Know the rules of the genre

Let’s say, you’re starting your first semester of college and you’re sitting in your freshman composition course. You’ve had plenty of English classes before and you’ve written a fair bit about literature, and you’ve done some research essays and essays on exams. But your composition instructor announces the first writing assignment is a Personal Essay. You’ve never heard these two words together. Writing for school has always been about either literature or research, and you’ve never written anything personal at least not for a class before. You write about a personal experience from your own first-person perspective, thinking you finally have an English teacher that’s okay with first person pronouns. So, when you get a research essay, you think you can write in the first person again, only to be marked down for doing so.

I wonder about students whose teachers scold them for writing in the first person, and the same teachers turn around and give the students personal accounts, journals, or even first-person fiction stories and novels that are not brought down with the same scrutiny. Suddenly, the rules that govern writing, or rather the student's understanding of them, become convoluted and inconsistent. It leaves students confused and frustrated.

Welcome to genre.

Without an understanding of genre, all writing is the same and anything goes. The result can be messy. Objective research with out-of-place anecdotes, awkward personal essays that never really say anything personal, and even job applications that give a fine description of the job but say nothing about the applicant. If you don't understand the rules of the genre, then you'll probably do it wrong.

Genre shapes the rules of writing. It is a complex topic and we don't really get much exposure to it outside of fiction. When we read a science fiction story or watch a science fiction film, we have certain expectations. The same applies when dealing with romance, fantasy, tragedy, comedy, etc.. Different genres have different rules and it's important to follow those rules.

For example. You're watching Lord of the Rings and Gandolf, in all of his trope-setting, magic casting, staff waving glory...takes out an energy weapon. Like a light saber: a mechanical apparatus that uses sophisticated technology to develop and release concentrated energy.

Out of place, much? I'm not saying it wouldn't be awesome. I'm just saying that, in a world with magical rings, dragons, and immortal races, an energy weapon is out of place. When we engage in a fantasy story, we expect fantasy.

Genres outside of fiction operate the same way. Based on the kind of reading we're doing, we'll have different expectations. If you pick up a detective novel, you'll expect mystery, intrigue, red herrings, and a protagonist who says less than he knows until the end. If you read something more personal, like the author's preface, you'll likely find the author referring to their writing process, their emotions – something more personal.

The same issue with expectations applies in all writing. The aforementioned personal essay will deal with personal experiences, beliefs, and give the reader a personal perspective on the author. It isn’t the best time to explore serious scientific issues and research: that's what research essays are for.

Bear in mind, however, the rules aren't arbitrary. Like fiction genres, they have developed over time to fit specific needs and purposes. Therefore, writing for a genre, whether of your own volition or because you're required to do so, you are fulfilling a specific purpose. The rules in question govern the way to structure a thesis, argument, organization, style – almost anything and everything.

Genre and Purposeful Theses

The form of a thesis varies depending on the genre and the purpose of the piece of writing. Different forms of writing have different conventions and much of the time we pick a genre to serve a specific purpose, or a teacher assigns a specific genre because there's a form students need to learn. These conventions and our own purposes dictate how we will write the essay and the thesis.

In other posts on the Six Journalistic Questions, I addressed how they can be used for developing a thesis and selecting a topic. For example, let’s say your six journalistic questions map out like this:

• Who: High school students, American authors with different cultural backgrounds
• What: Multi-cultural, American literature
• When: High School years
• Where: American high school literature courses
• How: Studying multi-cultural literature
• Why: To gain a better understanding of other cultures

This establishes criteria to focus on. Your essay should address these topics in detail and nothing else.

The next issue is what genre you’re writing in. A few examples include: 

• Persuasive essays are aimed at specific audiences with the intention to change something. They outline the issue and give reasons why it needs to change or improve, as well as specifying steps that should be taken to make the change happen. Theses for persuasive essays identify who needs to do what.
• Personal essays are introspective and may involve reflecting on past experience and interpreting it. Most of all personal essays talk about and explore and explain who you are: your beliefs, convictions, and practices. Theses for personal essays identify what was gained or learned from the experience.
• Academic research essays gather information from a variety of credible sources and involve some primary research as well. Most writing done in schools is this kind. Theses for academic research essays focus on a significant fact or detail and use the research to support and substantiate it.

The issue is then how to take that criteria identified in the Six Journalistic Questions and phrase them in a single sentence that matches the functions of the appropriate genres. For example:

• A persuasive essay might say “The local school district should use high school literature classes as a way to improve young people’s understanding of different cultures that exist within America by having students read books written by authors of different backgrounds, in addition to the English canon.”
• A personal essay won't do that, but instead will look more like, “From my high school literature classes, I gained a greater understanding of different cultures that exist within the United States than I would have just by reading from the English canon.”
• Or an academic research essay: “High school students who read literature by American authors from different cultures gain a better understanding and appreciation of the complexities within their country.”

The different genres will change the approach. In neither the persuasive not the research essays will the author address themselves, and instead the focus is on the subject matter. In a personal essay, first person is acceptable because the author is part of the subject. Similarly, the persuasive essay is much more concerned with the audience than the others are: a persuasive essay needs to be directed at a specific audience. However, academic essays are prepared for conferences or publications intended for experts in a scholarly field; personal essays may have a broader audience yet.

Understanding the demands of the genre is an important way to properly assemble your information and prepare to write about it. It gives you a way to structure and understand your purposes, and therefore, what goes into the thesis as well. It isn’t enough to simply gather your topics into a sentence: they have to point the reader in a specific direction.

Writing Exercise: Reflection Essay

I was nervous the first time I stood in front of a classroom to teach. The chairs were arranged in an arc around the perimeter of the room, creating a stadium like atmosphere, cutting me off from the door. I was either the grand master, or the hapless victim.

Regardless of your definition, it would be hard to promote this to story or narrative. It sets the stage for something more, but as is, it’s pretty basic. If I were to continue and write about how the day went, my efforts to engage the class in a discussion, falling back on a writing prompt to take up time, and feeling like a fraud as I fumbled about, it would be a story. But what if this followed it:

I quickly learned three things. The first was about having to smile and feign being an expert in composition. It didn't matter that I had never taken a composition course before; everything I knew of it I had gained piecemeal over my years as an undergraduate literature student. The second thing I learned was I had the knowledge. I could answer their questions and, as scattered as some of the early ones were, put together a lesson. But most of all, I learned that I could teach.

This is the makings of a Reflection Essay. What separates this kind of writing from anecdotes or stories is you interpret the events you are describing. Hence the reflection. Reflective writing is when you think back to a time, instance, or experience – something significant in shaping who you are and addressing both the circumstances of the event and what you gained from that experience.

This means reflective writing can be an odd combination of creative writing and interpretation.

On the one hand, it is important to recreate the experience, and if appropriate, provide sensory detail to create the experience for your reader. Write about what you saw and heard, as well as what you felt (both physically and emotionally). The purpose is to relive your experience so that the reader can understand your position.

Other people may have stood in front of their first classroom with enthusiasm. A lot of people will never have that opportunity. Therefore, I need to let the reader know that I was nervous, and what it was that made me nervous (in this case, the fact I was teaching a subject I had never had a class in myself), but if I can give more description of the place, the mood, and most importantly, my mental and emotional state, it will make it easier for my reader to understand my interpretation.

The interpretation makes a reflective essay what it is. After giving the details to set the scene, whether physical or mental, internal or external, you have to consider what you gained from this experience: how has it shaped you into the person that you are? In a “and knowing is half the battle” sort of way, the interpretation is the moral of the story: what you gained from it and what you hope your reader understands as well.

We may not always know what we gained from an experience until we reflect on it. Sometimes, especially when we're in school, we don't take time to stop and think about where we are and how we got where we are. Reflective writing, whether required or not, is a valuable endeavor. It’s an opportunity to stop and think things through, and a chance to get to know yourself a little bit better.