Journal 4

The role of genre in creating or reading texts can be many different things. Devitt sees a genre as something that is smaller pieces creating a whole larger piece. This is an interesting way to look at genre because, in a way, each genre does make up something larger. When creating a text the author thinks of who they want their audience to be and how they want to portray it to that audience, which genre plays a role in. The author uses genre to create a text for the general audience. The composer can also use the genre as a guideline for what they are creating. Devitt mentioned how it is like a path that leads us towards our goal. I think that is a great way to describe genre because it is very true. Genre is related to audience because a text is created with a specific audience in mind. A genre is something that, usually, is specific to whoever the audience is. For example, the genre of Harry Potter books was created with the specific audience of teens in mind. Targeting an audience makes it sure that your text will be portrayed exactly as you want it to be. The purpose of why a text is being created is also important for the genre. The genre is specific to the reason of the text. Genre choice impacts the circulation process because some genres are easier to distribute than others. Something that is posted online, such as on Facebook, is much more likely to circulate than something that isn't because people are always sharing things on there. Humans are "sheep" and follow one another so if they see someone posting about how great a piece of writing is then they are more likely to go and read it themselves and then share it to their wall. Recently, I have seen many people posting about a book called "Milk and Honey," I personally have never read it but I have felt more inclined to because I see so many people posting quotes and such from it. Having something being posted online as the genre really does make such a difference in how it circulates.