What is Genre?

A genre is a way to categorize a specific type of writing. With a genre, a composition becomes specific. As Kerry Dirk describes in “Navigating Genres”, there is an audience in mind when a certain genre is being composed. The readers, and what they will understand and relate to, are all part of the process of selecting a genre. Also, as Lloyd F. Bitzer discusses in “The Rhetorical Situation”, the context a writer uses for their words plays into the genre that the composition is categorized in, but genres are not meant to be works that are perfectly fitted for specific boxes. Genres are flexible and can be used and interpreted differently depending on how the author of the piece is intending for the audience to interpret the work, and how the audiences actually interpret it. One piece of work can be composed of many different genres, working together to create one cohesive composition. The last genre I composed was for my ENC 1101 class. The genre was realistic fiction. The genre of fictional short story was chosen for me by my teacher, but I had freedom to choose which specific fictional genre I wanted to write. Staying true to the genre that I was composing, the events that took place in my shorty story could have easily been events that had taken place in many people’s lives such as figuring out what to do after college, and struggling to find a job. Genre allows writers to connect with the specific audience they are writing for, while also giving them creative freedom to write the type of story that they want to write because they can use many genres when composing one composition.