Blog #2: Writing Genres

After reading Devitt's research article, I have never thought of genres as being something more than just poems, fictional stories, etc, but now I realized they can be any form of communication. Moreover, the article made me realize that a genre can influence not only an intended audience but the author of a specific text itself.
         I agree with Devitt's idea of how teachers may expect a certain genre and most students will write a five paragraph but the instructors themselves would like to see something more than just a five paragraph format, which is why it is important to teach students more than just a five paragraph essay format. However, I do think that for very simple purposes, the five paragraph essay results efficient as it can convey an idea in a short amount of text, nonetheless, students should explore other genres as they may express different and more creatively.
         As Devitt explains, "genres are social and rhetorical actions: they develop their languages and forms out of rhetorical out of rhetorical aims and contexts shared by groups of users" (342), genres will change depending on the audience. For instance, I use different kind of genres at SDSU, for this class I make use of blogs, for my other classes I will mostly use a five paragraph format, and at my internship I often write invitations, and thank you letters and many types of flyers. In some genres I tend to try to be more academic such as the papers that I write for school, while at my internship I communicate formally but in a casual way simultaneously. The papers that I write for school are intended to be very academic so that professors notice that research and a lot of effort was put into them so that I can receive a high grade. In contrast to an invitation that I often have to write in my internship, I have to seem friendly, more casual, otherwise if I used the same language and format that I utilize at school my intended audience will think that I am out of context and that my forms of communication were not intended for them.
         In addition, when I am writing, I adopt the ideology that it I am to communicate to my audience as I have to be clear to certain groups of people, for instance, when I am writing a history research paper, I have to inform myself of past events in order to appeal to my intended audience, and while I do so I learn new content that influences the content of my project, which is what Devitt is referring to when she says that a writer can adopt an ideology. Moreover, following a genre such as a five paragraph essay is taking up an ideology as certain groups of people have utilized that format before and usually is easy to identify the argument and the evidence in specific areas of said genre as they follow a pattern, a structure that has been established even before one writes it.
        Ultimately, I agree with Devitt as she explains that different genres are intended for different groups of people and that exploring different genres allows us to understand people with different ideas, and lastly, I think the whole purpose of understanding a variety of genres is to be able to communicate with people that think differently than us, and to be able to persuade different audiences. In my personal life for instance, I do not communicate formally with most of my friends, in contrast, when I am work, I approach all my customers very professionally and respectfully.