Genre analysis | Economics homework help
Purpose
This assignment assesses your ability to:
• SLO 2: identify specific conventions, audiences, and purposes relevant to
one’s particular discipline;
• MLO 3: identify the rhetorical elements of a genre (analysis); and
• MLO 4: analyze a discipline-specific genre for its genre conventions (analysis).
Although writing occurs in every discipline, what this writing looks like will vary across
disciplines. For example, writing a lab report in a Biology class is different from writing a
literature review in an Economics class or an expert witness testimony in a Courts and
Forensics course. Put another way, writing is discipline-specific, which means every
discipline has specific genres that are commonly used within that discipline. The purpose
of this assignment is to help you become more familiar with what effective writing and
communication looks like in your discipline so that you can continue to build your
professional ethos.
Instructions
In this assignment, you will analyze a discipline-specific genre provided by your
instructor using the chart below.
Step 1: Review the below Genre Analysis Chart. When you are ready to begin the
assignment, download the Word doc. version of the Genre Analysis Chart.
Genre Analysis Chart
Questions Analysis of the Genre Specific Evidence from the
Genre
What do you notice about the
purpose of the text? Is the purpose
explicitly stated or is it implied? Is
the writer trying to inform, educate,
persuade, prove a point, describe,
narrate, or something else? Does the
text want the audience to do, think,
or understand something specific?
What do you notice about
the content/message? Is the main
message directly stated or implied?
Is there an introduction and/or
conclusion? Is support/data provided
for the claims that are made?
What do you notice about word
choice/language? Are there context-
specific words used? Is the language
advanced or is it able to be
understood by a general audience?
What sorts of transitions or other
signpost phrases are used? Are there
abbreviations used, and if so, are
they defined/explained? Is first-
person used (I or we)?
What do you notice about how the
audience is addressed? How does
the text engage with its target
audience? Is the audience directly
named? Is the audience directly
addressed with “you?” Is it clear
what the audience can be expected
to already know or believe? What
does the writer want the audience to
do, think, or feel as a result of
reading/viewing the text?
What do you notice about the visual
appearance and/or organization? Are
there images/photos? If so, where
are they in relation to the alphabetic
text? Are there columns, bullet
points, or headings? Does the text
use sections and/or sub-sections?
Columns? Bullet points? Varying font
sizes? How does the text use color?
Step 2: Fill out the Genre Analysis Chart according to the discipline-specific genre listed
below.
Discipline-Specific Genre: economics journal article. An example is the Coase, R.H.
(1960), “The Problem of Social Cost,” Journal of Law and Economics 3: 1-44
paper.
On the left side of the chart, you will notice different categories for analysis. There are
specific guiding questions for you to consider as you analyze your genre. Although you
should analyze each category, you do not need to respond to all of the questions in each
category; instead, you should choose to respond to the questions that are most
applicable to the genre you are analyzing. This is what you put in the first column:
“Analysis of the genre.” Then, you will identify at least one specific example from the
genre that offers evidence to support the analysis you put in the first column. This is
what you put in the second column: “Specific evidence from the genre.”
Step 3: Upload your completed Genre Analysis Chart to the assignment box below.
