Blog Post 24

Materiality and Genre in the Study of Discourse Communities

Amy J. Devitt, Anis Bawarshi, and Mary Jo. Reiff

I. Summary

In the article Materiality and Genre in the Study of Discourse Communities, authors Amy J. Devitt, Anis Bawarshi, and Mary Jo Reiff explain different uses of genres in discourse communities with the help of the study of ethnomethodology. “Genre study allows students and researchers to recognize how lived textuality plays a role in the lived experience of a group”. Devitt goes on to explain that using jury instructions as a genre, Bawarshi explains by using a patient’s medial history form, and Reiff explains how using genres analysis and ethnography can help teachers, students and researchers a better understanding.

II. Dialectical Notebook

Response	Quote
Communities base what they are doing on genres which creates an interest amongst members and potential new members.	“Because genres represent their communities, they affect and make consequential the communities’ interest.” (Devitt)
People outside the community may not understand information coming from the community because of the language and terminology used that only the community can relate to.	“Part of the difficulty when specialist communities wright to nonspecialist users lies and technical language, a difficulty commonly recognized and often addressed through defining key terms, for most of the difficulty comes from differences of interest and values that definitions cannot control.” (Devitt)
Genre analysis is required when deciphering and interpreting texts.	“Contemporary genre analysis focuses on the actual uses of texts, in all their messiness and with all their potential consequences.” (Devitt)
Understanding the genre will help understand the communities’ information to it’s members compared to nonmembers.	“Analyzing genres within their lived contexts reveals to students, teachers, and researchers the material strength of those communities and their power over members and nonmembers alike.” (Bawarshi)
Genres are overlooked when they are trying to categorize texts.	“Genres appear to be transparent when they are understood as ways of classifying texts.” (Bawarshi)
Once understanding the genres, allows individuals to understand why those communities belong to certain genres.	“Teachers, students, and researchers gain ethnomethodological access to discourse communities through genre analysis, which enables them to observe how and why individuals use language in specific settings to make specific practices possible.” (Bawarshi)
While completing an ethnography, learning about a certain genre enables to learn about other genres and becoming aware of them.	“The second goal, learning about genres and fostering genres awareness, is also accomplished to the use of ethnography.” (Reiff)
While conducting an ethnography it allows a better understanding of genres while changing what students thought of them.	“Ethnography gives students experience with genre or analysis and with how research processes change received genres of reporting knowledge.” (Reiff)
When ethnography's are conducted by students, the communities benefit by the study.	“When students carry out ethnographies, they become researchers who are also active social figures participating in and observing how people integrate their language genres with their wider collective purposes.” (Reiff)