For this assignment, you will write a 1300-1700 word (roughly 5-7 page essay) that focuses on analyzing one primary genre found in the discourse community you have been observing throughout the semester. Your essay should analyze this genre, including conventions, and how this genre functions within the community, such as how it helps the community achieve its goals, and what it reveals about the community’s values, expectations, and communication practices.
Your task is to select one primary genre in your discourse community and analyze it as a genre and within the context of your discourse community. You will need to find at least three samples of this genre to use as support for your analysis.
Examples of Genres:
Posts in a Reddit, Facebook, or forum community
Video posts in a TikTok community (including the video and also any captions, tags, etc.)
Comments on a post in a Facebook group
Note: For shorter genres, such as Discord messages or comments on posts, you may need to find three snippets of back-and-forth conversation to analyze instead of three individual messages.
Your analysis must:
Briefly introduce your specific online discourse community, and then include the following: a description of the genre, the purpose and audience (generalized, based on samples and observations), an analysis of at least three conventions of the chosen genre, and an analysis of how this genre functions within your community.
The following provides additional information and example prompts for the above assignment prompt.
Introduction of Discourse Community: Provide a brief overview/introduction of the discourse community before introducing the genre that will be the focus of the paper.
Genre Description: Provide an overview/description of the genre you are analyzing and include any background information your reader might need to know to understand the genre.
If there are several styles or sub-genres in your community, I recommend describing the various styles and then stating which one you will focus on for your analysis. In order to effectively analyze the genre, you'll need to narrow it down to one main style.
For example, say there are three main types of posts in your Reddit community, like meme posts, videos linked from YouTube, and text posts asking for advice. Give an overview of all three types of posts, and then state something to the effect of "This paper will focus on the text-based posts."
Purpose: What is the purpose of this genre in the discourse community? How does it help the community achieve its specific goals or address common needs?
Audience: Who is the intended audience for this genre? Are there specific expectations about who can read, write, or respond to this genre?
Conventions & Rhetorical Features: Analyze at least three conventions of the genre, such as design/format, tone, language, style, structure, or other included elements. How do these conventions contribute to the genre’s effectiveness within the community?
See the Tips section below for help with this part.
Note: Do not try to cover all three conventions in one paragraph. You’ll need to break these up into several paragraphs in order to fully develop your ideas on this and support your points.
How this Genre Functions in the Community: Look at how this genre supports the goals, values, and/or communication style of your community. See possible topics below for some prompts that will cover this sub-topic.
As a part of your discussion of the genre within your discourse community, the following prompts provide several options. You can cover one set of these or several of these prompts. Be thoughtful about whether a particular prompt adds something of value to the discussion of your community before choosing it. For example, the last prompt on circulation may not be particularly useful for some online communities.
Community Values: What does this genre reveal about the discourse community’s values and/or expectations? How does the community’s use of this genre reflect its shared goals and culture?
Broader Implications: Reflect on the broader implications of your genre analysis. How does this genre connect to other forms of communication within the community? What does your analysis suggest about the role of genres in shaping communication and understanding within discourse communities more generally?
Context and Circulation: Explore how and where this genre circulates within the community. Is it used in formal or informal contexts? Is it shared digitally or in person? (Note: This may not be a good topic for all communities.)
For help breaking down this assignment, I recommend reading the following resource pages:
Some communities may have different styles of one of the genres, such as distinct styles of video posts (like book review posts vs. posts of lists of books to read in the BookTok community). If this applies to your community, choose one style to analyze.
You can still discuss the other styles in the section of your paper that discusses how the genre functions in your community, but the analysis part should focus on one style.
Sometimes students get stuck on the word "conventions" in the context of this assignment. If you find yourself confused or unsure if you understand that part of the assignment, I recommend replacing it with "informal rules" in your head.
What are the informal rules of the genre? If you were going to try to write/record this genre, how would you need to go about it so that it fit with the community and the genre?
For example, if I were analyzing PowerPoint slides used with online lectures in an online class, I might discuss the following "informal rules" of the genre:
Slides tend to use large headers used at the top of each slide with the topic/title of the slide and smaller but still readable font size used for the rest of the slide.
Slides tend to organize the information into lists instead of paragraphs.
Slides tend to use color, graphics, and other design elements, like font style, to tie the presentation together.
Then for each of these conventions (informal rules), I'd use evidence from real presentations from online classes to support these points and then discuss why these choices might have become the conventions/informal rules for this genre.
Claims in your paper (i.e. points you are making) should be supported with evidence. This evidence should come from examples of the genre in your community and your observations of the community.
For your convention paragraphs, make sure to include more than one example to support each convention since you are trying to demonstrate that this is a trend in this genre. This example can be included as a quote, detailed description, and/or screenshot that is referred to in the paragraph.
Quotes typically work best for short text-based conventions. For example, if you are trying to explain what captions tend to include in a specific type of TikTok video, quoting the captions from a couple of videos will show your reader what these look like.
Screenshots typically work best for visual conventions that cannot easily be described, such as the framing of a video or formatting of a post.
Detailed descriptions typically work best for genres that cannot be covered by either of the above, such as music use in a video or the order of information in a video.
If you need help with writing your intro and/or conclusion, the Writing Center at the University of Arizona has a helpful resource page.
Length: 1300-1600 words (~5-7 pages) not including the Works Cited page.
Format: MLA Style
Address the required prompts/topics listed under the "Assignment Prompt" section above.
Use at least three writing/video samples from your community to support your points. Include direct quotes and/or screenshots (for visual conventions) as support.
For shorter genres, such as Discord messages, I recommend using a series of messages from three separate conversations.
Support your claims throughout your paper using either your genre samples or specific details from your observations in your community.
Use more than one sample/example to support each convention since you are trying to show a trend.
Include in-text citations (i.e. clearly state the username/name of the creator of the post/message that you are analyzing).
Include a Works Cited page (MLA Style) with links/references to your samples. See the Works Cited page for more information.
A detailed AI Statement of Use is required at the end of your paper if you used GenAI in any capacity. See additional requirements below.
Use primary research only.
This paper should use primary research in the form of genre samples and specific observations to support your analysis.
Do not conduct additional secondary research for this project. I’m looking for your analysis of your chosen genre and community based on your understanding of course concepts.
GenAI may be used to assist with organization, wording, revision suggestions, and proofreading AFTER the first draft has been written. If you use GenAI , you must retain copies of all drafts during your writing process.
If you use GenAI in any capacity for your Genre Analysis Essay, you must include a detailed AI Statement of Use with the following information:
Which AI tool was used (i.e. ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, etc.)
Which pages or paragraphs the AI assisted with
What specific tasks the AI helped you with for those sections of the paper (e.g., brainstorming, revising for clarity, proofreading)
You may use Generative AI to help write your AI Use Statement, but you are responsible for making sure it is accurate and truthful.
Example outlines based on the required prompts/sub-topics for this paper.
Instructions for formatting your paper, writing in-text citations, and writing your Works Cited Page
Using Pseudonyms in Your Writing (for private communities only)
Instructions and examples for maintaining members' privacy/anonymity in private communities, such as Discord servers and Facebook groups.