Journal 4

Genre leads a targeted audience into a direction that the composer is trying to portray and lead them towards. Genre has the potential to set expectations and guidelines to the reader.

The role of genre in creating or reading texts is crucial in the decision process of how to approach a written text. Genre affects the preferred audience, which then impedes the approach of how to address said audience. Therefore, genre plays a great role into the decisions we make while composing. For example, in class we discussed how we should shape our e-portfolio projects based on our targeted audience. If we are trying to promote a personal business, say photography, we would display our best works on our e-portfolio instead of written works. We would want to display an emphasis on experience and/ or education that relates most heavily to photography to attract clients and businesses that are interested in hiring a photographer. Personally, my targeted audience would be law schools. With that being said, my genre emphasis would be law professional, meaning: emphasis on experience that I have with government affiliated jobs, my strongest written works, and extracurricular activities that not only make me stand out but would also benefit my career in practicing and studying law. Genre puts an emphasis on the purpose of a written text. Genre choice also impacts the circulation and distribution processes. For example, pertaining to the e-portfolio once more, depending on how specific your genre is, the more specific the distribution and/ or circulation, such as an e-portfolio targeting law schools. A broader genre, such as a blog for make up tutorials is not as specific, because make up brings in a broader and interested audience. Many scholars, based on the reading, emphasize the importance of kairos -- decision of the genre.