AFI 33-332 sets the rules for this genre forth. This memo was created by the Air Force E-Publishing Department. This text is very successful in fulfilling the authors purpose; it is designed to be so. If the actual audience was not the intended audience, there has been a breach in military security. But it would seem like a very drab and boring email. Theyre intended to be dry and factual rather than flowing and fulfilling. This makes it harder for the nonintended person to glean the proper response to the email or what the email was actually

saying. These messages tend to use a lot of military jargon and may seem almost unintelligible with all of their abbreviations, references to wings, cadres, and flights. Overall, the email does what it is intended to do, no more, no less. That is exactly how the military wants it to be.

Conclusion These two genres are very similar in several ways. They share a common attribute in that they convey a lot of information in a very short amount of time. They both have a strict structure to them and often do not deviate from it unless absolutely necessary. The major differences between these two genres are that the Literature textbook is more graphically designed in nature, rather than a body of text. The Military e-mail on the other hand, is usually a body of text and maybe a picture to highlight a feature or something along those lines. Both keep in tradition with who their authors are. The Literature textbooks are more creative in a structured manner because their authors are very creative, but follow a structure, whether they are teaching or writing. The Military e-mails also accentuate the ideals of the Military, being prompt and concise. These genres continue to exist because teachers need to teach and assign homework, and the Military absolutely needs to be able to communicate quickly and effectively. Both of these genres have their place in this world, and they are very tailored to their specific role. These genres, as I have stated before, have their place in this world and need to continue to exist because of their essential necessity to our Nations education and protection.

The major differences between high school and college when encountering these essays is that the literature books in high school try and cover so much material that you almost feel lost, especially without proper guidance from a teacher like I lacked. This hinders your ability to effectively use the book for studying and gleaning information for a test in that class. My teachers already expected the students to know how to work out of a textbook and that was a big mistake, because a lot of students had no clue how. Now when I went to college and I first encountered this email, I was shocked at how short you can make that much information, there were liberal uses of bullet points and attached slideshows. You could say that Ive been Power Pointed to death. When we were first learning how to communicate via email with our superiors, we found those dreaded power points to be lifesavers. The odd thing between high school and college is, in high school, everyone expected you to know everything. Now in college, I feel like Im getting a lot more personal attention even though I remember people telling me that that wouldnt happen. Maybe its just this school, but it feels a lot more personal than my high school, and with exactly 17.5 times the student body. Ultimately, I think that if you are coming into one of these genres with no prior knowledge, getting used to them will vary because the textbooks are more easy to understand because, well, theyre written in normal English! Learning to read the Military emails is akin to starting to learn music, or any other foreign language, just when it starts to make sense to you; something else gets introduced that makes you have to learn all over again. It really keeps you on your toes! I believe the main point of these genres is conveying a message in a condensed format, and I think they do a very good job of that. They are

concise and helpful without being overly so. To be honest, I didnt realize how similar they were until I started reading them side-by-side, analyzing their characteristics. Theyre both very good at what they are designed to do, but if they were placed out of context, they would be woefully ineffective.